Palua 2013 was an awesome adventure! We left early in the morning on December 29 after being in Red Bluff to celebrate Claire and Cathleen's 65th birthday the night before and driving home from Red Bluff to unpack, re-pack, sleep an hour and get up for the flight! We stopped in Hawaii and then had another 9 hours to Palau - it was looong but the girls did pretty well (granted I wanted to tape them to their seats the last hour but overall they were good) and we stepped out into the little Palau International airport to the hot, muggy, sunshine - just what I was ready for after cold December weather at home!

pit stop in Hawaii

long enough for lei's and some sunshine

and after NINE more hours on the plane - we landed in Palau, Micronesia! Talk about a great fist stamp on your passport Tess (only JJ can compete with a cooler baby passport :)

the awesome big kids we traveled with the whole time - Nalani and Max with the girls ready for adventure

Francie was sooo excited to follow Nalani around from the moment we met in Hawaii

next - a bus ride to a dive boat dock where we crossed paths for 6 minutes with our friends who had been there all week and were en route home - nothing like saying hi to neighbors while you are in a dive bar in Palau! They are all tan - we are all pale, gotta change that!