Boys finding opportunities to be friends every now and then. This is on a new hike today. Precious to see! Click for more pictures of precious-ness.

As we wait and hope for a flight anywhere close to Southern California (is Arkansas really that far from Pendleton?) I think about commitment. Commitment to family and being there for gatherings. Commitment to school and whether or not I should have pulled Sam out of school earlier to make it to So Cal (as in 3 weeks early like I would normally allow). Commitment to my own family and enjoying blessings close at hand.

But we have enjoyed some lighter moments, too – some very funny memories, both new and old. Like the hike a few months ago on Koko Crater where at the very end of all those stairs in the hot sun we found a guy hiking up backwards. A quick exchange as we passed revealed he’s a pianist who likes to stay in shape. He calls himself “One Sole” (or is it “Soul”?). How interesting, we thought. Then a few steps later Dave lost one of his soles off his Keen hiking shoes and became One Sole himself! Biiiizzaro!  That sort of stuff only happens here. Or…with me. Not sure.

Anyway, today we’re in Sports Authority buying Dave new hiking shoes several months later…with a closed toe in case we happen to get a space-a flight (you need closed-toe shoes). We look up in the sky as we cross the parking lot and I spot a C17 .  You darn military plane! I see you going to the mainland! I see you up there! Then a C40. That one’s going somewhere unhelpful but I can’t remember now because the hourly flight listings I’ve listened to are a blur.  We get into Sports Authority and the boys loosely follow me, bopping balloons all over, hiding in stuff, darting around stuff. I can see them because of the green balloons. Then Ben loses the balloon he’s been holding onto since breakfast. It floats up 25′ to the ceiling lights. So we let it go – after all, boys need to learn consequences.

Then, on our way out, I spot a tall guy who doesn’t seem horribly busy. I stopped and politely pointed with raised eyebrows. “Could you possibly help us???” Ben looked eager. So nice tall guy goes to get a ladder – I said please don’t kill yourself trying to get it, but if you happen to find a way… We met him under the balloon, he with ladder in hand. Ben looking very eager now. Then the nice guy goes to get a golf club to reach the balloon. With club in hand at the top of the ladder, the nice guy goes “What’s your name?” to me. “Do I have to give you my real name?” I ask. Yesterday I accidentally pulled someone over on our way to base to drop Dave’s car off so he’d have a way to get home from the airport in the event we actually fly somewhere this week, so I am still a little sensitive about revealing my identity. He goes “Because I think I know you. You’re one of Heidi’s friends, right?” (This is my good friend Heidi, mom of Holly, the boys’ sitter.) So now it gets really interesting. “Indeed!” I say, turning fairly red for the first time in a long time. Turns out it was Alfonso helping us – Heidi’s son-in-law. And it was his first day at work! He had wanted some new golf clubs so he got a second job to earn some extra money. Nutso, huh? So although this week is not quite as eventful as we thought, just waiting for a flight and wondering when and where we’ll go is pretty adventurous.

I’ve been carefully considering and almost seriously following through on all kinds of contingencies – like flying into Whidbey and driving 7 hours to see another cousin who couldn’t make it at the last minute to the gathering. There’s snow up there, and ice on the mountain passes but I know how to handle that and the boys would love it. I am game. But…I can’t reach anyone at Enterprise! Without a car, that would not be such a good trip. And Dave is shaking his head at all that. And it’s 15 hours to Travis to get a ride back home. The west coast is pretty spread out I’m learning. Whew. Leslie – thoughts are with you all. Wishing I could be there, too. Lots of love to the family, and thanks to mom especially for her forbearance with the multiple ups and downs of this holiday.

Little boys packed and ready...seeing them ready to go is so precious. We are really hoping our luck turns.

Soooo…we had a commercial flight lined up then a space-a flight opened up for the next day. That would save us (and mom) $1200 each to get us to San Diego. Wow. But too late to call Hawaiian and cancel, plus Dave wanted to stick with a sure bet. So we went to sleep, woke up, flight had been bumped to the following day allowing time to get refund on commercial tix (wow! that was a gift from Hawaiian, totally miraculous really). Figured that was a very good sign. Called again on the flight – had firmed up to 45 seats for Mon at 9am. Then went to check on flight later AT the terminal to be sure we were all set and it had come and gone (a “ghost” flight which wasn’t even on the boards which had landed then decided to leave a day early just an hour after I got off the phone with the pax rep). Came home totally and completely bummed. We wrestled with decisions for hours. Bags are packed, by the door. Little boys are dragging them around saying “I’m going on my trip! Goodbye!”

We love our family very much and this was a unique gathering of uncles and cousins, brothers and sisters. We were so hoping to see everyone and catch a flight space-a so it wouldn’t end up costing $2000+ just for airfare plus the added pressure of Dave having to go to Guam immediately after Thanksgiving. We are stiiiiillll hoping. Things happen quickly. Bags remain tightly packed by the door. Boys are ready. Dave is ready to kill me for the emotional rollercoaster (not really – we are laughing now!). But if we try to buy commercial at the last minute again we are TOTALLY flagged for super-security screenings. They’ll think we were pulling a fast one on them mixing it up like this. And Mom and Richard probably think we have a space-a hedge fund set up by now…Awww in all seriousness we are super bummed but still hoping. And thankful that Thanksgiving happens every year. We are also thankful that our Bird on the Beach tradition continues on the mainland – we’ll look very much forward to hosting as soon as we get back. Love to all ;0

Ben and buddies on a hike.

We had fun this morning out hiking with a bunch of buddies. We reset a geocache and had a great time running through the woods with five boys all under 4  years of age. I think we had a 1 yr old, three 2 year olds, and a 3 1/2 year old. The moms are a great hiker hui as you can see by the big smiles! We were looking for root letters for our kids’ names – B for Ben, S for Sam, etc. Lehua (smiling above, in back) took a look at one that i thought might look like an “M” and she said “Oh, that’s pie!” and it took a minute for the rest of us to catch on that it wasn’t the edible pie she was referring to 🙂

Speaking of edible – dinner tonight was decidedly NOT. Dave was getting home late, but I didn’t know that until he wasn’t home by 6pm, so I started playing catch-up. Salmon is his specialty. Unfortunately the salmon was a bit too gone, so we ditched that after serving it up (boys hungry, almost in tears as salmon leaves their plate – I just couldn’t stomach more puking, after the 7-day puke-fest we had last month), then Dave cooked up some turkey meatballs and served them with a nice glaze of vintage 2008 canned tomato soup. He said it was totally fine because people used to keep that in their fallout shelters for years. Dating on cans is relatively new. (Mom, is that true?) So the boys chomped down on beans, corn from Sam’s field trip to Waimanalo (where he wore a Camelback pack as we usually do hiking because I knew it would be hot and sunny down there and he’d be thirsty – sure enough, the kids were thirsty but the teacher was thrown a bit for a loop when I dropped him off at school with a Camelback instead of a disposable water bottle). Anyway – I served up an incredible dessert to make up for all this (half-pound Reese’s cups – have you ever seen one of those?) with ice cream. Wow. Good dessert makes up for all kinds of transgressions. Dave and I were left hankering for something remotely resembling a reasonable dinner, though – Hungry Man, anyone?

The finger of "NO!" One in a series of cute shots taken as I cleaned Ben up from an afternoon at the beach. He was in reef shoes and nothin' else 🙂

So we are enjoying Dad and Marilou (Grandpa and Grammie) here for two weeks and it’s been a whirlwind of fun, and just life being what it is – a bit crazy. Dave has had a big evolution at work all week, and I have been working on the final (really?) galley of the book I’ve edited over the past two years. So we’ve been a bit nuts lately. I noticed today that as I fly around the house doing chores that have been neglected that there’s a whistling sound in my ears I’m moving so fast! I think it’s my earring in my left ear – a hoop – but it’s pretty funny that I move that quickly. No wonder I spaz out frequently when I’m busy and have two stubbed pinky toes this week to prove it. The nail on one of them was bending backwards with every step in my jog around town doing errands with Ben.  Yuck! Ben did a funny face in the bath last night – he did a big tight grin with just lower teeth showing and said “Wook, I’m a skull!” (We’d been out looking at Halloween costumes for Sam. I think Ben is going to be Peter Pan and his little friend Rachel will be TinkerBell. Any idea where I can find green tights for a small child????)

We sneaked out to North Beach for a quick swim while Dave was at work Sunday afternoon. Dad and Marilou had been here before but I wanted to show them a little walk we do to look in tide pools as well. We expected the water to be too cold, but it really wasn't. The boys romped for over an hour, jumping off ledges and singing into pretend microphones.

Last week was pretty busy and this week is looking that way as well. I was on work deadlines last week, took preschool buddies of Ben’s for a hike along with Dad and Marilou, bagged a trip to the commissary on the way back from a peak at the beach, parent-teacher conference, Pa’ina night at the school (nearest translation I could find is “picnic” dinner) with lots of great performances by the kids (hula, percussion, chorus). Sam got excellent marks on his academics – I think top marks on about 30 indicators. We are working on his attention to detail and focus – he tends to not dive right into his workbooks and prefers to look around and daydream or think about things 🙂 Who wouldn’t, right? He is doing two-column math in his head so the workbooks are not very interesting to him. They were too easy two years ago and I couldn’t get him to do them. So the teacher is willing to find more challenging material to engage him. And we are helping Sam understand that sometimes in life, you have to “show that you know” before you can move on to other stuff. Another busy week this week with a 500+ page book manuscript galley due in today that needs to be turned around in 72 hours. Whew!

Sam with Eddie and Myrna Kamae before the world premiere of "Those Who Came Before"

Wow – what a night! Getting to see Eddie and Myrna’s latest documentary (“Those Who Came Before”), which  chronicles the musical mentors in Eddie’s life, for its premiere was something I will never forget. It is such a privilege to know them, and even more special is the gift of music Sam carries with him, in part inspired by seeing Eddie play with the guys (Sons of Hawaii). Eddie and Myrna are exceptionally special people, and they draw like-hearted people to them. It was such a treat to meet many of their friends as they filed out of the theater afterwards. Sam had a lei on and folks were coming up saying “Oh! It’s Sam, the star!” because he was featured at the end playing his uke with Eddie. This was also Sam’s first time ever to see a movie in a theater, so you can imagine the excitement over a tub of popcorn and some slugs of diet soda! I am surprised he made it through the documentary ;0 I am looking forward to the documentary’s release on DVD next year so we can enjoy it again and again – it is a real treasure getting to hear Eddie’s firsthand accounts of meeting his teachers and how they led him to this lifelong pursuit of creating music as a way to preserve the Hwaiian culture. We are so thankful to have shared time enjoying music with Eddie, Myrna, Madeleine and Rodney the videographer. Sam is even listed as a “featured musician” in the credits! Wow 🙂 Mahalo nui loa, Eddie and Myrna and Madeleine!

Catch “Those Who Came Before” at the Sunset on the Beach in Waikiki next Sun Oct 24 – (it’s free) music first, then the screening starts at dusk. I can’t think of a better place to see it than on the beach at sunset!