I thought we'd never get done packing!!!

If it weren't for good friends, we never would have finished packing.  As our moving day swiftly came, we realized how much work we needed to do.  It was difficult to pack.  We had to think of long term packing, had no need for winter clothes where we were going!  We had to think about Hawaii packing and then we also had to pack an overnight bag for the 3 days after the moving truck came.  What a challenge!!  After 2 weeks of constant packing,  our moving day was here.  Thank goodness for our friends.  Alan Boardman came to our rescue Thursday night.  We were really loosing steam and Alan came in and took over.  His energy was just what we needed to get more done.  And the next day, Erika called and said I'm coming over to help.  She was there all day!!  She was amazing!!  Cherie and Zoe showed up with lunch and a couple extra hands for a couple of hours followed by the Selander's.  We had additional help from my Mom, my dad and Bobbi, and Kathy Capps.  We didn't get out of there until Saturday night at 10 pm, but we never would have been out of there if it weren't for all those who helped.  So thank you so much to all of you!!!

Quiet time was cancelled!

Yesterday was a long day.  We drove to Lihue to go to Walmart, Costco, Home Depot and the power company. I was with my mom and the boys.  It was long and the kids did great.  On the way home, the kids were laughing and having a good old time in the car but started to get out of hand.  Finally I said, "Okay, it's quiet time".  After a couple of minutes I asked "what happened to quiet time?"  Nate answered, "it was cancelled!"  My mom laughed so hard she was wiping away the tears.  She laughed about it all day.  It was quite funny!!

a Whale of a time!

Today we went the the Kileaua Light House, which turned out to be a great place for whale watching.  We saw several whales.  One was flapping his tail and jumping all around.  It was so fascinating!  I could have watched for hours.

Bugs......Bugs......Bugs!

As we were starting to move our things in our condo, I noticed a couple of roaches in a drawer.  Lance saw a couple more so he called the property management lady, Leann, to tell her about it.  She sent over the pest control guy to spray for the bugs.  A little while later, he came over to our other rental and told Lance to come and see this.  Lance walked in to see at least 100 roaches all over the kitchen.  They were coming from everywhere!  The pest guy said that he had been in the business for 14 years and this was the worst case he'd seen in at least 5 years.  Others were saying it was the worst they had ever seen.  5 days later, those little pest are still around.  Luckily not as many and the numbers dwindle each day.  

A Tsunami is coming.......

Our 4th night in Kauai and we got to experience our first tsunami warning.  There was an major 9.0  earthquake in Japan Thursday March 11th (Friday in Japan) followed by a major tsunami.

We were watching the news around 9 pm when we first heard about the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.  At 9:30 the announcement was made that there was a tsunami warning for Hawaii.  The sirens first went off at 9:59 pm.  Kauai was expected to be hit first around 3:00 am.  Because it was so late back in Salt Lake, I decided to post a message on Facebook that there was a tsunami warning but that we should be okay.  Well, my poor family did not get the message.

Misty saw the news at 4:00 am (mst) and went in to wake up my mom in a panic.  The news in Salt Lake was doing a major story on the tsunami.  They were saying that Kauai was expected to be hit the hardest in the Hanalei and Princeville area.  There was a count down to when the tsunami would hit.  Lance had received phone calls from several people, one of which was my brother Chad.  Everyone warning us and telling us to get to higher ground.

Kauai was not really affected by the tsunami.  The Big Island and Maui received the most damage.  But it was a very interesting thing to experience.