Nursery

Small Fry’s room is officially finished so he can now arrive any time he wants (and for the sake of my back and my ribs, the sooner the better now that we’re full term at 37 weeks).  This little boy is going to love elephants.   Check out the cute elephant pictures Shannon made for him above the glider.  Sorry grandma, no donkeys, but we’ll make sure he gets his enough liberal influence to counteract the effect of all of those elephants. 

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Baby Shower

Shannon and mom threw me a fabulous baby shower last weekend.  Shannon went above and beyond with the elephant theme decorations and tasty food!  It was wonderful to get together with such a great group of women to celebrate Small Fry.  Thanks to all of you for coming and sharing the day with us!  I was especially glad that Arlene and my mom were both able to be there, despite last minute illnesses…it wouldn’t have been the same without either of you.  Thanks to everyone for making it such a special day. 

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Hawaii Five-O

If anyone ever meets the person who invented the babymoon, please let me know because I’d like to buy her a boat drink.  We just got back from an amazing trip to Kauai to celebrate Small Fry’s passage into the third trimester (pictures here).  Kauai is beautiful and we’d highly recommend a trip there if you get the chance.  The island isn’t as commercialized as the other Hawaiian islands we’ve been to and it wasn’t too hard to avoid masses of tourists.  We did run into some tourist traps (ie. Queen’s Bath), but these were definitely the minority.  Our top 10 favorite things about our trip:

 

  1. Polihale State Beach – we were so glad we rented a Jeep because our very favorite spot was this beach which is located at the end of the road on the west side of the island.  The last 5 miles was a dirt road full of potholes and rocks and it would have been tough to make it in a car (even as it was we got a flat tire, but that’s another story).  Polihale is a gorgeous, flat, 15 mile beach with gentle waves and a seawater pond (we called it perfect pond).  The best part – we were one of two couples on the whole beach, thanks to it’s remote location. 
  2. Hiking to Waipo’o Falls in Waimea Canyon – we discovered a perfect paradise waterfall surrounded by flowering plants that infused the entire area with their tropical smell at the end of a 2 mile hike through the jungle.  It was the perfect spot for a picnic lunch and we had the place totally to ourselves.   
  3. Laying on the beach – my personal favorite (this may not have made it onto Sam’s list) was digging a hole in the sand for the belly and laying on my stomach….oh my god, I didn’t know how much I missed that…I’ve been considering making a sandbox in the back yard ever since. 
  4. Waimea Canyon – this canyon is almost as spectacular as the Grand Canyon and practically as big.  The vistas were amazing – just imagine the Grand Canyon with waterfalls and jungle forests at the bottom and somehow even more difficult terrain.     
  5. Hiking to Ho’opi’i Falls – we went on a short jungle walk to Ho’opi’i falls.  The falls were pretty and more or less deserted. 
  6. Hiking the Sleeping Giant – we hiked up the mountain near Kappa’a called the Sleeping Giant where we got beautiful views of the island in all directions. 
  7. Snorkeling with turtles – we went to Tunnels beach to snorkel after we heard that it was supposed to be the best.  I can’t say the snorkeling was amazing, but we did find half a dozen turtles hanging out in the shallows that we swam with for a little while. 
  8. Luau at the Grand Hyatt – they had to do the luau in the ballroom because it was raining, but ambiance aside it was very fun.  The fire dancer was amazing and the luau pig was so good that Sam and Small Fry ate practically the entire pig between the two of them.
  9. Food – in general, we had some very tasty food.  Some favorites were the pineapple, marionberry milkshakes at Duane’s, and tropical coconut and macadamia nut pancakes.
  10. Relaxing – feeling the aloha, nuf said…

 

The only problem with the babymoon that nobody warned me about was the difficulty of making complicated travel plans with baby brain.  Usually I can claim that I inherited my dad’s Master Trip Planner abilities.  This time, the rental car reservation I thought I had made never went through, I scheduled our return interisland flight for the wrong day and I forgot to cancel our first hotel reservation so we got charged for a night there.  Yikes!  We managed to fix all of my little boo boos, but I don’t think I’ll be putting myself in charge of making travel plans for a long time.

Hugo’s Last Stand

Hugo is enjoying his last few months of being our fuzzy baby.  Pretty soon he’ll just be the animal that we feed…I don’t think he knows what’s coming.  Maybe he’ll start being nicer to the neighbors and their pets once he stops getting so spoiled at home. 

PS – thanks mom and dad for the awesome stroller!!

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The New Yorker

We had a great visit from Thad this weekend.  The boys had lots of quality guy time shooting shot guns and watching UFC, but we managed to squeeze in some family fun too.  Luckily, the weather cooperated so we could have a Sunday afternoon BBQ and test out Sam’s fancy new camera – more photos here

Next time hopefully Sara and Jack will come too! 

 

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Hello!

Welcome to samandcara.com.  We’ve created this website to share news from our growing family with all of our favorite people, near and far.  As you probably already know, we’re expecing a baby boy this Thanksgiving.  I’m sure this site will get much more exciting once he arrives.  Until then, we’ll practice our blogging skills so we’re ready to go on day 1.  Hope you enjoy!