Jet Planes

So to say that the last few weeks have been a whirl wind would be the understatement of our year.

Graduation went well. The move went pretty uneventful. The trip home was as easy as could be hoped for. Our stuff is still in PA sitting in a warehouse as our moving company tries to find a driver. The estimated date of arrival is July 8th....about 8 days later than the last day of our guaranteed arrival date window. So we have been making the best of it living out of a cooler, eating out, and doing laundry at our in laws house. Someone very smart (ahem) planned ahead and made sure that pretty much everything needed for our trip to Hawaii came home with us to KS in our own suitcases. So we are ready to go.

It is very early in the morning on the day we fly out to Hawaii. For some reason I can't sleep. We made a very smart last minute decision to drive the 5 hours to Denver and get a hotel room last night. I am not sure why we didn't think about this earlier but 3 kids in a car for 5 hours to turn around and fly the insane number of hours it is going to take us to get to Hawaii is not a good idea. So last night we swam in the hotel pool and went out to dinner with family who live here. Today we will start off our morning fresh and well rested. In addition we have an included breakfast, parking, and shuttle to the airport. Sometimes I amaze myself in how well we plan things.

In other news since our house is still empty we have been shopping. We sold almost all of our furniture in PA in the anticipation of getting new furniture here in KS for our new house. We have bought furniture and appliances galore. This has been fun and little overwhelming. I keep trying to tell myself that I don't have to love the couch I buy FOREVER just the next 5-10 years at least. They tried to deliver the wrong fridge twice. We finally figured out that the problem was that the sales person sold us a clearance floor model (this explained the great price) but had told us he could order a new one to be delivered. Unfortunately after we figured this out the floor model was already sold to someone else who had taken it with them. The next one comparable was about $1000 more than what we had already paid (yep it was that good of deal). We were fortunate that the sales manager was really great. We paid $250 more dollars and he ordered us that way more expensive model and it should be delivered the day after we get back. Yeah!

As we get ready to go on this vacation I am much less excited and relaxed about than I had hoped. I am worried about the kids on a plane (and being quiet) for that long, worried about staying with Bret's family for that long, and worried that our trip is much less planned that is usual for us. Bret teases me about how much I plan our trips but when he gets up in the morning he looks at me and says "so what's the plan for the day". Not wanting to spend a big portion of our short vacation trying to figure that out I usually have a flexible idea of what the plan is. Bret also teases me but I usually do lots of research on what the best souvenirs are for the area too. We always get a Christmas ornament from our trip but I usually like to know what the area is "known" for and where good places to shop are. It saves me lots of time later when trying to decide where the best prices might be.

With little access to the internet I am letting go of my stress. I did spend some time last night reading about souvenirs in Maui and we did book our luau. I figure we can always go to the beach and the kids will be happy. As for the kids on the plane I have lots of snacks, the DS' are charged, and we have movies on our iPad. See you in a week! Aloha!