We survived the trip and made it to my dad and Leslie’s place on the island of Oahu! We drove 3 hours to Toronto (it was half the price to fly out of the Toronto airport vs Rochester or Buffalo). The kids enjoyed their Timmy’s donuts while we waited for our first plane.

We picked up our second flight in Vancouver. We BARELY had time to make it through customs (since we’d be entering into the US again) and got to our flight with minutes to spare. If I did it again I’d try to get a longer layover anywhere I had to deal with the customs process.

The first flight was 4.5 hours. The second was 6. It wasn’t enjoyable by any stretch, but honestly the kids did great! A lot was asked of them and it was an incredibly long day with time changes and both were troopers! No meltdowns and they were able to keep pretty busy between movies, coloring, games on the tablet, crafts and other activities.

We had to “make” them sleep too, I think they would have tried to push through but we put activities away and carved out a chunk of time on the second flight as “sleep” time.

Andy’s smiling because Ben is sleeping and quiet. Ben.talked.the.entire.time.he.was.awake.

My dad and Leslie picked us up at the airport and had beautiful leys for us. This is us the next morning, slightly more awake than when we arrived :)

They aren’t kidding about it being paradise here, it’s SO beautiful! Warm air and sunshine feel so good and it smells wonderful.

My dad is a Colonel in the Air Force and is on Hickam Air Force Base right now.

Sparing no expense for a Colonel, his housing is a 4 bedroom 2.5 bath, beautiful home on base.

Views out their livingroom window are amazing. They sit right at the entrance to Pearl Harbor.

The back patio, where I’m sitting going through photos. Birdies are chirping and I’m enjoying an iced coffee.

Some of the birds that frequent their feeder.

You can even see ships coming in and out of the harbor. Hickam is a joint base with the Navy occupying the other side.

A sweet moment with Cassidy.

Ben telling Leslie all his plans about coconuts and beaches. And drinking coconut milk. And the coconuts he’s going to bring back for his class. He’s set on coconuts!

Cassidy loved finding all the little flowers that fell from trees in their back yard.

Doggie Sadie was happy to have new visitors too!

And Prim just wanted dinner.

We’ve just stuck to activities on base so far. And I realized that the dog and cat made it into this post but I didn’t share any pics of my dad ;-) We visited his office and I have those photos and many more adventures coming up! So thankful to be here, it still seems pretty surreal!