Aerya's 3rd Birthday Party

As I've banned all birthday parties from my home, we had Aerya's party at the movie theatre (otherwise known as Aerya's second home!!)

It was a really fun time. Once all the kids arrived we had hotdogs and icecream cake and opened the presents. Then we trooped all the kids to the theatre to watch Monsters vs. Aliens. Aerya had a great time and asked to go back the next day!

Our Cool Kid

Hawaiin Scenery

Here's the gorgeous scenery that we saw while in Hawaii.

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Dole Pineapple Factory

Pineapple Factory was pretty neat. We took a train ride that gave us a tour of the entire plantation and we saw the 20 someodd species of pineapple, along with the other plants that they produce.

My biggest disapointment was the quantity of free samples. I saw kabillions of pineapples...I got one tidbit to taste. Tisk, tisk Dole! LOL

We learned that pineapples grow on the ground (I assumed that they grew from trees), and that banana trees only produce one batch then are cut down and replanted. Hmm, learning while on vacation, I don't know if that's allowed.

I bought tons of souvenirs for the family, so that was really cool. Plus, Aerya loved feeding the koi at (yet another) pond. They actually fought to get the food.

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Senor Frog's In Hawaii

Aerya is a big fan of 'cheers' and we do it with most meals, and this one was especially appropriate. We went for dinner at Senor Frog's and Aerya had a blast. While we were waiting for our food, we took a look around and Aerya jumped up on stage and started dancing her little heart out. Which I was so shocked by because she is usually such a supershy girl in public. The DJ even started calling out her name, it was hilarious!
The waiters all did some dancing and then the DJ came over and did a little contest where you had to guess which TV themesong was playing. Derek won 3 or 4 times.

And of course, we ended the meal with an icecream cone. I think Aerya had 8 or 9 cones during our 7 day trip!

On the road again. Just can't wait to get on that road again. Hawaii, here we come!

Aerya was super excited to go to Hawaii (as were we!!) but she first had to say goodbye to Mr. Duck, her friend from down the street. She then watched her IPod most of the way to the airport. We had to make a quick stop to get Derek a haircut (seriously) then we were on our way.


Once we got the airport, a mere 3.5 hours early, we raced through to get Aerya to... the park! How could we do anything without a trip to the park?? Oh, and Derek found some fun too. On the plane, Aerya was a pro. She buckled her own seatbelt (and unbuckled it, and buckled it, and un...) and then reviewed the safety card. We couldn't get her to stop with the seatbelt and stay in her seat, so we had the flight attendant talk to her and say that she had to stay in her seat until the seatbelt sign went off. When she did that, the flight attendant came by and gave her a giant pack of Twizzlers, then extra cookies, and then the other flight attendant gave her 2 drinks and another treat. And then we discovered that she has Mom's travel sickness. Thankfully, there was no woofing, just very, very, close. We transfered planes in Vancouver and ... Oh gee, did Aerya find another park?? We jumped back onto a plane (barely - we got stopped by customs because we brought fruit in our checked baggage. Westjet said okay when I called them, Customs said no when declared it. The guy was super nice and let us go, but said not to do it again) and Aerya and I slept for probably an hour, which was great. Finally we were in Hawaii!! We arrived at the rental place at the Honolulu Airport and they were able to (very easily) convince us to upgrade us to a Mustang Convertable. It's great to zip around the city in, but fitting all the suitcases into it was a wee bit difficult. Derek eventually got the feeling back in his legs though. Aerya fell asleep within minutes of getting into the car and did not wake up at all, even a little bit until the morning. She was a little bit confused, but then happy to explore the hotel room.

Sea Life Park

We had a great time at Sea Life Park. Here are the animals we encountered.










There is an aquarium on the island as well, but we went to the park for the shows. Aerya absolutely fell in love with the dolphins. They were amazing. They jumped, dove, swam, played ball, interacted with thier trainers and impressed us all. Aerya kept clapping and clapping.







She then decided that she "wished I was a dolphin and ate fish too." She wanted to bring a real one home with her, but we think we have satisfied her with the stuffed kind. There were huge ones to choose, but by herself she narrowed it down to a very small, baby dolphin - and his penguin sister.






Here are some other pics from the day.


















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