True Hawaii at Turtle Bay

Evan, Alana, Grammie, Grampie and Margaret all took a trip to Hawaii. Part of it was business (trying to redecorate the upstairs of the condo) and part of it was pleasure. It had been 10 years since Alana and Evan had been there. The first picture is Alana and Evan in front of Turtle Bay. The second picture is of all of us having dinner at Sunset Beach. Margaret, Evan and Alana are pictured next in front of Goat Island where they swam out to it and snorkeled around the beaches on the island. Finally, Cousin Tat is a good surfer and she taught Evan and Alana how to surf one afternoon at Chun's Reef. The weather was superb all 8 days with the tradewinds blowing to keep the temperature nice and cool.

Where in the World is Ian

Okay, so it has been a while since I have posted and as I sit here mooching off of someone else's internet on a street between the church of Sant'Antonio and the Duomo of the city I thought that I would get a quick posting up. To have a little fun I won't tell you where the photos were taken until the next posting. But I need to be quick otherwise I will miss the train that I need to take. Hope all is well for everyone. Enjoy the photos, and yes, you do get a hint: they are all in Europe and in three different places.

Love,

Ian

The Bulge

Since about 3 months along we tried to take pictures of Meg's progression as the baby grew. Our goal was everyday at the start. As time progressed and the semester got more and more crazy it started to slip to once a week and even longer at times. I decided to just throw together what we had and post it. The camera was not as aligned as we had hoped (we should have used a tripod or something like that), but you get the picture.

Brielle Arrives - A Video Tribute

I used iMovie for the first time to to make this video. It was a ton of fun to put together. I have a feeling that both Megan and I are going to get addicted to making movies, so we hope that you don't get bored of seeing our little girl.

Pet Store Fun

Tonight for fun Megan and I went to Preuss Pet Store. It is a huge pet store that has been around for over 30 years. We had heard great things about it so we went to go and check it out. It was nice for Megan to be able to get out of the house and it was a great way to end my work week. Brielle slept through all of it, but we were counting on that. The picture is of Brielle and Ster with a red macaw. It is hard to see, but there is actually a little river that goes through the store behind the girls. The video is of a trigger fish (I don't remember the species). The thing that I love about this HD2 camcorder is that it is so small that I take it with me all the time. We are hoping to have a fun weekend of BBQs and yard work.

Cradle of Life

As we approach the 2 week mark of Brielle entering the world (quite unexpectedly I might add) we have finally got her nursery set up. Why the long delay? It is mostly my (James) fault, I just did not get the office cleaned out as fast as I had hoped. None the less, it is all set up now and ready to use. Does that mean that Brielle will want to spend all her time in there and sleep through the night? Yeah right! If that were the case I would have cleaned out the office sooooo much faster. :) Megster did a jolly good job getting the placed all set up. I hope Brielle likes frogs. And in case anyone is wondering, Brielle is sharing a room with her "ssssssssister," Kibaki.

3 down, 2 to go

Here are a couple of pictures from Ian's graduation - he graduated with a degree in Corporate Finance in the Honors Program (although he still has to defend his thesis in July). He takes off for 5 weeks in Europe then it's off to work for Ernst and Young in Washington D.C. in management consulting - the real world!

Rhino Time

I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to make it to the Potter Park Zoo this week to see them work on the Black Rhino ("Ebony") with Brielle arriving ahead of schedule and all. But I was able to head over there for a few hours and it was really a treat. A while back the keepers and vet at the zoo had noticed that she was limping on her rear left leg. A bone infection (osteomyelitis) was suspected. Since it is not often that a Rhino is put under anesthesia many other exams were done as well (reproductive, eye, etc.). The police were on hand for "Rhino Control" in case she were to escape and the fire department was there to lend the jaws of life to lift her up on the truck scale (2,500 pounds thank you very much). There were 10 vets there and it was crazy to see everyone scurrying around to focus on their particular body system. Everyone there was required to wear gloves since Etorphine (and close cousin of Morphine but about 3000 times more powerful and can be absorbed through the skin) was used to knock her down. Click here for a write up in the newspaper.

Update

Yes, she does have a name.
Brielle Christine Finlay was born at 9:39 pm on Friday May 4th. She was 7 pounds 5 ounces, and 21 inches long. (that makes me glad I didn't go full term, because she would have been a very large baby!)
She was 3 weeks and 2 days early, but very healthy and we were able to come home from the hospital together Sunday morning. Her favorite thing to do is sleep on her Daddy's chest, which is nice for me, because it lets me get lots of rest.

I had been telling our baby girl since the moment we found out she was coming that she could come into our lives any time as long as it was after final exams. Well, she listened and arrived today, the day after my last final. How's that for obedience? We are so excited that she is here, but shocked at the same time. We were planning a trip to Ohio today, but the baby had other plans. Megan was amazing. She got to the hospital and the nurses and all were not really thinking that she was going to go today since she was about 3 weeks early. Low and behold the doc estimated her at 8 cm! So were rushed off to a delivery room and our little girl was born less than 2 hours later. Ok, enough talk, let's see some pics and videos.