Make-a-Wish Oahu Day 1 and 2

  I don't know who was more excited that Tuesday morning.  Me, as I paced from light switch to light switch and door lock to door lock, making sure everything was closed up? Dan who played with camera sittings, next to the stack of luggage on the couch? Moses, who I'd talked into taking a quick maintenance breathing treatment to avoid one on the plane? Or Daniel who stood by the window, scanning the dawn horizon for...our limo!!!

  The party station blasted as we wove down the familiar streets of Mesa a few minutes later.  Mesa was just starting to wake up as we wondered who we might pass in our sweet ride.

  Airport days with the kids are always a little stressful, but thankfully a Make-a-Wish volunteer was there to help us and another family leaving for Oahu.  We also saw a shark at the airport.  Unfortunately, Mo said it didn't completely fulfill his wish so we still needed to try the shark adventure once we got there.

 We did get a little special treatment from the flight crew, at least on the way to Hawaii.  Moses and Daniel got to meet the pilot.

  During the flight they slipped us one of those downloaded i-pads with headphones so Moses could watch cartoons, and one of the flight attendants gifted me with one of their lovely yellow flowers for my hair.  The boys did pretty well with the flight so we were off to a good start.  We were even greeted with real Leis upon arrival.
   I won't talk much about the process of retrieving and then hauling around 10 bags (all of our carry ons and "personal items" as well as a car seat included in that) and two over-tired children from airport to car rental location to hotel to crowded lobby to room.  But after a few trips with my kids this year I've learned to just accept that those are about two hours of the trip that will never be picture perfect.
  But, all was well again when we reached our room.  Despite the bustle of Waikiki, our room was a spacious, relaxing respite with an unbelievable view of Diamond Head, the beach and our hotel room.  It felt like being in the ending credits of Hawaii 50.

  We were excited to get in that pool and ocean so we filled the rest of the afternoon in the water.  Then, we managed to find a hotel restaurant with a view where we cautiously ordered a pretty simple fruit and hot dog plate for Mo, while the rest of us enjoyed some more adventurous Asian-inspired seafood appetizer meals.

   Moses had his first shaved ice (since that WAS kind of part of his wish after all).  It was bubble gum and he immediately dropped the entire tower of sticky ice all over the floor of the hotel Baskin Robins.  But, the blue shirt with the Make-a-Wish logo buys you some grace so he got a second one.  We enjoyed our desserts by the pool where we watched the hotel's evening light show, where they project images such as sharks and sea turtles onto the kid pool, set to Hawaiian music.  It was super awesome.

Day 2 was actually Moses' birthday and it couldn't have been lovelier!  We opened presents on the porch.

We set out for the Sea Life Park to accomplish Wish #1-See a dolphin.  We kept hearing the song, "Best Day of My Life" playing and it felt like a sign.  Like the whole world was excited about dolphins and wishes.

The Sea Life Park, the same one featured in one of my favorite movies "50 First Dates" includes an awesome shark tank,

shows

and a cool bird cage where you could feed the birds

But, of course we came for the dolphin!  Or, Whalphin to be exact.  Our little/large friend was half dolphin, half false killer whale and wow, what a cutie!  We stood in the water with a group of other adventurers for about half an hour while we helped "train" the dolphin to take some cute pictures with us.  The trainer also led the dolphin in some funny antics and even initiated a little dolphin version of "Happy Birthday" for Mo.  It was truly a magical, once in a lifetime opportunity.

  The birthday magic didn't end there though!  We took the boys to Dave and Buster's that night.  They took good care of Mo at the restaurant and we also wanted to support them because they support Make-a-Wish so well.  And the boys loved the games.  Half of Waikiki might have been there and I was pretty far past exhausted by the time we stumbled into the little shop to try to help the boys spend the tickets they earned.  

And then something unforgettable happened.  A man who lived in the area and said he spent a lot of time at Dave and Busters with his friends asked if he could spend the points he'd been accumulating on our boys.  There were 5,000!  Then, while they were deciding between Pokemon cards and watches another man slipped me his card as well and left before I could say much more than "Thanks!"  It turns out he had over 1,000 on his!  What kind of people are these?!  And might we learn to be them when we grow up?  We did catch a picture with the first guy before leaving.  What an impression he left on our family that night!

More adventure were coming but I'll let you take a break while I get the next set of stories together to post later!