Aloha

We made it to Hawaii! It was crazy and long but we survived. As my mom is always reminding me, "we can do hard things!"

Our flight was on Wed at 8:40 am and we needed to leave at 5:30 am. Of course like "Else" style, we went to bed at 1:30, so after our quick nap we got up and headed out the door in Gramp's airport shuttle. Here's what our lives look like in suitcases.

Once we got to Agoura Hills, I realize we left our double stroller at home in the garage. Drats!!! Well mom, enjoy a double stroller. :-) We ended up checking 6 pieces of luggage plus a baby car seat and carried 2 carry-ons, 3 personal items, another car seat and two little kids. Haans and I were hoping to load the double stroller up with kids and luggage but instead our arms got a good work out.

Unfortunately the plane with almost full and there were no seats near us, so Lou Who had to sit on our laps the whole way. In hindsight, we probably should have bought her a seat, just so she could have slept. Instead we "did hard things" and wrestled her for 5 1/2 hours, trying to keep her semi quiet, and from kicking the seat in front of us. (she did sleep on my lap for about 30 minutes). One thing that helped is Lou Who and I did laps around the plane several times. After we landed and were waiting for everyone else to get off so we could clean up our row, it was so cute to see how many people said good-bye to our little cutie! We survived our long flight and walked off the airplane into Paradise.

Our first task was to get all our luggage to the curb so we could take a taxi to an Enterprise near the airport that didn't have airport shuttle service. (It was the only car rental place that had an SUV left). We were turned down by three mini van taxis but fortunately an Astro van arrived and we loaded him up and drove to get our "standard SUV" that we had booked. This standard SUV was a let down because it ended up being a GMC Terrain. A nice 2012 car, but it barely fit all our luggage. Good thing we forgot the stroller because it wouldn't have fit.

 I normally would never pick McDonald's for food, but this shows how desperately tired and hungry we were when we arrived. Hopefully never again will I get that desperate. Their ice cream is always good though! And ice cream always makes me feel better.

We had fun trying to figure out how to get to the Beck's house and got lost finding it, but getting lost in Paradise isn't that bad. I have decided that if you are going to get lost in a new big city, Honolulu is the best place to do it because you are not getting honked at, the speed limit is A LOT slower here and there are so many crazy drivers doing extreme lane changing that a lost mainlander fits right in.

It was so comforting to receive a warm welcoming hug from the Becks and we have enjoyed their company so much. They have also endured our crazy daughters tormenting their dogs and leaving chaos all over their home. We were able to finally sign our lease this afternoon to our little cottage and are excited to move into our new home tomorrow! Heavenly Father has blessed us so much with so many little and big things working out. Now onto moving, setting up our home, doing a major shopping spree at Costco to restart our lives, finding a car, setting up a bank account (just learned there are no mainland banks on Hawaii), going to the beach and oh yeah, starting school for Haans!