We made it to Hawaii!

Everyone is exhausted waiting to check into the hotel

Especially Malachi

View from the airplane

Gideon really liked Jamba Juice

Malachi really likes making crazy faces

Checking out the beach

Joseph is really enjoying this piece of driftwood

Malachi was so happy to get a chocolate dipped cone

Austin really enjoyed noodles!

Malachi really loves the trees here!

This is how Gideon likes to watch his Kindle

All tuckered out at the end of the day

We're at this restaurant and Malachi keeps singing "butt, butt, butt, butt" over and over again, and when I tell him to not sing about them he points at this statue and says "but Mom, whenever I see that I have to sing about it" silly kid.  I had to redirect his attention to things on our table for him to sing about. 

We had fun snorkeling at Hanuama Bay

Malachi was trying to save his brother from the waves, by pulling him in

The wave got them

Caleb had fun, going out with Joseph

On the temple grounds

Malachi loved the Chritus statue, he had to hug it!

Gideon had to hug Jesus too

Samuel jumping off the bridge

Joseph jumping off the bridge

Joseph and Samuel paddle boarding

Colossial brownie sundae from bucca di beppo

Isn't he a cute little pineapple!

Gideon and Malachi loved the huge  bubbles at the children's museum

Joseph, Betsy, and Caleb made this butterfly out of lids!

Swimming at the Ko'olina lagoons was a lot of fun!

Malachi and I went on a date to Dave and Busters, he won this huge stuffed animal with a big claw game all by himself!  He was so excited!!!  He named it "cuddly"

This is Gideon's face right before he stripped naked and ran through a splash park

I love this huge tree!!

Malachi learned that he needs to put on his seat belt before Dad starts driving!

Hiked Diamond Head!

Caleb and Gideon made it too!

I love this handsome boy!

Went on a date with Betsy to the Cheesecake factory, it was yummy!

So Tuesday, June 12th, we woke everyone up at 4am, (I got to sleep at midnight, and woke up at 3am)  Travis and Joseph took all of our luggage downstairs and loaded it into the SUV and drove it to the airport and checked it all in.  Luckily I called him and got him to take Betsy's shoes out of her suitcase so she didn't ended up shoeless all day.  Then I got the kids all ready and all our carry on luggage down to the lobby and Travis picked us up and drove us to the airport.  We barely made it on time, and went through security and were the last ones on the plane.  I was going to keep Gideon's kindle and save it for the next flight, but he saw it when we went through security and I ended up giving it to him.  But the first flight, was an hour an a half went pretty quickly, and we didn't have any problems other then Gideon not wanting to stay in his seat.  We had to check his car seat at the gate, because they said it was too big for the aircraft, it was a tiny plane.  Anyway we made it to Dallas airport and hung out at the USO for the next three house, eating snacks and playing with toys waiting for our next flight.  We all made it onto the next plane, which was huge!  We basically had two middle rows all to ourselves, with one in between us, and Sam in the one in between us, will three other people.  We were happy to each have our own screen and headphones, and lots of movies/games to choose from for the flight.  The in flight meal wasn't too bad either, and with all the snacks we brought we were good.  The flight was just over 8 hours and took forever, the kids kept asking when we were landing, but mostly just watched movies for the flight.  Gideon took a short nap at the beginning and at the end.  He didn't like wearing headphones, so I think I ended up putting them in his ears about a million times.  But overall he did pretty good.  We had no major problems, and things probably couldn't have gone much better, by the end they were getting pretty antsy though.  So when it was time to get off Gideon and Malachi had a meltdown, So that was difficult and exhausting, but we all made it off the airplane and made our way to baggage.  There were several chaplain families there waiting for us, and gave each of us a ton of leis!  It was really nice after such a long flight, and we felt very welcome.  They helped us get all 20 pieces of luggage and loaded us and our luggage up in three different vehicles and helped us get to our hotel.  It took an hour and a half to get checked into our hotel, and Malachi totally crashed, (it was about 10pm at home in Kansas).  We finally got checked in, only to realize that even though our room numbers are right next to each other, the rooms themselves are not, they are completely around the corner on the other side of the hotel from each other.  So Travis went to talk to the front desk people again, which took forever, and determined that after three nights we could switch to the room adjoining ours, so we ended up having to do that.  We started out with Joseph, Austin, Betsy, and Samuel in the other room, and Travis and I with all the little boys.  There was a major contention between Austin and Samuel, that ended up with Samuel freaking out, and Austin "pretending" to throw him over the balcony (we're on the 7th floor).  Anyway, we ended up having a Kirkman family court and determining both Austin and Samuel behaved wrongfully, and switched Samuel into our room, and put Malachi in Austin's room, with her in charge of taking care of him.  The Hilton Hawaiian Village Resort was very nice.  The rooms were big and it was right on the Waikiki beach, and had tons of things to do.  The down side was that our room had a mini fridge, but no microwave.  We bought food from Costco to eat, to minimize eating out.  We had fun playing at the beach next to our hotel and playing in the pools.  The day after we arrived, we walked to the nearby mall and ate lunch at the food court, and Travis walked the rest of the way to pick up our Van.  Waikiki beach was very nice to play at, since the waves are very small.  There was a sand bar not to far out, that we liked to swim out to.  Gideon loved playing in the sand the most!  Austin, Malachi, and I walked to an Udon noodle place that was really good and cheap.  We got Malachi a chocolate dipped ice cream cone from McDonalds on the way back.  Another evening, the girls and walked to the mall and walked around for a while.  It was fun to hang out, just us girls.  Travis, Joseph and I did a Tai Chi class in the morning that was fun to try, although Travis' foot hurt him a lot the next day.  Sunday we packed everything back up, and took many trips from our room to the van in the parking garage, and checked out.  We tried to go to church at noon, but they were having stake conference, so we ended checking into our hotel real quick, and then went to a 1pm church near our hotel.  We were all starving, no one had eaten breakfast.  After church, since it was father's day they were giving everyone ice cream, so we had ice cream, and they had extras so we ended up eating a lot of ice cream.  Then my cousin, Doug Anderton, and his family invited us over for dinner.  It was nice to visit with them, and our kids got a long pretty well.  It was a nice dinner, and was much better than the peanut butter and honey sandwiches I had planned for our dinner. We have been at the Embassy Suites, in Kapolei since June 17th, and we are checked out August 1st.     We were in hotels for two months straight!  Travis started back at work on the 18th, and took the car with him most days.  I needed the car a couple times, to get kids registered for school, and to get Joseph into summer school, and get him there a couple days to take tests.  He could do most of his work online, but as usual just wanted to mess around on the computer most of the time.  He managed to pass one class, but still needs to pass another.  He is still supposed to be grounded from all electronics, so it is difficult keeping him from using electronics/screens.  It has been difficult keeping all the kids occupied and happy in small hotel rooms, and with things within walking distance.  Luckily there are quite a few things within a mile of our hotel.  There is a good park, we have gone to, almost every day.  Costco is within walking distance, so we walk there about every other day for food.  There is a movie theatre, and we went and saw "The Incredibles 2" movie, it was really good.  Of course when we walked there, I realized I forgot my wallet, and had to run back to the hotel, and then back to the movie theatre to buy the tickets.  I sure got my workout in.  We've walked to Target to get popsicles and ice cream, and to Jamba Juice for smoothies.  There is an outdoor mall 1.5 miles away, we've walked to a couple times, that has a lot of fun things to do as well.  We also discovered the our hotel has a shuttle that will take us to a nearby beach.  When Travis is here in the evenings and on the weekends will go and have fun.  We went to the north shore, and did paddle boarding and kayaking, and got shaved ice, and then went to the Polynesian Cultural Center and bought season passes. The kids were driving me crazy, especially Gideon.  In the canoe ride, he kept trying to climb out of the canoe, and giving me all sorts of trouble.  Then on the bus ride to the Temple grounds he tried doing the same thing.  It was really nice being on the temple grounds.  We originally planned to attend the temple, but then I realized I had sent my temple recommend in our Household goods shipment.  We saw the evening show they put on, and it was really amazing.  We were all pretty exhausted by the end of the day.    We hiked Diamond head hike, it wasn't super long, but it was really hot out, and steep, we were all really hot and sweaty by the end.  Gideon walked almost the whole way by himself, but Malachi had to ride in the backpack with Travis most the way.  The kids loved the tunnel and all the stairs though, and the view was great at the top!  We ate at the Udon place again, and went to Waikiki beach again.  We were offered a house in AMR housing with the military.  We accepted it, but we don't move in until August 1st.  Travis, Joseph, Caleb and I did a hike together that was fun. Lots of rainforest atmosphere.  We got pretty muddy, but saw a small waterfall, and had fun.  I took the kids to a children's museum that was really fun, and out to eat at Bucca di Beppo.  Samuel ended up staying with the Princes (our friends that moved here from Kansas about a year before us)  the last week we were in the hotel.  Samuel was just causing so many problems, so it was such a blessing to have him stay with someone else for a little while.  We loved our summer of playing in Hawaii, and not having to cook or clean much was sure nice, but we were sure ready to move into our own place!