This past October Mark, Luke and I traveled all the way from Honolulu airport to Chicago O'Hare and then to Wisconsin to celebrate Luke's baptism! It was an intense journey and obviously stressful at times but so worth it! We left Friday morning at 5:30am Hawaii time and arrived in Chicago at 3am Saturday (11pm Hawaii time). It was a loooog day but our little dude was so much fun. He would throughout the flights look for the attention of the flight attendants as they walked by and flash his smile to get their focus. We were obviously so nervous for his first flight (he was 4 months old) but now being EIGHT MONTHS old it will be so much harder because he never sits still and I feel like he never sleeps, Haha. One of the sacrifices of us living in Hawaii is that we couldn’t fully share our pregnancy with our family as much as we would have liked and more importantly
show Luke off when he was born. It was indescribable introducing him to much of family for the first time!
His baptism was awesome! Arch bishop Jeff Haines baptized Luke, which was so special because he was our priest when we attended mass at the Cathedral (also the same church we were married at). Luke did great during the mass but when it came time to be baptized he screamed and cried until they blessed him with the water. We couldn’t blame him for being cranky because we had just taken him on a grand journey only 30 some hours prior. Luke's godparents are his uncle Craig and aunt Katie. We are so honored to have both of them in Luke's life and to help him spiritually. After mass our moms hosted a beautiful baptism party for Luke at the clubhouse at our condo. The food trays were all decorated in the shapes of crosses and my mom even picked up a Danish layer cake for Luke (the flavor was per my request haha). It was so special to have so many of the people we love in one place celebrating Luke's special day! We are so proud of this little boy and loved showing him off to everyone. We are so appreciative of the love and support everyone showed our family by traveling to support Luke.
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| The night before the grand journey! |
During our week home we visited a pumpkin farm! It was FREEZING that day, but so much fun dressing warm and drinking hot apple cider! Luke was dressed up as stitch from Disney's Lilo and stitch for his first Halloween. Hawaii has a few pumpkin farms on Oahu, but they're not the same as the ones in Wisconsin- something we really miss! Later in the week my mom and I took Luke out to a country farm and had warm apple cider donuts (sooooo delicious) and chicken pot pie! The leaves were changing colors around the time we were home so we made it a priority to drive through Pets park and see all the trees. Mark and I always say that growing up in Wisconsin we took so many things for granted and it takes leaving to really see what you miss. Our trip home was extra special because we were able to meet THREE new babies! Our niece Grace was born just days before our trip, our best friend's the Van Treecks welcomed their baby boy in March and my friend since I was six years old welcomed a baby girl two days before Luke was born! It was so wonderful seeing all the babies together.
While we were home Mark's grandpa Ruetz was inducted into the Racine county sports hall of fame! All the family was there to see him get honored, and Mark's uncle Joe gave a speech remembering him.
We loved, loved, loved spending so much time with our friends and family and showing off Luke to everyone. The trip flew by and before you knew- it was over. This fall we moved into a smaller apartment to save money and welcomed Mark's mom and brother Craig in November for three weeks over Thanksgiving. My mom then came right after they left to spend 8 weeks with us over Christmas. Having family here was so important because I went back to work full time early November. Knowing our babes was safe with family made it so much easier leaving him for both Mark and I. Plus it's always the best thing in the world to share our Hawaii life with our family. Totally like having the best of two worlds. We went to Kauai in November with Kathy and Craig. Luke got to swim in his first pool. It actually happened in one of our favorites at the Kauai Marriott. He loved watching us splash and being pushed around in his baby floatie. He was an awesome little traveler for us.
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| Yummy lilikoi pie for Thanksgiving! |
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| Delicious homemade meal with family! |
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| Korean BBQ. Yum! |
Christmas in Hawaii has always been my favorite time of year. The hotels are decorated extravagantly, there's holiday decorations everywhere you look (including sculptures made out of sand) and tourists from around the world singing Mele Kalikimaka on Waikiki beach. Plus the fact that it's warm is pretty awesome as well. Spending most of our Christmas' in Wisconsin it's pretty hilarious to see Santa arriving to shore in an outrigger.
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| Luke loved every minute until the "elf" made a LOUD ringing noise, haha! |
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| Christmas morning! |
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| There was something pretty special about taking our first family Christmas card photo on the beach! We picked the perfect night to go as the sunset was amazing. Props to my mom for taking a great photo! |
Next blog we will be talking about our looming move back to the mainland. :/
Aloha----
Mark, Jen & Luke
