NYC

One of the perks about living here is being so close to New York City. New Jersey Transist has a train that we can get on about 25 minutes from our house and it takes us all the way into NYC. Also what makes it even better is it offers military discount so we can get a round trip from $13 per person and kids ride free on the weekends and holidays The first chance we got we decided to take a trip up there. We had been to NYC once before but it had been so long ago (little Eric was 1 when we went) that I didn't remember much. This trip we decided to do the tourist thing. We walked through Times Square, went to the Hershey store and M&M store and then we went up to Rockefeller Center. IT was a good first trip. I just like to go and walk around and people watch; and NYC is great for that!

 

almost to times square

 

I want to see The Lion King!

 Nerd's anyone?

 this is what Eric would like

 Rockefeller Center

Our First Visitors

About a month and a half after getting here we had our first visitors. Thankfully they decided to come after we had a stuff delivered. Eric's mom, sister, and her 2 girls came to visit. It was a pretty low key visit (sometimes those are the best though). One thing we did do was go to Philly. We really didn't have much of a plan; we knew we were going to go and see all the history sites but beyond that we didn't know. Seeing the Liberty Bell was free so that is the first thing we decided to do. The line was pretty long to see it but lucky for us it went pretty quickly. After that we walked over to Independence Hall to see about touring that but the line was VERY long and the girls were getting antsy. So we just walked around looking at the buildings and enjoying the sites. One of these days I want to go back and see all the sites.

 Independence Hall

 the Liberty Bell

 it's normal to climb on the lamp post right

Eric and Alivia

Aloha 'Oe

One of the traditions at church in Hawaii when leaving is on your last Sunday the congregation sings the song Aloha 'Oe while you stand in front and then everybody comes up and gives hugs and gives lei's. I had been dreading it because I knew that I was going to bawl my eyes out. Thankfully I didn't cry too much but it still made me really sad. When all was said and done we had quite the collection on leis. (I know I know I look quite goofy.)

Our Last Night in Hawaii

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. :)

Why Yes I'll have a 10 day Vacation in Waikiki on the Military's Dime

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.

Eric waiting while we check in

the view from our balcony

 swimming in one of the pools - he really wants to make sure that water doesn't get in his eyes :)

 having fun at the zoo

 waiting for the magic show to start

 still waiting

 at the top of Diamond Head

 hiking through the cave

 view from the top

Our Last Christmas in Hawaii - 2011

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.

Just had to post this picture; this is how Santa rolls in HI; shorts and sandals. :)

I May NEver Get big Eric back to Arizona

Thankfully my sister is moving away from Arizona because I may never get big Eric back there. One morning while there Eric had just gotten up and was sitting at the table reading the newspaper. All of the sudden his nose started bleeding. We didn't think anything of it. We thought it was bleeding because it was so dry there. 5 minutes passed and it was still bleeding. 10 minutes had passed and it was still bleeding and it really hadn't slowed down either. At that time Eric decided that maybe he needed to go over to the clinic. An hour and a half later with the doctors not being able to stop the nosebleed they decided that they needed to send Eric into town to the hospital because they didn't have the equipment to do whatever they needed to do to try and get it stopped. They loaded Eric up into the ambulance and I ran back to Liz's to get the car and headed into town. About 10 minutes into the ambulance ride the nose bleed stopped. But they still had to continue to the hospital (the hospital is about 45 minutes from Liz's house). We sat around the hospital ER waiting for the doctor to check Eric out to make sure things were fine and he was finally released. It was quite an eventful time and one that we won't forget. And I'm sure Eric will never want to go back to AZ. :)

California/Arizona Trip Part 4

Our week vacation came to an end. There was a flight out of San Diego on Monday so we decided to try and get on that. My sister and parents were heading there to San Diego to go to Lego Land so we drove with them and stayed with them at Liz's friend's house. Early Monday morning we headed over to the terminal. After asking around we kind of figured that we were high on the list and shouldn't have any problems getting on the flight. We then found out it was a pretty nice jet so we were stoked. When they started checking in we jumped into line. We got to the counter only to be told that there was weight limit of 70lbs total for all three of us and that was including our carry on. We had 110lbs. The guy asked us if there was any way we could get rid of anything. My thought was yeah right; not a problem I will just get rid of 1 of our suitcases. So needless to say we were disappointed and had to figure out what we were going to do. We called all the bases in California and decided that Travis Air Force Base was our only option. Since there weren't any flights until the next day we decided to go join my family at Lego Land (our passes were good for a return trip). Although I wasn't looking forward to the 8 hour drive to Travis I was happy to join my family. Of course the kids had a blast and Eric was excited we got to go back a second time. Here are some pictures from our 2nd day at Lego Land.

After driving through the night we got to Travis about 5 in the morning. It was a long drive and we were switching every hour or so because me and Eric were both so tired. We went straight to the terminal to see what was going on. When we got there we discovered that the flight we were trying to make it there for had been pushed up and they had already done the roll call. The next flight wasn't going to be until the next day. We then headed over to lodging hoping that we could get a room. We were in luck and they had a room and we were even luckier when they said we could go ahead and get the keys because the room was empty. We happily took the room and went to try and get some sleep. Since little Eric had slept the whole night he didn't really want to sleep but me and big Eric were wasted. We slept for a couple of hours and then got up to make a game plan. Since there were no more flights we decided to explore the area. There is the Jelly Belly factory close by and we went to that. It was very interesting and I recommend it to everyone. We also decided to drive the 45 mins to San Francisco and check it out because we had never been there. We walked half way across the Golden Gate Bridge and drove down the windiest street - Lombard Street. The steep streets in San Fran kind of freaked me out so I made Eric drive but that gave me time to enjoy the scenery. We had a really fun day. Here are some pictures from that.

 this is almost at the bottom of Lombard St. I wish I could have gotten a better picture so show really what the street is like

The next day we were hoping to get on the flight (I think it was the only flight going out that day). Once roll call got there and there were a TON of people there we decided that we weren't going to get a flight anytime soon. We realized that the weekend that had just passed was an air show so no flights had gone out and since it was the end of the summer everyone who was stationed in Korea or Japan were trying to get back after their environmental leave. The air show had backed everything up. We ended up spending the whole week at Travis. We didn't want to rent a car again so we decided to just stay and hang out on Travis. Thankfully we were able to get lodging for the whole week and everything was really close so we could just walk. We went bowling, to the library, to the PX and hung out at the terminal. By Friday we decided if we didn't get out that day we were going to have to pay for a flight back. We had gotten a good deal on last minute tickets so we put those on hold and waited until the last flight for the day. Thankfully our names were called and we were on our way  home. Even though it was a headache with the space A and especially trying to get back we decided it was such a fun vacation and so glad that we decided to do it. I am so thankful for the ability to fly Space A because if not we would have never been able to afford traveling anywhere from Hawaii.