up and running

Hello to all, and welcome.

     We've been ruminating over the idea of doing this for a while and finally have some time (hopefully) to put some things up. Hope this first one isn't too long or boring.     I am a periodontist (finally) working in the Army. I just completed my residency training and my first duty station is in Hawaii. After the residency we took some time off in Disney World. This was our third trip but our first when I wasn't in school, so I finally relaxed and a great time was had by all. We had a couple of totally cool things happen.

      First, we went to the 50's style restaurant on a recommendation that my wife (L) got. This is the place where they get a little rude with you when you don't act just right. While waiting for our seat, a man went to the bar for a drink and his waiter shows up and totally reads him the riot act for not trusting him (the waiter) to bring him his drink and for holding up the crowd while he was trying to get their order. L got really excited thinking that my 3 daughters, who usually cannot behave during dinner, were really gonna get it. WRONG!      

     We get to our table and our very cool waiter lets us know the rules, you know ... no whining, no tattling, no kicking under the table, no elbows on the table, eat all your food, etc. So he walks away and when he comes back to get our drink order L is sitting there with both her elbows on the table. Well, it started. He asks "Well, Sis, what part of 'don't put your elbows on the table' don't you understand?" That got her laughing 'cause only her dad calls here Sis and she went downhill from there. 

     Later, my oldest daughter (B), who hates leaving bones on her plate, pushes her bones onto L's plate and just then the waiter comes by and looks at L's full plate and then (since we were all done) looks at our empty plates and asks her what her problem is and then actually starts feeding her, all the time complaining about her not eating her food. Too, funny. She tells him that B put her bones on her plate and so he nails her for tattling. 

    Finally, the girls had gone to the restroom and so L, being tired a bit, puts her feet on the seat to take a rest and of course, the waiter walks by. He totally goes off and tells her to get up and he actually makes her put her nose on the wall. I was dying laughing. He tells her to wait right there and hands out some food and comes back and says loudly to the entire restaurant "Sis here can't seem to follow the rules ... elbows on the table, not eating her food, tattling on her kids, and now she can't keep her feet off the furniture. On 3 we're all gonna say 'Stop being a Brat!'" I nearly lost it. About 4-5 people repeated that to her on the way out. It was awesome.    

 Anyway, sorry for the long story, but thought it was worth telling.

 

The rest of Disney trip was great. My youngest (G) had so much fun. At 4 she actually believed that all the characters were real. Her face when she met Princess Aurora (her personal favorite) and Mickey Mouse (at 2am) was worth every penny of the entire trip.

      Everyone had a great time, especially B who, not wanting to go to Hawaii (HI) and leave her friends, was so excited when, ironically, nearly every day on the Monorail we met someone from HI or someone stationed there, or they had just been there ... even our bellman at the hotel was the boyfriend of my new bosses sister and he had just returned from HI. And of course Disney itself topped it off by saying 'Aloha' every time we passed the Polynesian. Our middle one (H) had a blast too and got to ride in the front car of the monorail. 

A good way to celebrate my graduating.   

           

     After Disney, we started the trek cross-country to HI. We stopped home in Missouri and Illinois first to see family for a bit. We had a great family picnic and H caught her first fish. Grandpa was too proud. Anyway, due to the heat restrictions for pets and all the quarantine restrictions in HI, we had to leave our Shi Tzu 'Spike' back in IL. We'll be going back to get him soon. Then, due to having another dog (Lab - Penny) and wanting to be sure we could make the flight, we set out for San Francisco where we knew it would be cool in the am for the trip.

     The trip was long but filled with beautiful scenery and ... well, accented by a dog who's leg started going limp half way there and by my right knee swelling up like a balloon, us finding (as we went to cross the continental divide) that B doesn't just have a mild fear of heights but a pathologic one (she didn't even look out at the Grand Canyon, even from inside the restaurant), B falling into a creek at the base of Bridal Veil falls and me having to nearly completely unpack the luggage from on top of the car for dry clothes, punctuated by a 2.5 hour drive in the dark coming out of Yosemite on Hwy 49 (after 14 hours driving already) which is hairpin turns and switchbacks with posted '10 m.p.h.' signs, and finally being topped off by us getting someone else's room that same night and L walking in and having 2 little yappy dogs nearly take her head off. It was memorable to say the least. I think the photo of G in Honolulu airport (after 8 days on the road) says it all. Too crazy.

    Now that we're. HI is very cool. We got here on the 4th of July and got moved into housing on the 22nd. Not too bad except that they forgot to send our household goods from GA (they'll get delivered NLT 29 Sep). That's a bummer, but that's sometimes the military for ya'. We have tried to see a good bit of the island ... Waikiki, lots of shopping (hello, 3 girls, would you expect anything else), and a couple of weeks ago, we did a drive around the east side of the island (Windward Side). We saw some beautiful beaches and other areas ... making plans for where we want to go back to. We did some snorkeling in Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve and have enjoyed fresh, hot Malasados ... L says they're as good as hot Krispy Kream!! 

     Well, again, hope this wasn't too long. We really did enjoy the trip and would do it again to have our Penny with us. We hope to show some cool pics of the island and keep you informed about our travels. 

     Mahalo for reading, and Aloha.

gumdrgooby