16 March 2007

Aloha

The view from our lanai, looking to the right.

Here I am in a little coffee shop enjoying a Kaua'i morning. Cup of mocha and sticky bun at my elbow, free wi-fi and that indescribable coffee-shop atmosphere make me feel right at home. Be prepared for a long post!

We are swimming and snokeling everyday. Well, the kids are. I am enoying my beach chair and unbrella. The company is fabulous- Aunt Dale, Uncle Larry and Bryan's cousing Damon are here from Texas and we celebrated Aunt Dale's birthday last night. It is great to be with family. We are laughing a lot. There have been whales and spinning dolphins playing outside the reef and we sit on our lanai (patio) watching them jump and splash. At night, we take our flashlights out onto the beach to chase crabs.

We survived the journey intact. I wouldn't want to repeat that day. Neither Mason nor Sadie slept on the 5 h 52 m flight. Oops. That's not entirely true. Sadie fell asleep about 10 seconds before the wheels touched down. Despite all our OTC help, Mason's ears hurt during the descent and he screamed for about 10 minutes. "Owie, owie, owie!" Our neighbors on the flight were very gracious and understanding. They repeatedly complemented our children for their behaviour.

The long flight was from Portland to Honululu. We had an hour layover before catching an island hopper to Kaua'i. Everyone was thrilled to be running around even though it was very, very warm and the humdity must have been 102%. Mason loved seeing the planes until we boarded. I think that the ear pain was still fresh in his memory. Once the engines started, so did he. He cried for about 10 minutes of the 20 minute flight. Lovely.

Landed in Kauai, finally. I was starting to get a nice vacationy feeling when we were informed that our luggage hadn't made the transfer at Honululu. "It should be here in an hour."

We decided to pick up our rental car(s). Check in went smoothly and the lady told us, "The minivans in the first row by the fence." Nope. There was nothing there. When we asked, we were informed that they were all being washed and would be around shortly. So there we waited, for almost an hour, for two clean vehicles. It was around 3 or 3:30 Kauai time, which was two hours behind Oregon time. In other words, I had 6 children who had all been awake for 12 or more hours standing in a shadeless parking lot. The rental care people are lucky I am such a nice person. In fact, everyone was lucky I was a nice person. Let's just leave it at that.

Back at baggage claim, we found 3 of our 8 bags. The others would be in sometime soon. Maybe an hour. Island time.

Drove back to the condo with our carry-ons and the kid's luggage. The missing bags included 2 carseats, the portacrib, some snorkel gear and Bryan's & my bag. This was one of those times when my family rose up and called me blessed for packing an "emergency" bag that had swimsuits and underwear for all- just in case they lost our luggage.

The condo is beautiful and the view is even better. Mason was in full meltdown mode as we were settling in. By the time we had found dinner and fed everyone, it was 6 pm (8 pm home time equivalent.) He was still un-napped and definitely unhappy. Still waiting for his bed to arrive, we laid him down on a towel on the floor of our bedroom. He fell asleep instantly. Poor baby.

A very, very poor baby woke up crying two hours later. He had vomited all over himself and his bed. Yes, ladies and gentlemen. He had a stomach bug. The barfies lasted 12 hours but the runs held on for 4 days. It was embarrassing to call housekeeping and say, "My son had diarrhea -again- and we need towels, sheets and pillows -again." So far, Sadie is the only other child to catch the bug and it only lasted 24 hours.

Please pray that this bug doesn't spread. We are having a lovely time and I could write forever but Bryan reminds me that life is waiting beyond the computer screen.

I'll try to sneak away later and post some more pics.

4 comments:

  1. Thrilled you had time to post how things are going; good, bad and the downright ugly. lol!

    We are heading into our final countdown to departure ourselves.... we just had a DVD player with a 17 in screen mounted to the ceiling of the van - oh my! We got it that big so even the kids in the back seat can see the screen.

    Anyway, would write more, but I have to get to the store for last minute shopping for the twins birthday and get ready to leave for Grace Petitmermet's bridal shower. Must RUN! LOL!

    hugs,
    jer

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  2. Hmmmmm, nope, not a lot of sympathy for your stomach bug in paradise. You may never go this long and far without me again, I keep picking up the phone to bounce something off you.

    We may have 2 apprentices now, one for you to pick on and one for me!!!

    I did manage to leave a message on your home phone though.

    And, I got officially accepted into nursing re-entry, and sent off all that poopy paperwork to OSBN, where they tell me they have never denied anyone for re-entry.
    Dana

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  3. Meg~
    Hope you are having a very wonderful time now...since I'm a few days behind.
    Look forward to more pictures.

    And Jer~
    Grace is getting married? Congratulations to her..she is so sweet.

    Hi Dana! :)
    Miss you all 3.

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  4. Grace getting married is a long story. Very wonderful. The big day is April 12th!

    Hope the tummy bug is gone by now Meg!

    Miss you too Roberta!

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