Day 1 – travel day
The thought of a 12 hour travel day with a 6 month old was a very overwhelming feeling. Yes, we’ve done this long of a flight before with a lap infant, but at the time, Ayla was over a year old. That age allowed for basic communication and fun snacks as distractions to help with any moments of high emotions. A 6-month old still makes the rules.
We started our day out with a 4am alarm with a goal of leaving for the airport by 4:30am. Our wheels were rolling by 4:45am – not too bad!
Our flight path was Spokane – San Diego – Maui. And every time I told Ayla “were going to Hawaii!” she would quickly correct me, holding on stern finger up saying “San Diego then Hawaii” then point her finger at me “you just forgot”. Okay Smartie.
Our flight from Spokane to San Diego was almost 2.5 hours so we figured it would be a good trial for our 6 hour flight to Maui.
Ayla got the window seat and LOVED to look out at the other planes while waiting for takeoff. She was excited to share her love of flying with her brother and Archer is just excited to be around her.
First flight was a major success, Archer was awake for a lot of it, but happy and interested in everything new around him. Ayla worked on her various activity books and coloring, and kept commenting how she wanted to go to the places we were flying over.
We landed in Sand Diego with just enough time to walk to our next gate and board our Maui flight. Archer fell asleep right before takeoff and slept at least 90 minutes on AJ, woohoo! This gave me free hands to eat my lunch and have some uninterrupted reading time. It was amazing! He mostly either nursed or slept for the flight. He had some play time peppered in. He loved the fans blowing air on him, we also had a suction toy that worked perfectly on the tray table – either when up or down –he could either use his hands or feet to play with it.
We allowed Ayla to have her tablet on this flight, so she was thrilled to eat her goldfish and watch a couple movies. After each movie she would ask how long until we were in Hawaii, when we finally got to the two hour mark she perked up and said “that will go quick!”. She loves flying.
We landed around 2pm local time. We got our rental car, a minivan! I was hesitant to get a van, but we wanted plenty of space for luggage and people, and oh boy did we get the space! We had enough room for all luggage, a stop at Safeway and more room to spare. Amazing!
We’ve stayed in this condo complex before, and have really enjoyed it. But, this was our first time staying in this specific unit. And WOW! We have a beautiful view of the grounds, two ponds, one with a fountain and THE OCEAN! Nowhere on the listing did it describe the beautiful ocean view – so we were all in awe. We couldn’t wait to wake up, sit on the lanai and enjoy breakfast with the sounds of the waves crashing and the expansive view.
Kids were in bed before 7pm and I was off to bed before 9pm. Looking forward to our first full day on the island.
Stay tuned!
