We’re back and still decompressing. I guess I should say I’m still decompressing. The flight back wasn’t bad at all. The boys threw a tantrum at the Honolulu airport, but once we got on the plane, they settled in and were fine. The flight to San Fran was so easy. Geez. They slept for about 2-3 hours of the 5 hour flight. I was worried a little bit because I had less than an hour to get to the connecting flight in San Fran. Luckily, some nice strangers felt bad for me and helped me to the bus that took me to the international terminal. The boys were quiet the whole time I was stressing about getting on the bus. We got to our flight with time to spare(!) and almost got the bulkhead row. I was going to take it (the flight was empty) but then this couple with two small babies wanted it, so I gave it to them so that they could use the bassinet thingy.

The boys did great on the long flight (10+ hours) and they were happy to sit in their seats but even happier to get to go to the bathroom for a diaper change. Elijah loved getting up on the changing table and looking at himself. He has a great “I-know-I-shouldn’t-enjoy-looking-at-myself-but-I-do” smile. I did the thing that Michael told me to do which was tuck his shirt in and say “WOW!” and make like he’s being presented. Kind of weird, but he loved it. We had a snotty kid sit in front of us and at one point was taking all of the boys’ toys and trying to eat their snacks. We watched some teletubbies, but only maybe an hour per flight. I was kind of bummed because I slept through them passing out the breakfast trays and was peeved that they didn’t wake me up. Oh well, we had lots of snacks and stuff to munch on.

When we finally arrived in Munich, I had a porter help me with my bags. I wanted him to only carry one of the car seats since I am being charged per piece. But he insisted that I have all my bags on and I told him that I only had 5 euros. He said “your husband will have more”. Uhhh, ok. Turns out, it was totally worth it. Not only did I have a load off, I was able to zip through passport control (I went to a special area), and then my bags arrived within a minute, then we zipped on out. Totally worth the 10 euros. Michael was there and we were all so happy to see him again! We fit everything in the car and came home. The timing was perfect, it was around bedtime for the boys. They slept very well in their new beds. They got back to a normal sleep schedule right away. I, on the other hand, am still dealing with odd sleeping hours, but that’s kind of normal for me.

Life is pretty much back to normal. It is colder than when we left, but not nearly as cold as I thought it would be. We’ve been going to the bakery everyday and getting our pretzels and pastries (yum!). Food is much simpler, less tv is being watched, more exercise is being had. I think the boys are wondering where all the people are though.

Friday morning we had a music class, this one is a little different than the other one. I was still hoping for more instrument playing, but alas, it was a sing-a-long kind of class again. Much to my surprise though, the boys did a lot of the movements! Usually they ignore them and run around, but this time they still ran around but stopped sometimes and participated! What a shock! Elijah is really into copying now, so it’s so exciting to see him having fun doing that. Rowan is more interested in running around still but sometimes will stop. It’s too bad that they are in the class together, I really feel they would do more if they were separated, since they encourage each other to do their own thing. Maybe it will get better, we’ll see. Elijah really liked the song “A Ram Sam Sam“, which is a Morrocan song that is sung in rounds.

We bought the boys a “Holzlaufrad”, which is a wooden bike that doesn’t have pedals. Rowan is intent on figuring out how it works, he won’t allow us to hold it for him while he rides. Very determined! They are still a little too short for it, but in a couple of months, I think we won’t be able to get them of of it!

We’ve recently got hooked into watching Depsperate Housewives. It’s a really great show, written very well. I just really hate the title.

We have enjoyed our stay in Texas, eating fast foods of all sorts (still haven’t had Taco Bell because of the ecoli scare), and of course some big steaks! Michael’s dad got sick while we were here so that added some stress onto an already overwhelming visit. The boys did very well though, they enjoyed running around and playing with Raggs (the dog). It took a little while for both of them to get used to each other, and sometimes they still get a little over excited. But the sweet goodnight kisses that they gave everyone made up for that.

They are talking more and voluntarily saying words now. The other day they said “toast” out of the blue, which I didn’t know they even knew that word. Elijah loves to tell everyone “bye bye” whenever he leaves or they leave. He even says bye to dogs and strangers. I think having more people around them speaking English maybe helped them to vocalize more??? Who knows, at least they’re making progress.

Tomorrow we’re on our way to Kailua, wish us luck. I hope it goes better than the trip here as far as the aiports are concerned. I am hoping the people in Denver will be friendlier. It’s a 4am thing again…

It was a loooooooong day today. We flew to Texas via Frankfurt today. I stayed up the night before to pack. We left the house at 3:30am. Poor boys, they had no idea what was going on. They were fine though. We got there early enough to get the “bulkhead” row on one flight but not the one to Houston. The boys were really good at the airport and liked running around.

When we finally had to board, we were hoping that we would be able to preboard, but unfortunately, they just had general boarding. Elijah threw a fit because he didn’t want to leave and he was really tired. As we made it down the plane with one screaming child, people around us were all staring and thinking “oh crap!” it sucks that I am near this child. Rowan was really good and quiet, thank goodness. It turns out their “bulkhead” row was just a regular row with a cloth that separates it from the “economy plus” section. No extra room. Michael got the car seats in and Elijah fought his way the whole time. He was so mad - he even tried to bite Michael. Once we took off, they both fell asleep, much to everyone’s surprise. I was able to catch some zzzz’s as well.

We got to Frankfurt and we were hoping that our stroller would be waiting for us but it wasn’t. The flight attendant said that it will be there and asked the people below about it. We waited and waited and in the meantime the boys were getting agitated. Then, they wanted to start boarding for the next flight and told us to leave. We said that we were told to wait at the gate and they said, well, just move out of the boarding area. We figured our stroller either went to the other plane or we lost it. In any case, we had to get all of our stuff and the boys to the next gate without it. We tried to ask one of those people who drive those vehicles for the disabled to help us to no avail. One lady was busy, and the other guy had his full and tried to call someone else but there wasn’t anyone. Then he said “why did you bring so many bags?” I wanted to just put one between his eyes! I said “We have only 1 bag”. So, we got two more bag carts and had Rowan and Elijah sit on it. They didn’t have a child seat thing, so we just had to put them on the baggage area. They hated it, Rowan especially. Elijah got used to it and was ok. But then, we had to go through customs and another security check and we couldn’t take the carts through. We were so mad at Lufthansa for promising us our stroller and not delivering it. So, now we’re at customs with one screaming baby, trying to get our bags through without the cart. The customs guys felt bad for us and let us go through with the cart. Then we had to go through the security check and the security lady said “I don’t know how you are going to do it but you need to leave the carts here.” I said OK, then left a screaming Elijah sitting there next to her and walked our baggage to where we needed to take it. She was kind of startled by this action because she thought I would carry him with me. But there was no way I was going to lug a 30+ pound baby while moving luggage. So then she felt bad for us and tried to entertain the baby. Then they got a cart for us since they realized that their rules would make us (and them) pretty miserable.

Then when we got to our second gate, the lady looked at our car seats and said we need to check those in. And I was like “what? why?” And she called over some other Lufthansa lady to look at them and she said “yes, we need to check them in” I was so upset at this point but managed to kept my cool. So I asked why and she said that there was no sticker of approval for flying. I said that I just got off a plane and have many flights with these car seats. She said “That’s impossible! Not on Lufthansa.” And I was like “Do you want to see my boarding pass?” And then I saw the sticker that said “this carseat is approved to use in motor vehicles and aircraft”. HA! She looked at it really good, TWICE, and then said “I guess it’s ok”. I am really shocked that they haven’t seen these car seats before, they are one of the most common ones.

After we got that taken care of, we waited for the 2nd flight and was able to preboard. The boys were better this time and had no problems. During the whole entire flight, they were great. We only had one crying outburst, but the rest was ok. They napped for a couple hours. The rest of the time, they ran up and down the aisles or we went down to the bathrooms. They pooped so many times. We used 16 diapers during the trip!

We had this woman in front of us who had 4 seats to herself and she was a real jerk. She decided to sit in a seat in front of the boys and put it way back. So the boys started kicking the back. So then she left it in the back position while she got up and went to the bathroom and when she came back, she sat in the seat in front of Michael. As Michael was eating, she decides to put the chair way back so he almost drops his drink. He couldn’t get out since there’s hardly any room. We think she did that to “get back” at us for having kids who kicked 1 of her 4 chairs. Ugh, so immature.

We finally made it to Houston and everything was fine. I really have to admit that the boys did really, really well. It would’ve been much better had we had the stroller in Frankfurt, but that wasn’t their fault. I hope the flight to Hawaii goes better.

We’ve been enjoying visiting with Michael’s parents and today we went to “chilis” and had a good ol’ american burger. MMmmmm

Me and Ingrid in Stash London

I just came back from my trip to London. Michael had a couple more vacation days this year that he didn’t use up (imagine that!) so he said that since I didn’t really have a vacation, he would watch the boys while I take a trip. I decided to go to London for shopping since it cost only 60 euros roundtrip.

It was a great trip! I got in late Saturday evening and took the train to Finsbury Park. Our friend, Christos was supposed to meet me there but I couldn’t find a taxi so he called a “mini cab” and picked me up. It was kind of a scary place to be, but at least there were a lot of people and cars coming and going, so I felt a little more secure. I ended up waiting about 1/2 hour there. But we finally made it to his place and we chatted while he fed me his fried chicken. It was really good, but he just sat there and watched me eat it, which was annoying (he ate earlier). His place was cold and when we went to sleep, the heater didn’t come on. He didn’t have any bedding for me either, so he took off his duvet cover and gave me that. When I lied down, I noticed that there was a plug sitting on the floor so I asked him about it and sure enough, the heater was just unplugged. Unfortunately for Christos, I snored very loudly so he couldn’t sleep. I felt so bad! I usually don’t snore (according to Michael), but sometimes when I’m really tired, I can really saw logs.

The next morning, I planned my route and all the things I wanted to do. I walked to the train station only to find out it was closed due to maintenence. Crap! I didn’t really know what to do so I walked back out on to the main street and caught a bus into the city center. I could’ve gotten off earlier and caught the subway, but it was confusing (even in English) as to what was open and what was closed. I finally made it to Oxford and Regent streets. It was soooo much fun to shop there. I can’t really explain why. Maybe because everything is in English? I don’t know. Or maybe because the shopping area is so much bigger than in Munich? I did a lot of damage at Hamley’s (toy store) and various clothing stores. Of course I bought nothing for myself, mostly gifts and stuff for the boys. I met Christos for dinner at a place called Toku. It was awesome, I loved the chicken karaage there.

Regent Street with Christmas decorations

After that, I went to Ingrid’s place. For those of you who don’t remember, she was my secret pal 8 and sent me all kinds of wonderful goodies like the cashmere scarf and cute sweaters for the boys and also got me hooked on Green & Black’s chocolate! Since there were a lot of weird and confusing train changes going on, I asked a guy how to get to Mortlake and he said that I take a train to Clapham Junction, transfer to Barnes, then take a bus to Mortlake. Crap! How am I going to remember that? So I walked a little further and asked the official info booth. Even though he spoke English, I have no idea what he said, and I even asked him to repeat it twice. Oh well. I went to yet another info booth and she told me to take a train straight to Mortlake. OK! Then I wondered why I got such conflicting advice. It turns out that the train took the LONG WAY to Mortlake and not direct. But it was ok, I got there. Ingrid met me at the train station since she just lives walking distance from it.

It was nice to finally meet her and chat about all kinds of stuff. She had a nice room for me filled with all kinds of stuff to read and look at. I swear, I could’ve stayed there a week without surfacing! She has tons of yarn/craft books, magazines, and even saved me some sudoku puzzles from the paper. How thoughtful! I had a great nights sleep and hopefully didn’t keep everyone up with snoring. I couldn’t do those “super sudokus”, it has 5 sudoku blocks connected, but was confused as to how it worked. I thought it was intuitive, but then I saw two 8’s in one row (printed), so that threw me off.

The next morning I walked to school with Ingrid and her kids, Ellen, and twins Lily and Edward. It gave me a real taste of how 5 year old twins are. They are really sweet kids, but I was amazed at how Ingrid handled so many things at once - lunches, who likes what on their sandwiches, 3 different school plays, getting them dressed, show and tell, etc. etc. Edward told me about his 3 different lunch bags and how they got lost or broken. So cute!

After that, I went back to Oxford Street, this time doing damage at Borders. I was really stupid and I should’ve just ordered the books online and have them shipped. But then I thought why should I pay the shipping when I can just bring them home with me. So I bought bucketloads of books and had to carry them all around with me. I was supposed to meet Christos for tea, but there was a bus strike today (Monday) and so he couldn’t make it. So I went back to the Japanese place again to get more karaage, it’s really that good. I went to the department store, John Lewis. As I was entering, this older woman held the door for me and I said thank you as I was going through. As I passed her, she said “THANK YOU” really loud and sarcastic to me and I realized that she didn’t hear me say thanks as I was coming in. So she gave me “the eye” and so I said loudly as she stomped away “I SAID THANK YOU, YOU JUST DIDN’T HEAR ME”. I really should’ve followed her and thanked her again to embarrass her more, but I had places to go and things to do. It still bothered me though that she didn’t hear me say thanks, because I really did appreciate her holding the door for me. I got my slow cooker and left for Ingrid’s place. This time the trains were working ok and I got there in no time.

Once back at Ingrid’s place, we chatted some over a wonderful dinner she made (couscous with peppers and onions), and then we went upstairs so that I could help her with her blog. She wanted to add some buttons, links and join a knitting web ring. It was easy enough and so I showed her how to do it. She was so happy to get these things added, even happier that she understands how to do it herself now. After that we chatted a bit more. She is really such a nice person and it was fun to talk about life, knitting and kids!

The next morning (Tuesday), I walked with them to school again and then we headed off to Stash, Ingrid’s favorite knitting store. It is run by an American woman and a French woman who has an American accent. I was even surprised that she wasn’t American! It was a real treat to be in a store where I could “fondle” all the yarns. Yes, there are yarn stores here, but they really lack the selection that Stash has. I miss being able to see imported yarns, especially american yarns. We spent a good 2 hours there and I also did some damage. I am excited to knit these little newborn boleros. Now if only people would have kids so I can give it to them. It is a more girly thing I guess, but it can also be for boys too. We went back to Ingrid’s place, I packed up all my stuff, then I headed back out to Waterloo station to drop off my heavy bags. Now, I am used to the wonderful UBahn and all of it’s escalators and lifts. Since the Underground is so old, it is mostly stairs and a few escalators. It was tough to get my bags to Waterloo. Then, when I was there, I noticed that they also had a baggage leaving place at Liverpool Street, which is where I need to catch my train to the airport. So, instead of leaving my bags here and have to come back here, I decided to go to Liverpool Street instead. Whew, talk about sweat! At least I got my exercise. I was bummed I didn’t put on my heart rate monitor. But all was well. It did cut into my time though and I was planning on catching a movie. Instead, I went to Covent Garden for even more shopping, but didn’t really buy much. It was an interesting place though and I promised that I would come back to spend the day there.

From about 4pm, I was in a mad rush to get to the airport and catch my flight at 6:30. I had to miss 2 trains getting back to Liverpool street because they were too full. They had all kinds of train troubles and it was also the beginning of rush hour, so I just had to stand there. I’m not used to this, on the UBahn, they are so big that I have hardly ever heard of people not being able to get on. Maybe with the exception of Oktoberfest. And if you did miss a train, it was only one. The next one for sure you would be able to squeeze on. Anyways, I was rushing to get my bag out of left luggage, rushing to get to the express train, then rushing to get to the ticket desk, where I had to pay a 70 pound fee because I had to check in my hand carry, which was too big. Then I was late getting to the gate, I was the last person on board!!! But I made it and I could finally relax. Then, getting into the airport (we were early), I sat outside waiting for Michael and I saw him pass by and look at me and he pulled forward to get out of the way, but then I saw him drive off! I was running after him saying “NOOOOOOO!” And then I didn’t know what to do. Should I stay here? I figured he would just circle around again and come back. I waited for more than an hour and finally he called me. He was waiting for me at the next gate! Apparently, the gate that we exited out of doesn’t have the “Easy Jet” sign on it, and he didn’t know where else to go. I didn’t want to move from where I was because I wasn’t sure that anywhere else would be better and I didn’t want to miss him again. Argh, comedy of errors! But it was good to be home again. I sure did miss my fambly!

Thanks to Ingrid and her family and to Christos for giving me places to stay and making my trip a memorable one! And also to my great husband Michael for holding down the fort for me while I went off and spent lots of money…

The Kaneshiro cousins

Almost right after we returned to Munich, I headed back out again, this time to Hawaii. If you didn’t know by now, my cousin Lynn (blog on the right hand side) found out that her cancer has spread to her spine and is now terminal (and very aggressive). In just a few weeks, she went from general good health and a little pain in her back to being unable to walk or sit up. The news was devastating to me, and I can’t imagine to her family. There was no question about me going back to visit her. I asked if there’s anything I could do, and her brother asked if I could do a “movie” of her with any pictures I had. So, for the few days I had in between the Italy trip and leaving for Hawaii, I scrambled around to get pictures and used a lot from her blog. It came out pretty good. If you’re interested in seeing it, it is on YouTube. I also made 25 copies for her friends and family.

I left on July 25, early in the morning. As per my tradition, I was busy making DVD copies and packing that I didn’t sleep at all the night before. I took the train since it was the easiest thing to do. The flight was amazingly easy and due to an overbooked flight, I even got upgraded to business class from London to LA!!! THAT was AWESOME! So I managed to get a few hours sleep during the flight in one of those completely flat “bed” seats. I was pretty amazed at how easy the trip was. It was long, but not too bad. My favorite airline is British Airways now. Not only is this the 2nd time to get upgraded, but I like the rotating movies that they have, it makes the time go by very quickly.

When I arrived, I had to immediately go to visit my cousin Stacy, since she hasn’t given birth yet. I commanded her baby to come out over the weekend so that I could see the baby before I left. She listed to me! (See more about her towards the end of this post)

On Wednesday, I thought I would have jet lag, but I was up and around and going everywhere. I found a guy that does Super8 transfers to DVD and he was in Kaneohe, so me and my dad went out there to pay him a visit. He even loaned us a viewer so that we could see what’s on the movies. Unfortunately, some of the really old movies are warped and/or badly damaged that they are lost forever. He said that he will try and recover what he can. I also had to go to Kozo Sushi, and then I also found more pictures of Lynn that my dad had, so I went to Kinkos to scan them in and I quickly added it to the movie. I also visited my Grandma and Grandpa in the nursing home. Then in the afternoon, I picked crownflowers and ti leaves to make leis for Lynn and Rob. The Ti leaves didn’t work out so well, so I just had the crown flowers. I pretty much stayed up all night doing this too. Geez, where is the jet lag?

Then on Thursday, July 27, I went to Hilo by myself. I rented a car from the airport and drove out to my Uncle Harris’s house. Only Tricia and Christian was there, but I always have fun talking to them. I finally got to see her “store” in her house. Since Christian likes to cook, he made awesome omlettes for all of us. That was really nice. Then I headed out to Hakalau to visit Lynn. Eric and Ryan were there as well, so it was good to see them too.

It was so good to *finally* see her after this long trip! I tried to hold back the tears when I saw her, but a couple of them snuck up on me. I spent the day eating and visiting with them and massaging Lynn. You know when you’re doing it right because she will let out a “AAAAAHHHHH, that’s nice”. My no-sleep all these days finally caught up with me and I took a little nap at their house and of course Rob had to take a picture of me! I drove back to Hilo and stayed with Uncle Harris folks. They are just too nice. I got the room with internet! :) I had a really mean, screaming headache all night, I think it’s from all the lack of sleep and caffeine withdrawal. Have you ever had one of those? Ugh, no fun.

The next day (Friday), I went back out to Hakalau, not too early. This time, Lynn was in the living room in a wheelchair. It was good to see her out of bed. I think she just got tired of lying in her room. It was also good because I had better access to her back and could massage her easier. Our cousin, Kelli, arrived with her husband Darren and daughter Allison. I haven’t seen her in a long time! Lynn also had lots of friends and other relatives come in and out. She had a lot of love and support around her. My headache was gone (thank goodness) and went back to Hilo in the evening.

Saturday was the big day, Lynn had her celebration. I returned my car to the rental place since I didn’t really need it anymore and I’m paying a lot for it. So my Uncle came along with me and after I dropped it off, we went to Hakalau together. It’s a good thing too because I wouldn’t have found the church. I don’t know why Aunty said that she needed help because by the time we got there, almost everything was done! We waited around awhile and slowly people started to come. I think there was about 150 people total. Many came from Honolulu and the mainland to see her. It was a nice party, but I think it tired her out a lot, she was closing her eyes in between pictures. What a trooper! After the party, we all went over to her house to massage and visit and EAT. So much food!!! I managed to get Michael on the skype and was able to show everyone how it worked, they all liked seeing him. We stayed kind of late because I found out that everyone was leaving on Sunday and no one would be left to help out. I was trying to see if I could change my flight to Monday, but I couldn’t do it online. I finally gave up and we all went back to Hilo. I illegally stayed with my parents and sister at the Hilo Hotel. It was supposed to be for 2 adults, but there were 4 of us. We had to sneak in and out. Kind of funny.

The next morning (this is Sunday the 30th), I found out it would only cost me $20 to change my flight itinerary to the next day, so I did it. It actually worked out perfectly. Eric (Lynn’s brother) and his son Ryan, needed a ride out to Kona and was going to rent a car. But since I’m staying, he caught a ride with my parents and he is on the same flight back to Seattle with my sister. I am staying another day and my Aunty Sharon is also leaving on Monday, so we could leave together as well. We spent the afternoon over in Hakalau, and I talked a lot with Carrie, one of Lynn’s close friends. She adopted her daughter from China, and I asked her all about the process. It’s really interesting and expensive - $30k!!! But she was so happy with how it all went that next year they are going to get #2. She was really, really nice. I spent the rest of the evening pretty much massaging Lynn and I had a nice talk with Rob while we were bbq-ing the meat outside. I also got to know Gary, Lynn’s brother, a little better. I can’t believe I haven’t really met him until now. I was telling Lynn and Eric that I didn’t think Gary existed. :) I figured out a way to massage her back/shoulders really well - I put a little stool step under her bed and since her head area is propped up, I could stand in between the head of the bed and her and reach down and get both shoulders. The first time I did that, she had a HUGE smile on her face and gave out a loud “AAAAHHHH”. Her dimples even came out and everyone was saying that they haven’t seen her dimples all day. YAY! They also gave her a bath this evening and at first they said they didn’t need my help. After all, it’s pretty embarrassing to have people you know looking at your naked body and having to help change her undergarments. That was ok with me, and so I was checking email and about 2 minutes after I walked out, Rob said, “Ummm, Kris, we need your help”. I went in and it turned out that when they turned her to the side, she was in so much pain, that she wanted me to massage her shoulder/neck area. I was so happy I could do something! Then after we got her dress off, they said that they’re ok and could do the cleaning without me. That’s ok, so off I went again. 30 seconds later, “Kris, I think we need you again”. So I went in and massaged some more. Lynn told me “if you weren’t here I would be in so much pain right now”. And that made me feel so happy that I could be of some help to her. I think I went out one more time and got called back in one more time. After that, I just stayed in! I am so glad I stayed an extra day and could help! Very late in the evening I managed to get Michael on skype and we talked with Lynn. He gave her the grand tour of our apartment and she really liked it, even though we got cut off every few minutes. Unfortunately, it was during the boys’ nap, so she didn’t get to see them, but we all enjoyed it none-the-less. I stayed over at her house this evening, since everyone left and they had room.

On Monday, I pretty much spent the day massaging even more and Lynn could barely eat, since it was painful to swallow. Time flew by really fast and before I knew it, we had to go. I kept my tears at bay almost the whole time, but when it was time to say goodbye, the faucet turned on. I know this is the last time I will see her, at least in this life. She gave me a bracelet with these trinkets on it and said that she would always buy something everywhere she travelled and add it to the bracelet and she told me to keep up the tradition. Sniff… I love her and miss her already and hope that she doesn’t have to suffer much longer. And Rob, her husband, is the most amazing person. He does so much and just keeps going, always calling her “beautiful”, making her laugh, and doing his best to fulfill all of her last wishes. My heart goes out to him and his family as well.

Monday evening, my other cousin Ted and his wife, Lisa and son, Shane came and picked me up from the airport and took me shopping at WalMart and Sam’s Club. I had to pick up all my goodies! I bought tons of Cheerios and Grape Nuts and Nyquil/Dayquil, pajama patterns, etc! When we went back to their house, they have me the grand tour - Lisa built the lower 2 levels, she is amazing! She is a wood shop teacher at my old high school and she pretty much makes everything! She has built a boat, many ukuleles, you name it, she’s built it! Their son Shane is also adorable, so chubby and sticky-uppy hair and always smiling! They even got chicken katsu for me from their mom’s shop - she makes the best katsu! Mmmmm…what a feast!

OK, Tuesday, my last day, I ran all kinds of errands. I wanted to go to Boots and Kimos but for some odd reason, there was a long line! So we went to Cinnamon’s, where we always go when Boots is too full. It was ok. Then we went to visit my old dentist’s office (my parents still go there), since the office is in the same complex and they are like family. After that, we went to Daiei, where I found small rice cookers (microwave)!!! I bought one for me and one for Riki. And other misc. errands. I managed to squeeze in a visit with Makato, my newest niece and get some pictures of her, as well as the Otas. It was a very full day!

Wednesday/Thursday, August 2-3, travel day. My flight to LA was at 8am, so we had to get up early. Everything went without a hitch. I didn’t get an upgrade this time, but the flight was alright. The only bad thing was that customs in Germany confiscated all of my Portugese Sausage and Kalua pig!!! No meat was allowed. I was so depressed. They wouldn’t have stopped me except that I looked like I had an awful lot of luggage for one person, so they took me aside. Not only did I not get my sausage, I had to PAY them for it. Geez. I was really sad. Other than that, I was happy to see Michael (he met me at the airport) and the boys. I was hoping for big smiles from them and they run me down with hugs and kisses, but alas, it was like I never left and they looked at me but quickly got distracted by the open kitchen. Humpf!

For pictures of my trip, click here.

We went on a vacation in Italy and I decided to do one big post, since the days were pretty repetitive. We left Monday midday, since we couldn’t check in until about 3pm. We had only about 30 minutes of bad traffic, and the rest was fine. Michael was always anticipating lots of traffic and I kept insisting that it was going to be ok, and it was. We got to Val Gardena in about 3 hours, I was kind of amazed that it wasn’t longer.

The hotel that we stayed at (Cavallino Bianco) was awesome! It was our first Kinderhotel stay and I think we chose the best place. It is located right across from the Seiser Alm lift. The views were amazing and they had lots of things for the kids to do.

Our days consisted of swimming in one of their many pools. Amazingly, we can still squeeze them into last year’s bathing suits. I guess their butts didn’t grow much since then. They had a splash pool that had 3 depths that was just perfect for the boys. One was at their ankles, the next was at their knees, then the deepest was at their butt. Rowan liked going in and out of the pool, he was too funny. Elijah slipped a couple of times and got a mouth full of water here and there, but his favorite were the big pools. He liked it when we put him on an edge, and we would count 1, 2, and on 3 he would scoot off the edge and into the water, into our arms. He loved that and wanted to do it over and over.

We also made sure not to miss any meals. Everything is all inclusive, so we tried to get the most for our money. There was breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner. The food was awesome! The dinners were gourmet and not always to my taste, but at least I felt like it was “free” so I tried everything. They had high chairs all around and bibs for the boys and for dinner, they had our table all set up for us. We decided not to bring the boys to dinner with us since it clashed with their sleep time and we could have it “low stress”. On the last night we did go ahead and bring them and I think they did pretty good. I’m sure all the wait staff was glad to see us go because we always left a mess behind us. The bread was awesome, I loved their baguettes!

There was babysitting also included but the boys didn’t do too well. We thought we could just drop them off and we could go do a climb or something, but the boys had other plans. At first, they could only stand it for 2 hours, and gradually it became more, so by the end, they stayed in for about 5 hours. If we stayed another week, we could’ve gone out more. The women who watched them were great, very energetic even though they watched so many kids. The problem was that the boys either need to have a familiar place or familiar people, they don’t do well when there’s neither. They had a great play area with lots of toys and they even had a couple of goats that the boys liked to visit.

We also made it up to the Seiser Alm, but because of poor planning, we went to late and everything was shutting down. The boys did get to play on the slide, this one actually had an easy way to get up it so they could do it over and over and over. They learned how to keep their body up while going down. Before, Rowan would throw his weight back and hit his head.

Michael also got in a day of climbing. It was hard for me because I had to take the boys down for breakfast, lunch and snack by myself. Watching two babies is pretty hard, especially since the high chairs didn’t have belts to strap them down. I don’t know why they didn’t. But I managed. He was going to take another day, but he had a really full day and decided not to. I agreed!

Other than that, we went into the town a little, did some Christmas shopping, and enjoyed it. In the evenings, the stores opened from 9 - 10:30!!! We were flabbergasted! We’re so used to the 8pm shutdown that it was a nice change.

We were hoping to get to see our friend, Daniel, but due to his hectic schedule and us not able to really leave the hotel, we didn’t get a chance. Next time!

Overall, even though we didn’t get to do adult stuff, the hotel was absolutely great and the boys had a lot of fun. We hope to return next year where they have an even “funner” program for older kids.

I appologize to my dear readers that I haven’t been keeping up with my blog these last few days. With the party going on and Michael and his parents arriving it has just been crazy! So, here’s one big update. We had a really nice Thanksgiving, Michael was finally reunited with us and it was good to see him. I didn’t bring the boys with me to the airport, so when we went home, he finally got to see them. Rowan immediately gave him a big smile and welcome, but Elijah was suspicious! He stared and stared and was like “I know you I think, but I don’t know from where”. It was really cute and then he finally gave in and said “OK, I guess you’re a good person”. There were lots of people at Thanksgiving at Aunty Elaine’s house. Unfortunately, Michael’s mom got sick with something and couldn’t attend. It was really sad because she had 1 day here to get over jet lag and then the next day she was sick. Tom was fine though and he joined us. It was a very different Thanksgiving for him, he’s used to people sitting around the table and having “regular” food. We had lots of different foods and my dad steamed some crab for him so that he could at least eat something. The boys were very well behaved and they really like when there are lots of people around to play with. It’s almost like they like to entertain everyone. It’s great to have so much family because they immediately take over watching the babies for you so that I can visit with other people without worrying about them. Michael got tired pretty quick since he’s been travelling so much so he went back with Tom and the boys (the boys were tired too) while the rest of us stayed. Let’s see…what else happened…Michael was really amazed at how much the boys can move around and how expressive they are now. Now on to the party - it was great! Of course I couldn’t enjoy it because I was running around here and there, but we had lots of guests and they all seemed to enjoy themselves. Stacy and Tanya did an excellent job with the food, and all my cousins pitched in to pick up stuff or bring things to the party. We have such great family and friends. The one thing that I do feel bad about is that I couldn’t visit with people more, I wanted to talk to my friends more, but was pulled away to deal with one fire or another. The weather held out for us, I was a little worried that it would rain since it rained pretty hard the day before. But we were lucky and it was just cloudy with a couple of showers. All in all, everything went smoothly! What a relief! Now we can get back to concentrating on the big move…

Visiting with the Big Island Gang

Today we had to get up super early (3 AM) to go to the Big Island. The boys were not happy, while I was feeding Rowan, he bit me really hard! He hasn’t done that in awhile. It was not a very good way to start the day. We got to the airport kind of late, but in time to make it. My mom took Elijah and my dad and I waited to check our bags in (carseats + 1 bag). It took forever because there was only 1 woman helping everyone and everyone had some problem. The people in front of us had 1 person in their party who booked the wrong flight (PM instead of AM) so they had to change their ticket. Then we forgot to check in 1 bag, so she had to add the bag to our ticket. We also asked for plastic bags for the car seats and she had to run and get those. I felt bad for adding to the problems. Then there was someone else with a problem and I forgot what it was. Then, in the security line, it was taking forever so we went over to the Aloha side (big mistake) and they asked me for my infant pass. I was like “Oh, I need an infant pass?” So, I had to go back to the counter, wait in line again (thank goodness it was short). I was standing at an open counter and I thought the people would help me after they are finished with the other people. Apparently not. So, I had to move and stand in back of the other person (who got in line after me). I heard the lady say “It’s no guarantee that you’ll get on the 5:30am flight, they are boarding now”. My flight was at 5:25, so I was in a panic now! I asked for the infant pass, they gave it to me and then I asked if they could get me through security. They took me to the First Class line (thank god) but the TSA person was super S-L-O-W and did lots of things that the normal security people don’t. She just seemed to take forever, or maybe it was just my perception of time was bad. After I got through, I ran down to the gate and made it. Apparently, my mom didn’t have an infant pass either, but they didn’t ask for it. Geez! The flight was ok, we had them as lap children since the flight is only 40 minutes. Elijah fell asleep almost right away, but Rowan stayed up until the very end when we were landing and then closed his eyes. We got our stuff off the belt then had to go pick up our rental car. I realized on the way over that I don’t have insurance anymore so I should either buy the extra insurance (which I was going to do) or let my dad be the primary driver. After going through all the motions of signing me up as the driver, the guy said that it would be $10 more to add my dad as another driver. Since he was going to be driving, he should be the primary driver. It wasn’t simple to change, he had to basically start over and use my dad’s license and credit card. That took forever. In the meantime, I was watching my mom who was looking after the boys and noticed that she was SMOKING right next to them. Ooooh, I was so mad! She knows that she’s not supposed to smoke around them and I have been pretty liberal with their smoking so far (don’t make them change their clothes or go across the street). After we got the car, we picked her up and I scolded her about smoking and she gave some excuse about being down wind from them. I was super upset. Anyways, it wasn’t too bad putting the car seats in because the car had the LATCH system. We drove the usual route - first to the Hilo Farmer’s Market to pick up flowers, then to my dad’s father’s grave, then to my Uncle Antoku and Aunty Kay’s house in Hakalau. We had a really nice visit there, they had a nice breakfast all ready for us, it was fun talking to them. After that, we went to Aunty Fumi’s house, at first we stopped by, but the boys were still sleeping, so we drove around a bit then came back. This was the first good sleep they had, we didn’t want to wake them. We had lunch at Fumi’s and had a nice visit with all of them, Christian, Aunty Pat and Tricia also joined us. It was good to see everyone and they can’t make it to the boys’s party, so we thought it would be good to bring the boys to them. The boys were pretty good throughout the day, they did get fussy here and there, mainly because they haven’t had hardly any good sleep. After we left, I wanted to stop by their house in Hilo since I don’t remember it, but we didn’t have time. We headed straight for the airport. Not as much irritations going back home, and it was pretty painless. I carried Elijah with me and my parents had Rowan a few rows behind. I sat next to a couple from Maryland and they adored Elijah. Whenever he got a little fussy, I lifted him up and down and he really liked that. I’m sure everyone enjoyed seeing a smiley baby go up and down. There were some German speaking women behind me so I talked to them as we were getting off the plane and one woman said “Can you wait until June to move?” The weather is cold and wet! We got home and I was tired but then got a 2nd wave of energy and decided to finish the boxes for the party favors. I finished stamping up all the boxes!

Patient babies eating their lunch

I was able to get a couple hours of sleep last night (thank goodness for that), and got up around 3am with Michael to finish up packing. We pretty much have everything together, and we’re having a “free for the taking” garage sale today after Michael drops me off. We got the boys up at about 5am and fed them, then went to the airport. Everything went very smoothly and on time. We got checked in and got a gate pass for Michael. The lady at the counter was kind of reluctant to give him one, but haha, much to her chagrin(sp?), we got one. We went to Qdoba to get a breakfast quesadilla, but it was WAY too hot and WAY to big. I guess last time we got the small order. After I ate about 1/4 of mine, I realized that it burnt the entire interior of my mouth. Why is it that you don’t realize that you’re burning your mouth until it’s too late? We then got to the gate and they were already pre-boarding. I was hoping to get my seats changed, but the lady said it was too late and that we would have to work it out with the other passengers. We were in the very last row and it really sucked to have to carry 2 carseats all the way through the plane, come back through all the people trying to board, and then go back in with babies. The stewardesses were very nice and helped me board. So, as far as seating, I had 2 seats together and 1 in the window seat in the row in front. I wanted to get a row of 3 seats. The lady sitting in the aisle seat next to me also had a lap child, and it wouldn’t be good for her to be in the window seat. The people in the row in front refused to move seats because the guy would be uncomfortable. So, luckily, the lady in the aisle seat in front of them moved to my window seat, and the aisle lady with the baby moved to her seat and I got all 3 seats to ourselves. It was a real pain to get the car seats in, mostly because I haven’t done it before. When I went back out, I decided to wait awhile because there was a long line of people waiting to board and it didn’t make sense to just stand there when I can spend more precious moments with Michael. Although I guess they weren’t so precious because I was still mad at the people in front of me and also the babies were getting fussy because they were tired. Finally the line died down and I started down the runway and Michael said “bye then”. And I realized that he wasn’t coming with me. I forgot!!! So I came back out and gave a proper goodbye, as we won’t see each other until Thanksgiving! Sniff. The boys were very fussy and I was worried about the rest of the flight. One of the stewardesses helped me carry the boys back and then I got them strapped in. We all fell asleep almost immediately and didn’t even feel the plane take off. When I woke up, it was already 1.5 hours into the flight. That’s how tired we were! The boys did really well the rest of the flight, not hardly complaining. The sucky part was that because the jerks in front of me (who didn’t want to move seats) put their seats back, there was about 4 inches of space between the babies feet and the backs of their chairs. I did my best to make them uncomfortable by constantly retrieving toys and having to push on their chairs as well as encouraging Rowan to scream excitedly about a toy. Anyways, by the time the flight was over, Elijah fell asleep but Rowan could not. We waited until everyone was off and I had 3 of the stewardesses help me unload. Man, I had a lot of stuff - 2 backpacks, 1 carry on luggage, 2 big car seats and 2 babies w/blanket paraphenelia. What was the first thing we had to do? Go to my mom’s office to show them the babies! Poor Rowan, he wsa so fussy and tired. Getting the car seats in the car was also a pain. I was totally sweating whenever I was done. By the way, it is very humid here! Rowan fell asleep almost immediately after my mom fed him some milk. Elijah stayed up to make my mom laugh with all his farting noises (see the video). We went to Kozo Sushi (of course) and I got my Ebi Cucumber rolls. Yummy! We spent the day at home, I was hoping to get a nap, but Rowan kept all of us up. He cried and cried and could not sleep. We took off all of their clothes because it was so hot for them. Then Rowan became overtired and couldn’t sleep even more. My mom couldn’t take it and tried to pick him up and get him to sleep by rocking him, but that didn’t work. So, we just put him down in the living room and he entertained himself while we ate dinner and I made some baby food for the next few days. Finally, I got them up one last time and fed them some pears and then put them back down and swaddled Rowan. He fell right asleep! Poor baby, at least it was a little cooler and hopefully the swaddle wasn’t too warm. They slept like logs! I fell asleep around 8, got up at 10 to watch Monk but then fell asleep before it even started!

Lynn getting the hang of knitting

This morning I heard Rob open the garage door at some god awful hour, but I wanted to be sure I said bye to him so I stumbled out of bed and ran out. He probably thought I was a crazy woman. After saying bye, I crawled back in bed for another couple of hours. We made breakfast burritos again, they are so good. I hope Lynn really liked them and not just eat them to humor me. :) She did a really funny thing during breakfast - she shook the orange juice container when it didn’t have the cap on and it spilled everywhere. She called it a “chemo brain” moment. Hmmm…I think I’ve done that several times, only with salad dressing. After breakfast, we went to a yarn store to pick up some cotton yarn since I was going to teach her how to make washcloths. It was one of my first projects and so many people like it that I still make a ton of them. They are really great quick and easy things to make. We also went to Party City and I picked up a bunch of stuff for goodie bags. I can’t believe how much cheap crap there is out there. Then we went to have lunch at a place called “Corner Bakery” and we split two sandwiches, I especially liked the panini one, I can’t remember what it was called, but it was GOOD! We went back home and I taught lynn how to cast on stitches and how to do a knit stitch. I told her to work on the scarf first, but the yarn that she had made it difficult to see the stitches, so it was much easier for her to work on the washcloth. I did a couple of rows and then had her do it. It was really awkward for her to do it, and it brought back a lot of memories for me. I remember it really vividly how hard it was at first. It took a couple of all nighters for me to get the hang of it. Lynn actually did very well and by the time I had to go, she totally got it down. According to her blog though, she forgot how after I left! I got to the rental car place in record time and they even gave me $20 for making me wait so long whenever I picked the car up. I love the Burbank airport, soooo much better than LAX. If you have the choice, I say totally go with Burbank. The flight was uneventful. At Sea-Tac, I rented a minivan to get home. Since we sold both of our cars, we needed one to hold us over until Michael left on Saturday. It was a very comfortable car, but too big for my tastes. The good thing was that it was super easy to get the car seats in there. It was nice to be home, but there is a billion things for us to do. Namely, go through all the junk in my office!

If you would like to read Lynn’s account of the day, click here.