Our original plan was to drive to Kuala Lumpur, take a 5 hour flight to Taipei, Taiwan, then a long 12 hour leg to LA where we would then spend the night and catch an early morning flight to Phoenix and then into OKC by 1:00 in the afternoon.....but oh no, not that simple at all!! We made it to LA just fine, had a good night's sleep and then made our way to Phoenix. We were a little worried that we wouldn't have much time between the time we arrived in Arizona and the time we had to make it to our next flight to OKC. Well, that ended up being no problem, we made it with plenty of time to spare.......only to find out we had NO seats reserved on the flight!!! We should have known - Andrew had argued with Expedia for 3 days a week before we were set to leave because they had canceled our original flight which was suppose to take us through Las Vegas from LA and then on to OKC. But in the end, had "confirmed" our new flight through Phoenix on to OKC....or so we thought!!! Let me tell you - that is the LAST time we use Expedia OR US Airways.....what a joke they are to work with!! After about 2 hours of working with a US Airways rep in Phoenix, they once again "confirmed" us on a flight to Houston, where we'd have a 4 hour layover and then onto TULSA!! So, not only were we going to show up 12 hours later than originally scheduled, we now had to have Andrew's brother and mom make the 1 1/2 hour trip to Tulsa to pick us up. What a trip from hell!! I bet you are saying "poor little Evan"....well don't worry - he did beautifully. It was his mom and dad that were about at their wits end! It was so nice to finally make it OK. It ONLY ended up being a 50 hour ordeal, instead of the 26 hours originally planned!
Wow, I hadn't intended on that being discussed in such detail, but I guess it's still very vivid to me.....it was almost enough for us to consider not coming home for Christmas (Don't worry parents....we are still coming!!)
As I mentioned, as far as Evan was concerned, he handled the whole ordeal without missing a beat. His Nana put it perfectly when she said he was a "roll with the punches" kind of baby!! We couldn't be more blessed! I felt so bad for our poor little guy, but he had no trouble adjusting to the time change while we were in Oklahoma nor once we returned home....we couldn't be happier about that!!
We had a wonderful, wonderful time during our visit. We stayed quite busy from the time we arrived. I had a hair appt and nail appt and a couple of showers to attend. We also got the bug his 3rd haircut!! And he had his 9 month Dr. appt.....which was a good one, given no vaccinations were required! He is weighing in just under 20lbs and is 27 1/2 inches long. 
We thought he was only getting his 2 top teeth, but found out during the visit that it looks like there are 4 coming in all at once. The top middle 2 have popped through, with the other 2 just right around the corner!! Let me tell you what a remarkable kid we have - not only did he make it through the whole trip without making a huge fuss, he has been teething this whole time as well!! Oh yeah, and just before we left, June 21st actually, our little guy took his 1st 4 solo steps!!! I got so excited, that he actually gave us the pouty face because I scared him :-)
Jeff (Andrew's little brother) and Jenn's wedding was beautiful and we had a great time! We were so happy that we were able to be there for it. My parents actually made it to the wedding as well, so they were able to take the bug back to the hotel early from the reception. It was the first night away from our little one (actually the first time for me being away from him for more than a few hours!!) . It was so very strange without him around. 
Andrew and I had a great time that night as well as enjoyed getting to sleep in......which by the way was the best part!! But I found myself not knowing what to do without him in the morning. I was at ease knowing that he was with my folks, but so ready to get him back in my arms as soon as I could!!
E also had a fantastic time with his cousin Drew. He loved to sit around and just watch him the whole time....and I think big cousin Drew loved having Evan around - it gave him someone to boss around - "no, no, no Baby Evan - don't put that in your mouth!!" - which we heard often since Evan wants to put EVERYTHING in his mouth still! Don't you just love the matching shirts.....thanks to Aunt Leigh, every time we get together now she has a matching outfit for them! I can hardly wait to see what they think of this when they get older (it reminds me of me and my cousin Erica....we also always had matching outfits....what were our mothers thinking!!!)
On Sunday afternoon, we left for a cabin that Andrew had set up for us near Lake of the Arb
uckles, to spend some time with my parents. We had a great time. It was just what we needed before making another long trip back home. It was 3 days of doing nothing but sitting back and relaxing. The cabin was on a small lake where Andrew and my dad fished the entire time and Mom, Evan and I just hung out on the porch overlooking the lake. The weather was absolutely amazing....in the upper 70's most of the time, with only a bit of rain and a nice breeze most of the time - a most welcomed change from the heat and humidity of Melaka!! 
We even managed to take Evan on his first paddle boat ride. Since we didn't have the proper safety gear, we only went far enough to get a picture. Evan could have cared less about being out on the water, he was only concerned with trying to "point" (he still loves using that index finger) at everything in the boat he could touch! At night, Andrew set off a few fireworks. Evan enjoyed watching them from inside, but was a little more hesitant at watching them while outside due to how loud they were!! We had some neighbors who put on some really big ones, so we ended up getting quite the 4th of July show!!
We actually headed back on the 4th of July, figuring that being a holiday, we might miss some of the airport traffic. But with the London/Scotland bombings and heightened security level, we were worried we might be in for another long trip. Fortunately, there were fewer people at the airport (as expected) and the extra security didn't seem to cause any issues. Although, we did have an 8 hour layover in LA, which was no fun at all!! We were definitely ready to be home again and not in anymore airports......especially Evan!! The picture below is one I took at the Taipei airport (the last leg on the way home) - he really wasn't in a bad mood, I was just able to catch one of his pouty faces when he wasn't getting something he wanted. I just thought it was the perfect picture for capturing our long journey! While it was exhausting (we will definitely have to make the trip back at Christmas a longer one), we had so much fun while we were there! We managed to satisfy all our cravings....we had BBQ, Mexican food, steaks, hamburgers, and pizza with REAL pepperoni!! Although I was really wanting some Chick-Fil-A, we never managed to find one the last day we were there....once again Evan's picture below says it all.....
And one last story for this posting.....yesterday as I was doing something in the kitchen, I noticed another small monkey hovering outside our kitchen patio door and just as I shouted to Andrew to come see him/her, it scurried (or whatever it is that monkeys do) away. Then about 5 minutes later, Andrew noticed some rustling in the trees, so this time we went to our living room patio and peeked through the curtains to see if we could catch them. Well, we did and there were about 2 or 3 of them....one even made it as close as the door...... 
and then even began tapping on it (Andrew ended up naming him Lewis - I have no clue why - that's him to the left...but he was the one that stayed the closest to the house the entire time...he seemed the less afraid of us) . I told Andrew we should shush them away, but he wanted to continue watching to see what they would do. As we watched them, they went back into the trees right off our patio and just hung out....watching to see what we were going to do....I guess they were waiting to see if we would feed them 
(which by the way, we did NOT do). Then one by one we continued to see more and more gather in the trees - they would group together in bunches of 3 to 4 (like in the picture to the right). We watched them for about 30 minutes and ended up counting about 25 of them in various trees right out back. I guess they were telling each other "hey, we think these crazy people may feed us...come and see".....it was wild!! After about another 15 minutes of hanging out, I guess they finally realized they were getting nothing from us and moved on to some other place. I have to say this does worry me a bit.....it was fun seeing them, but I'd rather them not start to think it's okay to gather like that behind our house...or else Evan and I will never venture out back ever again!!!Alright, I suppose I'll close for now. I just wanted to get everyone up to speed with what we have been up to the last couple of weeks. I still have all our unpacking to do - I've put it off for 2 days now.....that is so unlike me, but I think the jet lag was to blame. I think I'm finally feeling back to normal now.....
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