Hawaii Trip

So, it all came down this way:

Kerry called me back in March and said, "Don't kill me.  They want me to go to a conference in Hawaii from May 10th to the 12th."

"Aw man!  You get to go to Hawaii?  That is so not fair!"  I pulled out my calendar to write down the dates.  It wasn't until I was actually looking at the calendar that it hit me.  "You're going to be in Hawaii on May 11th?  Our 25th anniversary?  Are you kidding me??"

Neither of us had even realized it!  We both heard "10th" and "12th" but didn't make the connection of it also including the 11th which is our anniversary.  When Kerry first left for Korea, he had planned to save his R&R to come home for our anniversary.  Then Ben set his wedding date for June and we realized Kerry would have to save his R&R for that.  We would miss spending our anniversary together.  

It's definitely not the first time that's happened but we had planned for a while to do something really special for our 25th.  That's a big milestone and I was crushed that we weren't going to be together.  But being the military wife that I am, I just looked at the situation, said, "Oh well.  That's what it is."  And moved on.

Then finding out that Kerry was going to be in Hawaii on our anniversary lit a fire under me.

Kerry told me, "If I'm going to be there, you should see if you can get a ticket!"

"Oh, I'm going!" I responded vehemently.  "If you're going to be there, there's no way I'm not going!"

It wasn't long before we realized the girls would kill us if we went and they didn't.

So we made plans.  We bought tickets and we made arrangements for the girls to stay with their best friends while we were there.  Kerry had a hotel for the first few days and then we stayed with friends for the last few days.  He was able to extend his time there and take a few days extra after his conference.

We spent some time up on the North Shore.  It's one of my favorite places.  Our church had baptisms and picnics there.

Kerry and I went by ourselves one morning when his conference was over.  We picked up coffee and just went and sat at the beach for a while.  I kept crying.  "Oh look!  People are su-su-surfing!"  "It's a shame there aren't any tu-tu-turtles today."  I was a basket case.  I had not realized how much I missed it.

"Remember how many games of ul-ul-ultimate we played here?"  

We stopped and had shave ice at Matsumoto's while we were there.  It's one of those things that everyone has to do and which we oddly enough never did during our three and a half years there.

The camera got all weird on me.

And the sun was glorious.

On our 25th anniversary we went to eat at Haleiwa Joe's, our favorite restaurant!

A nice new mural in Wahiawa!

Stores in Haleiwa

Nice new stores in Haleiwa

Our church kitchen had been completely revamped.

I couldn't believe how fabulous it looked!

North Shore surfers.

I just liked this bench.

Our favorite coffee shop.

Being all touristy.

That famous sign.

That famous clear water.

That famous blue sky.

Emily and her BFF 

All of Katie's friends had grown a lot taller while we were gone!

We got to help paint scenery for the play!

And of course, rice was served with everything!

On our last morning there, I picked up Emily and we headed to our church to pick up Katie.  We pulled into the parking lot and we both started crying.  We had to sit out there for about fifteen minutes and just sob it out before we could go inside to say goodbye to everyone.

I thought maybe I would have all the tears done and I would be okay then.  But no.  I sobbed all over several people.  It was so hard to leave again.  We've missed it all so much.  We've missed our friends.  We've missed our church.  We just haven't found anything like it anywhere else.