Casey & I packed up our things and headed towards Australia April 16th. We had a wonderful stop in Oahu, Hawaii for a week to visit my family and have a little R & R. It was a wonderful time! We stayed at my Auntie Lorna & Uncle Dave's place and enjoyed some wonderful meals and great company. The first day we went out for dinner with my cousin's and met my cousin Jared's beautiful new wife Vilma.We enjoyed some amazing hikes, one at Makapuu & another at Mariner's Ridge with Kurt, the views were unbelievable. My Aunt and cousin's took us surfing Friday morning at Waikiki & yes I even tried to surf. I got up 3 times and only bailed once!! No major injuries either. I'd have to say Casey was pretty proud. On Saturday night my Aunt & Uncle took us to a church called New Hope which was really neat to see what God is doing through them. They use a school on the weekends for their services and have alot of satellite churches around the island, it was really awesome to see. Sunday morning we went to Hawaii Kai Church and Casey got to share a bit about what we are doing. It was pretty awesome to also see how they are focusing on small groups in their church and out reach. And to have them pray over us and encourage us. I was thinking of how at home our church their is like our immediate family and how as we go to other churches while we are away we get the amazing opportunity to meet our extended family! Sunday afternoon we also got blessed with being able to go to the Honolulu Symphony to watch Elijah which we really enjoyed (the conducter was 88 years old and had an amazing passion). Then for dinner and off to the airport. Everyone said good bye and I had to hold the tears back as we had such an amazing & special time with our family and we probably won't be seeing them for a while again. Anyway thats a little scoop on our amazing time in Hawaii.
