Souvenir from Maui

We got home from Maui late last night, and I went to pick up Levi this morning.  We went for a little hike at Carmel Meadows with Christine, Don, Ronan, and Thistle.  We also went for a walk along the beach there, and the dogs got to swim in a river/lagoon and fetch bumpers.

When we got home Levi got to get his souvenir that I brought him from Maui.  There is a long story behind the souvenir that all started when Kobe was young.  I don't remember when I started the tradition with Kobe, but it was several years ago when we had gone on a family vacation and I decided to get him a stuffed animal for a souvenir.  It started a tradition that every time I went somewhere and had to leave him behind I would pick out a stuffed animal souvenir for him.  I still have several of his souvenir toys (many with missing eyeballs since he liked to chew these off).

From left to right: Cabelas moose from my interview trip to Kansas, duck from Washington, moose from wildlife park in Washington, cow I think from Washington as well (all separate trips), giant head turtle (that you can't see very well in this picture) from Maui, dolphin from Maui, and Davis bear from my interview trip to Davis.

I decided to keep up the tradition with Levi, and I found him a really cute stuffed starfish with long legs.  It was baby blue with little designs on it, and it had big soft eyeballs that stuck out off the top.  Melissa named it Sebastian the Starfish.  It was really cute, and I'm sure Levi would have loved it but...I seemed to have dropped it in the parking garage when we were leaving the hotel.  I was able to get him a replacement souvenir at the airport that is a little whale, but it is nowhere near as cute as the starfish.  I'm still bummed I lost it.  We named the whale Sebastian the Second in memory of the lost starfish.

Levi seems to really like his souvenir, and I'm sure he wont mind me keeping the tradition going.