Forced Vacation

So last time I left you we still didn't have somewhere to live when our lease at our vacation home ended on January 29th.  Not 1 but 2 places had fallen through at the last moment!  Stress!  However, a new place popped up on craigslist that fit our current needs (not a zillion dollars, not require a year lease (since we REALLY want to buy something in the next few months if at all possible) and close enough that Hana can stay at the same school if possible) I instantly got in contact with the owner & basically kept bugging her until she emailed me a contract & let me pay her my money!  (Yes, that's how renting works here, on Oahu!)  She wasn't sure if the place would be available on February 1st or the 9th and we hoped for the 1st!  Meanwhile we had to find somewhere to live from Jan 29th until Feb 1st and after searching all over the entire island, pricing everything out, weighing out the pros and cons of driving, Hana perhaps missing school etc we finally ended up taking a forced vacation, here at the Marriott Ko Olina Beach Club resort!  It's just down the road about 1/2 mile from Hillside where our vacation home was and where our new home will also be.  After getting a discount from a lovely friend who works for Marriott (THANK YOU, KATHY!!!) it ended up being the cheapest option available AKA not that cheap.  But on this side of the island they don't have cheap motels or even hotels only 3 resorts.  So here, we are at the lovely resort now!  Of course we were told on the 31st that we couldn't move in on the 1st and had to wait until the 9th so we had to book another room here at the resort for an additional 9 days. But, as our luck would have it, our room category was completely booked so we had to move rooms, to a higher floor (more expensive) and that was only available until the 8th!  The moral of the story here is, own a vacation home on Oahu because you will never have any trouble renting it our for ridiculously expensive rates whenever you want to!  Our dear neighbor friends have offered to let us sleep on the floor at their condo for the last night before we can move into our semi-permanent home.  So the grand total of the places we've lived in the past 2 months goes up to 9!  Red house in South Jordan to the Sanderson's to Mom & Dad's to the Hyatt hotel in Waikiki to vacation rental for a month to the Marriott Beach Club resort room 1 & 2, the neighbors and finally our home for the next 4 months...phew!  No wonder Aya is confused and keeps asking "so is THIS our home?" whenever we go anywhere.  All in all though, we've been extremely blessed by all of you, kind friends and family, who have and keep helping us out so THANK YOU!  We also can't complain because we're having a forced vacation at a lovely resort, which is the nicest place I've ever stayed!  Here are some pictures of this amazing place:

So nice to have a full kitchen & washer & dryer!

Amazing view from our lanai (balcony)!

And a few other fun things from this week...

Hana & Aya were thrilled when a mermaid came & visited our hotel pool & told them stories!

The mermaid arriving via golf cart (that's the preferred form of transportation here at Ko Olina & I want one!)

Making huge bubbles on the hotel lawn

Beautiful sunset tonight

Daddy & Hana enjoying the beach

Poor Aya was sick with a fever today :(

So it's been an interesting week of being stressed out to the max while staying at a lovely resort & making the most of it.  It's been a very interesting thing to think about.  Sometimes we just have to enjoy life regardless of the stress we can't avoid.

Love you all!