More thank yous...

Tonight Autumn wanted to pray again - in addition to "thank you for God, Jesus, Daddy and Mommy - she was also thankful for Jackson, biting (hopefully she meant learning not to bite), Dora, Elmo, George's Kite (curious George), Daddy's kite, and praying

First Prayer

We've been trying to be real good about including night time prayers into our routine the past month or so. I wish I could say for the past 2 years... our routine used to be to nurse her to Brahms Lullaby in Hawaiian, and she was usually out before I finished. We have been trying to be real good about bath, snacks, teeth, books, prayer and then lullaby. Sometimes Autumn wants to pray and so we help her by having her repeat us. Tonight I asked if she wanted to pray and she said yes. I asked if she wanted help and she said no.

Her prayer went something like this - "Thank you for Jesus, Thank you for Jesus, Thank you for God, Thank you for Jesus, Thank you for Daddy, Thank you for Jesus, Thank you for making my owie better, Thank you for making my owie better, Thank you for making my owie better, Thank you for Jesus, Thank you for Daddy, Thank you for Mommy, Thank you for making my owie better, Thank you for Nana, Thank you for Papa, Thank you for Ella, Thank you for toys, thank you for Lily, Thank you for kitchens, Thank you for Nana, Thank you for Josh, Thank you for Josh, Thank you for Lisa, Thank you for Josh and Lisa. Thank you for Ella. Amen"

Maybe on Tuesday?

This morning I was on the potty and Autumn walked up to the door and asked, "Where is my potty mommy?" I replied, "I put it away until you are ready to start using it to go peepee and poop." She pause for a moment and said, "Maybe on Tuesday?"
Here's hoping that on some Tuesday someday soon she will start being interested in the potty for toileting again.

Slowly but surely

Wednesday Evening: Dr. Webb looked at it and decided it was looking good enough that the wick did not need to be put back in. Phew... No needles, no pokes, no cutting. Autumn was quite relieved that we quickly put her diaper right back on. Once her diaper is on she is quite alright in the Dr. office. He had gotten the lab results and confirmed what we thought, it was indeed MRSA. He explained that in Hawaii about 2/3 of staph infections are MRSA. It lives everywhere - on the risk lists you are at risk if you go to stores, schools, the beach, public places... Ummm... I know very few people who are not at risk. 1/3 of us has staph living on our skin all the time, it just doesn't usually burrow done and cause problems. So here in Hawaii it is possible that about 2/9 people has MRSA living on their skin. Yikes... I will post what I've learned about staph and MRSA in another post soon. Autumn just happened to be one of the unlucky ones to have it full on attack her. )-: Had we know what it was the first day we may have been to prevent all the pain and suffering of the past week.

Anyways, back to the Dr. visit. We found out the antibiotic that she was put on on Monday is the best one for killing the particular strain of staph she has. Praise the Lord. The Dr. instructed us to finish the sulphmethoxazole and then gave us another 5 days script for the clindamycin. We didn't need to do the shot that was for the strep again and the Dr. insured us that we would not be creating any antibiotic resistant strains of strep by not taking more, as strep lays over and dies very quickly and Autumn has other antibiotics killing bacteria. I've also read since then that the clindamycin is the best one for getting into all the cells. It is a heavy duty drug - used only for the "most serious infections" according to an article I was reading on antibiotics. He also said it wouldn't be a bad idea for Aaron and I to treat our nasal pharinx and finger nails with prescription ointment and Autumn's nails too. Although not a guarantee, but this would increase the likelihood of killing MRSA if one of us happens to be colonized.

The red spot under the original abscess was not shrinking as quickly as I liked, but the Dr. didn't think there was anything that could be removed at this time. We just needed to keep watching it. He said that unless it looked worse or something was off - temperature, temperament... we should take a day off and come back for a follow up on Friday.

Being our first time in 5 days without picking and hurting, we decide to celebrate with dinner at Krua - one of our favorite Thai placed in town. It was a nice relaxing reprieve. We also went to Walmart to get some supplies and try to get her prescription filled. We found out, per insurance requirement, we couldn't pick it up until Friday. Funny since they aren't paying for any of it.

That evening it kept looking slightly better, but then after a big poop, little red spots showed up )-: Yes, another yeast infection. I put the 1% clotrimazole on to see if I was right. Being on so many antibiotics and her not telling us when she soiled her diaper I was expecting it. It responded right away and looked better. I didn't see any on the abscess sore, so just put the ointment around it. Off to bed, we thought. It was like 10pm and Autumn was still bouncing off the walls. Her bed was still next to ours and after her night time routine, singing more she was still bouncing from her bed to ours, crawling on me, kicking our bed... after ample warning I moved her bed back into her room. After putting her in her bed twice as she was crying and crawling out, she finally settled down and we all slept.

Thursday: I have a full day of student's on Thursday's and so I was gone the full day. I tried to set Aaron and Autumn up with to do lists - when to take each antibiotic and ibuprofen, to eat pro-biotic yogurt... I'm glad Aaron appreciates the lists because I need to feel like I'm helping when I can't be home with her. I called every two hours and Aaron identified more red bumps on the abscess sore - I told him to get the fungal cream on it asap and every diaper change and it went away. Should have known, but I didn't want to put anything more than I had to on the red angry sore. We made it through the day with no temperature and just a slightly more whiney than normal Autumn. Praise the Lord! The red spot looked much the same and at one point looked like it had a golden crust on it. We hoped that was the body sucking the infection up to the surface of the skin.
This night I stayed up until 12 reading as much about MRSA and ways to control it as I could. I found some good information and look forward to sharing it. I even found a blog of a family that struggled with MRSA for over a year - in and out of the hospital and on medication almost non-stop. She has figured out how to manage their sores and outbreaks without needing medications for almost 2 years. I'm now in touch with her over email as I has some questions about her strategies.

Friday: The spot below the abscess was still not looking as good as I wanted it to. We decided to take her in for the follow up in the am in case there was something they needed to lance. Autumn fell asleep in my arms in the waiting room and woke when we got in the exam room for her temperature. It was 98.8, about a degree higher than her norm. I showed the Dr. the pictures we'd been taking of the changes and then I held Autumn while she took a look. She was please by the improvement and explained that the red spot and what we were feeling below the abscess was likely a spot where the staph had started to grow, then the body went to encase it and then attack it with white blood cells. Once the antibiotic started working, there was and is now dead tissue and other junk in there that needs to heal and may even push to the surface. She didn't think there was a very great likelihood that it would need lanced. We were grateful and hoping she was right about it all. We got home, got her med in her and I took off back to finish up my day at work.
That evening I started the prep work or

Saturday (Today): It looks better, but the progress is slow. Slightly smaller and less red. The spot below seemed softer today and less red too. We spent the entire day sanitizing the house. We washed every toy, book and doll in her room, cleaned the rugs (not the carpet yet), washed all the sheets, towels and clothes in hot bleach water, scrubbed and sanitized Autumn's bathroom and the kitchen, Aaron washed the horizontal blinds., sanitized the couches, chairs and table. I never dreamed trying to sanitize our whole hour could take so long. Tomorrow I still have plenty more, but the things I was most worried about are done. Her diaper bag, my purse, all the stuff we touch all the time - it is all bleached or wiped with 99.999% killing wipes. I'm most worried that we may have spread it somehow when treating her wound. Hopefully what we did got rid of most of the bacteria living in our house. We normally get about a B+ when it comes to house hygiene - we do a pretty good job, but after reading around how to best keep your home clear of staph, we will be stepping up our game. I plan to wipe down door nobs, computers, cupboards with trash cans and such most nights, we will do single use towel, change hand towels daily, spray our tubs with 10% bleach after every shower and clean the bathrooms 2x a week. I hope I'm wrong, but I'm concerned that Autumn may have got introduced to the bacteria in our tub. Like I said earlier, it lives everywhere, and we will never know exactly where the MRSA came from, but it is worth a try to prevent what we can. We will also try to come in and wash our hands first thing when we get home. Oh, that reminds me - I need to sanitize both our cars too. Sigh.... I know I'm being crazy, but it all seems worth the effort in case some of it helps. I even sanitized our belts. They are the only thing we touch before we wash our hands after using the toilet, but never get washed. The germaphob in me is raging right now. So that is where we are, Autumn is healing and I'm trying to figure out how best to handle future problems with MRSA and cleaning the crap out of everything around us.

Healing

Tuesday: We held our ground and it didn't look any bigger. The red spot below the original infection was still red and puffy and concerning. We went into urgent care at 1 to have them look and see if we needed to do anything else. It was a different doctor and she thought she needed to remove the wick from yesterday, saline rinse the wound out and put another wick inside. We decided putting lidocaine in would be less traumatic. Autumn's reaction this time was much stronger with kicking and screaming before anything had even happened. Sigh.. Again I held her top and Aaron helped hold her legs and the doctor was able to get the numbing stuff in. She got the job done. I tried to sing, but my tears made it hard. Once she had a diaper on and knew we were done, she able to calm down. Uhh.. but then we still needed to get the antibiotic shot in her leg. They put a needle on that was too small to let the antibotic out and so they had to stick her twice. Not quite as smooth or sure handed today, but we got the job done. They gave her a small stuffed puppy and that cheered her up. She said thank you and blew kisses when we left.

Her poops have gotten progressively softer and last night she got poops on the end of the wick. Best thing would have been to cut that part off. We tried to figure out how to get this done and she completely freaked out. Shaking and crying. Explaining to her that it would not hurt, did not help and so we gave up, pulled it out at bit and decided he couldn't hurt her any worse as she is packed full of antibiotics. Poor girl... hoping she trusts us again someday.

We went to bed encouraged that her fever had stayed low or gone all day and that it might look a little better.

Wednesday Morning:
She woke up and cuddled. I told her we needed to change her diaper and she decided she needed a shower like daddy. After daddy got out, I bleached and vinegared the tub and rinsed it really well. She took a nice long shower and was pretty upset when I took her out. First look at the infection spot and it looks better -less swollen and the red spot below is shrinking. Covered it up and headed to get food and antibiotics and pain medicine in her. The Ibuprofen was easy to get in her, but the c-biotic in the applesauce was very difficult. Finally she ate it after explaining over and over that it was to get rid of her owie. I headed to work. When I got back she ate 2 things of probiotic yogurt and then I went to change her and discovered she was supper poopy. )-: It had coated the wick - so I just pulled it out. The hole is quite big - so I'm not worried about it closing up again before we go back. The red spot is less, but localizing in one spot. Eager to hear what the Dr. thinks. We get Dr. Webb back today. Cleaned, bandaged and diapered... We will head back down after my afternoon meetings in Hookena. Until then, we keep hoping and praying that she holds ground or improves. She is happy and playing in her room.

One day...

closer to the end of this thing. We are emotionally exhausted. Poor Autumn had to endure another lancing this afternoon. The previous incision had closed up and the infection grew and spread again. Her temp has gone up and down since yesterday evening and there is now pink spots above and below the main infection. This time he made a much larger incision and another smaller one up by the original owie. He packed a wick into the cavity so it could not close up and would continue to drain. He put a shot of antibiotic that would kill strep in her thigh and gave us another prescription to add to the one from yesterday. Now we wait.... like yesterday, he said that progress would be holding it off for the next 24 hours - not to expect a true reduction.

The wound has drained a lot and maybe looks smaller and softer. The pink spot above the infection is gone, but the one below looks worrisome. As long as her temperature stays below 103 we will head down to urgent care again in the morning to have them take a look at it. The doctor said as long as she doesn't go into febrile seizures than there is no reason to take her to the ER, as they won't do anything more for her than is already done. Tomorrow the lab results will let us know for sure what we are dealing with - what type of staph, or the really rare case that it is something other than staph. On Wednesday they will have the results telling us what type of medication (if what she is taking isn't working) is going to kill the stupid stuff.

Praying that the medication she is on is effective, that her temperature stays down and that we all keep our sanity.

Tonight - I'm very thankful for modern medicine, the means to access it, and the caring knowledgeable doctors we have had.

I'm thankful for our general health, I have a new deep sympathy for parents with children with long term painful medical problems. I can not even imagine having to do this on a regular basis. My baby has experienced more pain this week - she is resilient, I know... but watching her be in physical pain is probably the very worst things I've ever had to do.

Bright moments through these days -

Last night I told Autumn that when the sun came up it would be daddy's birthday. This morning I was up making birthday goodies, when I heard her cry. Her bed is next to ours right now. I walk in our room and she was sitting up looking at Aaron and said, "Daddy, the sun came up! Daddy the sun is up!" I said - go give daddy birthday kisses - which she was happy to do!

I worked until noon this morning and met her and Aaron at urgent care. I walked through the door and was greeted by a big smile. I had picked her a plumeria and brought it to her. She happily took it and gave me a kiss. She looked down and paused for a minute and then looked up and said, "Mama, how was your day? Mama, at work, how was your day?" Made my heart melt.

While talking to Aunt Lisa - Aunt Lisa was asking her about her birthday and how old she is. She was trying to say second and then said "and no more mama's milk." This is the first time she has mentioned mama's milk since her last mama's milk the night of her birthday. It was just a matter of fact - she had her second birthday and that meant no more mama's milk. Not one second of being upset about it. Love this girl!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Weird bump = staph )-:

What a traumatic morning. If you have a queasy stomach, you may not want to read this... I'm not giving every detail as I don't really want to remember all of it.

Things to remember even if you don't read on - if a sore isn't getting better or you have a temperature go get medical assistance. Staph can be life threatening if not taken care of, but usually very easy to get rid of if caught soon enough. Staph is really common here in Hawaii and not uncommon else where. It lives on 1/3 of human's skin or in the nose. It presents it's self in different ways - but if left untreated can get in the blood and cause permanent damage or death.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000863.htm

I think I last wrote when it was still just weird. Thursday afternoon we took her to a pediatrician who said he thought it was indeed staph. He gave us a prescription for antibiotic ointment, instructed us to use hot compresses to bring the infection to a head and said we needed to push the infection out. He said it was possible we'd need to bring her back in on Monday to have it drained. Friday morning pus came to the surface and we pushed it and a little came out. At lunch time more came out and then before bed it looked real nasty and we even got a bit of a hard core piece out. Poor baby, to squeeze on it meant having to holding her down. About two inches around the sore got really swollen - but it was really difficult to tell what was general swelling and if we got the infection out. Yesterday it stayed about the same all day - but her croupy cough got worse, she had a 99.1 temp and she puked on our way to the Paniolo parade. We turned around and spent the day at home. More compresses, no changes, but she start limping every now and then. After bath, I pulled her bed into our room as I wanted to monitor her through the night. It didn't look different, but a fever would mean that we had lost the battle. I had made up my mind that we would go to urgent care in the morning regardless of a fever as it looked so red and angry. I woke throughout the night and felt her head. At 3 she crawled in with me and slept on my arm. At 5 I woke up and felt her and she was burning up. At first I thought (hoped) it was because she was tucked close to me. It woke her up and she said "Autumn naked." I knew I was wrong and got the thermometer. 100.5 - not good. I got the Tylenol, gave it to her and we headed to the living room. From 5-8am we watched movies and did puzzles and her temp went down to 98.5. We got ready to go and arrived at urgent care at 9:05 and were 3rd in line )-: We finally got in at 10:30 and her temp was now 102. I thought I might have to beg for antibiotics but the doctor looked very concerned. He decided it needed drained to get the infection out. I was relieved but also realized the moment was going to be very traumatic for all of us. He needed to put local anesthetic in, get a sample and then drain it. I held Autumn's head on my arm, leaned over her, holding her down and singing "He's got the whole world in his hands" in her ear. Aaron held her legs down and it took about 7 minutes for the whole procedure. I'm not sure she could feel much, but knew what was going on and cried/screamed the whole time. Poor Autumn and the poor child in the waiting room. He got a whole bunch of pus out, cleaned her us and bandaged it. We got a prescription for sulfa antibiotics, gauze, tape and instructions to change the dressing when wet. She fell asleep on my shoulder before we even got out of the exam room and slept for 4 hours. I did get her awake enough to take children's advil and her antibiotic when we got home. Every time I checked her temp it had come down. Now she is eating and playing and just very sore. We have a check up appointment tomorrow and hopefully it is looking better and responding to the medicine. Please Lord! We are ready to be done with this.

Sigh....

Today has been one of the harder ones. Aaron and I had a rough morning. Autumn still has a weird bump in her diaper area. Then I show up to day care and they tell me that Autumn has been aggressive to the other kids - biting, scratching and even broke the skin on another child yesterday and today. WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!?????????????? This does not describe my child at all. Not to say she is not capable of such things, but what is going on? They said she was doing it to protect toys and she would walk up to them and attack them for a toy. Where did she learn this behavior? Where is the adult supervision proactively preventing it?

My gut was to just tell her that we would not be returning, but I thought I best talk to Aaron first. This adds to the list - Autumn has been there 10 days - the first week she got a huge bruise on her head from the swings, a yeast infection (not being changed often enough), and sunburned. This week she came home with 2 scratches on her diaper line that they couldn't explain and didn't notice and then today's aggression news. We are done! Inconvenient, loosing the rest of the money we paid for the month and completely relieved to be walking away. We were hesitant after the first 3 days to even pay for the next month and now I wish we had just walked away then. So hard to predict. First we need Autumn's basic needs better taken care of. Second she must need better supervision at this time to properly learn to interact with other children. Biting and scratching can not be tolerated and she needs someone right there to instruct and teach her. I don't want her to experiencing being the aggressor when it is possible no one has eyes on her - no more no more. The couple has 5 toddlers and one infant in a fairly large area - there is no way she is being watched all the time.

We will be headed to the doctor's tomorrow. The red bump in her diaper area is a bit more red and not healing. It is looking much like the staph pictures of a boil. )-: Hopefully it is the easy to kill kind. I need to quit reading about it... MRSA is nasty, nasty stuff.

I must go to bed and try to actually sleep.

Unique

Truly unique things about Autumn:

She loves cream cheese - but only on top of toast (that she does not eat) and eaten with a spoon.

She loves my arm pits - in the car she asks for them, when we cuddle she tucks her hands as deep into them as I'll let her. Yes - a bit gross, but kind of sweet too.

She loves made up songs and even made her own up the other morning. It was with Aaron, so I'm not sure what her lyrics were - but she asks me all the time to sing .... tree, monkey, Nancy (her baby) and anything else she can think of. She usually likes what I come up with even if it lacks all good song qualities!

Randomness

It's nap time and I had a minute to look through and edit some photos! Ones that got forgotten and would have likely made the cut for previous posts and updates.

Denver Butterfly Pavilion!

Rosie the Tarantula!

Hugs good bye!

Grandma's sand box

Update on life -
Well, I'm now the mother of a weened two year old! Crazy and exciting! She is my pride and joy - we have so much fun!

I'm going to start volunteering at the Pregnancy Center here in Kona on Thursday evenings. Will likely be teaching Christian classes on pregnancy and parenting! Super excited about this!

Finding a routine - before the triathlon, I just tried to get as much exercise in around work and family time as I could. Two hour bike rides in the early am, swims, runs... I'm happy to move on to a more relaxed exercise schedule - but have to get the momentum started again. Thinking 1 swim and 2 runs - one shorter and hilly and one longer each week. Aaron wants to start exercising more too! Excited to find a healthy groove for the family!

Another family member - I haven't been real secretive in telling people that we hope to add another member to our family soon. This being said, it will be interesting how well I can keep the secret once we know we are pregnant but not yet ready to tell the world! I'm not really good at secrets, but we will likely want to hear the heart beat before we tell everyone the news. I'm really excited and eager to have news to this share. We are ready - God is in control.

Scary - yesterday we went to Kua Bay for sunset. Nothing really bad happened, but close enough that we will never again have Autumn on the beach with any water coming in and out, without her in a life vest. I took that stance when we were here on vacation in March/April and kind of laxed up here as we've really only played in calm bays and keiki ponds until yesterday. We need to know that if she gets pulled out of our arms or someone turns their back, that she will be on top of the water and be easy to spot and rescue! Sigh....

Even though we had another "power of the ocean" moment - we did enjoy dinner on a beautiful beach, Autumn loved the water and rock climbing behind the beach. We then went to the county fair at old airport - got to see a Hawaiian concert, the animals, watch the lights, see some side shows and ended with a funnel cake and reggae!

Beauty of Skype

Tonight for Autumn's birthday when we got home we Skyped with all the grandparents and the cousins that live near grandparents and weren't in bed yet and had the great grandparents on the phone! So cool that we can live 3300 miles away and Autumn's family can still see her, sing happy birthday, watch her get excited about her gifts - and that she can see them too! After singing and present time, the grandparents were able to watch her play with her new toys. It isn't the same as in person, but it is a good replacement when the other isn't a possibility!

Autumn's birthday was jam packed - @ daycare she shared birthday muffins (she requested muffins), after work we skyped with family for muffin cake and presents, then we had dinner and play time with our friends that live in our building! Autumn was so very excited about all her gifts - happy family toys, clothes, poodles, cookware, puzzles and bath stickers! She had gotten so excited about a snow globe that cousin had found while she was here - so I found her one. She opened it before our dinner guests arrived and handed back to me and said, "Momma, you can have it." Well folks, you win some and you lose some. At least she isn't old enough to be mad that we didn't give her something she wanted. Over all it was a great day! Tomorrow we look forward to a little beach party with some friends and opening the rest of the gifts she received in the mail. She received a lot of facebook love, a special video from her aunt and cousin in Maryland and sweet texts and messages. She is truly one loved and blessed girl!

Last Mama's Milk

I've been telling Autumn all month that her birthday is her last time to get mama's milk and then there will not be anymore. It just feels like the right time. I think she would nurse until she was 5 if I let her. This is her official last step for her from baby into toddler-hood. Hoping for the best, tonight is it and tomorrow night might be a bit traumatic.

Addendum: Night one - told her before cuddles that mommas milk was all gone. We read Good night Hawaiian moon from the book and then cuddled to the lullaby like every night since she was born and she never once asked for momma milk. She went to bed happy and calm. It was a birthday miracle! Praise Jesus!

TWO

Baby Girl - you are two today! I'm scared that as fast as these two years went by that soon you will be 16 and we will only have two more precious years with you! This past year you have gone from a baby to a little girl. You are no longer an extension of us, but have your own ideas, wants, emotions and actions. Like daddy says - "there are 3 personalities in the room now!" A friend asked us if it is the terrible or terrific 2's. My honest answer is that it is very much both, switching from moment to moment. Emotions run high in both directions. I kind of feel like you have been two for a few months now! But today it is official!


Milestones:
Sleeping in a big girl bed with blankets, a very small pillow and a pool noodle under the sheets to keep you from falling out (Thanks Kaitlin!!)
One leg leading skipping
"What's wrong with the internet?" the complexity of your questions grows everyday
Answering some why and what happened questions
Sometimes spontaneously saying 'thank you' for appropriate and funny things
Pretending to go places (like the store) with your babies
Playing hide and seek (you can hide, count to 10 and say "ready or not here I come" and sustain looking for us with assistance)
Identify a triangle, circle and oval
Sometimes you know red, pink, yellow and blue
You imitate lines, squiggles, and circles and say now I draw a chicken then scribble. The other day you drew an oval and said "it's an oval."
You will 'read' books to us that you are familiar with.
Just this week your interest in jigsaw puzzles developed and you can put together pieces if I set them up one at a time or it is the only piece left.
You put clothes on that I lay out for you, they just might be backwards or inside out though.
You put on your own Velcro shoes - just not always on the right feet.

For the past several months your biggest change is your ability to communicate. We are so amazed by what you can tell us. Everyone comments on your cute little voice. In the car you were upset about your stickers and I said to and hand them to me and you responded - "Mama I can't, dropped them." You talked non stop on the phone with your great grandparents today. Telling them the pool was closed (our community one was) and that daddy went to the big pool. You talked about the birds and the trees. Later I asked you what tomorrow was and you said "my birthday." I asked how old you would be and you said "2!" You have the vocabulary to describe almost everything you see or events around you. You learned the words other and somebody this month. "Mama, that is somebody's car." or better yet at the grocery story pointing "That is somebody." You will ask, "can I have the other or different one?" You know what under, on top of, next to, and turn it mean. You want to know where everyone is. The day after Uncle Jeremy left, your new day care antie was able to understand "Uncle Jeremy back in Colorado." Tonight we took separate cars to the pool and you asked, "where'd daddy go?" I told you, you asked again, so I asked you where he went and you replied "Daddy in silver car going home." You enjoy singing and know most of "Twinkle, twinkle." You will start a song or say part of it requesting that I sing it. Yankee, Twinkle, baa baa, Jesus, monkey. You also enjoy giving me a topic and having me make up songs. "Mama sing _____" We sing some pretty funny things. When it is raining, you sing "it's pouring and snoring."

Things you love -
Nancy - your plastic baby that we finally named. She goes everywhere with you - bath, bed and the beach if you insist. You dress her, change her diapers, feed her, put her in time out and love on her.
Popsicles - the homemade fruit kind
Monkeys and Curious George
Puzzles
Reading
Playing with friends
Swimming (you can kick, paddle and sometimes come up on your own to get a breath)
Cuddling
Being carried when were out and about - especially shoulder rides


Things you dislike -
Using the potty
Being told no or that we don't have something you want
Occasionally you just don't want a diaper on - this is problematic considering that you also don't want to use the potty.
Other people talking to me - you will start shouting "Autumn talk to her Mama!"
The sun in your eyes
Sand in your shoes
Bug bites

Potty training: I thought you were making progress in being ready. In Colorado before we left you had 4 successes in one day. Right now you don't want to sit on the potty, but you want to wear big girl underware. We've tried a few times and now have decided to put the underware away for awhile until you are willing to try to sit and go on the potty regularly. You love your Elmo potty book and we read it almost every day at your request, but you just are not yet ready to be fully trained and we don't want it to be stressful or a fight.

What you go to time out for: Screaming and disobedience
You put your babies in time out and say "listen, listen." We usually explain what you have done wrong, have you say sorry and then repeat what you are or are not supposed to do. You definitely get it and sometimes even put your self in time out.

Where you have been in these first 2 years - Loveland - Roosevelt, UT - Glenwood Springs - Denver - Portland, OR - Billings, MT - Pullman, WA - Washington DC area - Grand Junction - Zion National Park - Las Vegas - Death Valley - Mammoth Springs - Yosemite National Park - Lake Tahoe - Lasson National Park - Red Wood National Park - Salem, OR - Olympia, WA - Mt. Rainer National Park - Pullman, WA - Helena, MT - Yellowstone National Park - Kona, HI - Maui - Pullman, WA - Olympia, WA - Seattle, WA - Maui - Kona, HI - Phi Phi Islands, Thailand - Krabi, Thailand - Yangon, Myanmar - Bagan, Manmar - Bangkok, Thailand - Waikiki, HI - Molokai - Maui - Pullman, WA - Boise, ID - Glenwood Springs - Loveland/Fort Collins - Washington DC area - Colorado - Kona, HI



Although the emotional 2's are in full force, the joy you bring to our family is beyond our wildest dreams. You are spunky and bright. The world is full of wonders that you want to explore with your eyes, hands and ears. This last week you have been asking where the moon is and talk about up in the sky. You will spontaneously tell us you love us, cuddle and snuggle with us and give us big kisses!

Thank you for who you are Autumn! We are so proud of you and look forward to exploring the world with you and watching you grow up in it!!

We love you,
Momma and Daddy

THE RACE!

I know it is blurry - but it the only picture we have of all 3 of us!

Life is seriously moving along too quickly. All of a sudden it was the night before the race. We had a great week with Aaron’s brother and our niece in town, but it has been seriously busy. I had been planning to sneak in my 20 minutes of each run, bike and swim during the week – but there really was no good time. I got 6 days of ‘rest’. I think the more difficult thing was that my focus was so far away from the race. I wouldn’t go back and change it, but we just might say it wasn’t ideal for being mentally prepared for the race. We had a wonderful time playing, celebrating Camry’s birthday, seeing the stars at Mauna Kea and even did a complete circle around the island Friday and Saturday. I took off from Volcano on Saturday after lunch and gave myself 2 hours to get to Kona for the mandatory race meeting. I thought that was plenty of time, but should have left 20 minutes sooner. It turned out to be fine and I only missed a few minutes of the meeting. I got my race packet, got my arms stamped with my number and headed back home where everyone was. We headed out to one last dinner before taking Jeremy and Camry to the airport. It was beautiful sitting on the deck of the Royal Kona Resort overlooking Kailua Bay. We headed to the airport a bit late, got them on their way and headed back home. Autumn fell asleep at 7:15 in the car and transferred into her bed and she slept the rest of the night. I packed my bike up in my car and headed to Angie’s to leave the bike there to load in the truck and eat some quinoa pasta. We talked about random race things, the craziness of the week and our excitement for the morning. I left at about 8:30 to get all my other race things together. I’m glad I looked up a tri packing list on line, as my brain was not up to the task of figuring it all out. Swimsuit, goggles, cap, sunscreen, bike helmet, gloves, shorts, shirt with number pinned on and a snot rag, socks, shoes, towel, running shoes and hat, wash cloth to carry and another sunscreen (there were 2 transition spots).

My biggest mistake – not thinking about what I was eating the 2-3 days before the race and especially Saturday. We had pretty much been on the go since Thursday and so we had eaten out many of the meals. Sushi, Thai, eggs, burger, quesadilla’s… My digestive system really needs fiber and eating out doesn’t usually provide this without a lot of conscious focus on ordering the right thing. I knew my system was backed up a little bit – but it hit me Saturday night that I was going to have to proactively get things moving to be comfortable for the race. Ughh.. Saturday night before bed I had a cup of decaf coffee and ate applesauce with flax meal and bran. Expected some results and didn’t get them. Woke up with a stomach ache, had weird dreams and finally crawled out of bed at 4am. Decided prunes and regular coffee was my best bet to be able to race on an emptied system. I was right. Once I knew it was working I also had a small shake with berries. I was a bit worried that I’d crash from the coffee since I don’t usually drink it – but it ended up being okay.

I got my stuff together, put on my suit and warm clothes, then hopped in the truck with Angie and Isaiah. 5 ½ hours of sleep and coffee and prunes for breakfast– thought this could be pretty interesting! We parked and got our bikes set up. We drove over to the Keauhou Beach Resort where T2 and the finish line were to set up our running gear. We caught the shuttle back over to the bay and I made a pit stop. At this point I was getting a little nervous I’d over done my ‘medicine.’ The sun was coming up and we hung around prepping our bike stuff a bit more, putting on sunscreen and talking over our nerves. We went to the water and warmed up a little bit before the start. They were starting us in waves.

Us women got pink caps and put at the end of the wave line. Kind of weird since many women swim faster than the guys. Oh well. After the first two waves of racers took off, we swam out to the start to tread until the start. It was a nice warm up. I think about a 1/4 mile just to get to the start. No turning back, here we go! A high five with Angie and "BANG!" Race gun went off and so did we!

Swimming in the ocean with a bunch of other people is interesting. My goal when I started training in May was to swim as much of it as I can in free style. I think I transitioned to breast stoke about 5 x, mostly to look ahead and only once to rest. I felt like I did a pretty good job of staying with the pack, but I definitely slowed up when little bubbles got too close to my face! The water was stunningly beautiful and got really cold the last 1/3 of a mile as we must have been over some freshwater outlets. I got to the finish and ran up the coral in path in 34 minutes and 49 seconds. I put a watch on my wrist and started at the gun so I'd know where I was at for total race time. I was happy, as I wanted to swim it in under 35 minutes.

Transition 1 was the most challenging transition - your wet and have so much bike gear to get on. After pulling my shirt on, my shorts on and having also put on gloves, hydration backpack, helmet, sock, shoes and sunglasses - I was a bit envious of those who had a tri-suit on and just threw on their shoes, sunglasses and helmet and took off. I also was rightfully worried about 1.5 hours in the sun after swimming. I quickly put on another layer of sunscreen on my arms. After I was on the bike I remembered that I didn't lube my legs - too late now! Up the big hill I went.

The race starts off at the bottom of Kamehameha III Road and climbs up to 650 feet in about 2 miles with 4-6% grades. This was the 4th time I had rode the hill in the last month and if felt about the same as without the swim, just long and slow. They stopped all traffic for us - it was awesome! No stopping, slowing or thinking about cars! They even closed the steepest part of coming down the hill into town - so we had the whole road to ourselves! I honestly don't remember much passing or getting passed - I think maybe 6-10 people went by me and I passed a few. I tried to push my speed, but honestly zoned out a bit. I wish I had focused on using my up swing a bit better - oh well - I did just keep going!!! Getting to OTEC felt pretty good - the first 13 miles. It felt a bit up hill and so I thought getting back into town would be easier - wrong! The wind was straight in our face and I struggled to go 14 mph. At about this time my back got tired and my bum was starting to get really numb. I looked forward to getting on Alii and feeling close to the next transition. We rode down the big hill on Kaiwi and didn't have to stop at the signs - so much fun! Once on Alii I tried to crank but hung out around 17-18 mph. I was happy with that and felt pretty good when I got to the transition. I hoped off, ran to my stuff, racked my bike, took off the backpack, switched shoes and put on another layer of sunscreen. I got to the start of the run and the lady sent me back for my race number I forgot to put on my front - opps. Okay - now I was on my way. Switching from biking to running is so hard for my legs. It is like they don't work right. I think running backwards might be easier and possibly faster! Other than the lead legs I felt okay. Right after you start the run - they run you up a wicked 150 foot incline in less than 1/3 of a mile. Most people were walking up it and I had decided I wasn't allowed to walk any of the run. I didn't go much faster and my calves were on fire. The next 6 miles were certainly going to be interesting! Once at the top of the hill I tried to stretch my stride out, but really my legs decided the speed they could go and I followed their lead. Mile 1 passed and then it felt forever to get to mile 2 - even though it included the down hill. Surely my watch was lying! At that point I decided that not walking and finishing was sufficient for success - 11-12 minute miles were going to have to be okay. After the downhill they ran us out on a lava trail run for a mile or so. I felt lucky to have not rolled my ankle - I didn't really train for that terrain and it is a bit different than the road! From the lava until we got back to the bay we ran on either grass or the golf cart path along the ocean. The scenery was stunning! I had to keep reminding my self to look around and enjoy it! After we ran through the Sheridan, we ran towards the bay and then just for fun they ran us up a little path straight up hill and back down. It was pretty, but I could have gone for a loop around the flat parking lot instead. Next we went across the little bridge, through the sand volleyball court, next to where we exited the swim and up Kam III. WHAT - I have to run up Kam III - it was only a couple of minutes, but ughhhh... at mile 4, this about did me in! One last golf course crossing and the finishing line couldn't be too much further. I smiled and gave shakas to the cameraman and got really excited to hear the people at the corner of the golf course and Alii say a 1/4 mile!

I could tell there was someone close behind me and decided I didn't want to be passed. I think was likely the fasted section of the race for me - I even passed a guy once I was on the hotel grounds. I'm glad I didn't fade and was able to keep the faster pace all the way to the finish line!! My watch said 3:19 and my official time was 3:20:09! The gal behind me was 6 seconds later and actually in my age group - now I'm doubly glad I didn't let her pass me! (-: Aaron, Autumn, Tosh, Angie and Isaiah were there to greet me at the finish! Done! I made it!

I knew stopping wasn't a good idea. My body wanted to collapse and my brain wanted to keep moving. After a few minutes of hugs and stretching we gathered our stuff to take to the truck and get a shower. Luckily it was a long walk and then we showered at Kahaluu. My body appreciated the walk and although tired - it didn't hurt too bad. I really wanted a massage and I really wanted food - food won! We laid out the grass mats, piled our plates with food (only the racers got food included) and shared! We watched the top finishers awards! Angie got 4th in her division (which ended up being same as mine, we later found out) and got a lei and bracelet on the podium!! So so cool! So proud of you Ang!!!

My thoughts! Why an Olympic triathlon? I'm not real sure to be honest. We life gaurded the race Ang did in 2008 and there I said I'd like to do one someday. Angie and I have talked about e-training together for one over the past several years and it didn't happen. We were going to shoot for the April 3rd Waikoloa Lavaman - but Aaron's wisdom that training while working full time in the winter was unlikely to be successful was heeded. Angie called me in mid-May and said lets do the Keauhou Lavaman - and I signed up and paid that day. We were a go! It was perfect timing - I'd have time to train when I wasn't working too much over the summer in Colorado and we'd be close enough to do the event in August. (at the time I signed up we thought we'd be moving to Maui, not Kona) I was also excited because it would be before I turned 30 or wanted to start trying for another baby.

Total Mileage since May 2011

Total miles biked : 267

Total miles run: 86.4

Total miles swam: 10.3

I knew an olympic triathlon is quite a race - not something I'd be able to do without proper training. It is hard enough to be a challenge, but not outside of the realm of possibility. When people ask me how it was I respond by saying that if it had finished after the bike I would have touted about how easy it was. After the run, I find the race nothing other than difficult and character building. It certainly gets to go on my list of 'most challenging physical things I've ever done.' I don't see my self getting too much more into the triathlon scene any time soon - as it is a time sink - but it is a really nice balance with the 3 sports. I felt like my body was both more worked and more rested while training than when I have done only running. Who knows what the distant future holds??? You can't help but wonder in your mind if your body could be capable of doing a 1/2 ironman or even a full one! (-:

8 years

Last weekend Aaron and I celebrated 8 years of marriage! We celebrated as a family in the Waikoloa area and scored a sweet condo for Saturday night. Saturday we drove up, check in, played in the pool and then went to the Hilton for dinner next to the dolphin pond. Autumn had a lot of fun watching them come up and down in the water! She's been there before, but this was the first time she really been able to understand and watch them so intently. We settled in for the night and then spent all morning playing in the nice complex pool all morning. Since 12 pm is check out and we were going to meet friends at 2:30 we decided to head up the Kohala coast while Autumn napped in the car. It was very beautiful and Aaron and I had a chance to just talk about life and plans for the future. We finished in Waimea by getting coffee - Autumn woke up as we went through the drive through by saying "Autumn want some!" (-: We headed to Beach 69 to meet up with our friends and meet their newest addition! It was a lovely weekend and I am so blessed by the last 8 years with my partner in adventure!!!

Autumn Stories

While they are in my head!

Lately Autumn has been only showering - she will not get in the bath this week. It is a typical routine for her to call for her dad to get her when we are done. Tonight when shower time was over, she quietly said, "Daddy come get me." and then proceeded to the edge of the tub and yelled at the top of her lungs - "Aaron, Aaron, Aaron, Aaron, Aaron."


This morning at church we told Autumn she would stay and sing with us and then we would take her to play. After the last song while the song leader was praying she whispered in my ear "Mama go play." I whispered back "After we finish praying." She affirmatively said "Amen." (-: She did go nicely to nursery without any fussing.


Wave Charger - yesterday we spent nearly the whole day at the beach and below our staked out area on the beach was a little Keiki pond. Tosh and another friend were down there body surfing and Autumn wanted to join them! Aaron and I took turns helping her catch the whitewash over and over and over!

T minus 2 weeks

Mid August is here! I'm two weeks into the school year and can hardly believe how fast the time is going! I knew training would be more difficult when I got here and it has been - but I am feeling ready for the big day. I've now hit all my race day mileage for each event separately. I'm very glad I was able to get in as many miles in Colorado as I did - otherwise I'm sure I'd be feeling a bit overwhelmed and intimidated. I've been able to get longer workouts in here, but fewer each week. This week I was able to bike and run pieces of the real course - I rode up the 650 foot bike climb and ran the biggest hill of the run - they are steep, but not as bad as I thought they would be. I feel pretty good about the nutrition, but need to sort out when is the best time to eat snacks on the bike. I think I'm going to end up swimming in my one piece suit and then pulling on bike shorts and a shirt for the rest. Here hoping for a cloudy cool race day - sunscreen just doesn't stay on me! I'll keep working on my tan the next 2 weeks! (-: It has been really really good for me to have an agenda to exercise - but I'm excited to reel back a bit for a while! Two more weeks of tapering workouts! Oh, and my two tri buddies just got engaged to each other! So there should be all sorts of exciting energy to carry us!!!

HERE WE GO!!!!

23 Months

Autumn, another month has blown by and we have a precious few weeks before you are an official 2 year old. This has been a big month for all of us - including long goodbyes with family, moving to Hawaii and starting full time daycare for the first time. As usual you did great with the transition! The first few days were rough on all of us - but you endured viewing 5 rentals in one day, long shopping trips and the run around it takes to get a house set up. Only a couple of tantrums - and really we all felt like having them - you are just young enough to get show us the real emotions we all had on the inside! You absolutely love your daycare and we are so sad that we will have to transition you again soon because Auntie Joy got a job at the hospital. You have so much fun there and always are in a good mood when I pick you up. It is such a relief that you like it, as it hasn't been easy for momma to let you go.
The last week was the beginning of a more routine life for our family and we are all enjoying that. Even before that you have pretty much kept a schedule of a 9 -10 hour night and one 1.5-2.5 hour nap in the afternoon. You mostly sleep through the night, but have streaks when you get up at 4am and need cow's milk or a cuddle. In Colorado we went to bed late and got up later and here in Hawaii we go to bed early and get up around 6am. You spend every waking hour playing, playing, playing!

Skills you have!
Jumping
Easily count to 12 (when we say let count, you count 1 to 12 and then start over)
h-z of the alphabet song - for some reason you skip straight to h
everything that comes out of your mouth is 2-8 word phrases and sentences. Tonight you were fixated on not giving Tosh a hug when he left. "Autumn not give Tosh a hug. Autumn being shy."
You love pretend play - kitchen, babies, house... Luckily we found these types of toys at yard sales and so your room is packed with many imaginative play opportunities. You put diapers on your babies without help and tell the daddy in your house what the baby needs. It is so much fun to watch you.
You can dress your self. Shirts, pants (not the zippers/buttons), socks, and shoes. It many not be perfect, but it gets on!
Easily get in and out all the doors (we have to dead bolt the front door)
"read" to your babies
Mostly stay upright walking in a 2' pool and can kick and scoop (beginning swim) for 5 seconds.
Understand little and big
You want to use knifes and drive the car - sigh... it could be a long 14 years (-: Probably your number one start to a tantrum is when we get in the car and you want to drive.
You know all your friends and family by name
You know 'in' 'on' 'above' 'under'
Knows temperature "momma is it hot?" "is it warm?" "is it cold?" "No...." In shower "too hot" or "too cold."
Drinks pretty well out of a cup - occasionally still spills.
Eats with fork and spoon using fingers to put food and the utensils. But you must have the utensils!
You are a girl that knows what you want (and how to change your mind repeatedly too) you tell us how to play with your toys, how to help you and how you want things done and who you want to do what.
"mama get Autumn's drink, Dada unbuckle Autumn..." We are trying to train you to be more flexible... as you get pretty upset when the wrong person helps with a task.

Favorites: Swimming, beach, dressing, diapering and strolling your dolls, playing house, playing kitchen, cuddling, helping, eating (cream cheese, fruit, rice and raisins/craisins are your current favorites - but you eat about anything), Tosh, singing, running, climbing, dancing.

Dislikes: Transitioning to bath time, going to bed, getting in the car (sometimes), leaving the beach or pool.

Autumn, we love you so much! You are so wonderfully made and bring us so much joy! The other day we were having family cuddles and you grabbed our necks and said, "Love you guys!" You melt our hearts! The next year will be an adventure and we look forward to all the fun we will have in Hawaii with you!

Love,
Mama and Daddy

22 Months

Autumn, you are changing so much everyday! You have 2 more months before we celebrate your 2nd birthday and that just seems plain crazy! We have spent the last month between Glenwood Springs and Northern Colorado. You have spent precious time with your grandparents, great grandparents, family and Colorado friends. I didn't do a great job of writing down your firsts this month - but things I can think of are your first independent somersault and your first time eating with chop sticks. You did quite well with the tops of the sticks still attached! You also got your first 4 wheeler ride in Mesa with Great Grandpa Alfred.

Activities this month:
Going to the top of Trail Ridge
Going to the park with friends
Meals with many friends
Amelia’s 2nd Birhtday Party
Ashton's swim meet
A weekend on the Mesa with Great Grandpa and Grandma
Going to the community center pool in Glenwood with friends
4th of July with the Brown Family
Riding the North Shore Loveland Train
Hiking in RMNP
Lee Martinez Farm

Your language had just exploded even more this month. You come up with thoughts on you own and describe everything! On our 6.5 mile hike the other day, you talked for the first 2 hours almost non-stop. “Autumn touched the rock, Autumn touched the tree, it’s a man, it’s a woman, there’s some rocks…” It was awesome! You enjoy talking on the phone and get quite upset if I finish a conversation sand don’t let you have a chance to talk. You’ve had quite lengthy conversations with your grandmas and Angie. Nana asked you what you were doing on the phone a couple of weeks ago and you said matter of factly, “Autumn in carseat, daddy driving and mama back here.” You are getting pretty good at describing the things around you, some of your feelings (“Autumn sad..”) and telling us exactly what you need. We can usually figure out what you are saying and you have persistance to keep trying if we are not getting it.



Pretend: Your world of play had also grown this month. You absolutley love taking care of your babies and the doll house. You spend hours dressing, changing, rocking, moving and playing with dolls and figurines. You put them in time out, talk about them being sad and asking them what is wrong. It is fun to stand by the door and listen to you as you play!



Routine: Your nap schedule is nice right now. You almost always take a 1.5-3 hour nap in the afternoon. You eat 4-6x a day and must be going to spurt up soon because you eat and eat and eat. One night before bed you had ½ cup of cottage cheese, ½ cup of whole greek yogurt, fruit, peanut butter toast and I think a couple more things! You still sleep about exactly 9 hours at night, which means bedtime is between 9-10pm so we don’t have to get up at 5-6am! You usually get up between 7-8am and for about a week this month got up in the middle of the night each night. We just had to go in and tell you it wasn’t time to get up and you would lay back down. Maybe it is the 4 I teeth coming in, but who knows.

Playing with others: You are getting better with others, but still will cry out if somebody touches something you think is yours. This becomes difficult when you own the playground (-: Over all you are doing better with it and with some verbal help loosen up and will play with others. The other night we went to some friend’s house and they have a 2 ½ and 5 year old. We hardly saw you guys other than to check in! You played with dolls, on the play equipment, with sidewalk chalk (which ended up on the house )-: ), and on the scooters/tricycles… you had so much fun!

We love you so much and are so so proud of you! This next month we get to move to Kona as a family and we’re so excited to watch you grow and grow and play with you on the beach and in the ocean! Mommy has a couple more weeks with you before she starts working again and will soak in every last minute!!!
All our love,
Mommy and Daddy

Life is a Mystery

Luckily I don't have to stand alone - but man it is torture waiting for all the detail of our move to Hawaii to pan out. It is both a blessing and tough to know a bigger layer of details.

As of right now - we are penciled in for the OT position in Maui. I have been very clear that if anything opens up on the Big Island, that we want it. The OT that replaced my position 2 1/2 years ago resigned in Kona a few weeks ago. There might be an Oahu DOE OT that wants the job which would dash our hopes. If she ends up not working out, oh just how long will it take them to offer it to my company as a contract? School starts in less than 5 weeks and we leave for the islands in 22 days. Will everything pan out for us to get to be back in Kona?! We'd be happy either way, but if Kona opens up we really would like to hold out and wait for it. Sigh..... things I want to do and can't are schedule shipping our car and getting temp housing where we will be to give us time to find a place we like.

Will keep trying not to get too antsy or anxious and just wait for an answer one way or the other!


** YEAH! We found out on July 1st that we get to move to KONA!!!!

Healthy Popsicles!

On the way home today Autumn asked for a Popsicle - something she has only had a couple times! I told her we may be able to get one at the store later. After nap she asked again - I really didn't want to go to the store so I stuck a stick in a frozen banana and called it a banana Popsicle! She loved it! While she was eating it, I mixed up Greek yogurt, whole milk, banana, strawberry, blackberries, spinach, cinnamon and oat bran. Poured it into what I had for a mold and sticks and put it in the freezer. Before bath time she asked for a Popsicle and got to try one - they passed the test - she loved it!

Thailand and Myanmar Travel Journal

Before the thoughts, details and emotions from our vacation have escaped me -

April 8th and 9th: 7381 miles and 5 cities in about 23 hours.
Left Kona at 7am - we're very excited for family vacation, Aaron has been working a lot and we will get time to relax and adventure together! Angie graciously picked us up at the crack of dawn and took us to the airport. Managed to slim down to 2 carry on suitcases and the car seat. Upon arriving at the airport we realized I accidentally left all of Autumn's juice, my watch and necklace at the apartment. Although we were very excited for this big adventure, we are always sad to be leaving Kona - our friends and the mild tropical ocean climate. Also we were realistically nervous about all the air travel, time zone changes and foreign cultures.

We arrived into Honolulu a bit late but had plenty of time to go check in at the gate and eat breakfast. Unfortunately we thought we had time for more - as I needed to pull some info off the internet and we called family. Neither of us checked the boarding time and I thought we left at 10:15 - I take full responsibility for being the one who is supposed to know our flight times and the fact that we almost missed our plane that indeed boarded at 9:10 and was going to leave at 9:40. We were about 1/6 of a mile down the terminal near the food and internet when the agent that had checked us in came around the corner saying - "your plane is leaving, you need to run." That we did with bags and baby - as we ran we could now hear the intercom system repeating "Aaron Brown, Aaron Brown please return to gate 7." Huff puff huff puff we got on the plane which promptly pulled out of the gate - disaster avoided - praise the Lord they hunted us down and we didn't even want to think about how this would have affected our next 4 connections if we had missed our flight to Japan!

Flights to Thailand - Depart 7 am on the 8th - Kona to Tokyo to Beijing to Bangkok - Arrive 11:50 pm on the 9th.

We had open seats next to us on all our international flights - which was super nice! We were only able to have the car seat with us on the first flight to Japan on United. We were on China Air the next 2 flights and although she gave us the extra seat, the request to bring our car seat on board was lost in translation. (as we later found out - they do not use nor understand Western carseats in most of Asia and our request to use it was usually denied even though we had empty seats all around us. One flight they let us take it in the cabin but made us turn it forward and then on one flight from Bagan to Yangon they let us use the car seat properly rear facing - all other flights we had to check it)

I was hoping to see more from our window of Japan and China - but visibility was minimal. The air in Beijing was very dirty and then it got dark. We had to go through security once in Kona, once in Japan, and then in Beijing we had to go through immigration and security. The TSA agents in China were very friendly and actually held Autumn for us as we dug for the DVD player and our ziplock bags of liquids.

Our game plan was to try and sleep on this last leg to Bangkok, but Autumn had napped earlier and it was only a 4 1/2 hour flight - so we didn't end up getting much more sleep.

April 10th - A long day to Phi Phi Island.
We landed around midnight, went thought immigration and then to get our carseat - luckily customs only checked people who claimed things - we could proceed to finding the shuttle to our hotel. After asking at an information desk, we quickly found the shuttle and headed to our hotel. The staff was amazingly friendly and helpful, even at 1am! We took showers and crawled into bed around 2am. Unfortunately Autumn thought is was more of a nap and was wide awake again at 4am. Her and I got up, walked around, checked email, let family know we made it and eagerly awaited the 6am breakfast. You know you are a bit comfortable with the tropics when to sit for breakfast and have no problem just squishing the ants on your table instead of trying to find a table without them. The breakfast was a simple egg and lunch ham dish with toast and coffee. We needed to head back towards the airport at 8 to catch our flight to Krabi. We packed our bags back up and then met up with our friends for Aaron and them to eat breakfast. It was wonderful to see friends that we hadn't seen in ages and know that we would get to spend the next 10 days adventuring around beautiful locations in Asia together! The last time we were all 6 together was at Todd and Alissa's Wedding in Pennsylvania in 2006.

Getting to the airport was smooth, getting a boarding pass for Autumn was not so smooth... for some reason even though we had paid for Autumn's ticket, it took them about 40 minutes to figure out how to check us in with her. After a brisk walk and a short bit of running to obtain water and juice we were at our gate just in time. We sat next to a kind British woman and talked about real estate, politics, travel and about Krabi. We landed, obtained our luggage and headed out to figure out how to get to the pier. A bus said it would get us there for a few dollars a piece. If only it had been that simple - the bus dropped us off at a ticket office a distance from the pier - after some odd discussion and no real resolution - a truck took us to the pier. We got some lunch and sat around at the chairs in a lobby next to a ticket booth for our boat. We were getting quite close to the time of departure and decided to look around a bit more, as no one had showed up to the booth - there happened to be a second booth farther in the pier where we were able to check it and get on the boat. It was a large boat and luckily there were a few seats where it was cooler for us to sit. Autumn slept from the time we got on the bus until a few minutes into the boat ride. The views were foggy from the humidity, but it was beautiful! We pulled into the pier on Phi Phi island around 3pm. Our last transfer was a walk to our jungle bungalow - a hotel worker hauled all our luggage on a cart through the little town to our rooms at the Chunut House. We checked in and cleaned up in our rooms before heading to the beach for dinner.

Phi Phi island is a a fun little island - the main little town of Ton Sai is between the two beach bays (Ton Sai and Loh Dalam) in the center of the island between limestone cliffs. It has a real island feel with activity booths, dive shops, clothing vendors, massage booths, restaurants, people walking around in swim suits, and stinky trash... (-: Technically there are no roads and most of the island is either concrete brick roads or dirt baths. On a morning walk I found a concrete road and saw a few vehicles. Most of the community uses bikes and carts and a few have scooters to transport materials. In 2004 the huge tsunami in this area tore the infrastructure of this island to pieces. About 70% of the buildings were destroyed and an estimated 4000 people died. Much of it was cleared and rebuild in 2005 by two independent organizations. Over 27,000 tons of debris was removed in and around Ton Sai. After talking to a British gal who worked at a dive shop I found out that the whole island is owned by 5 Thia families and the shops are mostly color coded - ie the green booths are owned by the Chi family... From our bungalows the beach was a 5-7 minute walk in any direction on the paths to the beaches.

It is still April 10th! After cleaning up we headed toward the town and ended up at the beach! A pleasant surprise. We took Autumn's clothes off and let her wade in the warm water. It was beautiful! We stayed close there and got some dinner on the beach - we were all so happy to be settled in one place - even if only for a couple of days. We found out that Holy Basil Noodles are very very spicy - but delicious!

Maybe I shouldn't write about this part - as it would be okay to forget it... (-: Oh well... I caught a cold right before we left Hawaii. I got more and more stuffed up each leg of our trip and spent a lot of time at the sink to trying to get my nose un-stuffed. This stinking cold was a nuisance the entire trip going from stuffed up to runny runny to a nasty cough. Luckily it didn't keep me from doing anything, only from feeling 100%. Only in the past couple of days have I been feeling even 90% )-: Stinko for the 3 1/2 week old cold!

April 11th: Jet Lagged and hiking.
Autumn did not sleep so well - she got up at 2am and I let her play in the shower for 45 minutes. We slept on and off until 5am, but I was so stuffed up that even after I got her back to sleep at 5am, I cleared my nose out and then went for a walk. I ended up on the Ton Sai beach watching the sun come up and light up the boats and rocks in the background.

I headed back to the bungalows long before any of the others awoke. The next 6 mornings breakfast was included with our room - at the Chunut House this was either a fried or scrambled egg, a croissant or toast, tea or coffee and fruit. Simple but filling and tasty.

The plan for this day was to hike around the island and check things out. After breakfast we took off for the view points which were up several long stair cases and walk ways. The views from the top really were breathtaking. Gorgeous beaches nestled into the cliffs, green palms, bushes and flowers everywhere! From there we chose to go down the back side of the island to the beach on the other side. After viewing huge spiders, spiky trees and maneuvering around the steep root filled path - I believe we ended up at Loh Ba Kao Bay. A beautiful stretch of beach much like Tonsai - just with many fewer hotels and people. We hadn't planned to swim, but the water was too inviting to not hop in anyways!

We hiked back to Loh Dalam for a nice lunch next to bay. The nice thing about beach restaurants was that Autumn could just hop on the 'floor' and play in the sand while we finished up eating. We attempted to find some ice cream (an american style ice cream shop would make a killing here) - and then went back for naps. For dinner we ended up on Ton Sai overlooking the harbor. It was a delicious meal - I got the papaya salad - a spicy dressing over stringed young papaya. On the way home I got a young coconut to share with Autumn - Mmmmm.

April 12th: Another early morning and lots of ocean.
When the light finally came through the windows, I put Autumn in the Ergo, grabbed the camera and headed out the door so Aaron could get more sleep. The gal at the front desk suggested a shorter hike that would not be as far as the top view point. I took the road I thought she was suggesting and walked, and walked, and walked, and walked. After seeing chickens and goats - Autumn fell back asleep. I finally saw a sign for the view point and kept going. I crawled up some rocks, and who knew - I had found the road/trail to the top view point going around the town instead going straight up the stairs. No wonder it took forever. It was well worth the workout - it was gorgeous with the sunrise light hitting the cliffs and eliminating the leaves and flowers!

Back down for breakfast and getting ready for our all day adventure on a longtail boat on and around the Phi Phi islands. A longtail boat is a Southeast Asian boat that uses a car engine for the motor. Ours held about 20 people and had a nice shade cover over the seats. First stop: Monkey Beach. Humm... all sorts of nasty, hungry, demanding monkeys all over the beach - interesting, but I think I may have been just as happy watching from the boat. All 7 of us walked ashore with confidence and then got charged by a couple of larger monkeys who were staring at Autumn. I can firmly say those monkeys would have gotten a beat down had they come any closer - the human guys had their chests puffed and were ready to protect.

Next stop was some snorkeling - Autumn fell asleep in my arms, so Aaron and I took turns. The water was nice and warm and the fish plentiful. At this point I must admit that south Kona has ruined me for water clarity. Due to the lava rock land scape, I'm not sure there is a tropical location with as good of visibility. So, although it was beautiful - the water was not super clear. I only got a few minutes in the water - so I was eager for the next snorkel stop after lunch. We stopped on a long beautiful sand beach and ate our chicken fried rice with spicy soy sauce lunch which was included in the excursion. Autumn slept a bit longer in a chair that happened to be under a shade cover we found.

After lunch Ryan and Aaron headed out for a bit more snorkeling and Autumn and I went for a swim. We got back on the boat for our last snorkel spot about a mile off shore from Ton Sai beach around a teeny tiny rock island. I got a bit more of a snorkel and really enjoyed looking at some fish and coral I had not seen before. We then headed out to look around a few other islands with Vikings ruins, beautiful canyons and beaches.

Our last stop was Maya Bay. WOW - this has to be one of the most idealistic beaches in the world. It is no wonder it was the chosen location for film makers to film "The Beach" - the 2000 Leonardo DiCaprio movie. It is a baking power beach, sea green water with huge limestone cliffs that shade the beach and make the water a more comfortable temperature. For some reason the air is not as humid (probably because the water is not as hot) and it is just really comfortable.

What a great way to finish up an amazing ocean day! On our way back to Loh Dalam we stopped to watch the sun go down and did a little jumping off the bow!

We headed back to our bungalows for our nightly routine of cleaning up and going to dinner. The night before we had walked a different direction and spotted some fancier restaurants and we decided to give one of them a try! We sat right on the harbor and ordered mostly seafood. Fried calamari for appetizers and I think I had shrimp massuman curry. Delicious!!! It was a bit late for Autumn - she did her best, needed a couple of walks and then fell asleep on our shoulders on the way home.

April 13th: A transfer day and first day of Songkran festival.
We ate breakfast and packed our bags to leave Phi Phi. The gentleman that helped cart our luggage to the ferry terminal covered it in a tarp as it was the first day of the water festival. I walked down the street to swim in the ocean before breakfast and got sprayed down with a water gun. If you want to read more on the history and significance of the water festival here is a link. We worked our way through town - having an umbrella and a baby in my hands seemed to help a little! The guys and Autumn hung out on the pier while the gals shopped around. I bought Autumn 3 tops that I just love and some magnets.

We finally got on the ferry and headed back to Krabi. Upon arrival at the Krabi pier - there are many people eager to drive us to our hotel. Figuring out which van to get in that was included in our ticket price took a bit of time. Finally we were on our way with a gal from England and her 12 month old. This was the slowest taxi ride as traffic was backed up for miles for the water festival. Although we did not get soaked, we got to watch the full extent of the water fun had in the streets. People filled huge drums of water and put them in the backs of trucks and then 8-20 people would pile in the back of the truck and throw water on people as they drove around. The sides of the street were also lined with people throwing water on cars and pedestrians. Young, Middle and Old... everyone was involved. After over an hour in the taxi, we finally made it to our resort - Emerald Garden. It really was a lovely garden with a nice pool. We originally were placed at the back of the property where they were doing loud construction. We asked to be moved to the front and got rooms that were a bit more quiet for our stay. It was worth it even though we ended up moving our stuff during a downpour. We all got some lunch from the restaurant on premise and then played in the pool for a while. We enjoyed a nice evening in and ordered pizza. We were excited, as Autumn had a crib of her own for these 3 nights in Ao Nang. It was a bit small, but with the right set up seemed like it would be okay. I don't remember it being a bad night - so we must have gotten some rest!

April 14th: The Jungle.
We arranged for a taxi to take us to Khao Phanom Bencha National Park north of Krabi. Our driver was a guy in the military that had recently returned from the jungle between Myanmar/Burma and Thailand. It is an area run by rebels and very dangerous. He was a bit confused as to why we were in S. Thailand and wanted to go to the jungle. Between fighting and medical problems - of the 72 men he went into the jungle with - only 15 returned. They were there for 6 year and had no leave. He had a seven year old son that he had not seen since he was one. He had some interesting perspectives and told us about the work he would be doing as security detail at the Kings Palace soon. Would be interesting to know if it was all true - as we had no reason not to believe him.

Alissa had picked Khao Phanam Bencha because she really wanted to do some hiking. When we arrived the rangers informed us that most of the park was closed due to the massive flooding that had occurred the week before. Days of rain did a lot of damage to the entire region and killed 60 people along river basins. This did somewhat affect our plans - but we were still able to hike into waterfalls, wander around cool trees and vines and even see a water monitor high up in a tree. It was a fun day with a very yummy lunch at the little park cafe! Autumn spent most of lunch playing in the grass and on the hill with mommy and Aunt Alissa. New discoveries were grass whistles and running down hills! When we returned we all went for a swim - Autumn watched us go off the diving board and insisted that she too must give it a try!

That dinner we had the most amazing Indian food I had ever had! I ordered ginger chicken and naan – so so so delicous! Aaron ordered some potato naan that was pretty out of this world as well. It was one of the two places where Autumn allowed the staff to play with her. A gal walked around with her and let her ‘ride’ on a few scooters, it was wonderful to be able to enjoy our food peacefully!
April 15th: Railay and Coconut Shakes.

Up for another delicious buffet breakfast. Everything under the sun - rice, omelets, meats, cakes, cereals, toast, croissants, yogurt, juices, fruit... by far the best breakfasts of the trip! This day was our beach day and boy did we pick a beautiful one! We took a long tail over to Railay Beach for the morning. Railay is often on the list for top beaches in the world and there is a good reason for this. It was absolutely gorgeous! The one last thing I had wanted to do in Thailand was sea kayak around little islands and caves. As we neared the shore I saw kayak rentals and decided we had to go out! We had even done a practice run in Hawaii to see how Autumn would do out in the kayak. We found some shade to lay our stuff down on, put on the sunscreen and went to play! Liz and I went up the beach to take photos and everyone got a nice last soak in the beautiful green waters! Autumn had her first Popsicle and we basked in the sun! The only bummer was that there was something small stinging us - jellyfish maybe? The sting didn't last, but it was painful and irritating.
Aaron, Autumn and I headed out in the kayak (200 baht - about $8.00 US for an hour). As we rounded the corner there were caves and little islands! Exactly what I had pictured!!! We stopped at a little beach to play and then headed around the little islands. Autumn fell asleep in my lap and we headed back to the beach. It was perfect.

When we got back to shore the tide was going out and so the cleaner crabs had come out! Each group of balls is a crab that is removing sand from a hole, putting it through their system and popping them out as perfect little balls.

We then worked on getting back to Ao Nang - the guy wouldn't take us until we had a full boat - only 2 more people. Todd and Ryan finally convinced him to take us with some extra baht, as Todd and Alissa needed to get back to pack up and go to the airport.

We split for lunch and Aaron, Autumn and I ate at a Thai Kitchen right on the water. It was so so yummy and I found my favorite drink - a young coconut shake - blended coconut milk, the flesh and ice put back in the coconut! Absolutely the best drink I've ever had! I had a second for dessert!

We went back to the resort to clean up and take another swim in the pool. I went into town for a little shopping and then met up with Aaron, Autumn and the Brackens for dinner at the same Thai kitchen. I honestly had more fun taking pictures of the sunset after shopping than shopping. I got some postcards, pillow covers, a swimsuit cover and a few other things.

We went to the same Thai Kitchen with Ryan and Liz for dinner and it was just as yummy! I had another coconut shake!

April 16th: Transition to Yangon

We arrived in Yangon right at the end of their water festival.

Short report - yummy breakfast, taxi to airport, flight to Bangkok, lunch at Bangkok airport, flight to Yangon, taxi to Todd and Alissa's apartment seeing the last of Myanmar's water festival and then dinner out to a Myanmar dinner. Some good and some interesting tastes. Winner of the night was their papaya shake - papaya blended! Alissa, Autumn and I took a taxi back to their apartment while the others went to check out a pagoda. I should have put Autumn to bed much sooner, but when we were finally ready for bed I shut off the lights and put Autumn up on the bed and somehow she crawled off... bang... lots of crying and one huge knot on her head )-: We checked her eyes which were dilating correctly and called the medical facility that Alissa was familiar with. The doctor wouldn’t talk to us unless we came in, so we passed. Liz did some massage, we found a night light and rearranged the furniture. Back to bed for a few hours - our flight was at 6am, which meant a 4am wake up call! Ouch!

April 17th: Early up, Airplane, Gorgeous Oasis Resort:

Autumn slept well, still had even eyes and the egg sized knot on her forehead had gone down significantly. Four am… I always feel queasy when I get up that early, but up and off we all went. Autumn fell back asleep in the car seat, we were able to find a taxi at o’dark thirty and we got all checked in. It was the domestic side of the airport and quite simple. I don’t think more than a few dozen flights go out daily to a handful of locations. Autumn did well until we had to sit and wait for our flight. I think she wanted down and didn’t want her shoes on. After we got her shoes on she stomped around screaming at the top of her lungs for a few minutes. Luckily their were stairs and after she calmed down I was able to get her interesting in going up and down, one of her favorite activities. We got on the smallest plane of the trip and headed to Bagan with a handful of other people. Our trip was arranged with a local travel agent, so all we had to do was pay the archeological fee and then find our taxi and head to the resort. We were welcomed with fruit drinks and able to check in at 8am! Nap time!! The grounds were breathtaking! Plumeria, bougainvillea, perfectly trimmed soft grass and a lovely saline pool. Mid morning the others headed out to find bikes to ride around New Bagan and we took naps, all of us! It was glorious! After our naps we met of with everyone and headed to a place across the street for lunch – many interesting foods they did feed us. A couple of the chicken dishes were good and the lamb was pretty good as well, but a few others were, well… interesting and a bit bitter or oily.

I’m afraid this is the meal that started the travelers stomach issues with Autumn and I – never horrible, but our tummies were not right. The afternoon was filled with pool time followed by Todd and Alissa babysitting so Aaron and I could take the bikes out with Liz and Ryan. We headed through the dirt roads of New Bagan and to a temple they knew we could climb up. The people lived in thatched homes raised off the ground. The view from the top of the temple looked out on thousands of temples. Bagan is an ancient palace city where over 2000 Buddhist temples were built sometime between 1000 and 1200 AD. My reaction was similar to what I thought it might be – amazed at the architecture, but saddened by the idolatry.

We then rode the bikes to the place on the river the others had spotted earlier in the day. This seemingly uneventful dinner turned into quite the evening to remember! We watched the sun go down as people on the river did their laundry and fished, enjoyed the drinks on the porch and then Todd , Alissa and Autumn showed up. Autumn had fallen asleep on the way and received the royal treatment. The staff brought a couch from somewhere to lay her on and then between doing things the waiter would fan her. The sun went all the way down and after asking when the puppet show began, the waiter stood there for a few minutes and then said, "The puppet show begins now." And we all walked over to a new table to receive our dinner while watching a marionette puppet show! It was awesome!!! After the puppets, we got a Myanmar Xylophone show. Autumn was enthralled! After it was all done we walked the bicycles back and walked to our room in the oasis.

April 18th: Temples, Pagodas, Temple Vendors and more Temples

The morning began with a delicious buffet breakfast complete with Myanmar style juices served in big bowls with crazy wooden ladles. Part of our package while in Bagan included a day long mini bus driver escorting us around from temple to pagoda to temple. It was an interesting cultural experience – although the pagan idol environment was sad – the art and creativity put into each structure was amazing.

I’m sure we visited some of the more commonly visited sites and there were art and handcraft salesmen and women on each grounds, in the temple halls, on top of them and in the streets. Looking at the handcrafts and bargaining was actually my favorite activity of the day. We had not had much time for shopping in Thailand and so we were able to get a few souvenirs through out the day. The minimum wage for a laborer in Myanmar is equivalent to 50 cents a day and so the beautiful handcrafts were very cheap. The whole topic of Myanmar and other 3^rd world country’s economy (or the concept of world economy) is much more complicated than I can wrap my head around – right or wrong – we just have to trust that they would not be selling the stuff for that cheap if they could sell it for more elsewhere.

Blonde girl, blue eyes and Myanmar culture – Autumn got mauled this day with calls, unsolicited touches and even gals trying to take her out of our arms to hold her. Our response was to politely decline or ignore the attention. By the end of the day Autumn’s response was to swing her arms yelling “NO” and “mama mama.” She had mild stranger danger before our vacation and from this day on she doesn’t even really tolerate strangers talking to her from a distance without an uncomfortable glare or burying herself into our shoulder.

The climate in Bagan is very hot and dry – we went back to the hotel for a mid-day cool down, rest and swim. We had a lot of fun in the pool again! Autumn is a little fish and was getting much better at holding her breath. We were unable to max out her comfort level of being underwater – she would stay under bobbing for 5+ seconds, come up and say “more, more, more!!”

We cleaned up and headed back out to climb to the top of a temple for sunset. Autumn wore her new Myanmar shirt and enjoyed watching the horse carts and climbing the stairs. We went to an Indian restaurant that Todd and Alissa had been to before and shared many delicious dishes under the stars. Autumn was completely exhausted and finally crashed in the car seat in the van.

April 19^th: Rest and Transfer

We had all day at the resort to rest, clean up, pack and relax before heading to the airport. We took full advantage – only leaving to get lunch and some snacks and drinks for Autumn. We did walk around a local market with colorful spices and foreign fare. Lunch at a local diner was interesting, but certainly did not help our stomach ickies. Our friends had left the resort much earlier to go to another location in Myanmar. We took our taxi to the airport and made the flight back to Yangon just in time for sunset. We figured out getting a taxi and making our way back to their apartment for the night. We had Shan spicy noodles from the restaurant downstairs, packed our bags and tucked in for the night!

April 20^th: Back to Bangkok

Another early call, up and at em back on the street to hail a taxi to the Yangon airport. Checked in, shared an egg dish and fancy coffee at the café and boarded our plane. We got back to the hotel we had stayed at 10 days ago around 10 in the morning. We knew we had the day and I had received a tip from a friend that the Bangkok Zoo was worth a visit. We also knew it was on the other side of town and were not sure how we were going to get their. After some discussion with the hotel guide, we knew we would not be using their services – he wanted to charge us the equivalent of $50 to get there and back. We started to walk down the road for some lunch and a taxi pulled up to see if we needed a ride. I decided it would be worth asking what he would charge to get us to the zoo. He said 200 Baht so we decided we’d just get lunch at the zoo. Once we got in he made a phone call and said “here, talk to my friend, he knows English.” Oh dear, he doesn’t have a clue where we want to go! To top it off we decided we didn’t want to carry the car seat all over the zoo and so we were not sure where we were going to end up and Autumn was in our lap. Aaron spent 5 minutes on the phone with this guy … “no not sue, the zoo.” Finally some comment about monkey’s seemed to do the trick and we were pretty sure he told our driver that we wanted to go to the Bangkok Zoo. We decided that where ever we ended up we would stay there and have fun. It was neat to see more of the city and then before we got to the zoo we drove by palace grounds. We are pretty sure that the grounds could be fully self sufficient with cows and everything. So…. We did end up at the zoo! After some yummy street food we went to check out all the animals. Autumn had a great time looking at everything… she would say “more ______“ (which ever animal we had been looking at) and we’d say say “let’s go look at the ______” and she’d say “name of new animal” and then we saw monkeys and for the rest of the day she wanted “more monkeys!” Then the torrential downpour! Not knowing whether it would last all day or not, we continued walking to see animals in the rain. At this point we were pretty glad we did not have the car seat in tow.

They allowed you to buy potatoes to feed to the Asian Elephants! Well, as you can tell by the shear terror in Autumn's face that it wasn't quite a hit! The elephant proceeded to rip the whole basket out of my hand while Autumn screamed at the top of her lungs! It was good fun! (-:

We did finally find shelter in the seal show stadium until the rain slowed. After seeing many crazy mammals, snakes and birds – we decided to take a tuk tuk to dinner.

The head tuk tuk guys new of a great seafood place – and said it wasn’t too expensive… The ride was slow and in traffic, but the restaurant was very very nice. The prices seemed high, but okay so we stayed. More cashew chicken and yummy curry, Autumn played with the waitstaff’s children, checked out the lobsters and crabs and played on the multi-tiered staircase! It was delightful and a total splurge – a bit more of one than we thought. Aaron told me how much they charged us and my mouth dropped – some how taxes added another $20??? Oh well, too late – we had already hailed a taxi and were on our way back to the hotel. The tip from the kind waitress to use the meter was very helpful – the trip back was only 250 baht. Off to bed – our adventure in South East Asia was wrapping up.

April 21^st: A long day (literally) flying home

We made our way to the airport in Bangkok and checked into our Thai Airways flight to Tokyo, went through immigration and boarded. They gave us 3 seats in bulkhead (with the wall in front of us so we had like 3 feet of leg room)! Thai Airways is now our favorite airline – the food, service, equipment and comfort was top notch! We had 3 ½ hours in Japan to play in the children’s area and eat some dinner. I also got dad some amazingly yummy Japanese fudge! One more flight and we’d be back in America – Tokyo to Honolulu was pretty uneventful and we were able to get a little bit of sleep. We landed at 8am on the 21^st – essentially the same time and day we left Thailand many hours earlier! We took a sketch van shuttle (I think sketchier than anything we had ridden in, in Asia) to our hotel! Thankfully they let us check in at 10am and got us a crib! I had scheduled 2 days in Waikiki for us to adjust to the time change and relax. We had a nice time, ate some Hawaiian and American fare, played in the ocean and watched a great fireworks show. We were somewhat able to adjust to the time change – but it really took about a week for us to be tired at the right time. By the time we got to the mainland Autumn was pretty well adjusted, just in time for us to got out east to see family!

Final thoughts: This was certainly a trip of a lifetime – getting to see far off, completely foreign places and people. It is not a trip we would have done by ourselves and are totally thankful for our friends who wanted the same adventure and to do it together! God is amazing – his creation never ceases to amaze and thrill me! His provision, mercy and graciousness as we traveled about was more than we could have asked for! God is Good, Life is Good and let the adventures continue!

Vacation Stats
5 cities - Bangkok, Ton Sai, Ao Nang, Yangon and Bagan
12 flights (Kona to Honolulu to Tokyo to Beijing to Bangkok to Krabi to Bangkok to Yangon to Bagan to Yangon to Bangkok to Tokyo to Honolulu)
16257 total miles
2 Resorts, 1 Hotel, 1 Bungalow and our friends apartment
9 beaches
Sit down meals: 8 Thai, 2 Indian, 3 Myanmar