Day 2 / 3

19 Jun 2013 0100 HST (What the ...)

We barely got to sleep when that damn phone rang to wake us up so we could make it to Hickham, AFB for our second leg of the trip.  So we lug our 30 pieces of luggage back down stairs to the lobby and our five kids.  Yeah that's right, 10 trips back and forth.  Then arrives two taxis, or should I say, douche mobiles.  The taxi driver starts complaining to me about me being two minutes late after I just lugged my family and 30 pieces of luggage down 100 yards of hallway and elevator in his broken Japanese-English.  His customer service of course made me really happy.  To top it all off I had to pay each of the drivers an extra $10 for the extra baggage we had.  Needless to say, I will not be using a douche mobile service in Hawaii ever again.

We arrive at Hickham.  Now begins the fun process of checking our 30 pieces of luggage to Kwajalein.  I had to load each of the pieces on the X-Ray scanner, which of course broke after the first bag (go military equipment).  Then after it broke they had to search each piece of luggage individually.  That ended up being the best part of the trip.  The Airmen, were freaking hilarious.  We had a good time joking with them about the military and how much they pay for junk.

Loading time...  At 0530, we were supposed to leave at 0520, we began loading the C17 cargo plane.  That's right, we travel in style!  Nothing like sitting in jump seats in the same area with all your luggage, mail for the entire island and "fresh" fruits and vegetables from Hawaii.  To top it off the one of the airmen start handing out ear plugs for everyone to wear.  This was a real eye opener to my wife, who has never been on a military fight.

Take off...  0630, we finally take off.  The plane begins it's taxi down the runway.  After the plane takes off and reaches altitude a guy in the incredibly full plane (14 people, not including the crew) pulls out his sleeping mat and lays down on the ground.  I think to myself, this might actually be a pretty great flight.

After about an hour on the plane we decide to let the babies out of their seats to walk around on the plane.  This fight was about the greatest part of our travels.  The babies cried and screamed and no one could hear them.  I recommend all flights with children be done on a C17.

(running out of nickels for the internet... will finish story in the morning.)

Day 1

18 Jun 2013 0800 MST

We boarded the plane from Salt Lake City, Utah to Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands.  Of course it wasn't that easy.  We had to make a couple stop overs in route to Kwaj (as the locals refer to it).  We flew from SLC to Phoenix, AZ for a change of plane and a couple hours of waiting with 5 kids.  12 (useless), 10 (useless), 5 (less than useless) and two, almost, 2 year old's (the two we needed the most help with).  I wish that was our only stop, but of course, it wasn't.  The government thought it would be great for us to get to stop over in Hawaii.  I thought so too, but it wasn't as fun as I thought it would be.  We arrived in Hawaii at 1500 pm HST after getting up in SLC at 0400 in the morning.  For those of you who have no idea that's 15 hours of traveling with a 5 year old and two 2 year old's.  Awesome!  

I honestly thought I would have the energy to go over to see Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona memorial, boy was I wrong.  By the time we got to Hawaii and got all 30 pieces of luggage and 7 people to the hotel I had no energy left to even go swimming in the pool at the hotel.  We decided to eat dinner and the girls swim while Hill and I ate and attempted feeding the babies the incredibly over priced food from the hotel.

Thus ends the first day of our adventure.