Hawaii- A little background

I'm not sure where the idea of the Hawaii trip originated...it could have been my lovely & beautiful sister-in-law, Beth, who suggested it...or it could have been her mother-in-law, Beverly, or it could have been me....it honestly doesn't matter how it all started...

But about one year ago a most excellent idea was set in motion.

We decided to go on a two-week family vacation to the Big Island of Hawaii with my sister-in-law and her family.

Now, for that to actually happen we needed a series of miracles....

Like getting airfare for all of us (no small feat!).  Finding a house for us to rent that would take the NINE of us (four adults and five active kids).  Being able for the working dads to get time off from work.  And save enough money for the trip so that it might not be a financial burden on us (no credit cards, thank-you-very-much!).

And guess what?

WE DID IT!  

Thanks to the legwork, time and effort my sister-in-law put in (it really was all her doing) we found a nice house for a steal that would house all of us.  I think having that rental house locked our vacation dates and made sure we did everything in our power to get us to Hawaii!  It took a few phone calls (ha!) and shifting frequent flier miles from one account to another to help us get the miles needed for tickets.  Actually, since we used frequent flier miles for tickets we split up our family (to make the most out of miles & money).  Ava and I flew separately from Annika and Mark.  It was the first time that we'd split up for a set of flights but I do feel that it was our best (and only) option available to us to fly us all to Hawaii without breaking our Piggy Bank.  I talked to several families who never would have thought to split up to use frequent flier miles but I'm here to tell you that it works.  And since we knew of this vacation far in advance it was relatively easy for Mark to get the time off needed.  Saving money is always hard (wish that weren't true!).  What really helped us is when we got rid of our money-gouging vehicle and bought an old van with cash.  That was a hard pill to swallow but it freed our minds and our wallets to allow us to save for this trip.

The rest just fell into place.

Kind of.  Sort of.  Well, we made it happen because we wanted it to happen!  I'm here to tell you that you can make it happen.  I honestly and truly feel that these sorts of trips are more than just a vacation (especially for our girls)....they're Life Experiences.  It's hard to put a price tag on those sorts of experiences.

Now, if only sorting photos were this easy!?!