Living Aloha

Would you rather hear about our trip or see pictures? It may take me a few nights, but I'll try to fill you in on our wonderful trip to hawaii...try not to be too jealous:)

After all my worries about how the travel would go with a toddler and all the necessary paraphernalia, the trip to Hawaii went more smoothly than expected. Connor was so well behaved and even made the cutest annoyed face at a crying toddler sitting beside us. Mandy met us at the airport with leis...Connor was bashful at first, but started to warm up to her soon. The travel had worn us out, so we spent the evening in and went to bed early, ready for the adventure the next day. Little did we know we'd wake up on NC time (Hawaii is 6 hrs behind NC) and not be able to go back to sleep. It took five nights before Connor slept in til 6am. The first day, Saturday, we planned a big adventure... first we hiked to the top of Diamond Head, and then went snorkeling at Hanauma Bay Park.

Diamond Head was a good short walk with a great lookout over Waikiki!


















Hanauma Bay was a great place to check out the snorkeling and enjoy the sun and sand. We took turns snorkeling and hanging out with Connor. He is such a fan of the water and the beach and could spend hours running around in the surf. The water was so clear and the fish were not the least bit scared of the snorkelers... I was a little nervous to be so close to such big fish and afraid my belly was going to rub against the coral! The highlight for me was seeing a sea turtle swimming in the reef and Mandy and Scott saw a moray eel... there were more of these to be seen in Kauai! That evening we watched the sunset at KoOlina Lagoons.

























On Sunday, Mandy spent some quality time with Connor while Scott and I went on a submarine dive off Waikiki, which was a lot of fun! Later, we drove out to the North shore for some more beach time and Matsumoto Shave Ice! We called it an early night to get ready for an early morning flight to Kauai!





















In Hawaii, Connor became very fascinated with birds...and chasing birds! We sometimes had to watch him closely to be sure he didn't run off or get too close to the wildlife. My favorite were these red-heads! And Connor liked the Hawaii penquins living at the Hilton.







Monday morning we made the VERY short flight to Kauai-watch for Kauai pictures in the next post!

Quick Updates

Just wanted to share some quick news in no particular order-

- The bats are gone! All 35 of them.
- Connor is going to have a little brother!
- Tomorrow we get to see Mandy!
- Finally got 1 yr pictures of Connor taken at fifteen months, due to his constant bumps and bruises from toddling around!

All for now, pictures to come!

Boys, Bats, and Birthdays

Life's been interesting lately around the O'Neill zoo!

Our new little one on the way is not the least bit bashful and was very eager to let us know what sex to look forward to. It was a good thing we wanted to know the sex, for when we went for the 20 week ultrasound, he might as well been flashing a neon sign announcing "I'm a boy!". When you've seen one little boy on ultrasound, you recognize it for sure the second time around! As soon as the technician placed the ultrasound probe on my belly, there were little boy parts for the whole world to see. We didn't need her interpretation or help pointing it out! We are both very excited to be having another boy, although we would have been excited no matter what. Scott was very surprised, as he was CONVINCED it was a girl! We'll post some ultrasound photos if we can get them scanned in.

Here's a photo of our newest "pet" who lives outside our dining room window. Every morning we watch him actively repairing his web from the trauma of the evening. I thought for sure the "hurricane" would wash him away, but he was still there this morning... his web a little worse for the wear. Any idea what kind of spider he is?
















We have been busy trying to put some of the finishing touches on our house. We were eager to finish a dog run for Sebastian and Chi-Chi before we had travel plans. Since Scott was able to get it finished with help from Grandpa Bobby and Ian (and no help from all the useless people at Lowes), we were able to go for several days to Charleston last week and look forward to our trip to Hawaii later this month! We are now in the midst of finishing off an extra space in the house as a home office, which will allow Scott to be officially home based- he'll still travel for work, but all other days work from home.

During the preparation for the home office, Scott was up in the attic to run telephone line and made a big discovery. Bats in the belfry! A family of bats living in our attic! Yuck! Bats are generally peaceful, just sleeping in the attic during the day and flying around outside eating bugs at night. A warm attic provides a good safe place for taking care of baby bats until they are old enough to fly. Sounds sweet, unless its your house! We are well on our way to getting rid of them (with some professional help), but for now we are sharing our new home in the country with a few bats. Well, more like 33 bats...or more. Tonight we sat outside at dusk and counted them flying out one or two at a time! The bats won't be hurt- just allowed to leave the house but not allowed to get back in, now or ever. However, the professional, who we just call Batman, assures us they won't leave the neighborhood... they'll stay close by eating bugs! Thats why its important to ensure there is no other way for them to get back into the attic.
















We'd like to wish a special Happy Birthday to Grandpa Bobby. We have a birthday present in the works, but hopefully all the hugs and kisses from Connor are present enough for now!

We did go to Charleston for a few days last week to celebrate my birthday. Scott had a several day work visit, so Connor and I decided to tag along for company. We had a good time entertaining ourselves during the day, and enjoyed exploring the area together at night. Connor and I checked out a very cool kids museum and the aquarium, took a boat ride, saw dolphins, and played in the pool. With Scott, we walked across Charleston's Cooper River Bridge, ate at our favorite historic district seafood restaurant Noisy Oyster, got Thai food at Basil, more pool time, and found a gourmet cupcake bakery five minutes after closing. The weather was perfect and it was a nice break from the usual routine! It was just a small tease to get us into the mood for Hawaii!!