Pedaling through plumerias
A bike/run through the Koko Crater botanical garden, with plumerias in peak bloom.
Every night I ask the boys what they’re thankful for as we say prayers. Ben always says “Gwamma” (except for one night when he said “Dante” – a boy we met briefly while swimming two weeks ago). Tonight Sam said “For making me go up the big hills on my bike.” We both struggled a bit on our bike/trail run today because there was more of an incline than I remember and it was very rocky. Ben was bouncing all over in his off-road BOB stroller ;0 and Sam would pedal hard then get off and push. But as we puffed and pedaled, we noticed lots of cacti, some of them in bloom, and plenty of birds chirping. We had a good time out there, learning persistence. We also had a chance to talk about studying hills before speeding down them on the bike. So we’d stop at the top of a hill, look it over, pick a good path down then head off. Sam really handled some tricky stuff well, like when your front wheel jumps around as it skids on rocks. Those of us who have done some single-track know that if you stay relaxed and trust you’ll stay upright, you generally do. It’s when you panic and tense up that you manage to run into exactly the thing you were hoping to avoid! (Jenni I’m thinking about your recent race and would love to hear more of your stories!) So in talking over how to stay relaxed, I mentioned Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone” to Sam – he has heard the song, and I think understood the metaphor. You just pretend you’re rolling down the hill like a big stone, bumping around a bit on the way but heading down just fine. It’s an odd sense of sharing control with gravity – you’re really not in 100% control at all but the trick is to keep from tensing up. Tough to do. So on some of the hills that looked really big at the start, we walked part way then he got on. When we rounded the last curve, Sam said to me “When you’re on the hill it doesn’t look as big and high as it does when you’re at the top.” Good observation, buddy. You will do well in life with an attitude like that, knowing that you will get through it and it won’t be as daunting once you’ve committed yourself to completion. Love you boys!
Cutest little gobie guy!
The boys, Gramma and I went snorkeling today. The big hit wasn't the unicorn fish that we tailed while getting a bit tossed onto sharp rocks - it was the little gobie who stayed put in his puka so we could really check him out. He smiled at us as he poked his head out. He's the size of your thumb.
I get so excited and jittery when it’s snorkel-time. I love it! I wonder who we’ll see when underwater, and I’m so blessed to have a snorkel buddy in Sam. We holler through our snorkels at each other while tailing fish – “-am! -am! O-er -ere! U-ico-n -ish!” I cut my finger pretty good steering Sam in a 180 against the current trying to tail this 3′ guy – used a diaper for 45 min to staunch the bleeding (I didn’t know it was so bad until I got out of the water and it was dripping all over my leg!). No wonder we saw so many big fish! ha ha! Mom really enjoyed her time out there as well and got some good pictures despite water leaking into her waterproof camera. Then shrimp truck for lunch and home for a good nap for Ben and Lego-building for Sam (he finished a 3-piece Star Wars set he’s been working on for four days) before moving on to lizard-catching. I think he has Jack and Nowa in there now – his names and spelling. Enjoy the pictures, and a movie of snorkeling! (Scroll down to bottom for snorkeling, after all the other May pictures I just posted.) Meanwhile…I just told Dave he’s safe in NH, for now. The closest space-a flight is to New Orleans. ;0
“Gwamma? Can you hold my phone? I have to go see da guys in da band.”
Well, I've had my fill of preciousness for the day. Here's my contribution for precious pictures of children on Mother's Day ;0
(Quote by Ben, as he was getting out of the truck tonight, hat in hand and cute coordinated outfit on, ready to go see our friends in the band.) I am lucky to be spending Mother’s Day with my mom, the coolest mom on the planet! So today I finished sanding and staining the deck, a surprise for Dave when he gets back from a business trip. We are pretty sure this is our last 12 months here, so we’re making sure our to-do list is short when the time comes to sell. Plus, we want to enjoy the house looking its best just as long as we can before handing over the keys. Mom and I filled two green waste bins to capacity yesterday with trimming (that word makes Dave nervous, especially since my mom and her sister like to “trim” with a Saws-All…the rest of this story is classified for now, but you might just hazard a guess as to what my Mother’s Day present was from my mommy… Tonight we went to dinner and to watch Hawaiian music legends play. The boys are always great and love the music so much, but there comes a point when Ben gets a little antsy. I can still feel him writhing in my arms as his slippers go flying off both his feet in a nice arc through the air – luckily we were just outside the dining area at the time! Sam got up and jammed on his uke and also did a really compelling drum set with chopsticks (see video here – it’s 72MB but well worth your time waiting for it to buffer). We tried in vain to get a cute picture of the four of us out to dinner and gave up after our third try. (Have you seen all those cute pics of your friends with their kids in a wagon, or gazing at each other in a field of flowers? Yes. I wanted a cute picture, too, but they weren’t able to be within feet of each other nor still long enough today!). Oh – the best part of dinner was the dessert table. Yes, the notion of a dessert table was enough to make Sam’s head spin. “Mom, like please, just please can we have some more?” It was like managing a natural disaster as Ben shoved fistfuls of brownie into his maw and Sam plotted his attack on the table unaccompanied. I gave him instructions to not touch every one, but to carefully observe as his hand hovered over the table, choose one, put it on a napkin and bring it back. Sweet guy followed instructions (I wish I had a high-tech communications gear like in a command center where I could see what he was doing and speak to him Secret-Service like right into his ear “Don’t touch until you decide!”) He came back from his second forary almost in tears- “Mom, they are out of … (gulp)… banana bread!” Another memorable evening with my whirlwind friends in whom I really do try to instill some manners :0 Happy Mother’s Day to all of you who were wrangling your herd today!
playing hookey, island style + company coming!
Half of Team Krug, just in from a snorkel expedition.
Dave took today off to play with us since he’ll be in undisclosed locations over the next three weeks. He went out to get a latte for us this morning, then went to work for a couple hours to tie up loose ends, then home for beach time with us, hot dogs, beans and Cheetos for lunch (Sam says that’s a “camping lunch”) and now BBC’s Wild Pacific with Sam while Ben reluctantly naps. Pretty cool to see island life on these incredible documentaries. Just saw Easter island and the famous relic statues. While we’ll be missing Dave as he travels to NH then Guam, I’m glad he’ll get to see some of his family and we’ll get to have visitors from my family! Cousin Mike and his wife Mary will be coming for a couple weeks! We are so excited. We’ve been planning fun things for them to do should they need some adventure along with relaxation time. Sam wonders how many laps across his monkey bars Mike the Marine can do. He thinks 7 laps. Wow. Mike, you up for this? We can’t wait to see you guys – I’m already scanning the flight lists to see when they start populating info for your leave time 🙂
Fun run with my coaches
Ben during morning romping time. He spent several minutes admiring his hat and how exactly he wanted to wear it this morning. Wanted to capture this time with his hat infatuation because it may not last.
Ben is now in a big boy bed, as of Sat. He had climbed out of his crib twice, WITH a sleep sack on, appearing at his door in his little sack, baseball cap in hand ready for his day 🙂 He was so cute we hated to end his crib days, but it was time. So he’s in Sam’s toddler bed and adjusted well. The usual tricks getting up but for the most part very well behaved about it. This morning we romped around for a bit, after making yet another round of calls about hopefully the last cooling-related appliance failing (another air conditioner, on top of the fridge, the boys’ A/C and the truck’s A/C). Then we jogged the Lanikai Loop and matched a PR I set in Jan 2009 (wooo hooo!). Then, hit the playground for an hour, and finally off to the commissary, then home and work. Happy Monday!
5K PR – before kids
Just so I don’t have to dig for it…and so Dave doesn’t doubt me 🙂 I’m going for a record next year, see if I can beat myself 10 yrs later. Right now I do a 5K time trial about once a week pushing Ben – around 8′ splits.
5K June 2001 21:51, Glens Falls, NY
Fonduta bellies and a double meltdown to go
Out for an after-dinner romp, this was taken moments before Sam did a faceplant and got holes in his palms!
Today I spent a couple hours getting two websites polished up for a friend who owns (and loves to open!) restaurants here on the island (www.sakestreet.com and www.formaggio808.com). To celebrate going live with both, we went out to dinner at one of the restaurants (Formaggio Grill in Kailua) with the boys. Sam picked out my dress – he was so cute looking in my closet and asking “Is that your casual side of the closet?” pointing to my shirts. He then picked out the polka-dot dress above that I haven’t worn in about 5 years. Ben screamed when I put a dress-up shirt on him – lately he has reacted violently any time you even hint at messing with his shirt, even if it’s filthy and it’s time for bath. Strange dude. But we finally got him dressed in a nice aloha shirt and all out to dinner. Sam enjoyed his dinner very much – “I really chowed down on Dad’s red pasta. I liked Formaggio Castle – everyone all crowded there feasting at the long tables.” It was so fun seeing it through his eyes – indeed it would seem like a castle with the tall ceilings, low light, and long tables of feasting! The food was delicious, I had my barnyard and underbrush wine again (love!) and we felt like a walk after dinner. For our boys, though, they don’t walk. They run. Often things go well, but tonight while Dave was snapping this picture of us all jogging Sam went down inexplicably hard and poked pretty good flaps in his skin. While he was screeching Dave tried to round Ben up for the truck, but Ben wanted to keep running (Dave was fearing a second face-plant) so he started screaming, too! With a Dave-mai tai in me followed by the wine and lobster mac and cheese, I was in good shape to handle all these ruffled feathers. Dave literally thew his arms up in the air in astonishment at the double meltdown happening on either side of him in the middle of the marsh trail with all the nice folks out for a walk/ride, several families rescuing a fish from the middle of the canal with a rake and many other poles duct-taped together, and a wedding on the other side of the canal. It was all so incongruous but very funny in retrospect!
Miss Dana left the boys such a nice note and MONEY for taking care of her doggies while she was away! The boys really did take good care of the doggies, each hand-feeding the dogs little bits of food so they would eat otherwise they’d be too lonely and depressed. She totally overpaid – money for both boys – and Sam did the honors of dividing up the money. Out of $10, he gave Ben $4, then gave $2 to the kids in Pakistan (Pennies for Peace fund on his shelf) and saved $4 for his truck fund. Thank you, Dana! Then tonight during prayers Sam said he was thankful for the holes in his hands because he has a strong body. Ben then said he was ready for his big-boy bed (he just moved into Sam’s old toddler bed yesterday). That’s a wrap from Kailua…hope you all had a good day!
Monkey man, I love you.
- Sam has worked so hard to master monkey bars for the past year. I admire your strength and persistence so much, Sam.
Dear Sam,
Beach boys!
With Dave back from Guam and all of us relatively healthy once again, we had a fantastic Saturday morning at the beach. We even skipped an uke lesson for Sam…probably not the first island family to yield to the pull of ohana time at da beach. Mom and Richard graciously served as cabana boy and girl, going to get towels, water, snacks… And Dave wrestled my SUP down for me – that was a fun morning! Loves to my fam 🙂
Sam body-surfed for three hours straight - he couldn't even be enticed with Cheetos!
"Mommy, I carry my paddleboard!"
Two generations of mothering…
My mom is the best. I asked if she could just sit somewhere nearby and be my cupholder while I peeled Ben his orange. She said "Oh my, why don't I just stand right about here? Is that good?" We were laughing so hard that a lady who was visiting the island offered to take a picture. The lady, Vicky, and her son Dante, enjoyed the tide pools. She speaks Spanish and tried to show me a couple ways for the boys to learn rolling their "r"s as in perros, from a book they love.
Happy house!
New paint and gutters, and a rain chain! Love the sound of rain trickling down the chain!
Harvesting limes for “limonade”
Sam loves to harvest limes with this bamboo pole he dragged back from a hike. There's a natural notch at the top which grabs the limes perfectly. Then the little "shelves" within the pole itself prevent the lime from going all the way through. It sits right at the top waiting for you to grab it. That's Ben's job 🙂
Can you guess what happened here?
Little Ben tried on underpants for the first time this morning . . .
Funny faces color a grey day
Another grey day and mommy still under the weather. Trying some color on to brighten the day! Ben is a monk seal, Sam is a narwhal, and Mom is a parrotfish! Gramma was a blue whale 🙂 We all went out to Kalapawai this way, just for kicks.
Ponzi scheme payoff
Richard lost a lens from his glasses while doing bunny hop races over the weekend...then I found it the next day...then I "hid" it again so Sam could "find" it to earn the prize money, Sam "found" it, earned prize money, bought a set of Legos at Longs, then when we came back home to "find" the lens, we couldn't! We'd already told Richard we'd found it, and spent our prize money! So I looked and looked, raked the yard...looked and looked. Finally found it again today...and we collected! Sam has a good helper, can you tell?