Leila has been keeping a journal.... and it was her mom's job to post it onto her blog along with some pictures... but as is par for the course... her mom is just behind a few weeks (even when she's on vacation she can't quite get with the schedule :) So here are Leila's entries thus far (with a few commentaries by her mom):

November 26, 2008

When I was in Utah at the airport, I needed a passport, but I only had my birth certificate. (Lose here- I know, I know I should have been more thorough in my research, but I only checked with US immigration and according to their website, passports are NOT needed to travel to a US Territory (American Samoa included in that exception) BUT according to US Customs (which I did not check) a passport IS needed whenever leaving/entering the US or territories. When we were trying to check in at SLC, Delta was concerned that we wouldn't be able to continue to Am. Samoa with out the passports- long story short, we were able to check in with Hwn Air without any problems, even in Samoa, the Customs agents said we were fine traveling with only the birth certificates, but you can be sure, i'll have passports for everyone next time we travel! But at first is was difficult and almost missed our flight. And I was disappointed, but things worked out. But... when I got to Hawaii... it was FANTASTIC! Because we got to stay at a hotel and breakfast, lunch and dinner for FREE!!! Our flight from Honolulu to Samoa was delayed a day so we were put up at a hotel. And our room was fabulous. And I got my own bed. And there was a balcony outside, and we had a perfect view of the ocean. When we drove to our hotel, we were in a white limo with party glasses and ribbons on the side and big huge seats on the left side. Our room was really pretty. It had flowers on the bed and sheets were really soft. When we were taking a walk we saw some parrots and we got to hold them!!! And Hope got wet in the sea, and we didn't have our luggage so we had to buy her some clothes.