All I Ever Wanted!

You may have heard through my near-constant gloating that our little family just traveled to Hawaii.  We were using the tickets from the trip we were supposed to take last year pre-Livy but had to cancel so that I could enjoy some of the finest bedrest available.  So, instead of a romantic babymoon with virgin coladas of all flavors we had a family vacation with stiff alcoholic coladas of all flavors.

To answer the most common question, Olivia did wonderfully on the plane for both flights.  I'll write more about traveling with a baby later.

Until then, here are some highlights and lowlights of the trip.

Yay!

Highlight 1:  Dipping Olivia's toes into the ocean for the first time and taking her swimming throughout the vacation.

First ocean dip = wild tears

Second ocean dip = not much better...

... but the pool was a success.  Here we are - Rubenesque and Rubenesquer.

Catching NO rays thanks to Mama's religous application of SPF 70.

The next day at "Baby Beach" was a huge improvement.  She studied the water seriously.

The only time she cracked a smile was when I'd throw her in the air, catch her, and then dunk her in the water.  She prefers air to water, apparently.  Perhaps because she can breathe in it.  She's logical like that.

Highlight 2:  Critters

Our vacation was filled with amazing critters besides that which we conceived.  From our lanai we saw humpback whales spouting, eating, and playing every day.  The photos aren't nearly as impressive as the whales themselves were.  One morning a mama whale beat the living daylights out of the water's surface with her tail, stunning fish into stillness for her babies to more easily eat.  The next night, during a gorgeous and fiery Hawaiian sunset, a huge humpback breached in silhouette against the orange sky.  It was glorious.  We also saw a handful of turtles eating off of the rocks in front of our condo while we ate breakfast and had coffee on the lanai.

But our closest encounters came at the Maui Ocean Center aquarium.  There we met one of my very favorite animals, the wily octopus!  He was very active and entertaining.

Excuse me, miss, you seem to have a little something on your head.

She was far more interested in eating her baby carrier.

We saw lots of other great fishies, too, especially in the Tunnel O' Fish.

SLB liked the ray; Livy liked the Daddy.

Highlight 3:  I most enjoyed just hanging out with my two favorite people.

We enjoyed the oceanfront view from our lanai...

Breakfast

A bottle of wine named after our first-runner-up favorite baby

Sunset

And I most enjoyed this meal, where SLB learned what it really means to live with two loud, jovial, chubby ladies who demand all of the attention in any given room.  We had joked about it before, but he hadn't really confronted the reality behind these jokes until this meal.

Yes, that is a pile of peel-and-eat shrimp.  And, yes, that is a high-energy, squealing, giggling, spitting, screaming baby.  I don't know which horrified and embarrassed SLB more, Olivia's gleeful screeching echoing off of the restaurant's walls in a thousand reverberations of ear-splitting delight or my voracious dismembermering and consuming of a dozen or so seabugs.  It didn't help that as I ripped one of the shrimps' heads off its rust-colored brains shot out across my arm, chest, and face, nearly hitting the woman at the table behind me.  Unfazed, I wiped off as best as I could and kept snarfing as Olivia giggled ecstatically and kept screaming.

Needless to say, at SLB's behest we left early.  Livy and I had a great time, while SLB lost at least 30 days of lifespan due to his ladies' bad behavior.

So those are the highlights.  And the lowlights?  Well, considering the power of the highlights, they aren't really even worth mentioning.  No irritation or disappointment on vacation is worth remembering in the cold, hard light of real life, so let's just end on a high note, shall we? 

Yes.  Let's.

The End.