Da Keiki Blog

After the fatigue and fun on the first day, Sunday was much more relaxed. In the morning, we explored Andy’s grandmonther’s house and took pictures.

Leilani really wanted her picture with the flowers, and the extra photo of just the compound lilies:

The we went out shopping to Bed, Bath, & Beyond for a gift for the wedding the following Saturday. The frying pan was on the gift registry, so we got it. Having seen the movie Tangled, Leilani knew what it was for (watch out, Brian):

Then finally, we went to the Italian-American festival at the Stark county fairgrounds, just a few blocks from great-grandma’s house in Canton. Knowing Leilani likes the rides, I had been disappointed that we would miss the county fair, but this was probably even better: $5 all-you-can-ride admission and reasonable crowds. Plus, once she saw it driving by on the very first day, she wanted to go.

Leilani went straight to the big spinning swings and wanted to ride that first:

After a few rides, we walked around and found the food, entertainment, and shopping. We were still trying to limit the sugar and artificial colors in foods that we gave to Leilani at this time, but how can a Dad say no to his daughter who wants an ice cream at the fair?

The music on one stage was an Elvis impersonator, who was very good at it:

Indoors, there were craft vendors and some old time music from the Italian civic groups who organized the fair. This old man was watching:

Back outside, it was Leilani time again: bouncy castle, spinning “boats” where Andy almost got sick (not pictured), tame helicopters (kids only), and ferris wheel with Grandpa then Daddy:

The fair was pretty at dusk when all the lights came on. In this view from the ferris wheel, there are 2 other rides we took: the infamous “boats” at the bottom, and the spinning cage ferris wheel on the right (red star) that really scared (not scarred, I hope) Leilani.

With her love of horses, Leilani still loves merry-go-rounds, and this was the first of many this trip:

Finally, Jim joined us for the last “ride” of the day in the fun-house:

On the way out of the fair, we stopped in a grassy area to watch and gently catch fireflies (also called lightning bugs). I never lived anywhere that had them, and I remembered them from my summertime visits to Ohio, so I wanted Leilani to see them too. If you touch them while they are flying, they will land on your hand, and sometimes still keep flashing. I think I still enjoy seeing them just as much as Leilani does now.

It’s not Christmas in July, it’s July at Christmas! I (Andy) am finally starting on the photos from Leilani’s and my trip to Ohio way back in July (I promised Sonja I would write these posts, lets not say when). When we upload the more recent Christmas photos, we’ll probably move these posts around.

With Kaua’i being a major tourist destination, we’re quite fortunate to have lots of flights to the mainland. Sometimes, you can get just the right flight, and if you’re lucky, it won’t be too expensive. We left Kaua’i on Friday afternoon on a direct flight to SFO, where we changed planes at 11pm and got the red-eye to Chicago. Leilani got the Nintendo out even before going through security and was then too excited to sleep on the first flight (that’ll teach the parents to make it a special airplane-only game):

And in SFO, we got lucky and had neighboring gates, with a kid-play area in between them! Leilani was still a bit wound up and played the whole time. The play area had a weather theme, and she really liked the mini-whirlwind simulator (“Flower–that’s her toy cat, I don’t think we’re on Kaua’i anymore”–and Daddy just hopes we’re not going to Oz):

We did go for a walk up and down the terminal, where we found a cool only-in-SF kind of game: a huge touch-screen pinball game (see Sonja’s video to see it in action):

Leilani finally slept on the second flight, and of course, then I had to carry her half-asleep through Chicago O’Hare. And the walk between SF arrivals and Akron-Canton departures is at least a mile–every time I do this, I swear the tickets aren’t as good as I thought, and vow never to do it again… Chicago sunrise and Ohio fields:

But, for once, the flights were on-time, and we arrived at Great-grandma’s house early for the family reunion nearby. We got to see Andy’s cousin Ryan before he took off for a summer internship in New York:

The Kass family reunion is mostly from Jim’s half-cousins and their families (his grandfather remarried and had more children after his grandmother’s early death). Leilani is the only descendant on our side of the family. But two of her (half-3rd) cousins, Matt and Trevor, were there with their mother Pam, and we know them from when they lived in the Bay Area. I’m not going to post lots of photos of people that I barely know and Leilani won’t recognize, but here are Grandpa Jim and Grandma Rosemary:

In any case, our hosts have a beautiful house in a beautiful wooded area inside the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. This is typical summer time in Ohio: green grassy hills, forest, and daylight until 10pm–and swings:

And slip-n-slide. At first, Leilani wasn’t as good as the boys, but she tried over and over, and got much better. Then the uncles set up the double length, and she eventually mastered that too:

Leilani lasted longer than I expected, especially after all the running uphill to do the sliding. She played some more with her cousins, ate some food, and then passed out in my lap. After a while, I put her on the couch inside:

When it was time for the family portrait, she was sleeping so deeply I couldn’t wake her up. So I just carried her out for the picture, then put her back to sleep:

She slept for 4 or 5 hours, waking up only on the drive home late at night. But she still slept all night and most of the next morning.

I just added bicycle pump to our shopping list. it now reads:

toilet paper
beer
hard disk
cayenne pepper
bicycle pump

Just thought that is the weirdest shopping list I ever had…

Took me a long time, but I finished the previous vacation’s video. Stay tuned for the next one…

(and because I’ll have forgotten in a few weeks when I’ll take the out of sequence post out… yes, it is in it’s right location too)

We arrived late, and the car rental took over an hour, by the time we were at the hotel it was past midnight. Leilani slept past 1pm:

I think that photo has a wrong datestamp. That’s at the San Bruno Library and I’m too lazy to figure out where it should go.

I think the first day we did nothing except buy lots of stuff at Trader Joe’s to mail home, buy shoes for me and a belt for Andy to wear for Andy’s Company party and visit Lily who was nice enough to babysit Leilani during the party and keep her overnight.

Andy’s Party was at the winery on Treasure Island. At the actual party we didn’t take any photos, but on the way there we did:

There had been a storm the day before we flew in, and it had cleared out all the smog, the views of the city were spectacular

And since I forbade Leilani to yell out “That is surely photoshopped” whenever she sees a photo of anything spectacular, I ask you to not do it either, please :-)