Make-a-Wish & Smoky Hill High School
After Eli made the decision to go to Hawaii, Make-a-wish made Eli one of their ambassadors and coupled him with Smoky Hill High School as part of their fundraising in schools. Eli got to go to the school for a huge fundraising pep rally. It was incredible. The kids has spent weeks fundraising with Eli as their motivation. Their goal was raise enough to send him to Hawaii. When Eli walked into the school there were cries of "Hey, that's Eli!" and "Hi, Eli" as we walked down the hall to the gym. Eli was ushered backstage and we waited for them to introduce him. It was pretty incredible. They brought him out a throne to sit on with palm trees and candy leis and then they put on a polynesian show just for him. They had Maori warriors and Hula dancers and tons more. Eli was rapt while he watched it all. The whole experience was amazing for all of us and gave me hope for humanity that these kids were working so hard and passionately for a good cause. Pretty touching for all of us. 
Channel 9 News in Denver did a segment on it that you can watch here:
The TripWe had a great time in Hawaii. We got picked up by a limo and were treated wonderfully the entire trip. We spent a week at the Hilton Waikoloa on the big island. The hotel is like Disneyland with a train connecting the 3 towers and boats doing the same. There is a wonderful lagoon fed by the ocean full of fish and tons of sea turtles. We spent most of our time in the lagoon, with the kids playing in the sand and mommy and daddy taking turns snorkeling.
The trip was full of wonderful food and fun; Every night we were
exhausted. We had some nice mai tai's on the beach and plenty of
relaxation. Noa had an immense amount of fun playing on the beach and
Eli made some great friends to play with in the pools and waterslides.
The highlight of the trip for Eli was the Luau. He loved the music and dancing and was talking about it for weeks afterward. It was a great luau with excellent dancers and a crazy fire dancer that Eli was lucky enough to meet. There was one huge disappointment however, Eli was absolutely devastated when he wasn't invited to go on stage. Unfortunately, we had given him the idea that he might get to go up on stage and dance with the dancers as we had heard they do in other Luaus. He was crying hysterically after the show. We felt so bad that when we got home I built him a wooden stage and Meagan made fire sticks and he did a show for us at home.
We had an amazing time. It was great to be a family and do things together. The pictures say everything.
