Hawaii--the way there (9/9)

Man it's been forever since I've blogged. No Brook I didn't die I was just on vacation. I know it was probably hard for some of you not seeing a post everyday from me. I know it was weird for me too. Now I have some serious catching up to do. So I'll get started. And there is going to be tons of pics so sorry about the overload, but I took way too many pictures.

My wonderful in-laws, Rex and Sharon, are the best! They planned this whole trip to Hawaii for the entire family. So I have to start with thanking them for taking us there and making the trip so much fun. Jason and I and the kids had such a great time and it's definitely something we will never forget.

Our vacation started on Tuesday, September 9th. We woke up at 3 a.m. (Yes, 3 o'clock in the morning) and drove to Oakland to catch our flight. We flew from Oakland to Salt Lake. I know it was weird. But we had to fly from Oak to SLC and then from SLC to Hawaii. It was cheaper that way. The flight was a lot longer, but we were able to visit with my family at the airport. We got into SLC at 9 a.m. and our next flight didn't leave until noon so we had a serious layover. And I'm actually glad that we had a layover because my family came to the airport to see us. The kids were so excited to see their cousins. My mom and dad and Shelly and her kids came to see us. We had lots of fun visiting and the kids had fun running around screaming, riding the escalator, and playing duck, duck, goose. Thanks Phillips fam for coming to see us!

Afton and Abby. They were so excited to see each other.

Emma and Dax. Very excited too!

Grandpa Rick and Grandma Darla with the kids

Playing on the escalator. They did this like ten times.

Grandma D

Grandpa Rick

Playing duck, duck, goose.

After visiting for a couple of hours, we hopped on our flight and flew to Hawaii. I was really nervous about this leg of the flight. It was 6 1/2 hours and I didn't know how the kids would do. But they all did pretty good. When the flight started they all fell asleep and slept for like an hour or so (not long enough). We ate lunch, then they colored, watched some movies, walked up and down the aisles, took some potty breaks, and played play-dough with their cousin Kya. Jason's sister, Kari and her husband Ben, were on the same flight as us. Logan was the one I was worried about because he's constantly moving and wandering. And that's what he wanted to do was wander a lot. He did have fun sitting in the seat with the seat belt on and standing on the pull-down trays. And he even let the lady sitting next to us hold him. He actually fell asleep in her arms and I told her she could lay him down but she wanted to hold him. So he took a good nap in her arms.

The sleeping kids

Logan loving the airplane seat.

He loved this too, although he kept trying to hit the person in the chair.

They were so into their play dough they wouldn't look at or smile for the camera.

We landed in Oahu at 2:30 p.m. Hawaii time. They are three hours earlier than Cali time. We got our bags which took forever because they were the last bags off the plane. Seriously. Daxon's was the last bag and he was so mad. He kept saying, "Gosh Dang it! Where's my bag? Gosh Dang it!" We thought it was pretty funny. After getting all of our luggage we jumped in the van and drove to Rex and Sharon's condo. They own a condo in Kanehoe which is on the northeast side or windward side of Oahu. Their condo is two bedrooms and one bath, with a living room and kitchen. I thought the smaller space was going to be hard, but it worked out perfectly. Even having one bathroom with 6 adults and 4 kids was fine. Each night we bathed the kids and then the adults took showers. We didn't really do too much the day we got there because we were so exhausted. The time change was hard for the kids. We tried to keep them up as long as we could, but I think they crashed around seven or so. And then they were up bright and early the next morning. I think they got up at 4:30 a.m.

This was the first day of shoes. By the end of the trip it was triple in size.

running down the walkway to the condo.

They had a small playground at the condo. The kids had fun being monkeys and going down the slide.