HI = Hawaii, the Aloha (or hi) state

we did it! We're finally here! I am so excited to be living in heaven! Ok maybe not heaven but paradise, yes! Let me tell you about our trip:
We spent a very late night cleaning up our house the day the packers came to put all our boxes into the truck. we had to borrow a vacuum and some cleaning supplies too. we ended up giving away a lot of food and supplies, like an unopened bottle of laundry detergent because I didn't know that the packers couldn't pack food of any kind, liquids or gels, creams, lotions and nail polish. Yup, a lotta things went to waste becuase I was simply unaware of this. Well they didn't go to waste bc we gave them away but we wasted a lot of money :(
So we spent up until about 1 am cleaning the house. Then we slept on the floors cuz all our stuff was packed on a truck and on its way to Hawaii by then. Needless to say we were more than tired when we woke up at 5 the next morning. We did a whole bunch of last minute errands in the morning. the inspectors came to view our house and said we only had to pay 200 dollars to replace an area in the living room where we couldn't get stains out. we were very happy about not having to pay more!
So off we went on our long journey with a happy start. we left early but took it really slow to start. we saw on Man Vs. Food this resturant called Heids of NY. they have some very special hot dogs and Ben wanted to check them out since we were going through Syracuse on our way anyway. We ate there and fulfilled a little dream of ours.
We took those first two days rather slowly so we could get our sleep. we only drove a few hours, ate well, usually went swimming if the hotel had a pool and then went right to bed. The kids rather enjoyed staying at the hotels. I am not sure if it was bc of the swimming pools, or the free breakfast or the 24/7 attention they get from mom and dad being in one small room with them all the time. But it could be all of the above. They liked it we coudl tell but they were excited for Halloween and excited to see thier cousins. We were excited to see York and Luly along the way and excited to have some home-cooked food!
We made it to York and Luly's house in Wisconsin on Sunday afternoon.  (we left on Friday morning) Driving was made easier by our two little walkie talkies (sp?) which we used all the time to talk to each other. we got lost at one point and those came in handy. we also hit sleet and lots of rain along the way. this was the midwest version of the huge storm that took out power along the east coast. We thought hail/sleet was bad but when we heard what the East coast was going through, we were glad to be leaving. ha! We were always happy to be leaving for Hawaii but then we were glad we missed such fun black-out times. We were sorry to hear about all that happened to people truly. I can't imagine ten days without power (Saren)!
York and Luly's house is so cute, so quaint! We were welcomed with open arms and good food! We talked a lot to my brother and his wife, ate dinner and then put the kids to bed. Then we played atleast an hour of fun games, which Luly beat us quite well at. The next day we took the kids to Chucky Cheeses, our first time ever going there! We had lots of fun! We took the kids to see a firetruck and trick or treat. Then we took a quick trip to the Lands End factory outlet which had 1 dollar shirts! Then we went trick or treating for reals with all the kids. The weather was great, a little chilly after a while but still a great night! The kids were happy, learned quickly to say trick or treat and thank you and it turned out to be quite a successful night! All the kids got lots of candy and the adults earned lots of smiles.
The next morning we left for St George, Utah. we traveled a lot of hours over the next few days and made it to Bens parents house on Thursday afternoon. We stayed at thier house over night the first night there. we took Bens dad and Jordan to lunch at Red Robin the next day. We spent another night at his parents house before traveling an hour south to my parents house in NV. We spent another few days there. We were able to watch In Time with Justin Timberlake, which was good, while my parents watched the kids for us. We played PIP (and no I didn't win, Ben did!) and had lots and lots of good food.
We made ten hours a day driving over the next few days and made it to Washington on time. We dropped off our car at the car port on the 9th, wednesday, and then made our way to the seattle airport. We were at the airport for a while while we waited for the plane but eventually got our 5 1/2 hour flight over with. Samya and Tosh slept most of the way and Ben and I were able to watch Rise of the Planet of the Apes, which was also good. We were so happy to finally arrive in Hawaii and get settled.
It took us a while to get situated, getting a ride to the Inn on base from the airport, getting checked in to our new temporary abode, etc. We got to bed late but boy were we happy when we woke up. We woke up to a sunny room. Look out the window and we see plants, green and lots of green. Just outside our window is a little atrium with totem poles and a waterfall.
Now, about Hawaii as we've found so far:
Green everywhere! Flowers everywhere! The roads are tiny. The houses and buildings are close together like in Europe. The parking spaces are sized for compacts (and we rented a large SUV -cuz thats all they had-its so hard to park). The sky is always blue and beautiful. There is alot of rain here, rain instead of snow, which creates rainbows galore! of course there are beaches around each corner. I'll write more about that later. The temperature is always perfect, from 71-81 degrrees. There is always something to do.
Can't wait to get to the beach and then write all about that. There is so much to do here I'm sure I'll be writing alot soon. I'm so glad you are here reading this. it makes me feel good that someone cares about our lives enough to read about them so thank you! I will post pics from halloween and of HI when I eventually find the cord that goes from the camera to the comp. K, stay well. I'll soak in some sun for you, ok?  see you next time.