3 pale alaskans

I've been meaning to write a bit about our trip to hawaii. It was spur of the moment, and required a last minute change of itinerary from Maui to Kauai which left us hot and sweaty in Lihui with a sleepy baby, a hungry breast-feeding momma, no place to stay and really no idea of where to go. It was a huge wake up call that traveling with a baby is very different than adventuring as 'dinks'. We soon were all quite grumpy, almost whimpering like Lucas. At that moment, hawaii was not much to look at, and the traffic was unbearable. We couldn't find one place that had free wi-fi, even the library charged 10$ for access. The only thing that saved us from ourselves was air conditioning in our rental car and a hearty italian meal. We finally stopped to pray and get something cold and mango and things began to get better. Here is the story in pictures.

Lucas, my new hat, and me at Bali hi. 

David meditating with his guide book 

 Highlights: 

- the butter avocado

-farmer's market and trying fruit we had never heard of... bread fruit, longon berries etc.

- Mango

- wearing summer dresses without tights, boots and a sweater

- sitting on the porch after dark with a balmy breeze

- surfing

- the sea turtle

- plain old sunshine

- figuring out that we really like sitka

- Lucas did not get sunburned!

- quiet times on the beach

Sweet blessed sleep

My boys

Taste of the pacific

I love doing puzzles on vacation

A nap by a stream... pretty darn perfect.

This is the view that I had most of the trip sitting in the back seat. Spectacular eh?

 

Our favorite beach- hideaway beach- recommended by the cunninghams

"Surrender the booty"

First family photo

Sunrise 20 steps from our condo

Classic

David taking surfing lessons... discussing how to take on the ocean

Shipwreck beach- Harrison Ford jumped off this cliff in Six days seven nights

Family photo time

Our last night eating at the Beach house, watching the sunset

silly reflections

I'm sitting, once again, listening to the whirring rotations of my breast pump. I worked the last two days. Well, only 7a-2p and I was teaching a class so it wasn't too bad. But I am terrible at pumping because normally I'm right in the action, and I don't take any personal breaks... in fact often I feel guilty for spending too long in the bathroom at work. So pumping the first day didn't even work at all because I was not relaxed enough and the milk wasn't fooled. Today I am doing a bit better but my pumping schedule is off Lucas' eating schedule so invariably there are longer periods of nothing than is advisable. My plan for when I go back to work for real in a few weeks is to only work one day in a row and to pump every 3 hours, period. We will see how it goes. So far I have had plenty of milk to go around and Lucas is Mr. chubberson, so I'm not too worried.

 David is making a roast for dinner. He is telling me about how he has found his calling in life... teaching... it's fun to see him inspired and bright eyed. he brought me a random present home a few days ago. It made my day. I'm usually not a present kind of person but it was a set of glass pyrex dishes with lids so they can double as tupperware, and that is the kind of thing that grows some serious love in a woman. I jokingly said, wow, what are you going to get me tomorrow?! Well, he didn't really think it was a joke and then yesterday I came home to a new iPhone which I've been wanting so I can FaceTime with my sweet family, and my phone is frizting out. And then today I came home to a beautiful print of a heron that I liked on our last gallery walk. I'm not sure what has gotten into him but it's fun. The prudent shelley is saying it's really too much- but I think I'm going to side with the care-free silly shelley and simply enjoy these shopping sprees on my behalf. All that to say that it's good to be home and I am so unbelievably blessed. There's lots to be done and lots of changes coming up in the next few weeks but for now I'm just going to sit with the music of my breast pump, the golden crisp leaves reflecting the sun through my kitchen window, the smell of browning meat, my sleeping sweet breast-milky baby in the bedroom, and my handsome chapped-lipped, gift-giving husband barefoot in the kitchen. 

a visit home

Back in Sitka for a week. 

Restful and beautiful.

Enjoyed our Alaskan autumn and its violet skies.

Spent some sweet time with Bahareh,

and said goodbye to Lydia.

Decided not to go to Hawaii... and then changed our minds.