Sarah's First Zoo Trip

Since we are living in an empty house for several weeks, Sarah and I have to find lots of fun things to do. Sarah loves animals of all kinds, so we decided it was time for a trip to the zoo. We got together we a couple of other moms and babies from our ward and had a great morning seeing the animals.

 The tiger was kind enough to come sit right next to the fence so we could get a good look at it. One of Sarah's favorite books is about tigers at the zoo. She knows that they say Rawr!

Checking out the elephants

The Honolulu zoo has an awesome children's section with farm animals, fish, and a petting zoo. Sarah had never seen a goat before, and I figured she would be scared. She jumped right in and started petting them. She absolutely loved it! I finally had to pry her away to look at the other animals.

Fishies! They had some of the biggest koi I had ever seen.

There was a tunnel to crawl inside and look at the fish tank. Sarah thought that was pretty fun.

Guinea pigs, or, as Sarah says, "kitties!"

The Honolulu zoo is pretty small, but it was just right for us to see in a morning before nap time. I can't wait to take her to see more animals. It was so much fun seeing how excited she was. Thanks, Paula and Alishia for spending the day with us!

Hickam Dog Beach

At the end of a long, hot Saturday, we felt like going to the beach. We remembered that we hadn't been to the dog beach on the Air Force base since we first moved here, and we thought Sarah would love it. It is a very unusual beach, in that it is on a mud flat that makes it so you can walk half a mile from shore. The water right along the shore is only a foot or so deep and has little wave action. Add to that the fact that there are always dogs there and you have the perfect baby beach.

 Hand this girl a bucket and a shovel and she is in heaven. I love that she has moved on to the playing with sand stage. It is much more fun than the "try to prevent her from eating sand" stage.

 Rocking her hat and sunglasses. She has also moved on to the accessorizing stage. It makes keeping sunglasses on her much easier.

 The dog beach is also a perfect place to watch sunset. I am sure we will be back here several times before we move. What a great way to end a Saturday!

Luau!

Our awesome friends, the Mattees, called us up one day to invite us to join them at Germaine's Luau because they had two extra tickets. Of course we said yes :)

The luau was right next to the beach, and the view was phenomenal. We watched them pull the roast pig out of the fire pit right before we all sat down to eat. The food was awesome. It was definitely the best Hawaiian food we have had on the island. 

The after dinner show was great too. Even Sarah, who was sick that night, got into it. She likes to shake her hips along with the Tahitian dancers. We have a little hula girl in the making. Thanks for a great night, Mattee family!

Eye Surgery #2 for Sarah

After Sarah's surgery last year, we hoped her eye problems would be taken care of and we would be done with surgeries. Unfortunately, she developed glaucoma after her first surgery, and the membrane that the doctor cut away from her pupil slowly grew back over the last year. We found out last Fall that another surgery would be necessary, and we decided to do it after Christmas and before we moved.

Sarah had to fast the morning of the surgery, so we stuffed her full of all of her favorite foods the night before. Doesn't a bedtime snack of spaghetti, rice, and peas sound delicious?

 It was nice that she wasn't aware of why we were at the hospital, so we didn't have to deal with so much fear and anticipation. This was Sarah playing in the waiting room while we were checking in.

 By the time she had her temperature taken (by far the most traumatizing moment of the day. Thermometers are evil!) and got changed into her much-too-large hospital jammies, she was thoroughly scared and grumpy. Never fear: the anesthesiologist came along with some happy medicine to calm her down before they took her back. 

 Within 5 minutes, everything was hilarious. It was pretty funny to watch our intoxicated baby.

 She just got heavier and heavier until she was mostly asleep. She didn't care too much when the nurse came to take her back for surgery. It was scary handing my baby over and just walking out of the room without her. No fun at all.

 They told us that the surgery would take around an hour and a half. By the time they finally came to get us 3 hours later, we were both pretty anxious. I was very grateful to snuggle my baby up and be the first thing she saw when she woke up. She wasn't a very happy camper. The surgery went well. They were able to correct the glaucoma and remove the membrane blocking her vision again. We hope that this will be her last surgery, but we will see what the future holds. 

 She did great with her recovery. She absolutely hated the eye drops we had to give her 10 times a day, but she miraculously left the eye shield alone for the whole week she had to wear it. That was a huge blessing. 

Later, we had to go back to the hospital for another sedation so that Sarah could have an MRI to make sure that there wasn't a tumor in her eye causing the abnormal growth. Any time a doctor pulls out the big C word, it gets pretty scary. We were very relieved to learn that there was no evidence of a tumor in Sarah's eye. 

Working on Sarah's vision continues to be a challenging journey, but we are very blessed with good doctors. We patch for about 3 hours a day, which gives Mommy & Sarah lots of play time together. That will probably continue until she is 8 years old or so. In the end, we know all of it will be worth it when it allows her to see!

Broken Foot

One night, I was stressing about Sarah's upcoming surgery, which was the next day, when Kelson called on his way home from the church, where he had been playing basketball. I thought he was calling to let me know he was on his way home. Instead, he was calling to tell me that he was going to the ER because he was pretty sure he had broken his foot. Great. We just can't stay away from Tripler Army Medical Center. It is a fun place to hang out.

 This is what I saw when Kelson finally got home after midnight. Sad.

Within a couple of days, his foot was huge and discolored all over. He had a fracture and a bunch of soft tissue damage in his foot. Church basketball is a dangerous sport. Since he can't really navigate around the ship on crutches, he was sent to the Air Operations Center on the Air Force base for two months of light duty. We were pretty disappointed about his injury, not just because he was injured, but because it made it pretty tough for us to do active things for the last couple months of our stay in Hawaii. The doctors say he should heal up just like new, though, so that is the most important thing.

Moving + The Joy of Puddles

The big day finally came. It was time for the movers to take all of our belongings away. Since it will take several weeks for everything to make it to Virginia, we decided to send our things ahead of us by about 6 weeks. That means we will be camping out in a mostly empty house with loaner furniture for 6 weeks. Fun!  It took the movers 2 days to pack and load all of our things, and the second day it rained all day. Sarah was getting pretty bored from not being allowed her normal free reign of the house, so we decided to let her play in the puddles. Needless to say, she was very happy.

Sufficient distraction to keep her patch on was a definite bonus. 

 Is there anything happier than a nice, clean puddle to splash in?

By the end of the day, we were all pretty much worn out. Kelson crashed for a nap on our wonderfully comfy loaner chair. 

Our First Valentine's Day Together

This may have been 5 Valentines Days since we started dating, but the Navy has claimed Kelson every year up until now. I couldn't believe it when he was actually going to be off duty on Valentines Day this year, and it was even a Saturday! Nice! We headed up to Haleiwa on the North shore to have some fun family adventures.

 We stopped at the old Sugar Mill in Haleiwa to look for a piece of art. Of course, we had to take some fun pictures with a giant rubber ducky while we were there.

For lunch, we went to Opal Thai, which had been recommended to us by several people and was featured on Diners, Drive-ins, & Dives. It was a very unique dining experience. They hand you a menu to look over, and then the chef comes out to talk to you. He takes away your menu, asks you a few questions about what you like and dislike, and then he decides what you need to have for lunch. He brings out an appetizer and then a main course. We had lettuce wraps followed by drunken noodles and a curry. It was pretty tasty and definitely out of the ordinary.
After lunch, we strolled through Haleiwa, went in to a couple of art galleries and some fun shops and explored an old cemetery. It was a fun Valentine's Day.