Visiting with the Big Island Gang

Today we had to get up super early (3 AM) to go to the Big Island. The boys were not happy, while I was feeding Rowan, he bit me really hard! He hasn’t done that in awhile. It was not a very good way to start the day. We got to the airport kind of late, but in time to make it. My mom took Elijah and my dad and I waited to check our bags in (carseats + 1 bag). It took forever because there was only 1 woman helping everyone and everyone had some problem. The people in front of us had 1 person in their party who booked the wrong flight (PM instead of AM) so they had to change their ticket. Then we forgot to check in 1 bag, so she had to add the bag to our ticket. We also asked for plastic bags for the car seats and she had to run and get those. I felt bad for adding to the problems. Then there was someone else with a problem and I forgot what it was. Then, in the security line, it was taking forever so we went over to the Aloha side (big mistake) and they asked me for my infant pass. I was like “Oh, I need an infant pass?” So, I had to go back to the counter, wait in line again (thank goodness it was short). I was standing at an open counter and I thought the people would help me after they are finished with the other people. Apparently not. So, I had to move and stand in back of the other person (who got in line after me). I heard the lady say “It’s no guarantee that you’ll get on the 5:30am flight, they are boarding now”. My flight was at 5:25, so I was in a panic now! I asked for the infant pass, they gave it to me and then I asked if they could get me through security. They took me to the First Class line (thank god) but the TSA person was super S-L-O-W and did lots of things that the normal security people don’t. She just seemed to take forever, or maybe it was just my perception of time was bad. After I got through, I ran down to the gate and made it. Apparently, my mom didn’t have an infant pass either, but they didn’t ask for it. Geez! The flight was ok, we had them as lap children since the flight is only 40 minutes. Elijah fell asleep almost right away, but Rowan stayed up until the very end when we were landing and then closed his eyes. We got our stuff off the belt then had to go pick up our rental car. I realized on the way over that I don’t have insurance anymore so I should either buy the extra insurance (which I was going to do) or let my dad be the primary driver. After going through all the motions of signing me up as the driver, the guy said that it would be $10 more to add my dad as another driver. Since he was going to be driving, he should be the primary driver. It wasn’t simple to change, he had to basically start over and use my dad’s license and credit card. That took forever. In the meantime, I was watching my mom who was looking after the boys and noticed that she was SMOKING right next to them. Ooooh, I was so mad! She knows that she’s not supposed to smoke around them and I have been pretty liberal with their smoking so far (don’t make them change their clothes or go across the street). After we got the car, we picked her up and I scolded her about smoking and she gave some excuse about being down wind from them. I was super upset. Anyways, it wasn’t too bad putting the car seats in because the car had the LATCH system. We drove the usual route - first to the Hilo Farmer’s Market to pick up flowers, then to my dad’s father’s grave, then to my Uncle Antoku and Aunty Kay’s house in Hakalau. We had a really nice visit there, they had a nice breakfast all ready for us, it was fun talking to them. After that, we went to Aunty Fumi’s house, at first we stopped by, but the boys were still sleeping, so we drove around a bit then came back. This was the first good sleep they had, we didn’t want to wake them. We had lunch at Fumi’s and had a nice visit with all of them, Christian, Aunty Pat and Tricia also joined us. It was good to see everyone and they can’t make it to the boys’s party, so we thought it would be good to bring the boys to them. The boys were pretty good throughout the day, they did get fussy here and there, mainly because they haven’t had hardly any good sleep. After we left, I wanted to stop by their house in Hilo since I don’t remember it, but we didn’t have time. We headed straight for the airport. Not as much irritations going back home, and it was pretty painless. I carried Elijah with me and my parents had Rowan a few rows behind. I sat next to a couple from Maryland and they adored Elijah. Whenever he got a little fussy, I lifted him up and down and he really liked that. I’m sure everyone enjoyed seeing a smiley baby go up and down. There were some German speaking women behind me so I talked to them as we were getting off the plane and one woman said “Can you wait until June to move?” The weather is cold and wet! We got home and I was tired but then got a 2nd wave of energy and decided to finish the boxes for the party favors. I finished stamping up all the boxes!