our crazy- but fun- Koplin family vacation...

So this past week we had planned to go with my dad's family to Maui for a week, but due to our inability to comprehend how bad flying stand-by can be in the summer these days, the only ones who got to be there for the entire week was Nate, Britt and Sophie. We spent 2 days in the airport in LA before we headed back to Salt Lake to give the nonstop another try. Linsey & I finally got over there (and did a 6 hour plane ride with Hazel alone...yeah, I was terrified but she did really well!) on Thursday but still had 5 days there, and Tom, my dad and Char didn't get there until Sunday and had only about 2 days there. I guess that's what you get for flying stand-by...it didn't take long for Britt and Nate to decide that buying their tickets really was the right choice. But, I did learn how good of a trooper Hazel can be- 18 hours of flying in one week, days and days in the airport, sleeping in weird places with no kind of schedule and she hardly ever complained...she is a true traveler at heart just like her parents!

[her face describes perfectly how we all felt after 2 days in the airport...have you ever seen more tired eyes?!]

ANYWAY, we were all there at least by the last couple days and we had a really, really fun time. The resort was beautiful, the weather wasn't too hot, and the kids loved swimming in the kiddie pools and at the beach all day every day. Hazel especially loved being chased by the waves...she would just laugh because she thought they were "going to get her" every time they rolled in! And it was so nice to just hang out as a fam, play cards and let Sophie and Hazel get to know each other even better. Thanks Dad and Char- it was TOTALLY worth it even with all the chaos of flying! (: We had a blast!!

Here are a million photos from the trip...

First day at the beach
First day Tom and Hazel went to the beach together

At the poolThe Coi Pond that the kids LOVED

Hazel & Sophie 's adventures together

Going to Cheeseburger in Paradise, Whalers Village, hanging at the hotel, eating local [YUMMY] Hawaiin plates, Hazel stuffing her bra for the first time, a belly shot of me and proof that Hazel is officially a snuggler now

fun things to remember:
*the 4am Einstein crew every day *how much the ninos loved the coi *hazel stuffing her swimsuit *josh groban jokes via nate *hazel sleeping in her stroller while t & I enjoyed dinner on the beach with the sun setting *hazel's first reaction to the beach- uncontrollable laughter *the hilarity- and excitement- of Sunday's arrivals *$7.29 for a gallon of milk *the 5 second carpet destroyers [hazel and sophie...well, mostly hazel] *hazel sleeping in my arms like she did when she was a baby *nate turning into a 13 year old girl *hazel's grooming obsession: using multiple wipes to clean nate's leg, helping britt wipe sophie, putting sunscreen on mom, brushing sophie's hair, etc *how much I miss tom when he's not around *hazel greeting all the airplane passengers at the door with a smile and big a "hi!" *spending all day every day at the kiddie pools- and loving it *hazel 'catching' me on the slide *getting to hang out all the time and be mom's together with britt *sophie's huge smile all day every day- especially when she'd see hazel *b's dynamite twss jokes