Hawaiian Vacation....Day 1

Hawaii.  Oh sweet and beautiful Hawaii.  I have wanted to go to Hawaii ever since I was in the third grade when my parents went.  Without us kids.  Every time a vacation comes up in discussion with Shawn, this is the place I would start dreaming of.  Only.  It never happened.  It was always shot down for one reason or another.  Back in July Shawn was talking to his friend Ed.  They usually meet up once a year to attend a BYU football game somewhere.  Ed jokingly said, "What about the Hawaii game on December 3rd?"  Instead of laughing at the joke, Shawn took this as an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone.  We decided to go with Ed and Heidi to the BYU game.  Only we'd go exactly one week previous so we could soak up the sun and enjoy all that Hawaii had to offer.  To say I was excited is a serious understatement!  Ed and I worked together and purchased all our tickets and hotel rooms in September.  Because we were there so many days, I'm going to break up my posts.  I don't think blogger even allows posts the length I would have to make this to cover all that we did!
I also need to mention Katelyn.  My little sister who was willing to fly all the way to the Midwest the day after Thanksgiving leaving both her job and her husband (on their anniversary!) to watch all 5 of my babies for a very long time.  We couldn't have done it without her!  Knowing they were in capable hands put my mind completely at ease as we boarded the plane early Saturday Morning.  November 26th. 
Our plane left Kansas City at 8:00 am.  We flew from there to Dallas.  And then from Dallas to Honolulu.  I've never been on such a large plane before.  And never such a long flight.  8 1 /2 hours from Dallas to Honolulu.  It was painful.  I watched two entire movies, a handful of TV shows, played lots of solitaire, and started a new novel.  After 4 hours my behind went numb.  All was well though.  Because.  I was going to Hawaii!
We arrived at our destination at 4:15 and headed to the rental car.  Ed came prepared with his garmin and navigated us perfectly to our hotel--the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Waikiki.  After check-in and getting settled in our room....

We went on a walk around our hotel to see what was available for food.  We found an Italian restaurant on site that was pretty nice.  And the Pesto Pasta (made with macadamia nuts instead of pine--amazing!) was delicious.

After dinner we wandered down the beach for a bit just to see what there was to see.  By that time it was 7:30ish and Shawn and I were beat!  It was close to midnight by our internal clocks.  We headed back to our room for a good nights sleep.