24JUL15

It is time to say good bye to Hawaii. I know I made it very clear that I was never leaving but the Army had different plans and I know in the long run it will all be ok and I will love our next duty station in different ways than I loved Hawaii.  I will tell you that I loved every minute on our island and we became an island family.  The opportunity to live here was an absolute dream come true and I will always look back with nothing but wonderful fond memories of Oahu.  I have told Travis we WILL go back at least for a vacation because I truly belonged there.  Every weekend was running, hiking, and/or the beach and sometimes we hit up all 3.  We were together as a family and we had and made the greatest friends there with us.  Aloha Oe my wonderful Hawaii and all of you wonderful people that we had as part of our Ohana for 2.5 years!!

 

 

 

This all to familiar sight for a military family did not make me happy...  Such is the life we live.

We started out our last week on the island a bit rough.  The movers were there and we had to all hang out in one room of the house so stay out of the way as much as possible except 3 of us ended up with HORRIBLE stomach bugs.  The only bed we had left was David's crib and Ryan was the second one who got sick so this is where she napped all day...  I caught it at the worst possible time trying to get all packed to head to the hotel and Trav had to go into work for a bit.  I haven't been that sick in a while and hope it is a long while before I am that sick again!!  After 2 pretty rough nights in the first hotel we moved into the Hale Koa (the military hotel that is BEAUTIFUL and right on the beach!!)

This was the view from our balcony for our last week on the island and we made the very most of it!! 

Our anniversary was one of the first days we were in the hotel and Waikiki does a firework show every Friday on the beach!  I told Trav he was so sweet to get me fireworks for our anniversary!

My awesome family!  We got to hang out on the beach and wait for the fireworks to start.

Perfect!

Of course we had to hit up the Kroc Center one last time.  This gym was a DREAM gym!  The perfect pool with a great gym and child care available!  The kids always loved going to the Kroc and sometimes preferred that over the beach!

Bye Kroc Center!

Our last day on the beach and these sweet girls were just soaking it in!

Goodbye you beautiful water!!

I have to document myself there too!!

This was the pool at the hotel and I had to have one more virgin lava flow while enjoying the pool! 

And the way we kill 5 hours waiting at the airport (we couldn't fit the luggage and kids in the rental so we had to wait there while Trav grabbed the luggage!)  Hawaii you will always have a great big huge chunk of the McBride's heart!