This Post Brought to You by Kona Coffee

We got back from our travels a few days ago -- Soren and I spent some time in Santa Barbara while Chris did workshop stuff in Honolulu, and then I flew out to Kona and hung out with my hubby while Gramma, Grampa Richie and Auntie Kelly Ann (hereafter known as "The Goldens" because I can't be typing all those names all the time) took care of Soren for a few days. The trip had its ups and downs, but on the whole, it was great!

Chris flew with us as far as LAX, and was nice enough to let me use his first-class upgrade while he sat with Soren in Peasant Plus class. Have I mentioned that I love Chris? Because I do.

Soren and I had a great time in SB, enjoying the disgustingly nice weather. Gramma got out all the awesome old Fisher-Price toys she'd been hanging on to since 1977 (you know, back when Little People were still a choking hazard), and Soren was in heaven. OK, as an aside, remember how you used to be able to wind toys up? Why don't they do that any more? One of the toys Mom held on to was the Fisher-Price record player, and I got it down and was like, Oh, there's no way the batteries in this are still good, but then I remembered that you're supposed to wind it up! And then it goes! Only for thirty seconds, but who cares? If you want your toys to make annoying noises, you should have to work for it. Not like the big garbage truck Soren has, with the lever you can push down to make the horn honk CONTINUOUSLY FOREVER. Anyway, I'm sure Big Battery has the toy companies in its pocket, but I'd like to see a return to good old-fashioned winding up. </aside>

The Hess family was nice enough to have us over for dinner and give us some of Liam's old clothes, which was wonderful! Then Emily came over and gave Soren an awesome Sock Monster (I'll have to take a better picture of it one of these days) before we went to a lovely brunch featuring the hugest mimosas in the entire world. Sadly, this brings us to one of the lower points of the trip, which was the stomach bug that Soren had had a couple nights before, which then manifested in me after brunch, and which apparently I later passed on to Emily and Kelly Ann. And now Chris has it. So don't come near me, I guess.

Let's talk more about fun things, though. The Goldens hosted an Easter party, with egg decorating and egg hunting and candy! Soren even found a couple eggs before deciding that it was more fun to play with trucks!



And he had his first ride on a carousel! He was a little nervous, but managed to have some fun. When asked if he wanted to ride again, his answer was a prompt "No," but I'm sure he'll warm up to it.



He also got to run around making airplane noises with Grampa Richie and Kelly Ann...



And he gave Gramma some very nice kisses.



That's enough for now. In my next post: Why I will forever hereafter stick to flying REAL airlines; humuhumunukunukuapua'a, palila, and akiapola'au; and molten lava.