to Alaska... scratch that... to HAWAII or bust!

The Shelton family may never see Alaska.  It is something we are coming to terms with.  We just experienced strike 2 on an Alaska trip.  For some reason, it is just not meant to be.  

Strike #1  happened last October.  Robert's mom (Linda) planned an amazing trip to Alaska for the entire Shelton crew (Linda, Robert's brother Lindsay, Robert, Adeline, and me).  Just hours before we were set to leave, Robert's granddad passed away.  We of course called off the trip.

Strike #2 happened 2 weeks ago.  Linda again planned an amazing trip to Alaska.  It was the re-do for the canceled trip from last year.  Everything was confirmed and we were all getting really excited.  Robert and I got our winter clothes out of storage.  We started to pack.  

Then, less than a week before we were supposed to leave, I was flipping through one of the cruise information booklets and there, in an obscure paragraph under the heading of "guests under the age of 12" it explained that they do not allow passengers that will be more than 24 weeks pregnant at the conclusion of the cruise.  Excuse me?  This is not good.  I am 32 weeks pregnant at the time.  

I called Linda right away.  The travel agent that booked the trip was a good friend of Linda's and she was aware of my due date, so we thought surely we were mistaken.  We calmed down a bit.  The wording was a bit ambiguous as to which cruises the 24 week deadline applied to, so we thought for sure we would be fine.  Linda would call the travel agent on Monday to confirm I would be allowed on the cruise.

I wouldn't be.  The 24 week rule applied to our cruise.  Somehow it just got missed.  I felt terrible!  I just assumed that the travel agent would have checked on any restrictions regarding pregnancy.

So, we were 5 days away from the trip at this point.  Linda had bought traveler's insurance, so she started the process of figuring out if she would be able to get her money back.  She ended up getting all the money back except for the deductible.  The deductible was a pretty hefty amount of money to lose so all around it was a pretty crappy situation.  I still feel so bad that she lost that money!

Linda, very generously decided that in spite of the vacation melt down we had just experienced, we were all planning to leave for vacation on Saturday, so we should try to throw something together so that we could still have a great vacation.  We decided to try to book something to Hawaii.  

I think we booked the hotel & flights on Wednesday night and left on Sunday morning.  We switched gears from sweaters to swimsuits, packed our bags, and headed off for an amazing vacation to Kauai.

The trip was really, really incredible.  Everything was beautiful... the landscape, the resort, the weather, the family time.  Adeline was in heaven with all the water around.  She absolutely adores her Grandmommy ("mine-ma") so having her around for an entire week was almost more than she could bear.  She also got in some good bonding time with her Uncle Lindsay ("in-see") who is soooo hilarious and silly.  It was a really tough adjustment at the end of the trip to just be stuck with boring old Mama and Dada.  

What a treat to be able to spend an entire week with family.  Our visits are generally in 2 day stretches, so this was such a special time for us.  We made so many great memories.  We are always in awe of how blessed we are to have wonderful loving family all around us.

Here are a few (okay, maybe more than a few) snapshots of our vacation memories.

The flight was really, really long. I'd say traveling with Adeline was a bit like trying to hold a small tornado in your lap for 9 hours. This picture is from take-off. She remained this still for approximately 2 minutes.


We made it!


Bright eyed and bushy tailed despite the 5 hour time change. We only had one really rough night of adjusting to the time. She was up for the day at 2:30am the first day, then pretty much got on track for the rest of the trip.


Views from our balcony...




First walk down on the beach


Adeline liked the idea of the ocean (the "biiiiiig water"), but the huge waves were a bit much for her. In reality it was a bit much for all of us. The waves were so strong that Robert and Lindsay could only go out to their waists because they were getting knocked around so much. Adeline was less than thrilled when we decided she at least needed to put a foot in the water since this was her first time to the beach. Robert, on the other hand, seems to think it is hilarious to torture his daughter. :)


Feeding the coy fish


Island girl


The brothers sight seeing at a beautiful canyon


Lazy time in the grass with Dada


Taking in the view at the Na Pali coast


More at the Na Pali coast


At last... one of the entire family!


Uncle "In-see" is soooo funny!


Sight seeing at a gorgeous waterfall (Yes, I know... the waterfall is not in the picture. Oops!)


A beautiful beach on the northern coast of the island


Uncle Lindsay


Addie and Dada


Pregnant belly on the beach


First sandcastle


Uncle Lindsay was Adeline's sandcastle tutor. They made quite a few good ones together.




Adeline and Grandmommy getting geared up for the luau.  Adeline loved the dancers!




This was Robert after we made it back to Austin. If you are this exhausted after vacation, you know you had a great time!