happy birthday to me

A couple of days ago, I turned the big 4-0 and how did I spend it? Running thru 5 different airports with this group of handsome young men.

With a bit of luck and lots of planning, I was able to celebrate my birthday in Hawaii. It was a bit sad for me because Scott and the younger three kids were back home in Utah, but I was surrounded by Ryan (and his friends), as well as my parents and siblings, and aunts and uncles and cousins I haven't seen in awhile.

We're here to help with my cousin's son's high school graduation party; she asked my parents to more or less cater the party, and we all came along to help. (With permission, Ryan asked his friends to come as more help for the party; needless to say they were over the moon excited!)

You would think that after enduring an 11 hour flight to Tokyo, 5 hours from L.A to Honolulu would be no problem. But, no. Being cramped up in a metal tube with a hundred other people is never fun or comfortable.

But, it was worth it when we arrived in Honolulu and were greeted by this:

I will never get tired of the sight of tall coconut trees against a brilliant blue sky and the warm ocean breeze.

Funny side note: Ryan and his friends got slightly nervous when they saw how small our plane from Honolulu to Maui was.

I told them that was nothing; our plane from Maui to Molokai would probably be smaller. Ryan told me I wasn't helping, lol.

Loved the view from our little puddle jumper as we approached Maui.

From there, it was just one more flight to Molokai, but by the time we made it to Maui, the day was catching up to us. I know I was ready to be done with traveling, but I'm not a big fan of it in the first place, so yeah.

Another side note: most of the airports in Hawaii have terminals that are outside. While the one were were at in Honolulu wasn't, it was connected to one that was. And so, we encountered this:

It was the first of many animals that Ryan and his friends would encounter on our trip, and they decided to name him. Can't remember exactly what they named him, though, because they were laughing too hard about it.

Anyway.

We made it to Molokai in one piece (the plane wasn't much bigger than the one from Honolulu), and were picked up by my brother and sister. We were the last of the family to arrive and it was good to be done traveling. And, despite the time difference, it wasn't hard to fall asleep once we got to our condo rental.

Well, after I called Scott to check-in, but that was a whole other adventure. ;-)