Flight Back to HI..one last time

Flying back to HI, it hit us that this time would be the last time--well maybe not forever, but the last time while we are living here.  It was a little bittersweet as we were making our descent over the islands-i tried to take it all in, the beautiful hawaiian sunset over the clouds and the peak of Mauna Kea peaking through, the coastline lit up by a sea of lights--and lets not forget the warm sweet breeze that that blows over your skin the second you step off the plane...i'm gonna miss that. 

i have a feeling the next few months are going to include a lot of those feelings.  faithful blog readers, you might as well get ready ;) 

but for now, i'll get back to the trip home.  4 words.  It was just OK. 

first 2 flights were fairly uneventful (minus a medical diversion that caused us to detour to PHX before heading on our way to LAX) and the kiddos handled them like champs.   It was that 3 hr layover in the worst airport ever that has NOTHING to do and NOWHERE to let the kids run around and be free. Followed by the last leg, longest flight of the day--6hrs on a small 1 aisle plane with only shared movie monitors hanging from the ceiling playing one 90 min movie that no one cared to watch anyway.   Thankfully the kids slept some of it... the hours they didn't sleep were an emotional roller coaster bouncing between tears and wild pent-up bursts of energy.  i am SO glad its over.  

So far though, they slept through the first night back, woke up happy and went right down for nap...they really do seem to be the best 2 year old travelers ever.  We are SO THANKFUL for that :)

ready to go ...waiting at the gate for our first flight at 6am EST

 Wendy's Bfast on the plane!

 

sharing with Woody 

 Daddy why do you always take pics of me?

a little nap on the second flight of the morning...all snuggled with her animals

 HRB on the second flight...he's a bit more finicky...we've learned to build him a fort and he sleeps much better!

 

Daddy sitting my himself :(

  third flight... a little timeout corner for a brother who didn't want to share

Woody (Toy Story) ALWAYS does the trick. 

 and then when we got home it was like Christmas all over again...TONS of Christmas Cards in our mail pile...as tired as we were we opened them all before we went to sleep.  Now i gotta find a place for 'em all on the refrigerator!

Our Traveling Adventure with 2 Kiddos 2 Years Old

HNL to LAX

 

 nap time--airplane style...about 45 mins worth

 LAX to ATL

 (ran to make connection--no time for potty, food or leg stretching--ughh)  this was also a red eye--so lights out for most everyone--N slept almost the whole time--H fought it for about 3 hours and slept good for an hour. 

 

 ATL--FINALLY getting to walk around a little bit

 ATL to CLT  

Kiddos were still in great moods...i had starbucks to help with mine!

 

Nora sleeping a little bit more

 CLT- ride home...knocked out kiddos

we really couldn't have asked for a better trip.  the kids were fabulous.  NO MELTDOWNS, NO MAJOR PROBLEMS, NO AIRPLANE HORROR STORIES.  even the time adjusting to NC has been fairly easy. with the jet lag they are actually sleeping in a little later which this momma and daddy REALLY appreciate!

We're Here

just us and all of our stuff!

We're back in NC and just taking it easy for a few days trying to get everyone adjusted to the time.  We'll be heading to Fayetteville/Jacksonville tomorrow night for the week and then spend the rest of our time in A-town.  It's good to be home, now if only we can get a little winter weather around here!

We're Back!

in good ole' NC, and man oh man it's cold! It's not even the initial shock of cold air that gets ya, it's more like the constant cold, cold to the bone, cold all the time unless you're taking a hot shower cold that is taking some getting used to.

Anyway, the flight over was just eh... not terrible, not great. We were the annoying people with crying babies sometimes, but not too much and for the most part the babies were very good considering being forced to sit in the same place for like 14 hours or so.

We are currently taking it easy trying to get everyone back on East Coast time. Hopefully it won't take too long!
Here are some pictures from our travels!

waiting for our stroller to get scanned

we had to pull our hats out at Charlotte...it was cold even in the airport!Baby Stella wore a hat too!
Bojangles biscuits for everyone! Jenn looks more excited, but the babies love them too..they were just too busy eating!

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!

I Would Fly 5000 Miles.....

and i prolly wouldn't fly 5000 more.... if i didn't have to!

Well, there was certainly a lot of build up, preparation and anticipation for our flight home..at least on my part. I really was a bit nervous about how the babies would do. I mean lets face it, the flight to hawaii isn't exactly fun for an adult, much less a 5 month old, but all in all I think the babies did very well.

The first flight was a red-eye and we hoped the babies would sleep good because of it-- and Nora did--so 1 out of 2 isn't too bad. We had a bassinet for her that hooked to the wall in front of my seat. Since Nora is the more finicky of the two, we thought it best to give her the bed and it worked great! We wrapped her up like normal and then put her in the bassinet and she slept the enitre flight.

Holden on the other hand didn't have it so well. Mike and I took turns holding him, he squirmed and whined quite a bit and didn't seem to be able to get into a deep sleep. Because we had 2 lap babies, Mike and I were not allowed to sit next to each other in a flight. The rule has to do with the number of oxygen masks avaliable per row. Anyway, thankfully we both had good seat neighbors that didn't seem to be irritated by the babies. I even made friends with one of my neighbors--she lives in my neighborhood with 2 small children and we have plans to take some walks together when we I get back.

By the 2nd leg of our trip the babies were both pretty irritable and tired--good news this flight was only 2.5 hours as opposed to the 8 hr flight from Honolulu to Houston, so it was over fairly quickly. While waiting to board the plane the babies were quite upset and we had lots of stares. I am ceratin all those people were praying they wouldn't be near us on the flight. They did eventually calm down though and Mike even had a couple of people tell him how good the babies were. I guess they were expecting the worst!

So yeah, all in all it wasn't too bad--it's just much different and WAY more tiring with kiddos tagging along! But i guess those stinkers worth it!

Mike and Holden on the plane

Nora sitting in the 'big girl seat'All of our stuff!Hello Grandpa!and kisses for HoldenHello GrandmaI wish i had some of those teeth!so happy to see their grandbabies!

Deployment Over

FYI: Mike is on his way home--he should be here at 11:45pm HST as long as nothing else is delayed. I just got a message from him and he said they are in Alaska waiting for a flight.

If you would like to keep up with the arrival you can go to http://www.25idl.army.mil/ . He is on Chalk #2. This time will be updated until 2 hours out, so you can watch for yourself to see if things change.

Check back soon and i will post his arrival/ceremony pics.