I couldn’t be happier that we decided to bring our family with us on our 10th Anniversary Tahiti Trip. Overall, the kids were absolutely amazing! We flew out of Los Angeles at 4pm and getting through the airport was a breeze. Luke and I were really nervous about the 8 hour flight, especially since Levi just turned 1 and can be a little bit high maintenance. The first 3 hours were really awful, Levi was overtired and cranky. Thank goodness he fell asleep for the next 5 hours and that the airline provided bassinets for lap babies! The girls rocked the plane flight and kept themselves busy watching movies and with the coloring books and games we picked out for them (each girl had a backpack filled with small items from the $1 and $5 Target bins J). We landed at midnight California time and everybody was wide awake as we headed to the hotel on the big island. Thank goodness the Intercontinental was beautiful and, despite one meltdown, we were all finally able to sleep around 3am our time. The next day we explored the hotel grounds (Ella performed her hula dances every where we went and Leesy was all smiles). Later in the afternoon, we hopped aboard the ferry to Moorea. The Hilton Resort on Moorea is insanely beautiful. You feel like you are in some overwater bungalow fantasy world. I kept having to pinch myself. On our honeymoon, we would sneak into this hotel daily- James Bond style climbing over rocks- and order drinks and lay on the beach. It felt AMAZING to be legitimately staying there and in an overwater bungalow suite with the whole family! Elise couldn’t stop staring at the viewing glass on the floor watching all of the tropical fish swim by. She even slept there! It was definitely an adjustment all sleeping together in one room but, surprisingly, everyone did great.
Our favorite days were probably the two that we went to swim with the sharks and rays. Even though kids were allowed in the water, Luke and I discussed it and decided that the kids were obviously not educated enough to make that kind of decision and would have to stay in the boat. Well, we are pretty much the biggest hypocrites ever because as soon as we pull up, there are legitimately hundreds of people in the water with kids, all speaking different languages and having the time of their lives. Ella immediately starts begging to go in with her dad which was quite shocking since she panicked swimming with the fish in the hotel lagoon. I blame him because he let her do it J and then, naturally, Elise wants to join in on the fun. Before we know it, we are all in there together and eating our words (filming and photographing every crazy minute). Go figure. Afterwards, the boat takes you to a close uninhabited island for a fresh fish lunch and snorkel time. Levi was losing his mind and the thought of staying on that island for 2 more hours sounded pretty dreadful. We got a boat back and the guide told us that, for the same price as this excursion, we could charter our own boat and stay on the sandbar watching the sharks and rays as long as we wanted. We decided to do that the very next day. We visited the sandbar again (Levi even slept on the boat) and then we got to explore some possible surf breaks although none were promising.
Some other highlights included sunset crab catching, coral and seashell hunting (sshhhh!), beach days (that warm water was Heaven), exploring the look-out points, the Tahitian dance performance, lots of fun pool games, drinks at the pool bar, swimming in the lagoon, watching Daddy search for oysters all by his lonesome, visitng our favorite Allo pizza (and finding our signatures from 10 years ago) and, of course, Luke surfing Teahupoo. What an insane week filled with extraordinary adventures.
We spent the last night back on the big island so Luke could surf and we could be close to the airport. We had a magical last day and managed to sleep for a couple hours until we had to head home (at midnight- no fun). Again Levi slept for 5 hours which made everything manageable.
This trip was truly a highlight of my life with my favorite people. Love you all so much it hurts. Can’t wait to do this every year! Kids, I promise to do my absolute best to give you the most priceless memories and to help you explore this beautiful world and all it has to offer J
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