Hawaii-1

      Bret and I went on a trip to Hawaii. Now, living in Europe, Hawaii was not our first choice place to go to but my sister was getting married!!! There were no complaints about being in Hawaii just complaints about leaving my kids for a long time and and traveling for 26 hours half way around the world. We did it though and things worked out and we were so glad we were able to be there! 

      First off, we have awesome friends that offered to watch our kids for almost 2 weeks. They are amazing and the kids had a blast at their house. They also still want to be our friends after we came back, wahoo! So we dropped our kids off at their house the night before we left. We got up and were out of our house on the 16th of Aug by 7:30 am. That was the beginning of our travels. We took 2 trains and made it to the airport, where we got on a plane for an hour. Then traded planes and got on another one for 10 1/2 hours. Had a few hour layover in LA and then boarded our last flight which was 5 hrs 15 mins.  We had finally made it and it was literally the longest day of our lives. It had been 26 hours since we left our house yet we made it there the night of the 16th. From the time that we woke up to the time we went to bed it had been about 30 hours. We tried to sleep on the flights but it was very difficult. We were tired but so excited to be there and see my family!  

The "before" picture. Waiting for our first flight. Note: Look how fresh our faces look. 

The "during" picture. Our layover in L.A. over half way there. Note: Brets huge burrito he was very excited about and the bags/dark circles starting to form under our eyes. It was about 1 or 2 in the morning for us but afternoon and sunny in L.A. at this point.

The "after" picture. We had made it. Note: the not so fresh faces but very excited to be there.

Eating our German meal of sausage, potato salad, and bread on the long plane ride. 

We tried to cuddle and watch a movie together. It kinda worked out.

Renee took this picture of them waiting for us. They waited awhile and we ended up coming out somewhere else. This picture makes me laugh. Everyone looks so "energetic".

They eventually found us. Oh man, I love these guys! 

One year later, we are all together (minus kids). 

I think this was Bret on a run one of the first mornings.

At the beach with the sun going down. Sadly Renee is missing from the picture.

Renee opening the clam with the pearl inside. A gift my kids chose to give her for her wedding.

A gift from Bret and I to Papo for their wedding. It was a "Renee survival kit". 

The gifts from the kids. The pearl earrings and pearl necklace and the cowboy keychains. 

This is often my favorite part about being with my family. Just sitting around talking. 

Renee was busy doing some other stuff and complained about not being in any pictures. So I took one of her. 

My brothers thought it would fun to hit each other in the arm with a plastic spoon...

With the 12 hour time change and sleeping in a kind of warm room Bret and I were often up early. 

We decided to go for a run one morning but didn't make it far and ended up sitting on a big swing on the beach watching the sun come up and all the little clear crabs running on the beach. 

The sunrise.