Our last night in Hawaii was very bittersweet; I was REALLY REALLY sad to be leaving; Hawaii was by far my favorite duty station. I was excited for the new adventure we were getting ready to embark on, I was excited to be closer to family, and believe it or not I was excited to be able to experience four seasons again. The last night was a beautiful night and had one of the best sunsets I had seen the whole time we were there. Enjoy my little trip down memory lane. :)
I guess you could say one of the perks of leaving Hawaii (ok so there aren't really any perks) was being able to take a vacation in Waikiki on the military's dime. Leaving Hawaii we were allowed 10 days of what they call TLA which is given after you clear your house but before you leave the island. You don't have to take all 10 days but hey why wouldn't you? We were given a certain amount of money for a hotel a night and we could stay where ever we wanted to but if it was over that amount we had to pay the difference. We were also given a certain amount for food a day. We decided to stay at our favorite hotel in downtown Waikiki - the Hilton Hawaiian Village (a very upscale hotel). Lucky for us they had a military rate that was the same amount of what we were allotted. I have to say it was the best 10 days ever. We enjoyed the pools, the beach (and yes it was right on the beach), and enjoyed all our favorite places in Waikiki such as the zoo and hiking diamond head one last time and a magic show at a nearby hotel. Here are some pictures from our last 10 days.
2011 brought us to the end of our tour in Hawaii. Being there at Christmas is different because well it just doesn't feel like Christmas. I decided that we were going to do as mjch as we could before we left. Downtown at one of the city buildings there are a bunch of decorations inside and out; Santa even visits. Thought I would show a few pictures from the Honolulu City Lights.
One of our favorite things to do in Hawaii was to take our fire pit up
to Haleiwa to the beach in the late afternoon, play, cook hotdogs, watch the
sunset and then make s'mores and just hang out. Right before we moved we
were going almost every weekend. Usually we would go with out friend's
the Snyder's (boy do we miss them!!) I'm glad that we have these memories
that we have made with great friends. I'm posting pictures from
probably one of the last times we went.
After the deployment Eric's unit had a military ball. Eric DID NOT want to go but because he is senior enlisted now he had to go. I had mixed feelings about it; I think they are boring and we don't drink or dance but I do like to get dressed up. I really struggled trying to find a dress; everything seems to be spaghetti straps or strapless and what I did find I just felt didn't look good on me (plus I didn't want to spend a lot of money). I did find one and I guess it was ok. At times I really liked it and other times I thought it was not flattering. Oh well. :) True to all military balls; it was kind of boring and long and who really wants to watch all the guys get wasted. I did have fun dressing up though and thought my husband looked HOT (I do love a man in uniform :)~ )! Here are a few pictures of us before we left.
We were so happy that Eric made it home in time to celebrate the 4th of July. This is one of my favorite holidays and I especially like to celebrate it with my husband. The morning started with the 5K race that they do here on post. I didn't do my best and really struggled through. But I finished in a good time so I am happy with that. After the 5K race, there was a kids 1 mile fun run. Little Eric ran in it with his friend Robbie. In the afternoon we had Tim and Mary Ann over for a cook out and then headed over to the field for the fireworks. It is the same thing we do every year but I look forward to it every year!
June 27th was the day I had been waiting for the whole past year. It was the day that Eric got home from his deployment. He was able to come home on an earlier flight but I decided not to tell little Eric. The previous days we had gotten a sign made and got all ready for that. I got the house cleaned but made it seem like things were normal. On the day he was to come home I just treated it like a normal day. About an hour before we were to leave I told Eric he needed to go shower and get ready because we had to go get ready to get Daddy. I got a video of it and if I can ever get blogger to load my video I will post it. Of course when I got to the ceremony I realized that I had left the battery to the camera at home. Thank goodness I had my phone and there were some people from my ward there who had a camera and got home pictures. Here are some pictures for the homecoming.
