Was extremely confusing at one point but think I have it. Just trying to rack my brain if this is worth it or not...

My wife and I want to go to Europe, most likely London. I live close to Omaha Nebraska so not exactly any gateway cities very close. My "plan" is to book an offpeak award for 20,000 AA miles (I have around 300,000 currently). Coach sucks but want to spread my miles around. It would also allow me to book Hawaii for 20,000 instead of 22,500 on a stopover. More on that...

I also would like to use this as a chance to take my wife and 3 kids to Hawaii before that trip so I would have to book the following...

Omaha-LAX x 2 (using either AA points or Southwest points, have a bunch of those as well). LAX-London (aa points). London-LAX (as points) then LAX-Omaha (again either AA points or Southwest).

So after that I would be able to fly my wife and I to Hawaii for "free" using the stopover rule and back.

Omaha-LAX x 2, LAX-Omaha x 2 (Southwest) then my stopover rule to get us from LAX to Hawaii.

I also have my 3 kids in the mix for the Hawaii trip so I have Omaha-lax x 3 (Southwest), LAX-Hawaii (aa points x3), Hawaii-LAX (aa points x3) and finally then LAX-Omaha x3.

That's a lot of work to get a free trip to Europe maybe? Is there a better way to accomplish what I'm looking to do? Am I understanding the rules correctly? I could just say forget it and go directly from OMaha to Hawaii but that's an awfully long trip straight through with kids and much harder to find 5 flights that way. LAX/Cali to Hawaii is pretty open even during peak times. Chicago is an option too as my gateway city but it's then again a longer flight to Hawaii with the kids.

Thoughts?