It's Alive Again!

Ahhh.............my computer is back in business again! We had gone away for our annual church convention and when we returned a week ago we discovered that the hard drive for my computer had gone out..............and along with it everything on it :( !!!!! Unfortunately we don't back up my computer ( or didn't until NOW!) so there is much info missing that I'm trying to now rebuild. Pictures may be lost that we had on here so my theory that we should still print them even though we have digitals is a very valid request!

We had a wonderful time in HI this month! We had been tentatively planning this trip for about four years with my sister, Joyce, and her family. We wanted to go to Maui and knew that it would take some $$'s so we have been working the system to make it affordable. Ken has a credit card through American Airlines and has been putting all his building materials for his rehab projects on this card. We finally had enough air miles so that the four of us (Josh and Ethan went on their own to the convention in the WI Dells) could fly for free! Once I knew we had enough air miles I went on the site Vacation Rentals By Owner and found a condo in Maui that would work for our family in the same resort as the one my sister was in. The owner was very willing to work with us and gave us a break by paying the sales tax for the week and also waived the normal cleaning charge of $125. This totaled up to be a big savings. I guess he really wanted to fill his unit!

Next I needed a car so I went on Priceline and spent several days bidding on a car, finally getting what I wanted for about 1/2 of what it would have cost by going through the car website directly.

By staying in the condo, we were able to buy groceries and eat breakfast and lunch in the condo, and having to only eat out for dinner. Actually we ended up not even doing that every night so it wasn't as much as I had budgeted.

We actually flew into Honolulu first and spent one night there. We were able to see Pearl Harbour the next day and the U.S.S. Missouri. Quite a sobering field trip for the kids. They are at just the right age to appreciate it and the sacrifices that the men in the military made for all of us.

We needed a hotel and car for the one day and I did this on Priceline as well. The hotel we got (you don't know what you will get until your bid is accepted) turned out to be a really nice one in a good location and for about 1/3 of what it would have been by reserving on their website. We were 5 hours ahead of the time there and were exhausted from the long travel day having been up since 3:15 am so we actually went to bed at 6pm HI time! Of course this meant that we were up at 4:30 the next morning, but that was ok :) We were ready for the full day of site seeing at Pearl Harbour and then the trip on to Maui.

It was really nice to see my sister, Joyce, and her family again! Kids grow so fast and it had been over a year since I had seen my nieces. They are 9 months older than Mariah so they get along great! My nephew we had seen this summer as he had stayed here off and on for a month and went on the canoe trip with Ken and Alex. Sean and Alex are only six weeks apart in age!

The convention (called the Feast of Tabernacles, in the Bible) was very inspiring and we met some really nice people from all over the country. There were about 525 people attending with us. We had a church service each morning and then had the rest of the day to site see or hit the beach. Most of the time we were on the beach as we love the water! We went snorkeling several times and had the awesome adventure of snorkeling with a giant turtle one day as it swam about in search of seaweed to eat! Ken had taken his metal detector and he and Mariah had lots of fun with it. They managed to find over $3.00 in change, two room safe keys, lots of beer bottle caps, pop tabs, a metal artifact that we haven't yet identified, and a Palm Pilot! A security guard said he should go down to the ritzy hotels and check there, but we never got around to it. Maybe next time............

All too soon it was over and we had to return home to school and responsibilities. The kids are almost caught up with school and by tomorrow should be all done. I think I have found paradise and it is called Hawaii! I can't wait to be able to go back again. It will take some more creative financing to be able to do it, so it may take awhile!! Stay tuned for pictures of the trip! Alex had the camera most of the time so I have no idea what we have pictures of!!