Aloha

it means hello and goodbye--exactly our feelings as we made our way back to Hawaii.

Yesterday morning we woke up at a daunting 4am EST, unless of course you are my grandfather, in that case it would be normal. Anyway we were packed and out of the house by 5:15 in order to be at RDU airport by 6:30. Another hour or so to check in and go thru security (which by the way is pretty annoying when you have babies) about 30 minutes to grab some breakfast, eat, change diapers and get to the gate, and another 30 minutes to load the plane and take off...that was our morning. At least the first leg, and minus all the emotions and goodbyes, that technically started the day before.

It really was great being home--it was so good to see everyone, we are both so blessed to have such great family and friends. Also it was so exciting to introduce our children to everyone. They are like this awesome secret we had been keeping and if felt so good to let it out. Also with all the introductions came sadness on my part, knowing everything that they are missing by being away from all of our family. It was so great seeing our parents interact with the babies and i wish we didn't have to be so far from them. So, even harder was having to say goodbye at the end of our 3 weeks.

Growing up we wanted to go out and experience the world, and we've had an amazing time in Hawaii and there's a huge part of me that wants to go more places and see this beautiful Earth that the Lord has created, but what i didn't expect was the pull Home can bring once you've been away for awhile and even more once children come into the picture.

But back to our flights yesterday, if it was even possible, the babies were even better this time than when we flew to NC. This time on both flights Mike and I were able to sit across the aisle from each other--and on our long flight (9 hrs) we had 2 bassinets instead of just 1. This means that we had 2 sleeping babies for the majority of the flight. We really couldn't have asked for a better day and better travels.

We don't have any very good pics of the bassinets, but many of you had asked about them. So here is holden sitting up in one. Really, they are just for sleeping, but it was a good place to put a baby when needing to do something else with both hands. The flap he is holding is the my favorite part because it really closes them out from all the distractions on the plane and helps them sleep well.

I know the picture is a bit confusing, but this eye is what i looked at off and on throughout the flight. It was the only thing showing through all the blankets and the bassinet. So cute!
AND...just to make the flight even more amazing, Holden cut his first tooth on our flight! He woke up on Sunday morning chewing hard, so we knew that he was having teething issues, so just to be safe we kept him pretty medicated just to prevent any annoying pains and crazy meltdowns on a flight somewhere. Then about 5 hrs into our second flight, Mike felt his gums and 'voila--there it was!

So now we are back at home, trying to unpack, catch up on some sleep, get the babies back on HST, and Mike's back at work. It's good being back in our space, among our things and i believe even the babies are glad to be here.

For the rest of the week its going to be about savoring time with each other as a family, and preparing for this deployment--Mike's less than a week away from leaving and in all honesty I'm not dealing with it too well, but then i don't think there's really an easy way to deal. Just keep us in your prayers please, sometimes it seems as though the hardest part of deployment is just the emotions and tension leading up to the actual day he leaves.

Have a good week everyone, and again it was so good to see so many of you while we were home.
~Aloha!