"Mele Kalikimaka is the thing to say, on a bright Hawaiian Christmas day."
We are back (and survived) from Hawaii where we were lucky enough to spend Emma's first Christmas. Matt's job takes him away from us quite a bit the months September through March, but we are so fortunate the places we have experienced because of his job and the extended athletics family we have. While we were sad to be away from family over the holiday, we definitely did not miss the weather you all had back here. Instead, we enjoyed the 80 degree weather with gorgeous views!
Emma really surprised Matt and I with how awesome she did during the whole trip. We were quite apprehensive as to how she would do and how thrown off she would be, but she was a champ. Our day started at 2am on the 19th so that we could be at the bus by 3:15am. We put Emma to sleep in pajamas and we thought we would just let her sleep and change her before we took off at the airport. She chose to be awake at 3am for the day and just took 45 minute catnaps the rest of the day. That girl can function (somehow) with little sleep. We had a long travel day that started with our first flight out of Des Moines at 6:15am, a four hour layover in Denver, followed by a six hour flight to get us to Honolulu at 4pm Hawaii time (8pm Iowa time). Emma never really cried on the plane, fussed a little, but nothing terrible. It helped having little girls with us to keep her occupied and happy.
Our days outside of the basketball games consisted of 4am wake up calls thanks to Emma, walks around the resort, Matt at practice and just relaxing/hanging out. Matt and I laughed that this wasn't like our honeymoon where we could just sit poolside all day and drink Mai Tai's. Instead, we had three "days" at the pool/beach that lasted maybe a hour at most. The sun was strong and Emma got hot and irritable.
We were fortunate enough to accompany the team to visit Pearl Harbor. What an experience to get to see the ships in the water and the oil that is still coming up from it.
We got to watch our Cyclone men's team remain undefeated and win the Diamond Head Classic in three games against George Mason, Akron and Boise State. Emma did great during the games and we received a lot of texts that we were seen on tv quite a few times as we sat behind the team's bench. An exciting part of the tournament was that President Obama and family were attending the game directly after ours to watch Michelle's brother coach for Oregon State.
Christmas didn't really feel like Christmas when it was 80 degrees out, but we celebrated with a delicious Christmas Eve dinner with the team and the families that were there and on Christmas Day we watched the men win the Diamond Head Classic.
After seven nights and eight days in Hawaii, we started our long journey back to Ames. We had to check out of the hotel on the eighth day (Thursday) by 11am and didn't get picked up by the bus until 5:30. Luckily, the President of the Foundation let us borrow their room for a couple hours after lunch so we we could relax and let Emma nap. Our flight left out of Hawaii at 8pm (midnight central time) and got to Chicago at 8am. Emma surprised us and slept seven of the eight hours, while mom didn't sleep at all. That is okay because each seat had their own tv and I got to watch The Butler and The Internship. Once in Chicago we had another four hour layover before a quick hour flight to Des Moines. We were at home by 3pm. By the end of the day, I had not slept more than 30 minutes in almost 40 hours. But, I really can't complain because I was getting back from pretty much a free trip to somewhere I would not have probably went to if it wasn't for this.
Emma really surprised Matt and I with how awesome she did during the whole trip. We were quite apprehensive as to how she would do and how thrown off she would be, but she was a champ. Our day started at 2am on the 19th so that we could be at the bus by 3:15am. We put Emma to sleep in pajamas and we thought we would just let her sleep and change her before we took off at the airport. She chose to be awake at 3am for the day and just took 45 minute catnaps the rest of the day. That girl can function (somehow) with little sleep. We had a long travel day that started with our first flight out of Des Moines at 6:15am, a four hour layover in Denver, followed by a six hour flight to get us to Honolulu at 4pm Hawaii time (8pm Iowa time). Emma never really cried on the plane, fussed a little, but nothing terrible. It helped having little girls with us to keep her occupied and happy.
Our days outside of the basketball games consisted of 4am wake up calls thanks to Emma, walks around the resort, Matt at practice and just relaxing/hanging out. Matt and I laughed that this wasn't like our honeymoon where we could just sit poolside all day and drink Mai Tai's. Instead, we had three "days" at the pool/beach that lasted maybe a hour at most. The sun was strong and Emma got hot and irritable.
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| The ONLY perk of Emma getting up at 4am was this view outside our hotel. |
We were fortunate enough to accompany the team to visit Pearl Harbor. What an experience to get to see the ships in the water and the oil that is still coming up from it.
We got to watch our Cyclone men's team remain undefeated and win the Diamond Head Classic in three games against George Mason, Akron and Boise State. Emma did great during the games and we received a lot of texts that we were seen on tv quite a few times as we sat behind the team's bench. An exciting part of the tournament was that President Obama and family were attending the game directly after ours to watch Michelle's brother coach for Oregon State.
Christmas didn't really feel like Christmas when it was 80 degrees out, but we celebrated with a delicious Christmas Eve dinner with the team and the families that were there and on Christmas Day we watched the men win the Diamond Head Classic.
After seven nights and eight days in Hawaii, we started our long journey back to Ames. We had to check out of the hotel on the eighth day (Thursday) by 11am and didn't get picked up by the bus until 5:30. Luckily, the President of the Foundation let us borrow their room for a couple hours after lunch so we we could relax and let Emma nap. Our flight left out of Hawaii at 8pm (midnight central time) and got to Chicago at 8am. Emma surprised us and slept seven of the eight hours, while mom didn't sleep at all. That is okay because each seat had their own tv and I got to watch The Butler and The Internship. Once in Chicago we had another four hour layover before a quick hour flight to Des Moines. We were at home by 3pm. By the end of the day, I had not slept more than 30 minutes in almost 40 hours. But, I really can't complain because I was getting back from pretty much a free trip to somewhere I would not have probably went to if it wasn't for this.
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