May has been a full month for the Casurella clan. We spent few days in Portland sharing about Mad Vision in Jonathan's home town and introducing Oliver to his aunts, uncle, and cousins. After that Jonathan headed back to Alaska to earn our family a living while practicing exciting bush medicine in Bethel, Alaska. Along with hard work, he managed to squeeze in some hard play. Here is pic of him on a hike with our friend Matt.





After Portland, Oliver and I (Mandy) headed to Texas for his debut trip. Texas was Oliver's introduction to HEAT and many family and friends. He was spoiled by his grandma and grandad and loved on by his Uncle Kole, Uncle Ben, and Aunt Donna.



A highlight of the trip was a mini-reunion with my life-long friends and all of our new babies My how we have grown since our college days.













FACING MY FEARS...
A few days after Oliver was born I was struck with the fearful realization that one day we would have to get on a plane together. That day arrived and unfortunately was worse than I feared. To be fair, four out of the five flights did go remarkably well. The only tragedy was an unfortunate diaper crisis. He grew out of diapers on the flight out of Anchorage. Thankfully we had spare clothes with us.
It was the flight we took alone from Houston to Anchorage (9 hours total with a stop in Seattle) where everything came undone. And by alone I mean, without Jonathan. We certainly were not alone in the sense that it was full flight. Oliver was very uncomfortable riding in my lap since he is quite a mover and a shaker (like his father). If I wasn't walking the aisle with him or standing in the bathroom letting him kick around on the changing table, he would start to fuss. Fussing isn't so bad, except the fuss only lasted about five seconds before he would break into the most ear-piercing scream I have ever heard. People around me would jump and cover their ears, even though they had ear phones on. This crying would last anywhere from 5-15 minutes, however long it took me to wait for the fasten seat belt sign to turn off and dash over the people next to me into the aisle or back to the bathroom. I have never found so much solace in an airplane bathroom.
Gone are the days where I sit on a plane, reading a magazine with my biggest concern being lack of leg room.