Last Day in CONUS!!!

Military life is definitely interesting, to say the least.  There are so many ups, downs, bumps in the road...as well as cherries on top!!!  Today we got to experience a sweeeeet deal!!!  We enjoyed our last day in the continental United States (CONUS) and flew five and a half hours to our new duty station in Hawaii!!!

We'd already had a looooong cross-country trek, so the wear and tear of travel was really starting to show on all of us.  Cameron left early this morning to drop our car off at the ferry for the Army to ship it to us in Hawaii.  We're hoping that since we're having it shipped from Seattle, that it won't take too long for it to arrive.  :)

While Cameron was gone, Alegria, Odette and I made good on our free breakfast:

Being silly while I finished my breakfast:

By the time Cameron got back to the hotel, it was pretty much lunch time, so we walked to a nearby Taco Bell and had a little lunch, then came back, packed up the last of our things, and headed downstairs with all of our luggage while we waited for the airport shuttle to pick us up.  The girls played with their kids meal finger puppets and cards while we waited:

They got too crazy, though, and ended up running all over the place, so we finally had to tell them to just sit and be still...hard for a little one to do to begin with...and even harder to ask them to do that when you know you're about to fly in a confined space for what will seem to them an eternity...

But they have been such troopers this whole trip and did just what they were asked:

The shuttle came and the girls were sooo excited to get to ride in the van, with no car seats, just their lap and shoulder belts...just like us adults!!!

Our good little travel buddies!!!

Finally at the airport we checked our luggage.  The last item to be checked, Cameron's AK47:

Luckily, since we're military and PCSing (P = Permanent C = Change S = [of] Station), we were allowed 4 pieces of luggage EACH for free!!!  And of course, as always, baby items are free.  We didn't actually take 4 pieces of luggage each, which is lucky because we had trouble piling what we DID have all up on two SmartCarts and maneuvering it around the airport...but it was nice to know we could.  :)

Another exciting thing was that we got to ride the train to our terminal!!!  Woo-hoo!!!  :)

Odette was not as excited...she was more tired than anything.  This was all happening during her nap time:

Escalators are just as fun as trains!!!

Snack time!  Say "Cheese!"

There was hardly anyone around when we arrived at our gate about two and a half hours before boarding, so we let the girls run around a bit.  I was surprised that Odette didn't just CRASH because I knew she was extremely tired.  When more people started arriving, we popped a movie into our laptop and that's when the fatigue finally overtook Odette.  I was holding her as we watched the girls' new favorite movie, "Hotel Transylvania," and she was OUT within minutes.  Poor baby!  I guess she just needed a quiet no-action-required activity to let her finally relax and sleep.  :)

At 5:20, they started boarding the plane, and we got to preboard because we have small children!!!  SOOO great!!!  :)  Thankfully, the boarding process was pretty quick.  We didn't have to wait too long to be airborne...I guess when your plane's heading to Hawaii, everyone is quick and on time to the gate!  

Alegria and Odette had been waiting and waiting for that because that's when we'd told them they could have their candy treats!  The treats were not only for being such good sports, but also with the ulterior motive to keep their little jaws moving during takeoff so that their ears would not hurt.  :)  

Finally up in the air, we got to relax and enjoy the ride:

Photo-bombing at its finest!  Lol!!!

We each had our own ticket and seat, but our plane was a smaller one than we'd anticipated and Odette's ticket actually showed that she should have been the only one in our family in the row behind us with Cameron, Alegria and me in the row in front of her...so we decided that she would sit on my lap the whole way, which was fine.  She's pretty good at just sitting and being cuddly and cute!  :)

After an EXPENSIVE airplane-purchased meal (it's been so long since I've been on a plane and I was under the impression that we'd be served a free meal for being on a flight that was overseas AND over four hours in length...I was WRONG and should have purchased something before getting on the plane!), everyone's tummies were full and happy and we all dozed off...some more comfortably than others:

The girls were still asleep when we landed (20 minutes early!) and it took us a little while to wake them up...but we finally did and got us all out of the plane and down to baggage claim, where we waited until all 14 pieces of checked luggage arrived:

Alegria helped get her own suitcase off of the baggage claim thingamajiggie:

We followed Daddy to the Army check-in station and then headed outside to our last ride of the day on a shuttle to our hotel:

Finally in our hotel and checked into our room, the girls had a midnight snack:

Now it's off to bed.  It's been a looooong day and we can't wait to wake up to actually be able to see this Paradise that we can now call HOME!!!  :)

Good night everyone!!!  :)