May: M.D. + Maui

May 2010 was a good month for the Cooneys, as it was filled with big events, family & friends & a most excellent vacation. First, Jeff graduated from medical school! At commencement, we all learned that Jeff had been awarded the student prize for Neurology (Jeff knew, he just hadn't told anyone...). We all felt proud of him, and  I remain especially impressed by the way he really made med school look easy. Here, Fiona tries on the cap of the freshly minted Jeff Cooney, M.D.

Both sets of folks came out for the big day, and we were also happy to have another celebrant along: Juan Pablo Salica! Juan is from Argentina, but spent his and Jeff's senior year living with the Cooneys as an exchange student. Jim, Ellen & Kim visited Juan in Argentina a few years back, but he & Jeff hadn't seen each other in many years. He brought lots of nice presents and quickly won over Fiona. We all enjoyed a lovely celebratory dinner at Vin Rouge in Durham and Jeff & I were especially grateful for the extra folks on hand to manage a squirrely baby.

 
A few days later, everyone cleared out and our old friend Brian Miller paid us a visit. No pictures of that event, but we still have the cork from the enjoyable Foppiano Pinot. We're hoping for a repeat visit in August...The next day, we set off for Maui! Now, perhaps taking a teething infant with a bad cold across 6 timezones isn't the best recipe for filling oneself with aloha, but it seemed like a small price to pay for 2 weeks in paradise. Here's Fiona on the first flight, where you can see that she's in good spirits despite losing her bottle on me and herself on our way through security - she's wearing the change of clothes her well-prepared parents had packed. Unfortunately, we hadn't packed more spare clothes, aside from a jacket (?!), so when the massive volcano of projectile vomiting was unleashed later in the flight, she initially went back into those original clothes. Later still, she was down to just the diaper & the jacket, which wasn't that suitable for the airport in Maui...luckily I located a sundress shortly after our luggage appeared. Sorry little bunny!

Spirits undimmed, we arrived at our condo and settled in.  We stayed in the lovely Kihei condo of Jeanne Erdahl, mother of Charlotte's oldest buddy, Sara. The condo stay was a wedding present from Jeanne that we'd been looking forward to enjoying for the past 3 years! Thank you Jeanne! One of our first tasks was to teach Fiona to give the shaka/hang loose sign in response to a request for aloha. She quickly developed her own personal version, which engages the thumb & forefinger, as she demonstrates to the left.

 We had a fantastic vacation, and over the course of 2 weeks, we managed to circumnavigate the island, visit farms, snorkel with sea turtles, eat as much shave ice as possible (best flavor: coconut), do some hiking...and sleep very little. Except for the last thing, it was very relaxing and fun.  I think one of our favorite places was the Upcountry, which was surprising  reminiscent of West Marin County. To the right are Jeff & Fiona up on Mt. Haleakala, where we had a great hike & lunch and Fiona learned to accept wearing a hat.

Among Fiona's top-rated activities were: going to a luau (see left), seeing fish at the aquarium & on the snorkel boat, eating with sticks, playing in the sand, feeding goats and birds, and eating coconut m&m's. Cute photos and videos of many of these activities can be found here. Alas, sleeping at night and sitting peaceably while we ate were among her least preferred activities...

Finally, here's our girl at 15 months. With a smile & disposition like that, we can easily forgive a few sleepless nights here & there...