On April 1st, Mike, Rory and I boarded our plane headed for Honolulu, Hawaii! Mike had lived there when he was a kid and gone there on a TDY several years back but this was Rory's and my first time. To sum up our vacation, I will just say it was long overdue! The last vacation we went on was to South Korea and that was an entire year before so we really wanted to take advantage of our stay and decided to spend two weeks and see as many of the islands as we could.
For the first week, we stayed at the Hale Koa Hotel in downtown Waikiki. We went to the zoo, the Dole Plantation, the North Shore, Pearl Harbor and the U.S.S. Missouri, Schofield Barracks, Wheeler Army Air Field, Hickam Air Force Base, hiking and obviously lots of beaches!
The second week was spent on a Norwegian Cruise ship where we sailed around various Hawaiian islands. It was such an awesome experience! We stopped in Maui, Hilo and Kona and cruised along the Nepali coast (along with dolphins and whales!) We were able to go on lots of shore excursions and Rory did quite well with all of our day trips. She really grew a lot on this trip, including her two top teeth (which seems so minor now considering she now has seven). The majority of people on the cruise ship were, shall I say, old, and they just LOVED Rory and were constantly stopping us to get a better look. We should have just hung a sign around her that said her name, age and that she was a girl. Quite a few people thought she was a boy (I'm assuming because of her lack of hair) and we just would go a long with their assumption. I mean, Rory can be a boy name too so I can see where the mix-up is but come on, do most baby boys wear pink bows and flowers???
By the time our vacation winded down, we were ready to get to New Mexico and finally get settled. We've now been here for about a month and a half and I must say, we still are not "settled" but we're getting there. We bought our 2011 Toyota Highlander and really enjoy driving around a nice car as opposed to the beaters that we drove around at Yokota. We got our household goods three weeks ago and just yesterday, we unpacked the last box in our house. The garage is another story and one that will be addressed in small doses! Heck, at least we have a garage! Oh and a linen closet! And yes, dare I say it...CARPET! It's the little things ok? ; ) So now I've brought you up to speed on what we've been up to these past two months, all in under four paragraphs!
Now Rory on the other hand is a totally different kid. And yes, I said kid as she would run at me with her seven sharp little teeth if I called her a baby. She decided that walking at 9 months was a good idea as well as climbing the steps of our step tansu chest. She's really a ton of fun, crazy as ever and getting into EVERYTHING! She loves to turn the pages of books, chew on the spines and either ingest or spit out the cardboard pieces. She loves to rake through our DVD collection and chew incessantly all over the cases to leave permanent teeth marks. She chews her crib rails and eats the paint. Do you guys see a theme here? She also loves to open up the cabinets, toilets and doors (all of which have yet to be babyproofed) and find the absolute worst, most unacceptable "baby toy" to drag around the house. She unwinds the toilet paper in the bathroom, pulls the clothes out of the drawers and books off the shelves. Whew, just typing this all out is exhausting! Anyone want to trade places with me for a day, heck even an hour? Despite all the craziness in our house, Mike and I just love, love, LOVE this crazy kid of ours that refuses to be baby. I am especially loving how her naps are getting longer. She used to be the frequent cat napper but now she takes two naps a day that are least an hour long each. That is pure heaven for a mom! Freedom!!!
