Monk Seal

Laura's father, Foster, is a retired DNR parks manager. He's not a big fan of sitting on the beach, but found a way to pass his time here on Kauai true to his DNR roots. He is a member of the monk seal response team. The monk seals are an endangered species here in Hawaii, and because of this are a highly protected animal. They come up onto sandy beaches to sun themselves on a regular basis. In order to prevent tourists from bothering them and chasing them away, volunteers rope off a large area around the seals to keep the people back. Foster was trained in this during his first trip here, and he has been the volunteer for Lawai beach each time he's come here. He is sort of "on call" all the time, should a seal come up on the beach. On our first full day here (yesterday) on of the seals came up. Here's a few pictures. You can learn more about the monk seals at: http://www.kauaimonkseal.com/

We Made It!!!

Aloha from Kauai!

It was a bit of an adventure getting to Kauai this year, but it actually went quite well. Wednesday afternoon/evening was a scramble to get everything ready. I decided to quick check and make sure Azalea's car seat would fit on the plane (since we bought her a seat, she needed to be strapped in a car seat). I found out the seats on our plane to Kauai were only 17" wide, and her seat is about 19" wide. We called US Airways to make sure the armrests raised up between seats (I've been on planes where they haven't), but the rep wasn't sure. I spent way too much time that evening trying to scramble and figure out if the seat would fit, or what we should do in the event that it wouldn't fit (i.e. run to the store at the last minute Wednesday night to get a narrower one... which are hard to come by). We decided to take the risk, and of course it was fine.

I started out the day Thursday by sleeping through my alarm (set to go off at 5). We were hoping to get to the airport around 6 for our flight at 7:30, but of course we weren't ready to go when Andrea came to drive us to the airport (Thanks a million Andrea!). We got to MSP a little late and of course the line for security was quite long. Fortunately, since we had Azalea an agent let us budge to the front of the line. That was pretty sweet. As far as luggage, that was a challenge. We had 3 checked bags and the port-a-crib checked. We had way too many carry-ons and the carseat as well to carry to the plane (mostly my job.... arrgh). In the end it was OK, but challenging when the person with the most luggage (Azalea, of course), couldn't help carry it.

As far as the actual flight, Azalea did great! She and daddy both slept for about 1/2 of the flight to Phoenix. We were a bit upset about our layover, since our flight from MSP got going about a half hour late. That shortened our connection to less than 45 minutes, or about enough time to get gate to gate, quick grab something to eat, and board the next plane. Fortunately (I guess) the flight to Lihue also got delayed about 30 minutes, so it gave Azalea a little time to run around in the airport and burn off some energy. Azalea did great for about the first 4 hours of the 7 hour flight to Lihue. We read some books, played on her "baby laptop," watched the wiggles, and had some snacks. Then she had about enough and was going a bit crazy. All of our tactics didn't really work to calm her down, so we "slipped her a mickey" (benadryl). She slept the rest of the way! When we landed she woke up and was in a great mood and full of energy. It was very nice. I hope the trip home goes as well.

Our first full day here (out of 2 weeks) is a great one so far. 75 and sunny, a bit breezy, but very, very pleasant. We can tell Azalea likes it here (just like mommy and daddy). We do need, however, to get her used to the time change a bit more (4 hours behind CST). She woke us all up at 4:30 this morning. So far we went for a walk, and hung out with the monk seals with Grandpa Foster, played by the fish pond, and are just enjoying the weather. This time we don't have any big plans for things to do while we're here. I think we're just going to relax! Azalea's sleeping right now, which gives me some time for this longer post. I plan to update this fairly often while we're here, so stay tuned if you're interested.

(Azalea chilling on the plane)

Valentine Fun

Grandma Debbie sent Azalea a Valentine's card, which she thought was pretty cool and kind of went nuts over. The mood kind of rubbed off on Kiki, then she went nuts as well.

This week's wrap

There hasn't been a whole lot going on around here. We've mainly been doing some housework with our spare time, still with the goal of getting the townhouse ready to sell. Unfortunately we fell behind on a few things and it looks like we won't get it on the market until next month sometime. This week our big project was to redo our walk-in closet. I pulled out our old wire shelves from the closet, then spackled and sanded the holes. We gradually accumulated more and more stuff from the closet that now resides in our bedroom. Yesterday (Saturday) we painted. My parents (Mays) came to watch Azalea, which was awesome, but Laura got kind of sick from the smelly paint and mom had to help out painting. We appreciate the help, and Azalea had lots of fun with grandma and grandpa. I think Grandpa Ron got roped into reading about 20 books to Azalea. Good times! Thanks again mom and dad! Today we were cleaning up a bit in the closet, and Azalea decided to "help out" (the pics below). Silly girl. Tomorrow we're installing fancy organizer stuff back in the closet.

We leave for Hawaii on Thursday! It's going to be an adventure with Azalea on the plane. We have just over 3 hr flight to phoenix, then an 1 1/2 layover, then just under 7 hours to Lihue. I have a feeling Azalea is going to go nuts on the plane, and people are going to really not like us. Wish us luck!

Here's Azalea doing a little "touch up painting."

Helping mommy wash the windows.

Fun at Grandma and Grandpa Hudson's House

Azalea has a lot of fun at the Hudson Grandparents' new house. Here's a few pics of Azalea at their place.

For some reason Azalea suddenly decided she really like to "surf the net." She sat at the computer and surfed on the Wiggles webpage for way too long.

She's turned into quite the techno-girl, surfing the web and "chatting" on the cell phone at the same time!

We came and helped Karen and Foster move a bunch of their stuff in a few weeks ago (and moved a bunch of our stuff in as well!). Here Azalea was "helping" Grandpa Foster put together a bed frame.

Ultrasound!

Laura had her 20 week OB ultrasound on Thursday. This was actually Laura's 3rd ultarsound already this pregnancy (done for various reasons). It was fun to see baby, the pictures were pretty good. We're having another girl! They said the baby was pretty big for this gestational age, but they did not change her due date (June 7th).

Here's baby at 10 weeks (above). She was only a little longer than an inch.




These two (above) were at 13 weeks.

Here's the new ones of our baby girl! (Above and two below)

Here's to prove it's a girl.

Family tragedy

We have had a truly tragic event on the May side of the family. Michael's cousin Shannon's 4 year-old boy Cole had a bad seizure earlier this week. He was taken to the hospital and remained unresponsive since admission. He was found to have a severe brain injury and his family had to make the decision to withdraw life support. Please pray for Cole, Shannon and Jesse, the Obriens and the extended May family as they/we grieve the loss of one of our precious children.

Cole had an illness which runs in the May family known as X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy. It is a terrible neurologic illness, which unfortunatlely has little for effective treatment. You can learn more about it here:

http://www.ulf.org/types/XALD.html