Baby Beach

On of the big reasons we picked Kauai of all the Hawaiian islands is because of a beach in Poipu called "Baby Beach." It is naturally sheltered from the large ocean waves by an arch of volcanic rocks and the water is extremely shallow. You should see all the families that go there! I was so excited for Claire to see her first beach because playing in the sand box has always been one of her favorite activities. Grammy made it even more awesome by bringing her special molds to make cupcakes out of sand. What a perfect gift!
Claire also enjoyed floating with a noodle or be pulled on a boogie board in the ocean. She is getting so brave in the water, floating and kicking. Hopefully, she will be a water girl just like her mommy!
What about the Carter man? Well, he spent his time in his car seat or in someone's arms under a large umbrella. No need for that delicate skin to get any sun exposure. The warmth did make for good napping, though.

Hawaii

Our trip to Hawaii didn't quite get off on the right foot. Alaskan Airline's computer system failed and left us stranded in the San Diego airport for 2 1/2 hours. This in turn made us miss our connector to Kauai and added another whole flight to our trip: instead of going San Diego to Maui to Kauai, we went San Diego, Maui, Honolulu, then Kauai. Had it been just Ari and I, I think we would have had more of a sense of humor. However, when traveling with two kids, two years old and under, things get more complicated.
Thankfully we have two of the best kids ever. As you can see, Claire was content to eat her noodles out of a take out container during a layover in Honolulu and the Carter man was happy just relaxing on daddy's lap. The whole day was exasperating to me, but I was certainly thankful that the kids had no expectations and it was just another adventure for them.

San Diego, Part III

On our third and final day in San Diego the weather was a bit chilly and wet so we had to find something indoors to do in the morning. We decided on the Children's Museum. Wow was it disappointing! Clearly in a city with beautiful weather all year long, people don't require fun things to do with their kids inside. While it boasted three floors of fun, the highlights were a giant chalkboard and a bouncy tunnel. Good thing we had more exciting plans for the afternoon/evening.
After lunch at California Pizza Kitchen (which was also a little disappointing, we don't have one in Cinci so I was looking forward to it but they took my pizza off the menu), we headed to see Lynne, Matt, Joseph, and Michael. Lynne is an old friend of mine, we were sorority sisters. It was great to see her sons, Michael I had not yet met. He and Claire are the same age. The kids played great together and we ate homemade pizzas. Yum! It was so good to see our friends, we were sad to leave.

San Diego Part II

Day 2 of San Diego was spent at Sea World. It was a little bit chilly, especially in the penguin encounter, but we muscled through. Do you see Kevin the dolphin? Claire was all talk when she said she wanted to feed him so Ari, Marshan, and I did all the feeding and dolphin petting. We also fed sea lions, saw the sea lion show, visited the penguins, and saw Shamu. Shamu was clearly Claire's favorite. She loved raising her hands in the air to signal him to splash and clapped at all his tricks. We treated her to new jammies with Shamu on them, too! As you can see, the Carter man was enthralled with the day. Something about getting carried around in the Baby Bjorn makes him fall asleep instantly!

San Diego, Part I

Early in my pregnancy with Carter, we planned a family vacation to take place at the end of my 3 month maternity leave. Ever the optimist, I planned for a full-term delivery. Since I obviously was mistaken, the trip then turned into a leave right after I go back trip. Regardless, we were all excited to head out on a long two city tour of San Diego and then Poipu, Kauai. My plan was kind of genius, we would start in California where we could somewhat acclimate to a 3 time zone change, explore a city that I have never seen and is kid-friendly, catch up with some college friends, and best of all spend some quality time with Ari's parents. As you can imagine, I was a bit nervous (okay a wreck) about planning to travel with two kids two and under. I must have read a bizillion articles about it. I thought the first flight would be a breeze since we were flying at bedtime and straight to San Diego. Surprise number 1, our flight was changed unbeknown to us, to a 1 stop flight with a detour in Salt Lake City. Grrr. Regardless, the kids did great, mostly sleeping and we arrived safe and sound in San Diego.
The weather was a bit on the chilly side but sunny on the first day so we headed to the zoo. What an amazing zoo! We were there most of the day and probably missed half of it. I loved seeing the pandas (Claire perseverated on the fact that she saw one poop). There were also a ton of koalas and a two day-old giraffe.
All snuggled in his Baby Bjorn, Carter slept through most of it!