Hawaii!! and camera woes...

We still can't believe we are in Hawaii........ to think that it took us less time flying to be in Hawaii than driving to Seattle. We were pretty excited to pack up and head out on Wednesday......we drove first to Seattle where we stayed with some friends, Dean and Leslie Bennion that night. Leslie had this wonderful dinner ready for us and then we just had this wonderful visit, did I remember to take pictures, NOOO! Have to get that in my head.
We headed out early!!!! the next morning to pick up Kathy from her hotel, park our van and catch our flight........I was so thrilled to just be able to take our kids on the plane! It was their first time, funny to think that I never flew until I was heading off the college and here Mitchell is 7 and Rebecca is 10, they were so excited, it was fun to see their faces!

Have to admit I was sick yesterday when I discovered that I had left my extra battery and charger at home in the kitchen because as soon as I turned on my camera it was flashing low battery. Have had problems before, so it's just a given with me that I carry an extra battery and charger everywhere........and considering that I had written umpteen lists and that I had every conceivable charger in my carry on (battery, phone, game boy, etc.), to not have the most important one was so upsetting. So went through a bad patch, then realized that Vanessa and Melodie both had one.....soooo borrowed Vanessa's (my old one) and carried on!.....which is why I have pictures now. The other good news is that Tim and Danielle have the same camera so Danielle is bringing her charger today!

So we are looking at palm trees everywhere for the first time! We are staying at The Aqua Island Colony hotel until we head for our condo on Saturday........when we got in yesterday, we rented two cars and came and checked in. We then just went walking and discovered lots of cute little shops where we took these pictures.....can see spending money will be very easy here! The groceries are sooo expensive, I about choked on what we had to spend on breakfast and snacks.
We had a wonderful supper at The Big Kahuna, thanks to Aunt Kathy where the kids also played pool.....we are waiting for Danielle and the Wilsons today!!

We are hoping to make it to Haunama Bay to go snorkeling.......this will be interesting trying to spell things, Hawaiians have soooo many vowels!

Hey let me know if you are reading this...... a big Hello to all of you.......love from the Mathiesons