Aloha!

Thank goodness it was time for a vacation! It's been a long time coming and we all needed one badly. We had a Bayani family vacation on Oahu and stayed at the beautiful Ko Olina Beach Villas. It is so beautiful out there. Ko Olina is my favorite spot in Hawaii and after going to all the islands, Oahu has always been my favorite. As many of you know, I am NOT a nature girl at all so my idea of a perfect vacation is sand, sun, and shopping. All the other islands with maybe the exception of Maui is way too rural and nature-ish for me. I mean seriously, a vacation is no vacation unless you do a little swipy of the good ol' plastic. Oh yes... and did we do some swiping... Monsieur Louis V got a pretty good visit from us (yay!). After the year that Ben and I have had with work, it was SO well worth it.

This was Izzy's second trip to Hawaii... the first time was in my belly on the Big Island. One year later, here she is, soaking up the sun and loving the water as any good water baby should. Funny thing, I'm not much of a water person so she takes after her daddy there. I was just so happy she got to wear all her little outfits.

Izzy with daddy on the beach. She had a lot of great milestones on this trip. She took 5 steps all by herself without holding on to anything and we actually got it on tape! She can mimic us really well and now wants to clap your hands for you. She can drink from a cup pretty well with a little bit of help. I can't believe all she's accomplished in one week.

Here's Miss Izzy lounging on her floaty. So I was super annoyed that the floaty I bought did NOT come with the canopy that it was supposed to. I was soooo disappointed. Anyhow, it was a great floaty all in all. Izzy got the idea that she was supposed to relax so she ended up almost falling asleep since she was comfortable. Overall the trip was great. She was a super good baby on the plane and Hawaiian airlines has excellent customer service and gave us our own row with an extra seat for Izzy and we didn't even pay for it - both ways too! We always make sure we take direct flights and it's so worth the money. The extra customer service is well worth it. I don't know how we would have done it with her being on our lap for five hours. So far, all the plane trips she has taken she's gotten her own seat.... thank goodness. Now it's all about getting adjusted for home... ugh, back to the grind!