The MacDonalds: Alllloooooohhhhhaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!

When you have an upcoming move, as sad as you are to leave behind family and friends, you really get antsy to get settled again. Even though we didn't move into our house until almost a month after we arrived in Hawaii, we were excited to be on the last leg of our crazy move!

The kids have been on literally countless flights and have only gotten the opportunity to do this just twice! So cool!!!!

Baby whisperer...

Sunset from the sky

Aloooooooooohaaaaa!!!!!! Woohoo!!!!!!!!! Smiles all around even though it was literally in the middle of the night for us! We landed too late to get Leila from the quarantine office which was probably a blessing in disguise since we were already overloaded with luggage and tired kids. Gracious friends of ours, the Baezans, went above and beyond in helping with our arrival back to the island. We gave Vic a power of attorney to pick our suburban up from the docks and was he waiting for us at the airport to help us get to the hotel! I guarantee Leevi and I wouldn't be so smiley in that picture if we had to get our rental and all 20 bags without help! We even shipped a car seat for Whitney already installed in the suburban (awesome planning like that is why you don't sleep well for months before an overseas move, ha! Your brain literally never shuts off!!!)

We were in the hotel for a little over 3 weeks because our household goods hadn't arrived but we were all itching to check out our new house!!! The neighborhood is much bigger then the graphic below...this section is the townhomes which I exceptionally love because of the cul-de-sacs!

The super fancy leasing office!

Our first glimpse at the new pool! It opened a few weeks after we moved in!

Getting the keys took FOREVER even though we had already signed the lease before we arrived on island. We only got to peek in the new house super fast before Leevi had to get to work to officially sign in.

Back at the hotel killing time! We started on Tripler...it was decent but there wasn't much to do there with the kids and being stranded with only one car. The pink building in the background was where Kailee was born.

The Baezans, whom we met in Missouri eleven years ago, were leaving Hawaii for Germany a few days after we arrived. While we were super sad to see them go, we were happy that we overlapped for a few days. Iris is German, so they visited her family in Germany a few times while we lived there.

The gang!

Super sister helper!!!! They all were definitely troopers with the crazy lack of routines during the move. We counted two time zone changes and ELEVEN DIFFERENT BEDS we slept in from start to finish including the few family/friend trips we squeezed in that last month.

We hit the beach up immediately even though Leevi was scrambling to in-process. He dropped us off at Hickam Beach for a few hours vs being stuck in the hotel!

Cool tree/root system back at the hotel

First gecko catch!

And then Kai was down for the count, uughhhhhhh!!!! She caught some bug either on the plane or we found out after the fact that she possibly could have had West Nile virus! About a week after her symptoms had subsided, I read an article about mosquitos testing positive for the virus in the exact location we had just come from in Washington. Only 1 in 5 people show symptoms, so maybe that's what she had. It definitely wasn't something contagious because I was preparing for the worst and nobody else got it. She was a trooper though...LOTS of naps and short bursts of play time when her fever was down.

We were super excited to get back to Ko'Olina!

We left KoOlina and made it back to our house to explore a little more...this was our first time to the beach in our neighborhood! A rainbow welcomed us!

I'm going to frame this one!! Home Sweet Home!!!!

Annndddd, back to the hotel...taking Leila for a walk, we found this cool root that looks like a crocodile.

Checking out the gorgeous windward side of the island...Kailua beach!

My favorite color blue!!!!

Whit was holding onto the beach chair and fell and then just laid there not sure what to do in the sand, lol!

And poor Kai spiked her fever again and slept it off.

Hotel life with a baby and a dog!

But thank goodness for beach life!!!

We were able to change hotels to Ford Island after a week at Tripler. It was newer and HAD A POOL and a kitchen! 3 weeks in a hotel with 4 kids and a dog got a lot easier!