hawaii: part 1.

so i have been wanting to blog about our vacay since we've gotten home but every time i sit down i get SO overwhelmed about all the stuff we did and everything that i want to include that i just give up before i start and go clean or something. so today i decided that i am going to START it, and i will just break it up into chapters so that it's easier. so here it is, chapter 1.

Sunday morning: rise at the butt-crack-o-dawn. hurriedly get ready and pack last-minute stuff as my husband frantically rushes around, giving me an update of the time every 5 minutes.

"hun-bun, it's 5:30. we have ONE HALF HOUR til we need to leave."

"hun, it's now 5:35. 25 minutes."

"hun, are you going to be ready to walk out the door in 20 minutes? cause it is 5:40."

you get the idea.

we manage to get everyone in the truck, children snuggly buckled in their seats, luggage stacked to the ceiling, back-up travel mugs of coffee and everything, and are only running about 9 minutes behind schedule. i'm silently gloating that i was such a model of efficiency getting out of the house (because for me, 9 minutes behind schedule translates to AHEAD of schedule.) we're driving along, and get about a half-hour away from home in port orchard, before it occurs to me that we MAY need the kids' birth certificates to board the plane. crap. Crap. CRAP.

nathan pulls off to the side of the road while i tear apart the truck looking for something, ANYTHING, with the airline's phone number on it. it's not on our boarding passes, and what the hell happened to the phone book that belongs in here?! damn i wish i had a smart phone right now. ach. i finally find a scrap of paper somewhere in the depths of the truck with Hawaiian Airlines phone number on it. call them to verify that yes, in fact, we DO need their birth certificates. mother-effing-fabulous. i see my level-headed husband, who normally takes everything in stride, start to panic.

there is not really anything left to do at this point but turn around and go back home and grab them, and PRAY that we make it to the airport in time. we turn around, drive home, and i dash in and out of the house in an just over a milli-second (thank goodness that i am an organized person for the most part and knew exactly where they were). we got back on the road and raced against the clock. luckily, there is not much traffic on the road at 7 on a sunday morning, and we arrived at the airport just shy of an hour before our flight left. fate was smiling on us, because there was NO line at the airline counter either, we got checked in and our luggage checked quickly, and the security line moved along at a decent rate as well.


our plane, waiting for us!!


here we gooooo!

the flight was uneventful, the kids were relatively quiet and well-behaved, and 6 hours later we arrived in honolulu. what a day. bring on the pina coladas.


finally. we have arrived in paradise.

thanks for looking, and stay tuned for part deux!