We had enough United miles to book five of the tickets, and then I used US Airways miles to book on a United flight - but a different flight than the rest of my family, which was nerve-racking but also AWESOME! I had to be up before dawn to catch my 6 am flight out of Denver but I was on-island by noon.
While it would have been great to just park myself on a beach or get a lavish spa treatment, I used the five hours before the rest of my family arrived to run errands - to Costco, Foodland, Walmart, the fruit stand in Kapa'a, the Humane Society thrift store - and to head to the rental house and unpack.
It had plenty of room for us all to spread out, a washer and dryer that got lots of use, and a great covered lanai we made good use of on a couple of rainy afternoons.
Once I had stocked the fridge it was time to head back to Lihue to meet Sam and the boys. As with my flight, the luggage took forever to arrive so the boys had plenty of time to get the wiggles out.
It had been cloudy and humid all afternoon; the skies finally opened up while we were collecting bags, making installing carseats a little tricky!
It was dark and rainy as we drove up to the North Shore so Chelsea and Lance didn't get to appreciate the views, but everyone agreed that the house was great.
It was 1 am our time (2 am for the young'uns from Missouri) so we all headed off to bed. Ryan and Jack don't normally share a room - or a bed - so they struggled a bit to settle down, but gradually exhaustion took over and they sacked out.
