Hawaii with pictures!

It was an adventure! It started out a little shaky since I took little Lonnie to the ER the night before. I thought he was having an appendicitis attack. He was fine!!! Just something viral. So, we didn't get home until 2ish in the AM. I did make everyone get up at 7 to get ready for church. lol Our Pastors are doing a series and well I didn't want to miss it. So, we went to church and after we took the girls home(the boy went to SS and his 6-pack (its a club). Then Lonnie & I were off to the airport. Got to love that here-two terminals. And you can park for free up to 45 days as long as your stickers are current. lol Well, we took off a little late or so we thought. We missed our first connected flight but we thought no worries because we had to wait very little for the next one. So we are off again. Then off a plane on a plane. We arrive safely to Hawaii and much to our surprise we were met by our friends who are retiring. :) We then hear "Lonnie Griffith to the AA office." They tell us that our luggage didn't make it. Oops. And they "think" it will be in the next day. Oops! Not good-because for the first time ever I didn't have a carry on with the "needed items". This trip I didn't want to be responsible for anything on the plane but my purse, lol That'll teach me. So, we leave and go pick up the rental and tell our friends we will see them tomorrow-they had things to do and well I had friends I had to see that night since they were a;; going to Europe the next day for Girl Scouts. What a great time we had with them-I saw my friends new house on the base. Very nice. We didn't leave there until almost 1 am but we couldn't go back to the hotel just yet. I needed to stop at Wal*Mart-I needed just a "few" things to hold me over until my stuff showed up. :)
Went to bed-tired! Didn't even hear Lonnie get up to go to the rehearsal. I just stayed in the room waiting for him to come back with either my luggage or to go buy a new outfit. :) So, what's a girl to do but take random pictures outside the window.

Went to our favorite Japanese restaurant. Ate way to much and laughed way to hard.
Went to the retirement ceremony-just beautiful! It was held on the USS Missouri. One of my favorite parts is when they read "Old Glory" and passed the flag from one sailor to the next and then finally to the retiree. He then presented the flag to his Mom in honor of his dad who had passed away. Not a dry eye.
Lonnie & I after the ceremony!

We drove around the whole island-my favorite thing to do. We stopped at the Pali Lookout-

it is my favorite spot in the island and I remember the very first time I saw it 18 years ago. :) Stopped at the beach to see the waves and then stopped on the North Shore for Shaved Ice at http://www.matsumotoshaveice.com/ Then off to dinner with more friends.

Next day we went to the Swap Meet and shopping for gifts for the kids. Met some more friends for lunch. Then back to the hotel to shower and get ready for dinner. We decided to go to the Cheesecake Factory. Oh my!! I had the best Pomegranate margarita. Delicious. I ate way to much dinner so I had to take my cheesecake to go. We walked back to the hotel. I then ate my cheesecake it was the Fresh Banana Cream Cheesecake and I will say this it was to die for.

We did almost have a not so happy ending. Lonnie kept saying we flew out late Thursday around 1 am so we thought about lets change our flight-we get back to the hotel and he is looking at the paperwork and says to me, "honey look at this-what does it say?" I about killed him-it said 1 PM!!!!! We would have missed our flight by 12 hours. We would have checked out of the hotel @ noon and drove around all day for no "real" reason. Good thing I love him and we looked or it would have got ugly.

So, we left the hotel early Thursday morning and went to run some errands. We had to drop off something for one friend we didn't get to see and the Post Office to mail his hat back(we needed the room in his bag- :). Then it was breakfast and airport for us.

We had some layovers in SF and Dallas but made it home on Friday on time.

Welcome home

Now back to being parents. I did miss the kids and they missed us. :) Life is good!