When Dave is on leave, he likes to lounge around the house because (as most guys and certainly all service members can attest) they don’t get to do that much. Since I’m a stay-outside-mom, I enjoy adventures while on leave. It’s a difficult balancing act. I try to get Dave out of the house in the morning, then compromise in the afternoon and hang out during naptime and in the evening.

This guy moves so fast he’s hard to catch on film…I finally got him today. This is Papa Jack. He and his guys did our deck and built-in CD shelves in the hallway when we first moved in. We were talking to him and his carpenters today about remodeling the kitchen – building some custom cedar cabinets but somehow staying within a very small budget 🙂 I am convinced it can be done!

This is how Sam responded when a sweet older couple asked him how old he was on the trail today. We hiked the Lanikai Pillbox trail and this time I let Sam go as far as he wanted, then choose the turnaround point depending on how he was feeling. He made it almost all the way to the third bunker – past the point even most casual/tourist hikers venture. We talked all the way about what we saw, and a ladybug landed on his neck to give him a kiss. We decided we’d study ladybugs for “freeschool” later. I don’t know much about ladybugs, I just know I’m happy to see them patrolling my plants to ward off (or eat!) the bad bugs that grow so readily here.

Tonight I was reflecting on the great health care we’ve had through the military over the past couple weeks. Sammy has had two ear infection bouts that were pretty painful – affecting both inner and outer ear on both sides. He handled it all very well and enjoyed getting lots of yummy pink syrups (antibiotics and Tylenol). He slept through most nights (surprisingly), even with a pretty good fever during the second round of earaches. Needless to say, I was a tiny bit concerned about the recurrence given that he has none of the usual risk factors for ear infection, certainly not recurrent within a week.

here’s sammy making me some “coffee” this morning while we were on base. a quick trip to the beach is always a good idea 🙂

tonight i learned why it’s important not to run at the marsh with a headlamp on at night…see video below of toad eating bugs swarming to light to understand fully what i experienced…sammy thought all the spitting sounds were funny 🙂

We had some nice family time this weekend. On Saturday we went to base after dinner for a walk – treats in hand for dessert 🙂 We walked down to a little bridge over a stream feeding the fish ponds. The stream flows pretty fast, so I thought it would be fun to try playing “Pooh Sticks” – seeing which stick crosses under quickest (one of Pooh’s games). Sam and I had been looking forward to bringing Daddy to this particular bridge to play Pooh sticks, so it was neat to sit on the bridge, watch the fish (and sticks) cross under, and munch on our cookies. We even had a celebrity guest visit us! The huge puffer fish we found while running on this trail came by! I think he swims upstream along the edge looking for food, then he seems to float out into the middle where the current is fast and floats backward back down the stream to start his “route” all over again. Dave finally got to see this huge fish and knows that I’m not crazy. We actually saw several different puffers while we walked along the trail.

Then the adventures continued…Sam and I saw a huge toad lumber in front of us while we were looking at a large bulldozer on base. The toad spooked me because it lumbered like a rat, it didn’t hop. Sam was like “I want mommy to come!” meaning to come away from the toad. I tried to tell him it was fine, just funny. He was not convinced. Then yesterday I was transplanting some ferns and was clearing away some mulch. With my last stroke of the garden tool, the ground shook like a bowl of Jello, then lurched! YOW! You should have seen ME hop away! Dave likes to exaggerate my “toad dance” a bit, saying I was even shaking out my hair (huh?!) and prancing and dancing all around shrieking, and pointing dumbly at the ground. Then I brought Dave over to see and he still could NOT see it even with me pointing 24″ away. I think he was trying to get me to touch it or something. Those toads are really camouflaged! And they’re huge. I couldn’t believe he was hiding an inch under the ground, almost like he was hibernating. If you don’t believe me, and how fascinating they are, check out these links 🙂

inside a cane toad’s head – pretty funny computer graphics

this documentary can be rented on netflix! (I already moved it up to #1 in our queue!)

Sammy and I go on “dates” on Wednesday evenings when Dave is in class. Usually we take his mountain bike over to the beach park and go for a ride, then stop at Kalapawai for a dessert treat. Last time we had NutterButters. This time when we walked in he went straight for them – he never eats candy nor picks it off a shelf at the market, and has not been exposed to the wrappers, so I was a bit surprised he recognized them! He must really file away the good stuff in a special place in his brain with instant retrieval access – the sweets go in there! But I suggested we try Reeses PB cups. He has had those in Coldstone treats so his eyes totally lit up when he saw them! The picture above is biking back to the truck from Kalapawai. I brought my sleek, stylish, chic headlamp with me so we could use it. I put it on then he wanted it on. It has a red light setting for night vision…. think Alias (a TV series we enjoyed) and all the mischief one can get into with a sleek night-vision headlamp… So here he is with his headlamp on – you can see the outline of the cheeks!

Sammy’s friends Frank and Dominic (who we know from our North Shore turtle guarding duty) came to Kailua today to play in the tide pools with Sam. We had such a blast! The tide was way high, so it was fun for even older boys. Dominic caught some big waves while looking for fish and Frank helped Sam “surf” on his boogie board. Actually, it took four of us to stabilize the board and Sam so he could pretend to surf since the waves were pretty good even in the shallow tide pools. Sam got the little bend in his knees right, arms to the sides, and really enjoyed the rollicking waves. He also seems to enjoy the wipeouts, which is fortunate! They played pirates and dug up some sunken treasure (a big rock) then took it back to sea. While the boys played, Nancy and I enjoyed chatting without having to also ward off marauding tourists 🙂 Nancy is a lot of fun and very down to earth. Her husband Vince reminds me of our east coast friends – he talks fast and has a great sense of humor. Afterwards we all came back to our house (Nancy has a super-cool truck with a built-in child seat so Sam could hang with big boys!) for smoothies and some music. Frank played the guitar for us and Dominic played fierce pirate. Enjoy the photos, and thanks again for a fun time boys! They start school tomorrow…

Pictures from July are now posted in the album. We had a great month with Dad and Marilou’s visit kicking it off on July 4th. Sammy is now riding his mountain bike up and down hills (learning to brake and turn at the same time is proving to be a challenge!) and Dave continues his coursework on Wednesday evenings. There are a lot of pictures this month – I hope you have a few minutes to unwind and connect with us. As always – we love hearing from you, so please drop us a line and let us know what made you smile or laugh 🙂 Aloha nui – Alli, Dave and Sam