HOLY RIDE FROM HELL

Well.... We're back in Hawaii. It's been a long night. On our way to the airport there were police check points set up everywhere. We were fine going through thank goodness. We made one more stop to say good bye to Wayne. It was so nice to meet one of Kasala's good childhood friends and hear stories about their little group growing up. All those stories I thought Kasala was exaggeration about were really true! I can't wait to go back and spend more time with Wayne and his wife. Hopefully Pati, Kasala's other friend in Utah, and his wife will go the same time as us when we go again. That would be fun to get their little group together again.

We made it to the airport in plenty of time to visit with everyone one last time. Our bags went through fine and we had an hour or so to say good bye to everyone. We kind of just sat around like we weren't really leaving. I think everyone was sad and didn't really want to acknowledge that we were actually leaving. But when the time finally came to say good bye the water works were turned on. It was very hard to say good bye to Mama. She doesn't speak very good English but when I said good bye things were very clear. I made sure that she knew how much I loved her and that I will take care of the girls and her son. If she heard nothing else from me I wanted her to hear that... "I love you Mama." She was having such a hard time saying good bye to the girls. She loves them so much and I know she didn't want to see us go. We said good bye to all the kids, the sisters and Ala and then to Papa. It was hard to say good bye to him too. I love and admire my father in law so much. He works hard to provide for his family and always has. They didn't have the nicest house or the nicest things but they are always happy and I really believe it is because of Papa. He leads the family with so much faith and love. When everyone is screaming and yelling it's his calm voice that brings everyone back to where they need to be. I'm really going to miss him and Mama.

Once we said good bye and made it through customs we were only in the waiting area for a short time. The flight ended up leaving an hour early. It was a full flight and we sat towards the back of the plane. Here is where the trip just goes to hell. About 10 minutes into the flight Manamea decided to projectile vomit all over me, down the side of the plane, all over the front of my shirt and down my pants. I couldn't believe what was happening. It was like a horrible dream! And it STANK!! Rotten, curdled milk all over the place. I really just wanted to cry but Kasala just kept saying, "Don't start crying. It's not going to help the situation." Luckily we had an amazing crew working and they were opening wet naps like crazy to help get me cleaned up. The people in front of us moved. The people across the aisle also moved and we were left in the back of the plane smelling like rotten milk with about 8 other people. It took about 40 wet naps to get a majority of the vomit off of me. The flight attendant also gave me a blanket from first class to make into a shirt to wear for the rest of the flight. We moved across the aisle and Manamea was back asleep. I took the blanket and went to the bathroom where I just broke down and cried. I think I was in there for about 20 minutes crying and trying to get the vomit off of my shirt. I was standing there with my shirt off, vomit chunks coming out from my undershirt and stuck in my bra, my hair looking like a hot mess and my eyes starting to get puffy. I was a mess. A complete mess. I finally pulled myself together enough to walk back out to our seats. Manamea seemed to be doing fine. Terina was asleep and Kasala looked extremely tired. I however stank and I couldn't help but think of that.... and only that.

We made it to Hawaii in one piece got our luggage and then realized that we didn't make car reservations :( Completely my fault. Kasala kept telling me to wait but I knew that I should just make the reservation. We found an over priced car, due to the holiday, and made our way there to pick it up. It was right down the street from our hotel and I really was hoping that they would check us in early but kind of knew that it wasn't going to happen. Anyways.... we get to the hotel and I went in to see when the earliest time was we could check in. The lady said 10am....3 hours from now. I asked for a restroom so I could change my shirt and told her what happened and her reply was, "Is that what that smell is? Let me see what I can do."  And BAM!! Hotel room at 7:30am! So.... this is where we are now. I threw the kids in the tub once we got in and put them back to bed..... Everyone is sleeping right now and I'm sitting here in a dark room, on a nice soft bed after taking a hot, HOT shower....missing Samoa.