Day 5

This morning was started out with a walk on the beach to watch the sunrise. Then we went and got our Hawaiian smoothies that we love so much. We checked out and checked Derrick back in the Marine base. Then we went to Pearl Harbor and saw the Arizona memorial and the Missouri. The Oklahoma had a memorial there too. We hung out with Scott and Gwenn again. What a precious couple...and their little Abby. Their little David had leukemia and has gone on to be with the Lord. You can see what Isabella thought of the Arizona memorial. I couldn't believe that there is still oil coming out of that ship from 1941! The Missouri had a lot of rennovations on it such as computers because it was last used in 1991 I believe. After Pearl Harbor we went back to the Air Force base where you can still see bullet holes (lots of them) and chips off the buildings in many places. They left them so people would remember. It definitely made it a lot more real to me by seeing that.

After lunch we went to the Dole pineapple plantation. We saw baby pineapples that were so cute. We ate pineapple whip on ice cream cones. Derrick had been giving Isabella bites of his ice cream when she was in the ergo on my back. He walked away to buy something. She screamed and threw the biggest fit in that place! When I finally found Derrick (who heard her along with everyone else) he had a big grin on his face and said, "I knew she was going to do that!" Samantha had asked for a pink pineapple. I thought of all places we might find one there. Well, we did! Only it was a fabric pink pineapple that cost $20! So, we took a picture of it for her. ;)

I didn't have to get on my plane until 8:45 and had an overnight flight so we had time to go to dinner. We went to Honolulu and they had the neatest outdoor mall. We ate outside (which I love to do) and we could see Coast Guard ships on the sea. We wondered if my brother Ryan used to be on some like those (he used to be in the Coast Guard). Then we went to the airport and had our sad goodbye. But something I realized is that the best part of Hawaii is what we have at home- that we have each other. I think the neatest thing was the one on one time we had (Derrick called it one-on-one-& 1/2 time).

Before we got on our plan at DFW Isabella and I sat down in a restaurant, ate some breakfast, and watched President Bush and the Inauguration of Obama. The plane rides went much smoother this time! I almost caught a break. There was an extra seat at DFW and a lady said I could use her car seat. But then another stewardess said that it had to have a base (which I didn't bring). That's okay because it was the short flight anyway. Bella and I slept most of the time but before that I got to talk some fellow Christians. They have a ministry that is really neat (crosswalker.com.) They even traded a seat with me so Bella and I could have a place in the corner with two seats all to ourselves. Then, we were greeted at the airport by my mom, Bailey, and Samantha. Derrick had me bring back their souvenirs. Bay got a submarine from Pearl Harbor and Sam got seashells which she loves (she plays with them like they are mom's and dad's, brothers and sisters ;) ). And we got them some little water ball things from the Polynesian Cultural Center.