Friday, October 14, 2011

Hawaii: Part 1



My poor blog has been sorely ignored and there have been so many things that have happened that I want to share. Since we have been home, I have hit the ground running with my new Paparazzi Accessories business and have loved every minute of it but boy has it taken my time. Add on trouble adjusting to the time change for whatever reason and then getting these never ending colds right when we got back.

Our flight left at 5:30am! Now that is early when you have to factor in getting there early and then time to drive there. My dad was gracious enough to wake up that early. I was able to get 2 hours of sleep the night before. Jeff got about a half hour. We had so much packing that we had to finish. I should have taken a picture of all of the crap...I meant stuff that we had to take. We had two kids-one can't walk, a child's hiking backpack in lieu of the stroller, one large suitcase, one carry on suitcase, a diaper bag, laptop, Gunnar with his backpack, a booster seat, and a carseat. It was quite the scene but Jeff wore wore the backpack and baby, I carried the diaper bag, laptop bag and carried the carseat and Gunnar rolled the carry-on around. We checked the booster seat and suitcase. We got to the airport before the check-in counters opened so we got o wait around for that. My dad kept asking if we read our paperwork right because he has never seen a flight leave that early. Sure enough we read it right but it was weird because once we checked in we headed to security where they were still closed. We had to stand in line for a while waiting for the gates to open. It was a little weird too. The best part of flying with kids is that you get to board almost first (after the fancy seat people) if you have any kids under 4. We gate checked the hiking backpack but were extremely lucky enough to get an open seat next to us to install Brecken's carseat. The gate lady was so awesome and moved the person next to me so the carseat could be there. I learned that with our trip to Sacramento that Gunnar flew so much better with his carseat. I risked it with Brecken and it paid off. Brecken did not have a paid seat but if there are empty seats next to you or they are willing to change things around on a pretty empty flight, they may let you take the carseat on. Totally worth trying. Thankfully the excitement wore off and we all got a little sleep from Boise to San Francisco.
When we arrived in San Francisco it was like 6am! The pilot happily announced that our flight arrived a half hour earlier than scheduled. Not funny when you already have a 3 hour layover with two totally awake kids in a sleepy empty airport. Surprisingly, the layover went by pretty quickly. I'm not sure how or why but it did. I packed lots of snacks and food so we were good to go for breakfast. We again boarded our second flight at 8:30am and were on our way to paradise.

Our second flight was packed. Like really packed and it was a huge plane. We had 3 seats in the middle section of seats so I got stuck sitting by these 2 Chinese ladies in some sort of tour group that did not speak English at all but they LOVED Brecken. They tried all sorts of things to entertain him. He loved it after a few hours. He slept very little and Gunnar did not sleep at all. Kung Fu Panda 2 was playing but he lost interest pretty quickly because he had to crane his head into the aisle but couldn't leave it there for long before it got bumped with a cart or person. Both kids did amazingly well and didn't make much of a fuss thank goodness. We were near the bathrooms so people would be waiting nearby, usually trying to interact with Brecken. There was this one lady that asked if we were from Fresno. I told her where we were from. She then proceeded that she was so sick of the flight and a little confused because it was only supposed to be a couple hour flight from San Francisco and it was now nearing five. What!? Really!? Did she really think that! We both had a great laugh over that. Because of all of the time changes and things, it does say we leave at 8:30am and arrive at 11:30am. But did she really think that it would really be that short. Itineraries do state how many hours it takes to fly that leg of the trip. Oh boy...we finally landed and got our stuff and were greeted by Mindy and Rillz and a rainy morning. It was heavenly. The smells, the humid air, everything. I love it and always have. We got something to eat at Zippy's and headed to the house.

I love Rillz's family. They are so nice and welcoming. I think we relaxed and hung around. I really don't remember but I do know that at night we went to Mindy and Rillz's niece's 1st birthday party where about 250 other people celebrated and enjoyed 19! main meat dishes among other things. The food was plentiful and so good but the problem is we were still recovering from the flight. Dinner was technically midnight in Idaho so we were having trouble wanting to eat anything.

One funny thing was that we walked there and had Brecken in the backpack. I guess all of the cousins (and there are lots) were in complete awe of the thing. They wanted to know if Jeff made it. It is a Kelty so...ummm...no. It was funny. They also thought it was pretty funny that we were walking from the house to the park and back. It was only a couple of blocks away and the weather was so great.

We were zonked that first day and all slept pretty well that night.

1 clever remarks:

HeidiT said...

That's so great that the boys didn't have any problems with the flights. Cami's so used to moving around and doing her own thing that I think she would have a problem sitting in her actual carseat on a plane. I love it when we're seated by the bathrooms/stewardess seats because it keeps her entertained with all of the people coming and going.
Gracie's party sounded crazy - seriously that's a load of people and food.