Hawaii-- Day 10--going home

I was the only one I think ready to head home. Josh wanted to move to Hawaii and play on the beach for the rest of his life. We didn't miss the rain one little bit, but we did miss our pets, our church and our friends and family of course. Our hotel while we were there was a magnificent hotel. It was a Marriot Hotel and Spa. We didn't do anything "spa-ish" but it was beautiful and relaxing. One problem we had is that we were only suppose to have 4 people in the room (we had 6) so it was really squished with kids sleeping on the floor, a rollaway that took up any leftover space, etc. We also had to come and go in shifts so they wouldn't know we were a group of 6. It wasn't very crowded during the week we were there, it was like having the place to ourselves. But it had no microwave! So we made our cup of noodles with hot water from our coffee maker. It did have a mini fridge which was real nice. I guess the main reason I wanted to come home was for some quiet and elbow room. I love my family dearly, but sometimes it's nice to have a few minutes to yourself. They all felt the same way. Anyway, the view from the room was great and we could watch the luau outside from our balcony on the days they had it. It had 3 hot tubs and several pools which were all filled with salt water and one had sand on the bottom which was fun. We could also walk a few feet over to the ocean if we wanted. We played some tennis, ping pong and volleyball. Would have been perfect with 2 rooms.

The last day brett took the girls to the top of Mauna Kea where they have observatories run by different nations to see the sunrise at 4am! They said it was magnificent being above the clouds watching the sun come up. They got back in time for a quick swim in the pool, and lunch before heading to the airport. We tried to see if we could save some $ by putting josh in the overhead compartment (see pic) and he fit, but I caved and let him have a window seat instead. Long flight to San Fransisco and then PDX, but having Wall-E as the in flight movie really helped.

We are now home in rainy Oregon, all snuggly and warm in our house. I have my 3 dogs laying next to me as I type this, and I hear my son and nephew playing in the other room. Life is good.