Okay... I am back. Does anyone want to hear about Aulani from 18 months ago? Can I remember what we did? The answer to both is probably not, but I got a hankering to finish this thing! Where were we.... Okay... Thursday... hmmmm..... that is the day after Wednesday....
This was a pool/resort day. We had no firm plans but since the kids' cute goggle lab coat pictures didn't come out the other day, I signed them up for Stitch's Space Goo again. I went downstairs that morning to sign them up. I snagged some pool chairs on the way to Aunty's. I know, I know... but when in Rome. I read you can't actually do that anymore... which is probably good. This is the only day I did so. It was at about 7AM and all the first 2-3 rows of the main pool was taken. I ended up getting 3 chairs over on the side. This was the PERFECT spot for us. It was near the grotto that the slides dump into. The pool stairs were right there so the kids could swim and we could just watch. The bathrooms were super close and the food was also right there. It was in the shade and the chairs seemed a tad more spaced out. There is only a single row so it was pretty quiet. When I came back to the chairs after signing up for Stitch's.... I noticed all the chairs on either side of us were "reserved" with one shoe, one shovel, another shoe etc. This ended up being a large extended family, which I thought might be annoying- being in the middle of their 12 chairs, but it ended up being no big deal. We thought if we had found this spot first, we would not have done the second cabana day. Here is the best pic I have of that spot... Oh look we had shaved ice at some point!
After swimming a bit in our amazing spot... we went and got Kate a life vest... so we could try... the dark slide. Cue dramatic music. Uncle talked me into it. Kate stuck with her story that she wanted to go on it. She did... said she liked it... but then said she didn't want to go on again. I think she was being stubborn and actually hated it, but wouldn't admit it. The life vest worked out great actually because then she could bob away in the water for hours. We could watch her perfectly ell from the chairs and all was good. I sort of wish we would have gotten one sooner... but then she couldn't really have swam underwater which she likes to do- so it was probably better we didn't. PS- Doesn't it look like a butt on the side of the pic? It is my fingers- hahahaha!
Honestly... I am not sure what we did this day! I think we did a lot of repeats at the resort- lazy river, water slides, swimming etc. Mickey came by and Matt wanted nothing to do with him
At some point, we went back to the room and the kids went to Stitch's Space Goo. We got some pictures taken on the way! We packed up while they were Goo-ing... so sad to be going home the next day.
Eventually we went back to change and the kids and I were planning on doing the family hula class while DH took the photography class. He really enjoyed the photography class and said there were about 6 people and they walked around the resort and beach learning different photo tricks and techniques. This was a new class and was free, but they made it sound like once they had it fine tuned, they would start charging for it. At some point, they came by the hula class.
Speaking of the Hula Class... this was super fun! We learned a dance and got to practice it with some Disney friends. We found these family classes to be well worth the time. Here is one of the 1,265 sunset pictures DH took during his class.
We had plans to meet up in line for the Starlit Hui. I like to be early so I got the kids Mickey Bars and lined up about an hour before the show. This was.... somewhat smart. We were about 10th in line. But... somewhat crazy as the Mickey Bars dripped EVERYWHERE and I am pretty sure my line mates were cursing me and going to hex any child who got chocolate on them! They were covered and of course I had no napkins. I thought I had a picture of this insanity, but I guess the evidence has been erased! We had to wait quite a while and the line got longer and longer and longer behind us. Finally we were let in just as DH returned. Phew. I was getting nervous. We got the front row- score! They handed everyone little mats to sit on as we walked in. The kids and I went to check out the activities while DH stayed with our stuff. They had 3-4 stations where they taught the kids about Hawaiian culture and art. This was really well done and fun. I know they Hui isn't offered anymore so I don't know if this is part of the new luau, but I hope it is. Here are a few pics from that and the Hui.
Oh... look what I found!
The line grows....
Learning to play the Hawaiian Way
Front row! Because the show on Monday had been cancelled... this one was filled to capacity- all the way to the VERY back of the lawn and standing room all over the sides.
This was a fun last day and we went straight to bed with plans for Ama Ama breakfast and buying our photopass CD before we headed to the airport the next day.