The Jones Team: The X Factor

Here we are in paradise: Kauai, Hawaii. We arrived on Monday 6/8 and it is now our 5 year anniversary, Friday 6/12/2009.

Needless to say when Alex & I planned this trip, we anticipated relaxation, gorgeous weather, plenty of fun in the sun and good food. Naturally, we forgot about the "X" factor.

One would think that given how sick our poor little girl had been the 4 days prior to our trip, Alex and I would have at least have anticipated getting ill on the trip ourselves. But since we managed to dodge the bullet up to our departure time of Monday morning, we thought ourselves invincible. Unfortunately, that proved not to be the case.

I started to feel sick around the layover in Honolulu. By the time we got to our gorgeous little cottage (looks just like the photos in VRBO http://www.halealohakauai.net/rates.html - photos of Beach House and Haena Cottage), I needed to lie down. The next day I felt positively miserable. We managed to drag ourselves to the beach where I lounged on a beach towel watching Lu play in the sand and Alex was able to take a dip in the ocean. On Wednesday, I woke up feeling fine, but Alex felt awful. Thursday we both felt bad until around 1 or so, when we perked up and took a short trip to the resort up the road where there was a park and a supermarket, and we even got some good photos of various views. Today we're feeling okay, and have been to the beach this morning, but still are not ready for any major plans.

A few other things compound the issue, namely that it is hard to be away from home while sick (this is the stomach flu varietal, making it hard to be too far from a bathroom for too long), and that it is hot and humid in the middle of the day here, and we have no AC. Plus, even though the bug sprayers were here just before we arrived on Monday, we are in a tropical climate, and there are plenty of bugs around (I counted 12+ mosquito bites on my arms and legs so far). Lucia also is very scared of the ocean, and until this morning did not even want to be put down on the sand within any close proximity to the water. She says "Mama carry you, Dada carry you" - which means she won't walk. It is actually kind of cute, but does get old when you are 5.5 months pregnant and just want to walk lazily up and down the shoreline. But I think she'll come around - it's hard to get used to the beach and water when both parents are feeling sick, and we haven't spent much time there yet.

Anyway, we have 7 more days on this vacation, if we make it! Hopefully today will mark the beginning of the true relaxing and nausea-free paradise that we imagined.

Below are some photos of the "good times" so far...

Dada and Lucia with a beautiful view from our excursion Thurs 6/11: