I figured before I get started on the trip posts, I should explain how we ended up in Hawaii. Adam's work encourages earning these trips. You can earn up to two trips a year, or combine two into one Big trip (Super trips they call them, that are longer and go somewhere crazy cool). They do it as incentive for the Financial Advisors to sell different things, and not get stuck selling the same thing. The are called "Div Trips", or Diversification trips. They want to encourage them to build their offices and clients in a variety of ways, by selling different things, and not just bonds or mutual funds or whatever. He didn't "win" the trip. He worked his butt off and earned it. It's really hard to do when you are new and starting out. So for Adam to earn it in his first year is a big accomplishment. Most guys don't earn it until about year three or four. When you earn one you can either take a trip somewhere of your choice out of their div-trip book, or you can take the trip money as a bonus. You don't get as much money as the trip would normally cost, but it's still money you didn't have. The trips are to the coolest places, all over the country and the world. This isn't saying he'll earn every one that comes, but we hope to get to the point where he will. It'll be nice to go with Ad to some of these and take our kids with us to others in the future. It's a nice reward for hard work. They pretty much pay for all airfare and hotel stay wherever you're going. Certain trips have other things they add in like a breakfast allowance for food, or they pay for some meals or activities. Some pay for everything. We do have to pay for the taxes on them, some meals, and whatever activities we want to do such as tours, or recreational activities. Anyway, thought I'd explain how awesome he is, and how grateful we are for the opportunity to go and have some fun. We couldn't afford it otherwise right now. Also Nana was wonderful to be willing to come and spend a week at our house with Gabe and Ollie, while we went with Milo. Thanks Nana! We know it's hard exhausting work, especially when you aren't used to it.
He was super and happy when we were packing and getting ready to go. He kept climbing on all the suitcases. Poor guy was still finishing up antibiotics for an ear infection when we left. We felt bad having to have him have more pressure on his ears flying, but if we cancelled last minute, we would have had to pay for the whole trip. Plus we really wanted to go, so we attempted it. It made flying hard, but he was happy all but one crazy day of the trip.
We had to wake up at 3:30 in the morning so we could leave at 4 in the morning, to be to the airport by 5. Our plane left at 6 something. It's kinda all a blur. Kay, Adam's BOA/secretary took us to the airport, which was really nice of her and her husband who came too. They offered so we wouldn't have to wake the kids. Milo was super tired and was ready to go back to sleep. So the flight from St George to SLC, he slept pretty much the whole time. He loved looking out the window and seeing the runway lights. The blue ones.
Hurray for his first flight at 9 months old! Gabe was seven months, and poor Ollie has never been on a plane. Someday we'll make it up to him.
When we got off the plane we had to walk in snow into the airport. We weren't dressed for snow that's for sure. Adam was in shorts and everyone thought he was crazy. We had a longer layover in SLC, cause of all the snow in Denver. This happens to me every time I'm at the SLC airport. Delays from Denver snow. Man I'm glad I don't live in Denver. So we had to entertain Milo for a bit. He eventually fell asleep in the stroller while Adam pushed him.
Trying to entertain him on the plane made us get creative at moments. Some of his favorites were us popping our gum bubbles at him, playing with the Delta safety guideline pamphlet, playing peek a boo with various objects, taking his socks off so he could play with his toes, and getting to try some licorice. Unfortunately none of them ever lasted long. It was tricky. The flight from SLC to LAX was a nightmare, and made us nervous for our next 5 1/2 hour flight. He slept the very end of the flight to LAX:
Getting him to sleep in the LAX airport...
...and entertaining him in LAX. It had our longest layover. We did meet some nice other FA's that were there while we waited. Brian and Cathy and their daughter Patty. It was the flight a lot of the FAs were taking to Hawaii.
We did talk to the doctors office about giving him benydryl for the long flight. And a few people said we should try it. Well it didn't work like we thought. He was so tired that it just made him more tired and overstimulated. He was miserable the whole long flight and cried for most of it. So it doesn't always work wonders like everyone tells you. The flight was kinda a nightmare we don't care to relive. We took shifts standing with him in the back by the bathrooms. But when the adults are pacing the aisle and standing in the back, you know it's a long flight. Can't blame Milo too much. He did finally fall asleep for the last hour and a half of it. Luckily we sat by a very nice older mother who had been there and was understanding. At one point the seatbelt sign was turned on and I had to sit down and he screamed. For a while. It was a little maddening. BUUUUTT we made it and survived. It's what we expected so it didn't ruin our trip or anything, but I don't know that'd I'd want to do it again soon. ANNDD we were really tired when we finally landed.
When we flew in it was getting dark and a little rainy, so there weren't many pretty sights to see. The Lihu'e airport was super small, but nice. They had a band playing by the baggage claim. Really casual and chill. Such a different laid back feeling. It took forever to get our baggage. We started wondering if it all made it there ok, cause of our flight delays and swaps. It did luckily make it there. Phew.
We went to rent our car, and they had no more small sized vehicles, so the guy let us choose between two suv's. We got a Dodge Durango that was newer than anything we've driven lately. Nice it was so nice and roomy, not as nice about gas prices. Ah well. We enjoyed it. The back-up camera was a nice feature, but we didn't love some of the other "new" features. Guess we are used to old cars. My favorite feature was the beeping that would happen if Adam didn't put his seatbelt on. I tell him to all the time, so it's nice to have the car beep at him and nag him instead. :) They shuttled us over from the airport to our car. The shuttle driver was super funny and warned us about the wild chickens and roosters everywhere. They really are everywhere. It's kinda funny. Also the only radio stations over there are reggae or hip hop. Not ideal for Adam, but we dealt with it. :) We stopped off at Walmart for some groceries before we went to the hotel and they don't bag your stuff. They don't have plastic bags anywhere, you are supposed to buy the cloth ones.
When we checked into our hotel it was super busy, so they offered us free valet parking for that night and took our bags to our room. We liked that. They also gave us some welcome leis when we arrived. I LOVED this. You see it in movies, so it was fun to have it happen for real. It was weird for us to actually use the dresser drawers in our hotel room. We never go anywhere long enough to make that worth it.
That night they offered a free "Welcome to Hawaii" dinner out on one of the hotel's beach area by the pool. It was a buffet. So whenever the FA's got there, they could eat whenever. So when we went down it was pretty empty, and the food was ok. Kinda random. It was free though, so we were ok with that. We hurried to eat so we could just go to bed. We were all tired.
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