Day two in Hawaii!!!!!!!!! :) :) :)

Today the weather was 82 degrees! It was not too hot and not too cold. There was always a nice breeze coming off the ocean that felt sooooo good coming through my hair. The air here is like so clear, not polluted! We rode in the back of my older brother's truck like all day going around the 4000 acre farm that both my older brothers live and work on here. It is called Kualoa Ranch. Several movies were filmed on this ranch. We went practically everywhere! The scenery everywhere you looked was a picture! I tried to take pictures as we drove but it was hard to hold on so I didn't fall out and take a picture at the same time. :( My dad, Mic, and I rode standing up in the bed of the truck.

Here are a few pictures I took while struggling to stay put...

A wild boar we saw. Mic and Marshall are going to hunt some for us to eat in a couple days!

When we couldn't drive any further, we walked...

Here are a few pictures of some nature I took on a hill overlooking a valley...

This is a valley that my older brother Brody lives in.

Micaiah in a tree overlooking the valley.

Mom and dad

Walking back down the path to the truck.

Some weird tree roots

Us!

Wren, one of Marshall's dog that loves to jump on people. :)

Aika!

Aika and daddy!

Aika and Marshall!

A coconut tree with unripe coconuts.

The sun through palm leaves.

Such a cutie!!

More Aika and daddy.

Some starfruit Micaiah picked off Marshall's tree.

Footprints in the sand

Mom and dad walking down the beach.

My mom loving Hawaii!!! :)

Marshall and a calf that he raised.

A dino attacking locals.

The mountain that I was on when I took the pictures of the flowers overlooking a valley earlier.

We helped herd the cattle.

She totally stole our hearts!!

I was taking random pictures and I pointed the camera at Aika and she said, "cheese"!!!

Aika and daddy fixing to go home for the day.

Today was a total blast!!! We swam for about two and a half to three hours. It was absolutely beautiful!!! My camera can't capture the true looks of Hawaii. :( I'm doing my best now. My older brother Marshall is giving me photography lessons like every night here. It is awesome because he is teaching me things about my camera I never knew. He is teaching me about lighting and where to place light to make different effects and such. Also how to make a mood in a picture. I'm really excited about everything that's happening here! Tomorrow we have plans to do some really terrific things. I'll try to blog again tomorrow night about it all, but for now I'm tired and have to go to sleep since I have to get up at 5am! :(

I'm here!!! Finally!!!

I never thought I would be here...ever!! It was nothing short of a miracle getting all of us four, my mom, dad, younger bro, and myself, out here to Hawai'i.

We left yesterday morning for the airport at 5:45am. After checking in and going through security, we went and waited to board. We talked to a guy in charge and he said that all the seats were occupied. He said we would be waiting for a while. We took out seats and waited patiently praying all the while, watching people board the plane. Finally, after what seemed like forever, well, not really that long, our names were called and we were told that there was room for us!!! :) Totally God! The ride there was good. I got a window seat so I could take some pictures. Sorry they're soo bad. :(

This is the plane we took from Memphis to Phoenix, Arizona.

Taxing to the runway

Taking off

More taking off

Above the clouds where the sun was.

Clouds

A clear sky

Arriving in Phoenix. Can you see the canyons?

Preparing to land

Getting closer to land. In the bottom left hand corner you can see the plane's shadow.

Landing

When we arrived in Phoenix, we only had time to find our next gate and grab a bite to eat. I settled with a $9 cobb salad. :( A little more than I expected to pay! When it came time for our next flight we sat and waited. Again a guy told us there was no room on the plane. We waited in fervent prayer and finally he told us there were three open seats. Still more prayer on our parts. After what seemed like another forever, we were called up, all of us! He said he had room for all! Another totally God moment! An answer to prayer! This plane was a little bigger than the last with three across seating instead of two. My seat was 16B, which means that I didn't have an isle nor a window seat. :( A bummer especially when the lady I was sitting next to decided it was a better idea to close the blind to the window and sleep. No pictures for me! :( I did get a few though before she closed the window blind.

The second plane we took. This one went from Phoenix to Honolulu.

Taxing to the runway

Taking off

Taking off out the other window.

Beautiful clouds

Inside the plane.

My view the whole way there. :(

First sighting of the Hawaiian islands!

A bigger island

More islands

The island out the other window

The ocean!

Starting to descend...

Landing on the island of Oahu!

Arriving in Honolulu International Airport around 3:30pm Hawaiian time!

Tourists in front of their plane. :)

We are here!!! More happy tourists in front of a big tree at the airport!

Both my older brothers were there to pick us up along with my niece Aika! I haven't taken any pictures of her yet. She is really cute! After we got to my brother's house, my parents weren't there yet so we took the dogs for a little walk...up a mountain! The only bad thing about that was that I was wearing a really nice dress top, gaucho pants and nice slip-on dress shoes! :( Not exactly the best hiking attire. My feet were already killing me and my heels had blisters on them. I took them off and was going to go barefoot but my brother made me wear his big, humongous work boots! :( Not exactly the best idea of style! Anyway, I did wear the boots but they made me slip in the mud going up the hill. It was a beautiful sight though, with the bay on one side and bigger mountains on the other. No, I didn't bring my camera. I promise later on today I will take it up there if it isn't raining like it is now.

Sorry :(

Ok, I promise that I tried to blog tonight but the stupid computer started acting up half way through so I managed to save what I had about my trip but will have to finish tomorrow sometime since I'm the only one up at  the moment and my bossy older brother is acting 'Mrs. Mom' right now! :) Good night!

Preparing for the Hawaii trip!!! :) :)

Today I did most of my packing for this trip. I still have to figure out what liquids I can take, how much, etc. and what all I need to and can bring. At the present I am very annoyed because I've never been flying before and don't know anything about getting through security!!! :( I am glad that most of my packing is done but I'm not looking forward to doing the last finishing touches tomorrow night after I work. :(

There is just one problem with our flights...we are on standby! That means that if there aren't any open seats on the plane, we don't go. There could be open seats on the plane from Memphis to Phoenix, Arizona, but then we could get stuck there. :( We are praying that we make it to Hawaii! That and trusting in God are all we can do right now. It's kind of scary though. :(

Well, I have to get off now. I'll blog next when I get there about how it went and such.

The end of the Florida trip...:(

Well, we got home Sunday night at 9:30pm from a sixteen and a half hour drive from Florida!! It was a very good trip but very exhausting. Being a teenager you tend to do stupid things thinking you are super-human. Well, I just happened to be like that and I staid up until like 2am every night watching movies and hanging with my cousins. It was fun sure, but now I'm paying for it! I'm very tired!!! :( Yesterday was the worst! I was short with everyone around me and very very grumpy!! :( Ouch!!! :( Today is better, although I'm still tired and hope to be in bed by 9pm tonight!! (cross your fingers!) I have to cut this blog short because I still want to blog about my upcoming Hawaii trip.

Here is a picture of my brother and nephew sleeping on the way home Sunday night...well, actually I was bored and had finished my book so I told them to pretend like they were sleeping. They did a pretty good job, huh?

Here is a picture of the guys talking, trying to figure out where to go for dinner...