Up and at it bright and early the next morning we were excitedly waiting at 7am for the helicopter bus to pick us up for our Helicopter ride!! This was one of our most exciting adventures together as a family and for sure something we will never forget. It will probably be a very long time before we ever head back to Hawaii as a family so we were very excited to see as much of Hawaii as we could from a different perspective.
It was a little difficult getting Alex in the helicopter as you can imagine but he and I had front row seats and it was AMAZING! The helicopter company that we chose to go with just so happen to be owned by the gentleman Richard Schuman and he actually is the one who flies the helicopter in the new series of Hawaii Five-O! We thought that was pretty cool all in itself, lol!
Here is one of Nick's video's.... noisy may want to turn down your volume :0) Notice the beautiful blue water!
Below is our hotel.... our room was at the top right floor 30!
There is our pool and beach ...we shared the beach with the Royal Hawaiian (the pink hotel)
I believe this is the inside of Diamond Head of which you may have seen in previous pictures
This was the military helicopter that had recently crashed and they were still investigating.....glad I didn't know about it before hand because I probably wouldn't have gone thru with our tour, lol.
This is a valley where they filmed parts of LOST and Jurassic Park
Waterfall
We saw two beautiful rainbows while on our tour... the rainbow comes full circle, sorry I couldn't get a picture of that my lens was too big, lol......but it was amazing to see the rainbow make a complete circle and fly thru it..... as we can't see that from the ground!
Here is a video that Nick took... if you look close you can see it on both sides and see that it makes a circle as he scrolls from left to right on each side of the helicopter. It's a little noisy you may want to turn volume off.
We actually visited this waterfall.... you will see pictures up close on another day.
PINEAPPLE FIELDS
Dole Plantation's Pineapple Garden Maze hold the record for the world's largest maze from the Guinness Book of World Records
PEARL HARBOR....these boats are not functional but they did use them in the movie Pearl Harbor
If any of you ever get the chance to go to Hawaii I highly recommend you spend the money and do this. We even bought the video of our tour, lol! When I asked the kids what their favorite thing was from our Hawaii trip.....they ALL named this in their top 3 things....It is definitely well worth it! Thank You Mr. Richard for being so sweet to my boy and for making us feel special on your tour.....ANGELS ALL AROUND US.... everywhere we turn!
We still had our whole day ahead of us as I said we we left the hotel at 7am for our helicopter tour so once we got back to the hotel the boys and I decided to visit the aquarium. We learned that it was only a little over a mile away from the hotel so we decided we were going to walk and so some sight seeing along the way!
First thing ....SURFBOARDS..... everywhere surfboards... imagine that!
Statues like this were all up and down the walk on the beach
These trees and their trunks are amazing
Little man made waterfalls perfect for picture spots... of course Alex was tired of me stopping and taking pics and insisted we keep moving.
Diamond Head
I don't remember the name of this little swimming area but there was a wall separating it from the ocean and all the little kids would swim in it and the surfers would surf right up to the wall.... crazy!
Alex wanted me to get a picture of this bum chillin with his music :0)
And this one braiding her hair, lol
See the surfers... CRAZY
This was the boys favorite local,lol
Lifeguard huts.... We should have these at Jax Beach, lol.... we need an upgrade!
There were trees like this everywhere so the boys took advantage of the vines and had a little fun
More of Alex's friends he wanted me to capture lol
The aquarium in Waikiki is VERY small and took us all of about 15 minutes if that to go thru but I really enjoyed the walk with my boys there and back just soaking up some momma/son time and enjoying their laughter as we encountered different things along our journey :0) IT'S THE LITTLE THINGS THAT MEAN THE MOST SOMETIMES.
We headed back to hotel to rest a bit before our dinner at The Chart House, one of our dinners that was set up by Dreams Come True. This place was across from the marina and we got to witness a beautiful sunset from our seats of open dining.
Thank you Chart House and Dreams Come True for an evening of good food, great staff, laughter and smiles with an awesome view of the sunset :0) There is nothing better than seeing these smiles at the end of the day and savoring every minute of it!!!! I love going back thru these photo's to share with you because it was actually the happiest week of bliss that we very much needed away from reality.
Thank you to those of you who continue to write me and encourage me as I still have those moments and days..... had one last night. We had all gone to bed and Alex kept waking up.... calling me in his room, the last time to go to the restroom. His words.. "Mom, I'm sorry.... I wish we could have our old life back." "me too Alex.... me too". GETS ME EVERY TIME! If ever I stop....the waterfalls begin. I think that's why I try to keep myself so busy so that I don't have time to think about where we are and the reality of it all and how far we still have to go! We are STILL adjusting and working thru things and I guess going to one of Alex's friends birthday parties put it all back in perspective for me of how it was and now how it IS! It is very hard for Brooks and I to sit back and watch him with his friends now as to how it used to be. He sooooooo desperately wants to be right back in it.... hanging with his friends.... doing the things that they do....the things he SHOULD be doing. Playing basketball, running around... talking about senior trips, grad night, the beach, movies...... ALL OF IT. I know how very far we have come..... but yet I know how VERY far we still have to go .... both mentally and physically. Day by day.... baby steps... taking the good with the bad... keeping my positive attitude in tow trying to put the past behind and focus on not what was but how I can make things better in the NOW. THIS TOO SHALL PASS..... The future is what we make it. I took the boys to see "SOUL SURFER".... if you have not seen it...GO SEE IT! It is "faith" based of which I didn't know but am thrilled that it was! I only wish I had seen the movie before we went to Hawaii so we could have met her! The movie brought me right back to DAY ONE with so many emotions running wild and memories of that day flooding back as I watched the events from her day unravel. A very inspirational heartfelt movie.....I can only imagine what her mother and father were thinking
and feeling as well as her family and having to adjust to a whole new world of the unknown. To those of you dealing with children with disabilities of some sort.... God Bless you! I had no idea until I was thrown into this world as to what you deal with on a daily basis and I have mucho respect for all of you. At the end of the movie the screen read these words ...... "IT ISN'T THE END.......IT'S JUST THE BEGINNING". How very true that statement is! Thank you God for my many blessings from the past and present and for your unending love for all of us. With YOU I know that I can get thru this and I have every bit of faith that you will bring a full recovery to Alex in YOUR time!! I truly believe that you have great things in store for Mr. Alex and I am sooooo very thankful for one more day with my handsome boy!!
PEACE~LOVE~N~THUMBS UP!
LISA
