Hawaii here we come, or we mean, ARE

Hello from the Russells- We have officially landed in Maui for a week break before flying to Kona.  I know that sounds a little ridiculous- "break before Kona", but we had to take advantage of the opportunity while we could.  It is a relief to finally make it here as it was quite the process over the last week (not to mention the last 5 months as well).  Two trips to Seattle with four separate cars, one car on a barge, and count 'em 20, yes 20 bags!  If you could have only seen us with our 10 checked bags packed to the max, 10 carry-ons, 2 boosters, 1 car seat, 4 children, and 1 sleep deprived mommy with a cough like a sea lion with bronchitis and 1 daddy who delirious from counting and weighing bags.  Just for your information, when you get that many bags together they begin to reproduce like cottontails in the forest.  The problem we have is that you can't tell which ones are the boys and which are the girls to segregate them.  Only one bag is obviously pink, the rest, who knows? 

The flight was good overall considering our created chaos with the now 30 carry ons with several busted zippers with stuffed animals and travel games dragging through the aisles. We hope that most around us understood that we were actually moving to Hawaii and not just taking all of our belongings and the kitchen sink for a week's vacation.  The kids wore shirts that said "Hi, I'm moving to HI".  We really understand the MINI in Minivan when we somehow crammed the now 44 bags into it.  There were a couple of close calls with duffel avalanches and small children, but no serious injuries were incurred.  All joking aside, we prayed for safe travels and here we are.  Thank you to everyone who helped us get this far.  We are so blessed to have incredible family and friends who are supportive and amazingly generous with their time and resources.  We love you all and will continue to update you frequently. Happy New Year!