The drive to the airport was uneventful, and then we froze while unloading the van in the nineteen degree windy weather. The girls and I shuffled into the airport while Rob took the van to long-term parking, and as we waited a security officer stopped to chat. He wondered where our warm coats were - didn't we know it was cold outside? We were all wearing two layers, plus the light jacket we were bringing on the trip - not exactly suitable for winter in the Midwest. I shared our destination, and our desire to not drag winter coats with us. He understood, and was jealous.
Rob returned and we made our way to check-in, only to discover that our flight to Cincinnati was an hour behind schedule. We had two other options and chose a flight to Atlanta that was leaving at the time our flight was scheduled. We had to fly East first because you can't get to Hawaii from St Louis - you have to go somewhere else first.
The flight was under two hours and a good warm-up for the girls. It went off without a hitch; they all deemed flying 'fun' and E3 slept a good portion of the flight.
Atlanta's airport had a few kid-friendly areas sprinkled throughout, which made the time between flights a little less boring.
It wasn't long before we boarded the flight for Honolulu. Nine plus hours is a long time to be on a flight. Not the longest flight ever, or anything, but long, long, LONG.
E3 was bored much of the time. The things I brought to keep her occupied were mostly a waste of my carry-on space. She did watch a movie on the dvd player for a while, but mostly she just wanted to eat and use the restroom. Thankfully, she succumbed to an almost two-hour nap after I created a 'nest' for her on the seat between Rob and I. She slept most of that time with her head on my leg and her feet resting against Rob's shoulder.
As the flight droned on, E1's nose was becoming increasingly runny. By the time we arrived in Hawaii (a LONG time later) we'd exhausted my supply of tissues, and the tissues from the restrooms, and had moved on to toilet paper. As we waited near the baggage carousel for Rob to grab our luggage, she once again turned to me with her hand cupped over her nose and asked, "Mom, do you have a tissue?" Why, in the name of all things holy she hadn't started keeping her OWN supply of tp for this purpose was beyond me and I was tired and fed-up, and feeling a bit stuffy myself. So, I instructed to wipe her nose on her sleeve. Classy.
BUT! We were about to find a restroom to shed our long-sleeved shirts, so I figured she may as well use it. After about the tenth wipe, I finally gave up and deposited E3 and our carry-on pile by Rob and took the older two girls to the restroom where we stripped off the long layer, washed our snotty hands, and stocked up on more tp (I had wet wipes on the flight so we weren't spreading THAT many germs).
We loaded up the luggage cart and hauled all of our stuff to Hawaiian airlines where we re-checked the luggage (for some reason they didn't check it straight through to Lihue), re-entered security, and found our gate. We ate ice cream, and called Christine to report our progress...and asked them how to get to Wal-Mart because we forgot car seats, and needed tissues and cold medicine. Christine and Rob's parents generously made the trip to Wal-Mart for us, before meeting us at the airport in Lihue. The flight to Lihue was a mere 20 minutes, then we grabbed the luggage, and adjusted car seat straps while we waited for Rob to hunt and gather the rental car. Eventually he arrived, we loaded things up, and we set off behind our fearless leaders to go to the rental house. It was around 7pm Hawaii time - 11pm for our body clocks.
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