Our house

So we signed for our house on Monday, got our loaner furniture that afternoon, and then got the unaccompanied baggage Tuesday. Justin has done all his in processing and I have the kids registered for school and with the CYS ( child and youth services). Which means I can sign them up for sports and Eric for hourly care. 

Yesterday we all went to a newcomers brief and learned about what's offered on post and a little about the Hawaiian language and culture. A few points about the language that we learned: the vowels are pronounced like Spanish vowels (and you say all of them in a word), a word has to end in a vowel, vowels have to separate the consonants. Will learned that the commissary saves you money and Caroline learned some Pidgin!  

Here's a picture of the outside of our house. I'll get some of our lively loaner furniture today. 

Hawaii State Farm fair

Saturday we went to the farm fair. It's a very small scale NC state fair. The cost was just about perfect since the kids were free and so was Justin since he used his KU student id and I was $5!  There was a 4-H tent with lots of animals to look at and touch, a native HI plant tent with beautiful flowers for sale, bounce houses, tons of food trucks, and a main stage tent. We stayed for a few hours the kids did a few rides ( Will even got handed more ride tickets!) then headed back to the hotel. The kids had a blast and we enjoyed being outside. The only issue was I forgot the sunscreen and sun shirts!  The good news was I was the only one that got burned. Go figure!  My blonde, blue-eyed kids didn't even get pink cheeks. 

Oh, the views were amazing!  Mountains to one side, crystal clear water on the other. 

Hotel, motel, schofield Inn

We check out of the Inn this morning!  Today we get the keys to our new house, Justin starts in-processing, loaner furniture comes, and my neighbor from Kansas (who now lives 2 streets over!) is bringing dinner. Exciting stuff!  

I'm glad to be getting out of the hotel just so I can make my own meals. We are tired of eating out!

Playing life zapped in our room. 

I'm sitting on the bed and Caroline and Will are eating lunch. Not sure why they are looking down. 

A big fire

Yesterday at the beach we watched and listened as fire fighters tired to put out a brush fire. Lots of fire trucks coming down the road to help. All the way from Honolulu. Then a helicopter came to help with the big water bucket attached!  We could see it dip it in the ocean and then see it drop the water on the fire. We couldn't see the flames just tons of smoke. 

It was neat to watch. 

A little fun

Today we had more administrative tasks to do. But this afternoon after naps we headed to the north shore and hung out at the beach for a little while!  We walked the beach, skipped rocks, swam, and watched sea turtles. So fun!  Now we are waiting for Thai food for dinner. 

We made it!

The two flights went better than expected. Or at least better than I expected!  The kids did great. We couldn't sit together but that just provided Eric an exercise path between row 14 and 26. And he walked/ran until the bottoms of his feet were black!  At one point I turned around and saw Will standing in the aisle watching some guy play a game on his iPad then he let Will play. Then the next thing you know all 3 kids are standing there taking turns playing on this guys iPad!!  Eric made it to the bathroom on time with no accidents the whole day!  Couldn't be more proud of that little fella. As per Laura's advice I put a pull up on him( the first one he's ever worn) for the flights. Eric likes to wait until the last second before telling you he has to go so I was a little concerned about little accidents. But he didn't have ANY!  Eric did finally get still enough to fall asleep about 15 minutes before we landed. It was 11:15 east coast time when he finally crashed. He had had no nap!  Caroline and Will stayed awake until the hotel. Will was a crying mess in the car and when Justin went in to get the hotel room key Caroline started crying and told me she just couldn't do it any more. Poor things! We all went straight to bed since it felt like 2 am. Everyone slept from 8-4. Not too bad and hears hoping today's not too bad. 

We are at pier 51 waiting to pick up Justin's car right now ( phone blogging). Then the only other thing we have to do today is go to the housing office and see about signing for a house!

The picture shows the containers that the cars are shipped in. As we drove by some of the containers we saw some that were crunched or torn open on the sides. Hoping Justin's car was not in one of those!!!

First flight

We are sitting on the first of two planes and Eric keeps asking if we are ready to go!  He is really excited as we all are. Lots more updates to come