Husker Game!

Braxton is finally to the age where we felt like he could go to a Husker game and actually enjoy himself.  He saw that a lot of his friends were going and really wanted to go.  Chad was able to find some tickets through his mom to the Kansas University game on 10/13/10. 

The good old Nebraska weather decided to grace us with its presense Friday night.  All day Friday it was cold, dreary, rainy and by 10:30 that night it was snowing.  Go figure, the first snow of the year the night before Braxton's first football game!  Lucky for us, the snow was all gone Saturday morning and the day turned out OK.  We did get him some longjohns to wear under his jeans and a hat and gloves.  He forgot his Husker snuggie, but he was still warm enough.  Of course, it was a 6 o'clock game so it was chilly!

Our friend Rick works at the games and was able to get Chad and Braxton down on the field.  What an awesome experience!  There were football players walking right by them!  Braxton was pretty excited!  It was a quick game and they were home by 9:30 and of course Nebraska won!

The view from their seats!

Halloween 2010

This year for Halloween, Braxton decided to be a cop and Lilly wanted to be a fairy.  Well, to be fair.  She wanted to be a fairy, Tinkerbell, Strawberry Shortcake, a Butterfly, and then a fairy!  I got creative and made both kids costumes!  Woo hoo for me!  I am not a sewer so everything was done with glue!  Thank you Hobby Lobby!

For Lilly's fairy skirt, I made the whole thing out of green and purple tulle.  If I were to do it again, I wouldn't have made it quite so long and probably not as puffy.  She had problems stepping on it!  The top was just a black leotard with jewels glued on and then she had butterfly wings.  She was a beautiful fairy, although she kept telling people she was Tinkerbell.

Braxton decided he wanted to be a cop, but I didn't like any of the store cop costumes.  They were all so plasticy.  I ran to walmart and bought a pair of navy blue dress pants.  At Hobby Lobby I had found 1/2" yellow ribbon so I glued yellow ribbon down the side of each leg.  I had also bought a light blue dress shirt.  I ironed on an American Flag patch and added his badge.  We found him a hat at one of the halloween stores and he was set.  He added most of the accessories himself!

They had a great time trick-or-treating.  We went around for about an hour or so, but it was chilly!  Towards the end, Lilly sat down in someone's grass and declared she was done and wanted to go home, so we did!

Braxton also enjoys handing out candy, so he did that the rest of the night.

Thank you to my favorite Service Persons!

Geneva Madrigal

Petty Officer 2nd Class

United States Navy

Raphael Madrigal

Staff Sergeant

United States Air Force

I don't have a picture of the two of you in uniform, but Thank You for all you do for our country!  I know that you guys sacrifice a lot (moving across the country and the ocean!) and may be deployed at any time to who knows where!  Thank you for doing everything that you guys do to keep our country safe! 

Have a Holly Jolly Christmas!

Since before Halloween, our house has been ready for Christmas!  We had the Christmas music on before Halloween was over!  We love to decorate and get ready for the holiday season! 
One thing that I never really have to worry about is Christmas Cards.  Shutterfly http://www.shutterfly.com/ makes it SO easy to make beautifuly cards.  The only thing I have to provide is the picture.  We always try to take our pictures in the fall when the trees are so pretty!  Then once the holiday season rolls around, we just pick a card, add the picture and we are done!  Shutterfly does the rest!

This year they have some amazing templates.  You can see them all here http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-photo-cards.  We prefer to do the photo cards, it is simple and looks nice but if you would like to do a more traditional card, Shutterfly can help you out there too!  Check out all these templates http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/holiday-cards.  They have coordinating gift tags http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-gift-tags , address labels http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-address-labels, you name it!  Don't be surprised if you get a card from us that looks like this one http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/cards-stationery/merry-memories-chartreuse-christmas-card?sortType=1&storeNode=93496.  I just love it!  So simple yet elegent!

Right now, Shutterfly is offering 20% off all holiday cards!  http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery  What an awesome deal!  You get the envelopes, all you need are the addresses!  It doesn't get much easier than this. 

Shutterfly has other amazing services including photo books, gifts, etc.  They take your amazing pictures and make them into amazing things!

*This post was to receive free holiday cards from Shutterfly.

Hawaii Days 8, 9, and 10 ~ The Trip Home

While the following story may seem like we made it up, I promise it is 100% true!  Keep in mind that we were supposed to be home in Scottsbluff Saturday morning at 11:00am.

FRIDAY:
While trying to check in online for our flight, we discovered that our flight out of Honolulu to San Francisco was delayed.  The problem with that was that we would then miss our connection flight to Denver.  After many hours on the phone, we were able to get rebooked on a later flight out of Honolulu with a different connecting flight to Denver, and therefore a different connecting flight to Scottsbluff getting us home at 5:30pm.  (6 hours later than expected)  We get to the airport and try to check in using their self check-in stations.  It comes up with an error.  We call a lady over to help us and she says there is a probem with our flight to Scottsbluff, it has been cancelled, she takes our tickets and goes to fix it.  She is gone about 45 minutes, comes back and tells us that another lady will be taking over trying to find us different flights.  After another 30 minutes or so, the other lady has us all checked in, on the exact same flights we had when we got to the airport.  Lucky for us, they didn't charge us for our baggage!  Because of the flight changes, we lost our good seats and ended up on really crappy ones for the longest leg of our trip.  At this point, we didn't care.  We were just excited to be headed home.  We board the flight and get ready to go home.

SATURDAY:
Around 6 am we land in San Francisco.  I am exhausted so I laid down on the seats to take a little nap.  Chad gets up to find something drink.  After he was gone a while, I got nervous and tried to call him.  He didn't have his phone with him.  I get up to see what gate our flight to Denver is out and find out it is cancelled.  Are you kidding me?  Cancelled???  I wander around and finally find Chad in the Customer Service line trying to get a new flight.  At this point, there is NOTHING they can do to get us home today.  The best they can do is get us to LA later that evening, then to Denver around midnight, and to Scottsbluff that next afternoon.  To say the least, I was not happy!  After many phone calls home to my parents and my dad looking online for different flights, we find out that we are pretty much out of luck.  So here we are in Scottsbluff until at least 5:30 that night.  Lucky for us, my best friend from high school, Stacey lives in San Francisco.  Again lucky for us, she was available that day and came and got us.  She drove us around, we went to In and Out for lunch and then to the Golden Gate Park.  Chad had never been to San Fran before so he was able to see the bridge and Alcatraz.  Thank you so much Stacey!!!  We stopped at a nice coffee shop before we headed back to the airport around 3 or so.  After she dropped us at the airport and we headed to check in.  We went to find out gate and found out that THIS flight was also delayed and we would miss our connection from LA to Denver.  Once again, we headed to the customer service line.  This time, we had a good guy trying to help us.  He tried to get us flights directly into Alliance, but couldn't.  Finally, he was able to get us on a flight to LA with a short layover before a midnight flight into Denver.  The airline would put us in a hotel and give us food vouchers.  It was the best we could get so we took it.  We hightailed it to our flight to LA. 
We got to LA and found our flight to Denver, this one amazingly enough was not cancelled or delayed!  The gate we were at had a flight coming in from Honolulu.  All I could think was that we could have waited, spent the night with Gwen, and came in on this flight.  Oh well.  We got some dinner in LA and then headed out to denver. 

SUNDAY EARLY MORNING:
Around midnight, we made into Denver.  In LA we were told to go to customer service and they would get us into a hotel  There was nobody in the airport.  We helped a poor single mom with a very tired toddler get her luggage down to her sister, then headed off to find out where we could stay tonight.  Down in baggage claim, we found the guy to hook us up!  He was able to get us a hotel, the DoubleTree, and $30 in food vouchers for the airport.  Then he told us that the shuttle would be back around 1:45.  At this time it was 12:50.  I did NOT want to wait another 55 minutes to get to a hotel.  The guy at the desk called to double check the where the shuttle was and it was right outside.  We ran and caught it.  Whew!  It was about a 20 minute ride to the hotel, but I did not care!  We made it to the hotel and were checking in and realized that we had nothing.  I asked the girl if she had a toothbrush and toothpaste, she did.  Then I asked if she had deodorant, she did.  Finally, she gave us both warm chocolate chip cookies because we looked like we needed it.  Keep in mind that we had not showered since Friday morning and it was not very early Sunday morning. 

SUNDAY LATE MORNING:
After a few hours sleep, we caught the shuttle back to the airport.  We headed to the Great Lakes desk to get checked in and get to Scottsbluff.  We get to the desk and it is a short line.  We try to check in and there is no record of our tickets.  Are you KIDDING ME?  The lady was so super nice too...or not.  She claimed she couldn't do anything and we needed to call United.  So once again, we got on the phone.  They gave us some information to give the lady at the desk.  We got back in line and tried again.  This time, she could see my ticket but not Chad's.  Then she could finally see Chad's, but couldn't release it or something.  This time, we headed over to the United desk to see if they could help.  The lady pulled up exactly what we needed and had no problem finding it.  She called over to the other desk (not sure why the other lady couldn't call, these desks were not exactly close to each other!) and gave her the information.  When she hung up the phone she mentioned what an unpleasant person she was to work with...we agreed!  We headed back to the Great Lakes desk and were able to get checked in.  Now for the matter of the food vouchers.  Pizza Hut and KFC it was.  We ordered so much food, way more than we could eat but we were determined to use every cent the airline gave us.  I think we used all but 13 cents or something, but we did end up throwing away a lot of food.
Finally, we headed down to our gate.  The lady at the gate told us we were at gate 60 and boarding at 3:15.  As we were sitting at the gate, Chad got up to look at the board to see when we were boarding.  The board said, SCOTTSBLUFF....CANCELLED.  Once again, are you KIDDING ME?  Then he noticed it was for a 6:15 flight, and our gate was actually 68.  Thanks a lot desk lady.  Chad had me go look at the gate without telling me what was going on, just to give me a little bit of a heart attack. It did!
We headed to gate 68, and other than a slight delay to fuel the plane, we headed out (walking on the tarmac by the way!) to board our tiny plane.  Finally, we were in the air and on our way.  I have never been more excited to see the state of Nebraska again.  AT LAST we landed and the kids were so excited to see us, but probably not as excited as we were to see them. 

MONDAY:
We headed home (driving....6 hours to Lincoln) finally.  I could not wait to get back to my bed and my house. 

Supposed to be home:  Saturday at 11am, actually home, Sunday at 4:30pm.  A difference of 29.5 hours.  AUGH!

We had a great time, but it will probably be a long time before I fly United again!

Hawaii 2010 Day 8 ~ North Shore, Surfing, and a Change of Plans

Friday morning was our last day in Hawaii.  We were ready to get home, but yet still sad to leave.  Before we left we had promised the kids that we would wave to them from the Duke Statue down from our hotel.  So even though it was raining, we headed over to the statue and called the kids.  They could see us waving and some lovely stranger offered to take our picture!  After we checked out of the hotel, we headed to Gwen's house.  The plan was for the boys to go surfing at White Plains and Gwen and I to head to North Shore to visit the Chocolate Gecko, then head to White Plains and catch up with the guys.  Plans changed a little bit and after getting some yummy chocolate, Gwen and I headed to Pizza Bob's for lunch.  It was tasty!  I think the guys headed to the mall and had lunch there.  On our way up, I wanted to go by Waimea to take pictures.  This beach is known for its waves and surf contests.  Today, it was absolutely still.  Almost like glass.  It was beautiful!

A church in Waimea.

While we were touring North Shore, Chad was learning how to surf.  He now understands why they call them "rash guards" and he had the rash to prove it!  From what I hear, he was able to make it as far up as his knees!

After a while we made it back to Gwen's and I went to check in for our flight home.  That is where the fun began.  I found out our flight was delayed causing all sorts of problems for our connecting flights. 

While we were trying to figure out flights, Gwen and I headed out to get some dinner.  Nothing too exciting since Chad and I were getting ready to fly!

Waimea

Stay tuned for the unbelievable trip home!

Hawaii 2010 Day 7 ~ The Wedding and the Luau

One of the special things that our hotel offered was a Wedding Vows Renewal Ceremony on the beach.  Unfortunately, we were too late in signing up and they were already full!  To say I was bummed would be an understatement!  Luckily for us, Gwen and Ralf had been married by a guy who was able to perform our ceremony on Ko Olina!  I was so excited! 
Thursday morning we woke up and decided that we needed to find something special to wear to the wedding, so we headed to Hilo Hatties.  They have everything!  I was able to find a beautiful dress but Chad wasn't able to find a shirt so we headed to....TARGET!  Target has everything.  He was able to find a shirt that looked awesome!  We met Ralf and Gwen at the NEX so we could head up together.  We stopped and ate at Blazing Steaks and I really enjoyed it!  I was afraid it would be spicy, but it was really just chopped steak with rice (of course!).  It was tasty!  Then we headed up to Ko Olina and parked.  We were supposed to meet the guy at the same hotel we had stayed at just a few nights before!
Once he got there, we headed to the "public" lagoon of Ko Olina.  It was just beautiful.  A lot more rugged than the other 4 lagoons.  Lots of rocks and waves!
We had a beautiful ceremony standing in the ocean (and slowly sinking into the sand!).  It was beautiful and such a wonderful way to renew our love for each other.  Ralf and Gwen were our witnesses and it was amazing!  While we were taking pictures, we saw two sea turtles in the lagoon.  It was awesome!  I can't believe how many turtles we saw this trip!

The Wedding Ceremony!

The "public" lagoon.  It is gorgeous!

Doesn't it look like we were photoshopped into this picture?

Gwen and Ralf...so cute!

Since we were already at Ko Olina (where the Luau was) and had some time to spare, the guys went snorkling and swimming in one of the lagoons. It was so wonderful!

When it was time, we headed to Paradise Cove Luau. You can't go to Hawaii without going to a Luau. My wonderful sister upgraded our tickets and we had a great time! I can tell you that the Tropical Itch drink is mighty tasty. I might have had a few too many, but I will never admit it!
The luau was great.  They are such amazing performers and it really is quite an intersting story.  The Hawaiians really treasure their history!

The beginning Ceremony of the Luau where they bring out the pig!

Gwen and I with the dancers.  Yes, I had had a few Tropical Itches by then. 

The next day was going to be our last and we had great plans, unfortunately they didn't turn out the way we had hoped. 

Hawaii 2010 Day 6 ~ Bellows Air Force Base

Wednesday morning dawned another beautiful day on Waikiki!  After breakfast we went to base and picked up Ralf and Gwen for a day of fun!  We came back to Waikiki and ended up going to Round Table Pizza for lunch.  It was an amazing sandwich!  After walking the the leftovers back to the hotel, we headed off down the Pali Highway.  What a beautiful drive that is!  We left the camera in the hotel though, so all we had were phone pictures.  What did we do before phones with cameras?  The views are absolutely amazing!

One great thing about Ralf and Gwen being in the military is they can get us into any military base on the island, and today was Bellows.  What a beautiful place.  It was probably my favorite beach other than Kailua!  The waves were crazy and kept knocking us down.  One time while I was helping Geneva with her swimsuit *cough cough* a wave came and knocked us over.  I am pretty sure the goggles she dropped are almost to Japan by now!  After a while, we got out and sat on the sand.  There were thousands of little sand crabs everywhere.  They are so funny to watch!  Chad decided to build a sand creation and suddenly jumped up and ran into the ocean.  He came back with a yellow shovel to finish his creation!  Lose a pair of goggles, gain a shovel!

After the beach we decided to head back.  I really wanted to have L&L BBQ for dinner, so we stopped there and Chad and I got L&L and Gwen and Ralf got something else.  We headed back to their house to eat.  After a while Chad and I headed back to the hotel for a good nights sleep. The time change can really wipe you out!


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The only rainbow I saw in Hawaii!



Hawaii 2010 Day 5 ~ North Shore and the Shrimp Truck

The view from our hotel at Ko Olina!

Mr. or Mrs. Sea Turtle!

The waves at North Shore!

Tuesday morning, we decided to take a look around the hotel. It was so pretty! There was a water display through the whole thing with sharks and sting rays and all sorts of amazing fish! We tried to find some breakfast and ended up with an OK muffin and a drink. 

Shrimp Truck

After we left the hotel, we were going to try and find parking to go the lagoons, but there was a wait at every one of them. Instead, we decided to head into North Shore for some yummy shrimp (from a truck!) It was delicious, but I think the onion rings were even better! We were going to go to Geneva's favorite chocolate place, The Chocolate Gecko, but it wasn't open that day. We walked around North Shore for a while trying to find me some new shoes. For some reason, mine decided to rub a blister on my foot. OUCH!

We did stop at a beach and find some turtles also. There were lots of them just swimming around, but we had a hard time getting a good picture of one. They were HUGE though! We also saw some interesting tourists having some fun in the water...it was quite the site!

After a while we decided to head back to Gwen's house and relax. On our way home, we stopped at NEX to get some food to grill. It was a nice night relaxing at their house! After a while, the guys decided to go fishing. They ran and got some bait and headed to Ralf's favorite spot. When they got there, they found the Candian Marines were camping there! Did I mention it was the week of RIMPAC? There were soldiers from all over everywhere on the Island. It was pretty neat to see! Anyway, there were Candian Marines camped in Ralf's spot, so they went somewhere else. Geneva and I decided to head back to the hotel, get some cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory (Red Velvet and Chocolate Chip YUMMY!) and hang out at the hotel. Long story short, Ralf and Chad neither one had a cell phone on them, it was past 1:00am when they finally called and a crab ate their bait!

It was all in all a great day!

Water display at the hotel!



Water Display at Ko Olina!

Hawaii 2010 Day 4 ~ Ko Olina

Monday morning we took Ralf and Geneva down to breakfast with us, once again, Dukes was amazing! After breakfast we all got around and headed back to base. Ralf was taking Chad to the flightline to see the planes and Gevena and I were going to the mall to get some stuff for her re-enlistment that night.

Ralf works on the flightline at Hickam Air Force Base and took Chad to see a C-17 and actually sit in a cargo plane! He looked pretty smokin' in Ralf's too big shoes.

These bullet holes are from the attack on Pearl Harbor!

Geneva and I headed to the mall, and it was my first time driving the mustang. For a little car, it seems really big. The front is just big! We went to Sephora to get some make-up. On the way there, Geneva drove me past her old place. It was pretty nice.
After the guys got back from the flightline, we headed to Ko Olina. Geneva knew someone who got her a good rate on some rooms at the Marriot on Ko Olina. When we got there, they went ahead and upgraded our rooms. We each had our own "roman bath" our outdoor hot tub to the rest of us. Our view was amazing! Looked out over the ocean. We found a salamander under the umbrella!
We decided to walk around the hotel, which was amazing! Since we were starving we found a place to eat at the hotel that didn't have a dress code! There was a poolside cafe that we decided to eat at, and it was pretty tasty! I had a hot dog, but it was huge! After dinner, the boys decided to walk over to Lagoon 4 and snorkle before the ceremony while Geneva and I got ready!
After Gwen was ready, we walked over to the lagoon for the ceremony. It was quite a site and Geneva had a lot of friends join her. After the ceremony, they dove into the water in full uniform. It was pretty funny! I was able to get some pretty amazing sunset picture too!

Hawaii 2010 Day 3 ~ The Swap Meet and the Bar

One of the neatest things to do in Hawaii is go to the swap meet at the Aloha Stadium. It is HUGE! We went didn't have anything specific we were looking for, except maybe cheap t-shirts. A lot of places you can buy 8 t-shirts for $20! It is a great way to get gifts for people back home! Last year we were able to find an awesome handmade photo album that said Hawaii 2009 and we wanted a new one for this year. We looked ALL over and we could not find one that said 2010 anywhere!

We walked around as much as I could but it was so hot and my ankle was huge and painful! Finally we found some acceptable t-shirts and Geneva found a swimsuit and we called it a day. Last year after we went to the swap meet, we had lunch at Anna Millers, so we decided to make it a tradition! Woo hoo, we have Hawaii Vacation traditions!!!

After lunch we took Gwen back to her house so she could get Ralf from the airport. He had been in California visiting his sick Grandfather. We headed back to the hotel to rest. The plan for the night was to go out drinking after Ralf's band practice, so Chad and I needed rest. While we were at the hotel, Chad noticed there were a couple of sea turtles in the water in Waikiki. They were swimming right along with everybody but nobody noticed them! It was wild. We tried to get a few pictures, I think they turned out pretty good!

After a while we went back to Geneva's house while Ralf went to band practice. We had Jack in the Box for dinner. If you have ever had Hardee's you have had Jack in the Box, but it was OK. When Ralf got home, we headed to Waikiki and went out on the town. We hit some bar that Ralf knew, I don't remember the name of it! We had a few drinks and then headed back to get some sleep. We got back to the hotel sometime around 2am. That is 7am Hawaii time, we were exhausted!!!

Tomorrow, Ko Olina...GORGEOUS!!!

Hawaii 2010 Day 2 ~ The Day of Beaches

Our second day in Hawaii was simply amazing! I believe at the end of the day as we were walking to the elevator Chad said to me "If we left right now, this would still be the best vacation I have ever been on!".

We woke up super early, around 5:30am (which is 10:30am at home though!) and went and sat on the lanai. It was still dark and we could just barely see the waves on the ocean. It was amazing! Once the sun was up enough, I was finally able to get a decent picture to send to the kids! We called the kids and told them good morning! Then we left to walk around Waikiki. Somehow, we had managed to forget our toothpaste, so that was #1 on the list! Unfortunately, the ABC Stores don't open until 7am. So we walked on the beach for a while until 7, went and bought some toothpaste, sunscreen (this is important to remember!) and sunglasses for Chad. It turns out that driving a convertible with the top down is hard without sunglasses!

After we shopped, we headed back to the hotel for breakfast. Booking a room with the breakfast included was one of the best things we could have done! We had 3 choices to eat at for breakfast with our voucher, The Hula Grill , Seattle Coffee , or Duke's all in the hotel. This morning we chose Duke's and we were so glad we did! They had an amazing buffet with eggs, pancakes, french toast, waffles, an omlette station, biscuits and gravy, cereal, bagels, sausage, bacon, fruit, you name it. It was awesome! For the average person the cost is $14.95. We got juice or tea too. For some reason, I decided that tomato juice sounded good and it was so good! I had tomato juice almost every morning we were there!

After breakfast, we packed our beach bag, called Gwen, and headed to the base to pick her up. Since we didn't have a pass to get on base yet, she met us at the bus stop just outside! She hopped in the back and we headed to the NEX to get Chad a snorkle set. While we were there, Chad found an underwater camera bag so that we can take pictures underwater! Then it was off to Kailua!

I love Kailua. It is just beautiful! I think it is one of Geneva's favorite beaches too! As normal, the parking lot was full, but it was Saturday so understandable! We parked across the street and walked over. It was a beautiful day, as they all are in Hawaii! We swam and talked for a while until we decided we were hungry! So we changed clothes and headed into town for some lunch. Gwen thought that we would like Teddy's Big Burgers so we tried there first but they were busy and there was no place to sit! We headed next door to Maui Tacos and they had a free table. It was pretty tasty!

After lunch, we thought we would see if Geneva could get us onto the Marine base with a beautiful beach with a lot of waves. Turns out, she could get us on, we just had to get a visitors pass! The base is called Kaneohe Bay, or just K Bay. In order to get to the beach, you have to drive across the flightline. It was neat! We made it to the beach, but there was a Rimpac party going on, so it was packed and there was no place to park! We stopped a few minutes to take some pictures, but then decided to find one of the other beaches on base.

The next beach was a lot calmer than the last one we were at, but it was beautiful! We didn't swim at this beach, but instead took pictures and had rock skipping contests. Well, Gwen and Chad did anyway. I don't remember who the winner was, but they both had at least 4 or 5 skips, pretty good for the ocean! After we got back to Gwen's house we realized we had picutres of the Black Pearl from Pirates of the Caribean. It is docked and filming at K-Bay!

As we left the beach, we were headed back towards the flightline when the gate came down and the guard came out of his little "hut" to guard the gate. A plane was taking off! It was so neat to see! I really wanted to take a picture, but I wasn't sure the guy with the gun would agree, so I didn't!

We headed back to the hotel to hang out for a little bit and go to the International Market Place. It is a neat place kind of, but nothing too spectacular. It is really the same stuff you can get at the swap meet, or almost any shop! We did go ahead and get Jagua tattoos. It is kind of like Henna, but supposed to last longer! Chad even got one!

While our tattoos dried, we decided to walk over to Cheesecake Factory for dinner. There was about a 45 minute wait, but that wasn't too bad! Finally we were seated and had a yummy dinner! We decided to get a piece of cheesecake to go, Red Velvet. It was so delicious!!!

We decided to take Gwen home since it was almost 9 and we wanted to be able to drop her off at the back gate. The back gate closes at 9. Unfortunately, we got there around 9:03 and it was locked up and dark so we had to go to the main gate and get a visitor's pass. It was nice to have the pass though, that meant we could get on base without Geneva or Ralf.

Chad and I came back to the hotel and went to sleep, tomorrow would be a big day, the SWAP MEET!

Hawaii 2010 Day 1 ~ The Flight and the Car

What can I say about the flight over to Hawaii. First, I will forever be grateful that my mom suggested we head to Scottsbluff around 9. I was thinking we could get there later since our flight wasn't until 11:30. Luckily, we did leave around 9 or so and got to Scottsbluff not much after 10. We walked in and the place was full of Marines! They had been in the area for training so there weren't many places to sit. We walked up to the counter to check-in and the girls says "You must be the Daltons!". Apparently we were the only "couple" flying that day! Since there weren't many places to sit, my Dad went ahead and headed back to Alliance and we headed to the lounge to get something to drink. As we were sittting in the lounge, a group of Freedom Riders came through decked out in their leather and shook every Marine in the building's hand. It was quite an AWESOME site to see! Those guys (Freedom riders and military!) are awesome!

Anyway, we waited in the lounge until they opened up security so we could board the plane (got to love small town airports!) Some guy asked Chad which flight we were waiting for and then went to find out why we weren't boarding yet, turns out it was the Mayor!!! (again, love small towns!) We made it through security, although they did randomly check Chad's carry-on! As we are waiting with the, oh let's say 14 other people, they come in with bad news. Denver has OVER fueled the aircraft, so it is too heavy, they will have to bump 5 people off unless people volunteer. Since we were barely going to make our connection in Denver, we were not going to volunteer. If nobody volunteered, they would be bumping the last 5 people who checked again. See why I am thankful to my mom??? We were not one of the bumped, thank goodness!

To say the airplane is small would be an understatement. Chad was seat 2A and I was 2C. There is no 2B because that would be the aisle! The flight is about 45 minutes and I think the pilot (or 12 year old playing dressup!) checked the map about 15 times! Luckily, we didn't get lost. We made it to Denver and had to run a little bit to our connecting flight! We made it out of Denver and off to LA! We had a longer layover in LA and were able to get some lunch/dinner before the big flight! We boarded our flight and were actually able to leave a little bit early, we made it to Honolulu 30 minutes early!!!

We called Geneva and told her we were there, got our luggage, and rented the car! We had our choice of a Gold, Blue, or Red convertible Mustang. We took the red with the tan top of course! Tan leather inside, it was AMAZING!!! We finally met up with Geneva at a gas station (there are next to 0 street signs so we had a hard time telling her where we were!) and went to Taco Del Mar for dinner. It was OK, but not exactly Chipotle. Sorry Gwen, I couldn't resist!

Gwen went home and we headed to our AMAZING Hotel! All the details to come!

Summer Vacation 2010

This summer, our family did summer vacation a little bit different. I am not sure we will ever do it this way again, but it was fun this one time!
Chad and I decided that since Geneva and Ralf would be leaving Oahu in the fall, we wanted to travel there one more time. This time, no kids. We were looking at it like a second honeymoon of sorts. We booked an amazing hotel and an amazing car! (Details in following posts!) The kids on the other hand, were going to have a great vacation adventure with Papa Mike and Grandma Mimi, including a trip to the Black Hills! They were so excited! Of course, Braxton mentioned a few times that we were "kicking him to the curb" (His words!) The kids were a little sad that they didn't get to go with us to Hawaii this time, I suppose that is our fault for taking them the first time. :)
All in all, we had a great time in Hawaii, a miserable trip home, and an exhausting week after, and the kids had a great time with the Grandparents, even if it was a few days too long! Stay tuned for a day-by-day account of our trip!

Home From Hawaii!

We are home from Hawaii. Since we had such an interesting trip home, we are all exhausted. I hope to get some pictures up this weekend. Long story short, we had a great time! Thanks Genny and Ralf for spending time with us and thanks to Grandma Mimi and Papa Mike for spending so much time with the kids!!!

Fast Summer!

This summer is going so fast, I can hardly believe it!
Braxton has been playing T-Ball, which he loves! Everybody on his team is from his school so he has lots of friends! We have been having lots of playdates with friends and lots and lots of swimming!
This weekend we have the annual 3rd of July party at Chad's parents house. We have been trying to slowly work the kids into firework mode, and so far it seems to be working. They are actually staying outside during fireworks and the other night Braxton actually lit a few! We'll see what happens on Saturday though.
The kids are so excited to spend time with their cousins that we haven't seen since Christmas or before! We are going to take some family pictures since everybody will be in town and then take some pictures of just the grandkids. I hope they turn out good! We are going to take them on our own, so cross your fingers!
In a few weeks we will be headed on vacation, so be prepared for lots of pictures!
have a great summer!

Braxton can Swim!!!

We have been doing a lot of swimming this summer at Grandma Virginia's pool.  Well, the kids and Chad have, I haven't been brave enough to get in yet!  Towards the beginning of the summer, I challenged Braxton to swim across the pool the short way.  He could make it about halfway.  He kept working on it and it was his goal to be able to swim across the pool with his cousin Ellie.  This weekend, he was jumping off the board and swimming to the ladder, so I asked him to see how far across the pool he could swim instead.  He decided he could get points.  If he made it halfway to the rope, that was 1 point, the rope was 2, and the wall was 3.  The first time he got 1 point, the second 2, and the third he ALMOST got 3 points.  After that he made it all the way to the wall!  WOO HOO!!  He figured out he could take a breathe and keep swimming!  Now he always swims to the wall.  I am so proud of him and he can't wait to swim at grandma's pool with Ellie!

Lilly Turns 4!

I can hardly believe it!  My little girl is 4 years old.  It seems like just yesterday she looked like this.

It seems just like yesterday!  For her birthday, I arranged for Lilly to have a playdate with her best friend from preschool, Lillian.  Yes it is a bit confusing to have two Lillian's playing together!  After Lillian went home, Lilly got to pick lunch and she picked McDonalds (of course!)  We took her to one with a play area since we usually avoid those.  She had a great time playing and then wanted to go swimming.  We headed over to grandma's to go swimming! 

For dinner we met Grandma Rosie and Grandpa Chuck at Dino's.  Grandma Virginia rode with us.  We had a great dinner at Dino's!  Then we headed back to grandma's to open presents and have cake.

Now let me tell you about the cake.  Lilly's request was a cat cake with a rainbow.  Since it was graduation weekend, there weren't a lot of premade cakes out there, so I set about making the cake myself.  I think it turned out pretty good if I do say so myself!

All in all I think she had a great birthday!  I still can't believe that I am the parent to a 4 and 6 year old.  YIKES!

Opening presents!