The kids ran about half the hike uphill, then almost all the way down hill! They were so funny, barreling downhill with people parting the way so they could plow through. Tamara and I were trying to keep up, then all of a sudden one of the little ones would sit right down in the middle of the small road and play with rocks in the crevices of the asphalt! No one got hurt, miraculously!

So I thought it would be fun to take all the kids (not just the preschooler hui) on a hike this afternoon to go find some whales breaching. The whales come down here to the warm waters to calve, then they return to Alaska to feed when the waters cool in winter. So we went down to Makapu’u Lighthouse, which is a 1.5 mile (one-way) paved trail to  a lookout about 500 ft in elevation. It is usually fairly boring for kids so I don’t recommend it, but when you’re looking for whales, it has a lot of good vantage points. We met Tamara and two of her kids plus a neighbor boy, making our party 5 boys 7 yrs old or younger, plus Tamara and me, and Mom and Richard. Well, we had a surprise – it was also Camden’s fourth birthday today! SO we had to celebrate. Sam helped Camden reach the top of the lookout first so he got to be King of the Mountain 🙂 So proud of Camden – he ran much of the way up to the top and Sam just helped make sure he was safe and found his way while I was busy making sure Ben didn’t run off the trail somehow. On the way down (after snacks) the boys were all running – the whole way down. Tamara and I quickly realized there was no stopping them, and they were loving – just loving – being able to run down. (Didn’t mama always say “Don’t run down hills!”?) So we let them, but we were hurling cautions the whole time while I was trying my best to snap pictures with the camera pointed behind me as I raced to keep up with the little ones. Many of the pictures were blurry, but this gives you an idea of the fun. Ben told Tamara “I will NEVER stop!” (she had been yelling to Camden to stop because he was so far ahead she couldn’t see him around the bends). We did stop for food on the way home – Sweet Home Waimanalo has the best bok choy slaw on the planet and their kalua pig is awesome (beer braised!). The kids love their Peanut Butter smoothies. And such nice people there. Dave enjoyed his dinner at home – we brought him some and regaled him with our conquest of Mokapu’u Lighthouse. What fun those boys are, even if they are totally wild and ill-advised much of the time. Oh – there was a virtual riot over an inchworm we found on the way down. I will upload the video here – the boys took turns with it then decided the birthday boy should get to “wear” the inchworm. Well, the worm didn’t want to leave Joshua (Tamara’s older boy) and Tamara was a tad skittish about actually touching said worm (“It looks rather ferocious for an inchworm!”). Finally the worm was transferred to Camden, who promptly screeched as the worm reared its big head to look at him! The screeches were contagious, as captured by mom on her iPhone video 🙂 inchworm-riot Thanks for all the fun! It’s only Tuesday…

Surfing video 1 Surfing video 2

Sam slept in an hour late this morning, so he got over 12 hours of sleep last night! Wow! So I got Ben fed and ready, printed out my tardy letter (which explains my policy is to not wake children before third grade because sleep is just as essential as proper nutrition and exercise to neural development) and waited for Sam to come out. He did, all dressed and rather smiley. It was worth the wait! So we grabbed a can of Ensure Plus, a banana and off we went to school on bike and foot. It is very relaxing to be late. There is no mad panic to save 42 seconds enroute. From school Ben and I decided to jog down the beach even though I had plans to finally return to the Y for yoga after a long hiatus. Well…our beach sojourn ended up being way too fun so I had to cancel the Y, but it was well worth it. This is one of the reasons I like being uncommitted most mornings. You just never know where the next surprise blessing will come from. Thanks to Dave working so hard, I can give the boys that freedom while they’re small to explore and roam, picking up friends and adventures wherever we go.

Here’s what we saw while we were out which delayed our timetable to get to the Y…from an email to my brother with the video above attached:

It started out a good morning – we were greeted by a honu head popping out of the water as I took my running shoes off to jog down the beach with Ben. Then when we got halfway between Castles and Kalama we saw these two guys…They were reaaally working these tiny waves for all they were worth. Ben and I watched for a while and clapped. The guy shown surfing was all smiles when he came up and saw us watching. We gave a thumbs-up and clapped and he waved, then dove back in the water, then jumped up on his short board and rode it back out through a wave briefly. They seemed to enjoy our tiny audience. Everyone else was walking by not even looking out to see them. The waves were that insignificant, but the show they put on was like a mini pipeline. Although my movies don’t show it, they often rode further on the waves after doing a spin on the crest. They really pumped the waves, didn’t they?!

Ben and Ryder reunited for "bucket heads!"

The last three days have been a series of daily disasters – but I didn’t realize the humor until this morning when the third disaster struck. Then it became funny. It all started with a blue plastic bottle at the commissary. Sam thought it looked pretty interesting. He’d been badgering me throughout the store about paper plates, yogurt covered raisins, more applesauce… So I told him, as I often do, if you can read it we can buy it. So I sent him back to the Kefir bottle. He brought back a blueberry probiotic smoothie. Since he’d read it, we bought it. This morning in our school morning madness, he wanted the smoothie. So he got it out and after I’d prepped cereal for the boys I went to shake it up for  him and pour it. All of a sudden there was smoothie coming out everywhere – landing on Sam’s hair, his shirt, the floor. All over! In shock (because I hadn’t had any coffee yet!) I chose to laugh instead of get irritated. Then Dave chimed in from the couch where he was putting his shoes on – “I really think you should get control of yourself. It’s not funny.” Awww. But laughing was better than the alternative, which is sheer frustration at having to now clean up smoothie mess, change clothes all on top of an already busy morning. I thought it was a little funny seeing smoothie come flying out and land all over Sam – probiotic, too, like what was going to grow in his hair? Is it like megafertilizer?

It all turned out ok after Sam changed his shirt and we moved on with the morning. I found out later today my kitchen clock was 11 minutes slow. So hopefully tomorrow when I get 11 minutes back in my morning all will come together smoothly…here’s hoping!

So great to have this tradition with my brother 🙂 As you can see, we had a great time with our family and friends! Click picture for more.

The Hogmanay tradition is Scotch – it’s the week between Christmas and New Year’s marked by fire, fireworks, parties, shenanigans, family and friends. Having a bonfire at Bellows is a really great way to let the kids roam with all kinds of balls to play catch as the grownups catch up with each other while grilling up various meats (no veggies last night – oops!) and participating in silly games that came to mind (my mind, that is!). The guys competed for a “King of the Camp” lei I brought, cooked “Hawaiian haggis” over the fire (SPAM rocks – “Shockingly good” as Doug says!), and Portuguese sausage. It was so much fun I didn’t want to wash the smell of fire out of my hair!

Here’s my invite, just in case I need some ideas for next year ;0 :

Hey gang!
Coordinates for our bonfire adventure: (21.375426, -157.707925)

4 ft high fire allowed!

We have:

60 lbs of wood

two coconuts to crack open (insides undetermined so I have can of coconut milk as well)

lots of SPAM and Portuguese sausage

some munchies

two boxes of wine – white and red

water jug

machete (never host a party without one)

football, soccer balls

On site:

mini mart

gas station (?)

bathrooms

table

fire pit

Please bring:

your best beast on a stick (there will be a competition)

something to drink out of (boot? hat?)

musical instrument

rain shelter if you have one and no big deal to set up

misc teenage boys (very helpful for many purposes, and they tend to have a lot of fun chopping up wood)

secret service agent

FAQs:

Can we get on base if we are not military?

– Yes, please send driver’s lic #, make/model of car, full name and I will put you on list.

Do we have to stay overnight?

– No 🙂

Do we have to pee in the woods?
– No, although the bathroom is further away this year so there will be races to the bathroom because it sounds fun for another party game ;0

Can you actually do any damage with a marshmallow snowball?
– Yes, if several are wadded up hard enough and a man throws it at his wife. (I have personal experience.)

Are headlamps an accessory?

– Yes, certainly. I say one dresses up any outfit, but my sister-in-law might have an alternative viewpoint.

Can we bring friends?

– Yes, we can have up to 15 tents and 75 friends!

Click on picture for a slide show of the fun this morning 🙂 Aloha!

Santa has been here! Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Merry Christmas from our living room to yours!

This slide show captures all the special moments from our year and is complemented by a great soundtrack which includes Sam playing ukulele and a Jingle Bells medley featuring Earl Skruggs and Duke Ellington. As I went through each photo (there were 3,626 pictures in 143 folders!) I was smiling and laughing, feeling very blessed. I am thankful for a great camera that takes a real beating while snapping away on adventures. I am thankful for two little boys who are my best buddies game for just about anything (although Sam is starting to get that pesky good judgment of his father). Thankful for a hubby who loves spending his down time with us instead of the golf course (although we do try to get him out there). Thankful for family near and far who stay in touch through technology of all sorts and make special efforts to get to holiday gatherings. And very thankful for friends who continue to love me despite all my wacky ideas, and especially those friends who are willing to be rousted for such endeavors… If you have 14 minutes with a cup of tea (or a wee dram) in hand, I think you will enjoy the show, too. Please know that lots of time was invested in curating and preparing this in the interest of sharing our lives with you because the return on that investment is great – staying connected to your lives despite the miles. It’s the only way I know how to teleport ourselves into your living room this holiday 🙂 And thank you for the cards with pictures and greetings! Aloha 🙂

It’s been raining 3″ an hour and everything is literally swamped. But that makes for interesting puddling opportunities! We took the trucks, our boys, helmets, Lego bin tops and garbage-bag knickers (and rain jackets) over to base to “clean” the trucks by…well…you can guess…then off to the playground for sledding! Enjoy!

My buddy Tamara - game for just about anything!

A "Ha-wise-man"! And J is for Jesus 🙂 (In case you're wondering, I didn't cut any of the plastic or alter it in any way. Just cool finds out on the beach while jogging with Ben.)

Ben and I enjoyed making some ornaments this morning with my dear friend Angie and her little girl Rachel. In other random notes (this site is really my digital journal so I can search out funny or interesting things about the boys when my memory fails – hopefully some of it is interesting to family reading along as well!)…the other day Sam was asking how high the clouds are here in Hawaii. I responded that some are low, about 2,000 ft, and some are high, about 30,000 ft. I then asked how many miles up that would be if each mile is about 5,000 ft? I had barely finished the question when he responded with confidence “Six!” Wow – great math exercise! On the way home from the playground he was explaining in great detail to Gramma and me about photons being packets of energy released by the sun during nuclear fusion. He used the word “emerge” regarding photons “emerging from the solar surface.” Gramma and I were impressed. But I wondered if he really knew what “emerge” meant so I asked and he said “to arise”…wow! Not exactly what I had in mind but I can definitely see the connection. All the while Ben is sitting in his car seat singing (loudly) and periodically going “Oh! Oh yeaaah…yeaaaahh. Photons. Yeah!” We hid the “J” ornament above in the tree for Ben so he can learn that letter by finding it…Sam rehides it each night. He’s got “T” down (T was the first plastic trash I found and he held onto that little black plastic T for a long time). Now he also has S and often A (even a small “a” found in “Santa” the other night – I don’t remember teaching him that at all). S is for Sam, of course 🙂