Tuesday, October 13, 2009

We're back!!

Ok, to say I've been lax with the blog is an understatement :) Over the next couple of nights (barring work stuff coming up) I am going to update the blog for the last 4 months. There are several videos that need to be uploaded too, so check back for those as well. Plenty of entries for your reading pleasure!

Friday, July 24, 2009

Awesome trip to San Francisco!

For my 40th birthday, Kevin got us tickets to the King Tut exhibit that is currently in SF. (If you have a chance to go, tickets are half price right now). We decided to make a weekend out of it and contacted my good friend Eric to find out the most kid-friendly area in SF. Turns out he and his family would be in Sweden (Anna is Swedish) for a long vacation and they very kindly offered us their home for our weekend. We can't thank them enough for their generosity. Having a place to put Cam down for naps and bedtime was so wonderful (without having to pay for 2 hotel rooms!) Their home was amazing! Gorgeous turn-of-the-century home, beautifully renovated, typical San Francisco. They were super close to a ton of fun stuff, and we took advantage of it all that weekend!

Cam had a blast running down the hallway of their home! He "played" soccer a lot that weekend. He also had a great time with all of Lucas + Holly's toys - totally different than his stuff at home. :)

We arrived mid-afternoon on Friday, and it was like we were in another world! It was soooooo cold up in SF. It was triple digits in Paso when we left; mid-60s in SF! Luckily we'd planned ahead and brough long pants and sweaters with us :) After boiling at home, it was a nice change.

Saturday morning we got ready and went to the King Tut exhibit. Luckily Eric + Anna's place was really close to the Museum of Science, so it was a quick trip with easy parking. Cam did really well in the exhibit, which was super crowded. No strollers were allowed, so Cam and Daddy did a quick tour then waited outside in the awesome park inbetween the 2 museums while I took a little more time. We unfortunately didn't have our camera with us for this outing, and we missed some great shots of Cam watching a large group of people doing Tai Chi. He also loved watching a group of people practicing being a Chinese dragon but he had the most fun running around inside of an emtpy water fountain with some other kids.

After King Tut, we explored the area a little bit and came across this amazing carousel. Cam loved it! He rode it three times AND WE DIDN'T HAVE A CAMERA! So bummed! We'll have one next time. :)

Later, after Cam's nap, we explored the Haight and took a walk back to the park we'd been at in the morning (the carousel was closed, we were all so bummed). Note the wool sweater and that Cam was totally wrapped up in a blanket :) We had a blast - Cam ran around and totally wore himself out.

On Sunday morning we walked around the park by Eric + Anna's - the sun was out and it was gorgeous! We started our drive south around Cam's naptime but he didn't sleep well, and we decided to stop at a park in Willow Glen to have a picinic lunch and play for a bit before the rest of the drive back to Paso. It was a terrific weekend away from home and THANK YOU again to Eric, Anna, Lucas and Holly for letting us stay at their fabulous home!

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Ball explosion :)

Cam having a blast throwing balls out his his playpen/ball bit. And he helped pick them all up too!

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Cam's first Emergency Room visit - whee

Who knew "Ring Around the Rosie" could cause so much grief??

Cam was playing at daycare today, the aforementioned "Ring Around the Rosie" when he tripped, fell, and hit his head on some concrete at the base of a fence post, that for some insane reason was NOT buried underground like all the *other* fence posts in the yard. It was a pretty good gash, and like head wounds tend to be, quite bloody.

The ladies at daycare called us right away (thank gosh we live 2 mins from daycare!) and we dashed over. The gash was still bleeding, and it looked deep, so we ended up at the Emergency Room in Templeton. Ninty minutes, many tears, many under-the-breath curses by the parents at the ER staff for making a little kid wait, one staple later, we headed home.

Luckily for Cam (and us), there was no loss of consciousness, no vomiting, so the ER doc could rule out concussion quickly (plus not make us wait around even longer for an MRI). Cam got a surgical glove balloon for his troubles :) The scar will be hidden by his hair, and if he ever decides to go the "bald and sexy" look, I'm sure the scar will just make him more handsome :)

The staple came out 10 days later at a local doc's office, with few tears. Brave boy!!!


We figured we had a couple more years before christening the ER but that's our boy - doing stuff ahead of the curve :)

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Cam and the doggies



Every once in a while Cam comes home from daycare full of vim and vigour :) Tonight was one of those nights! After racing around inside, he went outside to chase the dogs - sans shoes as he went out the doggie door - and had a blast. Funnily enough, it only wound him up instead of tiring him out - c'est la vie!

ps
Happy Birthday, Grampie!

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Best buddies :)

We met Cam's best buddy from daycare, Sebastian, and his mom, at Sherwood Park this mornig for some fun before it got too hot. We had a great time!!! :)

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Happy 4th of July

We were invited to spend the 4th of July up in San Jose with our friends Derek, Evelyn, Adrianna and Garret. It was a gorgeous day up there - mid 80s - their friends Mark, Cherry, and their two daughters joined the fun too.

Cam's 4th of July was all about food and fun :)

After some time playing in the pool with the kids (without getting wet, natch), it was popscicle time.





Next: back to the pool.







Then it was time for a 4th of July themed Jello bowl! (no alcohol :) )









After Jello, it was time to play house with all the kids running in and out. Amazingly, no fingers were smooshed in all the excitement.




The kids' sugar was low, so cupcakes were brought out for everyone to enjoy.






Hope everyone had an awesome 4th of July!!!

Friday, June 19, 2009

Just for Cousin Isley :)



All your hard work paid off: Cam now has a new parlour trick - animal noises :)

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Family BBQ!

Since this is Cam's first trip to the East Coast ever, Auntie Trina + Grammie put together a family gathering so that Kevin and Cam could get to meet some of the family. Dave + Danielle generously offered to have it at their beach house (right across the street from where we are staying) that is literally on the beach, so we all hoped for some good weather :)

Sadly, the weather didn't cooperate - the day dawned grey and raining, and it stayed that way :) C'est la vie! The party got moved inside (thank you again, Dave + Danielle!!) and about 40 great aunts, great uncles, cousins (first, second, removed, etc :) all arrived despite the awful weather.

Dave gamely bbq'd outside in the rain with Lionel and I did a really crappy job of introducing Kevin + Cam to everyone (about half the family) as the gathering was a bit overwhelming for Cam, so he + K were outside quite a bit, despite the weather. Cam's never been around a group this large (and loud, lol) before, so he took it in small doses. He got a lot more comfortable much later in the afternoon when there were fewer people there and overall everyone had a lot of fun. It was so terrific to see everyone!! We were all really grateful that so many of the family were able to come see us in New Hampshire - thank you notes go out this week, I promise :)

Trina, Jamie + Isley stayed over again, as did Grammie + Grampie, but we had to say goodbye to Chris and Tyler :( So glad you could come visit us!! Now we just need to drag all of you out to CA :)



ps
just so everyone in the family knows: everyone has a standing, open invitation to visit us in California. Anytime! Just give us a couple of hours to clean up the house :)

Saturday, June 13, 2009

East coast visit

We're here! After much planning, we are on the east coast in lovely Seabrook, New Hampshire, comfortably esconsed into Dave + Danielle's lovely beach house :)

Our red-eye from SFO was slightly delayed (typical SFO - fog so only 1 plane could land at a time) and Cam was awake waaaaay too late, but he eventually fell asleep on the plane. Keeping him asleep was a challenge as we apparently were traveling with a bunch of insomniacs, but we made it to Boston (on time, no less) and arrived to gorgeous sunshine and clear skies. We'd checked weather.com before the trip, so the sunshine was a nice surprise!


We made it to the beach house around 9:30am. By 1pm, Trina, Jamie + Isley had joined us, with Chris + Tyler shortly thereafter and there was *still* room at the beach house for more :)

Since this was the first nice weather for everyone else, we spent most of the afternoon either out in the backyard or down on the beach. It was so nice for Cam to meet Tyler for the first time, plus he seemed to remember Isley as well. They are all having fun together :) Both Tyler and Isley all were kind enough to bring toys from home for Cam to play with while he's visiting - so far the Baby Einstein flash cards are the biggest hit.

Looking forward to dinner with everyone and (once the kids go to bed) Chris brought champange for us all - yum!!!

Sunday, May 31, 2009

Cam and the doggie door


Going out :)


Coming in :)

Momo kite

Cam is chattering up a storm and a lot of it is "mommy/daddy" decipherable, but he's getting better every day. He'll be paakin' the caa in no time :)

Elmo is still an object of great affection and Cam refers to him as "Momo". While at Walmart on Saturday (I know, I boycotted for over 3 months. Trying to boycott again.) I found an Elmo kite, total cheapo thing, for $1, and got it for the boys. I should have looked to see if I could find 2 of them because of 1) the learning curve to put it together, and 2) Cam's fascination with anything daddy touches - best to have 1 for each of them.

While daddy tried to get Momo up in the wind tunnel of our backyard, the long green streamers at the bottom proved to be a ton of fun for Cam as he chased them around. He eventually got a hold of one and got both himself and daddy tied up pretty good. After K got them both untied, Cam got a hold of the streamer (started w/2, down to 1 now) again they were both wound up again in 2 seconds flat. The last time Cam wrapped the streamer around his throat! (everyone is fine) Momo, of course, bounced around on the ground, stepped on and is in quite sad shape, but the 4th try got him up in the air.

I'll look for another one next month :) For a buck it provided a lot of entertainment, mostly good!

Things Cam learned in May

1. How to get in and out of his crib on his own (not gracefully but that will come)

2. How to open the refrigerator on his own (that is one heavy door!)

3. How to open the door to the garage on his own (repeat: that is one heavy door!)

4. How to use the doggie door to elude mommy and daddy after bathtime and go running around the yard in his bare feet. Once he figured out the doggie door, its now *his* door to use too :)

Video of the doggie door antics soon...

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Goofball at dinner

Cam's learning to make the "Home Alone" face - that's what daddy taught him over Memorial Day weekend :)

He thinks he's pretty funny. (this refers to both of them)

Monday, May 25, 2009

Cam's wagon: multipurpose :)

Typically you'd see a photo of Cam in his wagon (which he can get in and out of on his own very nicely now :) ) but for our Memorial Day BBQ w/our wonderful neighbours, we had to repurpose it to bring over some goodies to share :) Cam had a blast playing with Ryan and we all enjoyed the boys antics (mostly a lot of chasing and yelling). Thanks for having us over, Awesome Neighbours! :)

ps
yes, that is Cam's butt sticking out of Ryan's toy drawer.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Boogie down, young man :)



Cam has learned when we get the video camera out that he can see himself on it. So once he sees the camera, he stops what he's doing (which is what we're filming, lol) and runs over to see himself in the monitor. While very cute, it makes it hard to catch those special moments, like him boogieing down while watching himself dance in the
reflection of the tv. :)

Friday, May 8, 2009

Cam and the building blocks


Cam's teachers at daycare have mentioned how good Cam is with the building blocks there, and one has said that it can be an indication of excellent math skills (Cam definitely gets that from daddy but he gets his prolific artistic talent from mommy :) ).

At home, he's quite fond of building tall things, then knocking them down (that's the fun part!). What's so surprising is how tall he can already build stuff - just about as tall as himself, and on a couple of occasions *taller*.

Saturday, May 2, 2009

You reap what you sow


Cam and both doggies are all still trying to come to terms with each other. Its a love/moderate dislike relationship for all. Once Cam can talk better, I think that will change. But for now, unless Cam has food, Charlie and Chance seem to want to keep a bit of distance between themselves and Cam. Much to Cam's chagrin. Listen to the very end of the video :)

Don't call the ASPCA :)


We *think* that eventually Cam and Charlie will be best of friends. Right now, Charlie tolerates Cam but seems much more fond of him when Cam's got food :) Like any good golden retriever!!

Friday, May 1, 2009

Don't read anything into this


Cam playing with George in the hall closet. LOL about his "plumber's crack". We feed this kid a lot of food but he's still hovering around 30-30.5lbs. Must just be in a growing taller phase :)

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Birthday Fun with Mommy

We are up in San Jose to celebrate Mommy's milestone birthday! A fun bbq at the park by Evelyn + Derek's house this afternoon - the boys running themselves ragged at the amazing park. Ahhh - good times :)

If only we'd had video - Garrett and Cam were hysterical together. Cam tries to keep up with Garrett (who is 5 months older and 7 lbs heavier) and they both seem to want the attention of each other's parents :) Garret is part monkey; he climbs up the little rock climbing wall near the slide with ease. Just hoping Cam doesn't pick up on that, lol.

Sarah, Charles, Grant and James joined us too - so much fun! Sarah had her camera and got this cute shot of Cam - goodness only knows what he was looking at with such wonderment and confusion. Probably Garrett climbing up the rope gym - luckily Cam didn't try that! We had a blast with everyone (my friend Deb joined us too) and are really looking forward to the big birthday treat - Kevin and I are going to Sent Sovi in Saratoga for dinner. Just the two of us.

Sit down for this part, folks. You'd think it was the "going to dinner alone" part, but you'd be wrong.

Mike and Sherry (this was MIKE'S idea) are going to babysit Cam at their house tonight. Not sure if Hell has frozen over or if we should buy a *lot* of lottery tickets tonight!! :) Mike is our chauffer for the evening so we don't need to worry about imbiding too much wine (and also to escape the house in case Cam won't sleep). We're all staying over at Mike and Sherry's (doggies included) for the night and will go home in the morning.

Dinner with just the two of us. Wow. The last time that happened, I was about 10,000 months pregnant with Cam....oh, about 20 months ago :)

We can't wait! More details later.

ps
dinner was amazing, and even better, Cam slept the *entire* time we were gone. Apparently 6 neighbours on Mike and Sherry's street, plus Evelyn, were on call in case Cam got to be too much. We're glad to have averted any trouble and might have to try the babysitting thing again sometime. Thank you so much Kevin, Auntie Sherry and Uncle Mike!!!!!!!! You all made it an amazing, wonderful, perfect birthday!!!

Taking time to smell the flowers

Grammie and Grampie sent some gorgeous flowers to celebrate a milestone birthday today, so Cam has seen mommy and daddy smelling them. He tries to smell them, but ends up blowing on them like they are too hot to eat :)

Friday, April 17, 2009

No more Goldilocks

Kevin has taken to calling Cam "Goldilocks" because his hair had been getting a bit long and unruly. He got a trim today at Kids Cuts in Paso, after an unsuccessful attempt last Saturday at a regular salo in Paso and did pretty well because there was a dancing Elmo for him to watch :)

Still a cutie pie!

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Ready...set...go! (non-cheaters version)


When we picked up Cam from daycare today, he was playing a new game with a couple of other little kids in the room: all the kids stood on one side of the room touching the wall until Cam yelled "Go!" then they all ran as fast as their little legs would carry them to the other side. Too freakin' cute! Here Daddy and Cam are reenacting it for the camera :)

Ready...set...go! (cheaters version)


This is the companion video to the previous version. The only difference is Cam doesn't make it to the "go" part :)

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Easter egg hunt

Happy Easter! After Cam got up, we hid a half dozen big Easter eggs with little toys in them throughout the house for Cam to find. It took him a minute to realize what was going on, but he had a good time looking for them and trying to get them open :)

He got his first "car" - a Lightening McQueen. He loves it but still prefers Thomas the Tank Engine over all other toys. Except George, of course!

We think we are on the tail end of the ear infection, but he's still up quite frequently at night. The weather is nice, so we'll try to spend a bit of time outside playing with the doggies. Hope everyone has a wonderful Easter!



Friday, April 10, 2009

19 months flew by

Hard to believe Cam's rapidly headed to his 2nd birthday :) He's feeling a bit better today, although last night was a pretty rough night - he was up almost every hour. We're treating both ears with the antibiotic drops and hope he'll feel a lot better in the next day or so.

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Double owie

Bummed to share that Cam has a double ear infection. He slept horribly early this week, and on Tuesday we got a call from daycare saying he woke up from his nap with a fever. We got in to see the doc that afternoon and Cam has a double ear infection in the early stages. She has us using his antibiotic ear drops right now and we'll check in w/her early next week to see if we need to use amoxicillin too. Hopefully not!

We're going to keep things low-key this weekend, until we see our kid back to normal.

Have a wonderful Easter :)

Love,
M, K + C

ps
Happy Birthday, Leah!! I miss you!!

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Birthday party for a buddy

Today we drove up to San Jose to go to Garrett's second birthday party - Cam had a blast! The party was at The Little Gym (similar to the Wee Workout place in Paso Robles but, oh, about 10x as big!!). There were tons of mats and after Cam watched Garrett jump down from two stacked mats, he started trying to do that himself and pretty much mastered it by the time we left - we'll see just what he's climbing (and jumping off of) on at home this week :)

There were about 30 kids there, ranging in age from 1-8. Everyone had a great time and by the end of it, Cam was lying down on the gym mats saying "nite nite" :)

The car ride was great in both directions; seems that turning the seat around has made a huge difference and Cam slept pretty well, then hung out checking out the scenery until we got to our destination. He was happy to get home and let out a huge sigh when Kevin laid him down in his crib - he was probably tired of being in his carseat, lol.

We didn't bring the camera in with us but if we get any photos from Evelyn, we'll be sure to post them.

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Drive-by with Cheeze


Another parental indulgence - for a while, I've been thinking that Cam would enjoy one of the little kid lawnmowers that makes bubbles as you push it. At least, I (we) knew I'd (we'd) get a kick of watching him play with it. One somehow made it into my shopping cart at Target today, and viola! Instant happy kid with new toy!

This is a bit of video of him playing with it in the house; turns out, you have to push the thing *fast* in order to get the bubbles to come out, and Cam has needed a bit of time with it indoors to figure out manuevering it so it works in outside. As he passes Kevin with the video camera, Cam looks right up at the camera with the cheesiest grin :) It then gets really dark as K follows Cam into the kitchen where he crashes into the cupboards by the stove - no one was hurt :) Enjoy!

Friday, March 20, 2009

Cam's 18 month checkup

All went well at Cam's 18 month checkup today. Nothing major to report!

Stats
30.1 lbs / 91% (he basically hasn't gained any weight the last few months, although he's been eating like a horse, he's a lot more active so burns it all off)
35" tall / 98%
20" head circumference / 98% (his head hasn't grown since the last visit, but it was off the charts before now, so its nice to be ON the charts, finally!)

Monday, March 16, 2009

Paaaak the caaaah in the fraaag


Umm, the title pretty much says it all :)

Neither hail, nor sleet, nor closed door...



A bit of video of Cam riding his trike. He's not using the pedals just yet, prefers to push with his feet, but he gets a bit of speed going! Still figuring out the whole "turning" thing, but no dogs or grownups were injured in this video :) No doors were injured either.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Operation "Save the Tube" Success!

Quick note to let everyone know that all the good thoughts (and ear drops!) have made a huge difference for Cam - Kevin brought him to the ENT today for a recheck, found the tube clear and the infection gone in both ears! We're so relieved it turned out this way....were *not* thrilled with the possibility of another surgery for the Caminator so soon after the first. Cam was so good for the ENT doc today, too.

We're all still recovering from our trip to Kauai - the time change this weekend really did us in on our return home. No photos from the photog from the wedding yet but trying to wait patiently :)

Saturday, March 7, 2009

Good times :)

After our trip to Wiamea Canyon, Uncle Pat came over for a beer and to hang out for a while, which thrilled Cam to no end. They had a great time playing before Kevin took Pat back to his hotel to relax and pack for his early flight on Sunday (another 28+ hours of traveling ahead for him to get back to Macau).

Thanks for coming to Kauai, Uncle Pat!! Come visit this summer!

Wiamea Canyon

Yeah, its not supposed to be grey behind Cam and Kevin. It was overcast in general when we left to head up there, but halfway up, the fog rolled in and this is what it looked like at the top.

Click here to see what its really supposed to look like.

Friday, March 6, 2009

Fun at Brenneke Beach!

While Daddy, Uncle Pat, Grandpa and Grandma were ziplining today, Cam and I meet Derek, Evelyn and the kids down at Brenneke Beach. We started off on the slides, then worked our way down to the sand and water :)



Cam took a little bit to have fun playing in the sand. He did enjoy playing (read: knocking over sand castles :) ) after a little while but we had to keep him distracted so he didn't chase the chickens roaming around.



Afterwards, everyone came back to our place to get cleaned up. The kids had a blast playing together! Once we turned on Thomas the Tank Engine, all playing stopped and everyone quieted down to watch TV :)


Later on, Grandpa and Grandma came over to babysit Cam while we went out to dinner (for the first time since Cam was born!) with Uncle Pat to a really nice place in Poipu Village. Cam ended up getting to stay up until 10pm (long story) but went to sleep once we got home. Thanks to Grandpa and Grandma for giving us the opportunity to get out!

Another great day in Kauai! :)

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Here a Burke, there a Burke, everywhere a Burke

We all have the same last name now :)

More photos soon!

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Yay, Uncle Pat is here!

Big smiles, big hugs and Uncle Pat has a new shadow :)

Even though Cam hasn't seen Pat since last July, he was *thrilled* when he saw him standing in the doorway. The boys are currently on the lanai. The "big" boys are drinking beers watching the little one throwing Doritos to the chicken and various birds that have descended upon us.

One has already flown into, and right out of, the condo. Screen door now closed to prevent that from happening again!

Just another day in paradise.

Cam's new best friend

There is probably a very good reason there are so many free ranging chickens and roosters running around Kauai. We have no idea what it is but are sure its a good one.

Its a running joke that we've traveled 3,000 miles for all the kids to have so much fun chasing around chickens and not notice they are in such a beautiful location :)

Since we got to The Point at Poipu, there has been a chicken hanging around just outside our lanai. Its getting braver and braver, much to Cam's delight. I'm sure we'll be tossing bread to it at some point today.

Happy Wednesday!

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Kilohana Train Tour













We met Derek, Evelyn, Adrianna and Garrett over at the Kilohana Plantation for their train tour today. Both of the boys were excited to go on the train (they both are huge Thomas fans), despite the downpour we had just before we left the depot. Luckily we all brought rain gear!

During the plantation tour, they stopped the train to let everyone off to feed the wild pigs they have on the plantation. Needless to say, all the kids loved it! Cam loved throwing bread to the pigs, but it was close to lunchtime so he snacked on a couple of pieces too :)

The plantation train tour was pretty quick (although the perfect length for kids), about 45-50 minutes. Afterwards we all went to have lunch at a local deli that another passenger recommended - we bumped into him there, lol! The kids were all exhausted by the time that was over, so we brought Cam home for a nap, but since the kids were asleep in their car, Derek and Evelyn decided to drive up to Wiamea Canyon and had a terrific time. Adrianna woke up so she got to hike with each parent (one stayed behind in the car with the still napping Garrett).

After they got back, they walked over to our place (they are staying 3 speed bumps up Pe'e Road), we all walked over to the Grand Hyatt to see the grounds, and meet Auntie Sherry for a drink before dinner (Uncle Mike was napping after working a bunch the previous night - long story). All the kids had a good time with the stairs and tired themselves out (we're all getting a workout chasing everyone!), plus we had some very nice cocktails before heading back home to meet Dick and Janice for dinner at our place. Dinner wasn't fancy but we all enjoyed ourselves - we got to hear about D & J's amazing helicopter trip, which sounded like a lot of fun! Maybe the next time we visit we'll do that :)

All in all, another terrific day! Uncle Pat comes in tomorrow from Macau, China (after a 20+ hour plane trip - yikes!), so we'll see what we end up doing for fun. A trip to Brenneke's for Uncle Pat and Daddy will *definitely* happen!

Monday, March 2, 2009

Cam the Rockstar

We're in Kauai! I had to put up this picture - it has been WINDY here. All the locals say this is very atypical, and we hope that it will die down before the wedding on Thursday. Sometimes when it gusts it almost knocks over Cam! But the first photo is so funny because all his hair is standing on end. To us, anyway :)

We arrived a few days ago and Cam has settled in nicely. Our flight over went pretty well, despite some horrible flight attendents on American that seemed determined to not allow Cam to sleep (Derek and Evelyn also had similar issues on their flight to Kauai with American - MAJOR decline in this airline!), but according to the people sitting in front and on the side of us, Cam "was a rockstar" during the flight.

He slept a lot, probably 2/3 of the time, and God love the guy sitting in front of Cam's seat - Cam's feet could reach the seat and he mightly enjoyed himself kicking the heck out of it, much to our chargrin. Luckily for us, the owner of the seat was a super sweet fellow who was more than kind. We wish we'd gotten his name, or at least bought him a beer for being so terrific about Cam kicking his seat so much! If you're out there, Mr. Nice Guy in seat 26A on Flight 285 to Kauai from LAX on 2/28 - thank you again for your patience with our son!!

Get this: Cam slept through the *worst* landing I have ever had in an airplane in my *entire* life! Slept through the lights coming on, and most of the other people de-boarding. Slept through Kevin carrying him, still strapped into his carseat, out of the airplane and into the airport. Slept through attaching the carseat to the GoGo Babyz (thanks again for the rec, cousin Chris - was a blessing its been!), slept through us getting all our luggage and finally woke up when he got a blast of wind to his face as we were heading out to get our rental car. He was a trouper and we're so thrilled with how he's handled all of this so far :)

The Point at Poipu is GREAT! Our room (2bd/2bth) is wonderful, top notch all the way. We're on the first floor and have really enjoyed our patio/lanai area. Cam loves to watch the wild chickens run around - only a matter of time before he's chasing them all over the place :) The master bath is bigger than ours at home! Its been fantastic so far :) We did take a walk over to the Grand Hyatt today (its barely 5 minutes away) and its breathtakingly beautiful - the open air lobby has to be seen to be believed. We'll be having the wedding nearby there at Shipwrech Beach, and then taking all our guests to their lu'au. Mike and Sherry are staying here for this trip and we are *positive* they will enjoy themselves.

Today we meet Derek, Evelyn and the kids over at Brenneke Beach (there is a great man-made reef so there aren't any waves in the area, which is perfect for little kids. Kauai is known for the great waves which makes it awesome for surfing, but not necessarily little kids), and Dick and Janice joined us for a while too. Totally had a great time, got some good pictures. Got a terrific one of Dick and Janice we'll need to send them - they are having the trip of a lifetime, but we'll let them share their stories. All we'll say is, if you're down on your luck, you might want to ask if you can rub one of their bellies :)

That's all for now. We're having a wonderful time, the weather is terrific most of the time (except for the wind) and we're really enjoying ourselves. Kauai is so lovely, we would totally visit again. We know there are a lot of family members that aren't here with us, and we miss you all. Will try to post a few more photos soon and keep you up-to-date.

Love,
Kevin, Michelle and Cameron