I think these are happy noises 🙂 Pretty necklace and earrings from Mom and Richard!

 We had a good time with Mom and Richard this weekend – Easter egg hunt on Saturday with some special friends who brought the boys their first Easter baskets – then Easter dinner as a family on Sunday. Everyone is feeling a bit better after the 12-day virus. Dave is the last to be on the mend (he managed to sleep through three Easter services this morning!). And I am very grateful to have only had a mild version of it – which is STILL hanging around if you can believe that. While I can’t complain, I am ready to wake up without a sniffle, sore throat and fatigue.

Daddy still feeling pretty sick, but reading Sam one of his favorite books.

Thanks for the cupcakes mom! They made for a delicious breakfast dessert!

I’m enjoying spoiling my boys after a trying week – they had sherbet shakes for their morning milk (sherbet has 20% of your vit C needs, after all), then cupcakes for “breakfast dessert”! I am finding that hopping around the house is great fun. I even found a way to improve my hopping technique so that I don’t lose any time in my scurrying to do chores! And it was independent validation that a real bunny’s hopping technique is fast…you try and see how you hop fastest 🙂 We’re having an Easter egg hunt later with special friends, and I think a hopping race might just break out! Oh – Sam just informed me that Nerds have vit C as well because they are sour.

Mom is so cute with the boys, and so brave for getting near their germs!

Dave is home after a crazy week! My two little boys are feeling better after a 12-day cold, and Dave is on probably day 4 of it. Here’s hoping it doesn’t last 12 days. He had a big inspection at work so he was there very late, and stayed over at the Navy Lodge a couple nights to get some rest. Happy Easter to everyone! Lots of love and aloha to you all . . .

Sam loves this picture of himself, out to lunch recently. Enjoy!

Oh man oh man! What a wild week. Reminds me of the good ole’ days when Dave deployed. On the one hand I’m way more capable and organized – grilled bourbon chicken for dinner last night, for instance. On the other hand, I haven’t posted in a week I think because I really want to be away from the computer watching crime shows (which I’m not normally “allowed” to watch because Dave wants to read and listen to jazz music at night). I also freaked out last night when I thought I felt something crawling across me as I tried to fall asleep – pulled all blankets off, put on glasses and light looking for a mouse or roach. Found a Post-It note!!!! It had slipped under my shirt somehow and then slipped across my stomach as I rolled over. FREAK OUT man! Back to sleep… And today after our hike with Gramma up a random ridge (which was relatively not so fun, the highlight was rolling an orange down a Board of Water Supply access road to see if it could make the banked turns without rolling off the road) – anyway – we get home after lunch and I am changing Ben’s diaper. I found a TRAIN (a coal car from his Thomas set) in his pants!!!! Sam heard me laughing so loud he ran from the garage (where he was playing his drums) to come check it out. Tonight we made some good fun out of rolling 7 green waste bins out for pickup, then “surfing” on top of them, then jumping onto the grass from on top of the tall bins. Everyone is sick – me not too bad, thankfully. God knew I wouldn’t function too well if totally sick this week. My immune system is ROCKIN’ man. The boys are both sick – going on 7 days now (so this is a two-week cold vs the 5-7 days I was hoping for!). Ben managed to bang up his upper lip on a wipe-out so that has been a real treat – wiping his nose with a big scrape exactly where all the snots are dripping. The drip is constant. And now they are coughing, too. But they are real troopers – they sleep through the night, and Sam still hikes and bikes like a champ. They don’t just loll around, when it would be cool if they did for a change! Dave is really sick unfortunately, and he never gets sick. Truly. The last time he was sick (aside from the pertussis scourge mom gave us) was 2 years ago when he had a GI bug which laid him up for two days (I still question the seriousness of a GI bug that puts you to bed?). So he’s sick and working 18 hour days this week for an inspection. I pray for him all day, and especially at night as he drives home. Looking forward to Friday…but on the other hand the kids and I are having fun, spending long times in the bath, running wild around the house, planning a food fight for Friday…

Sam on the ridge connecting the Maunawili Dem Trail to the Maunawili Falls Trail.

This trail is so great – you contour along the Ko’olau spines for 3 miles (if starting at the Pali) and connect to this ridge hike down to Maunawili Falls. We did the whole thing straight through because Richard was kind enough to come pick us up at the other end despite being covered in mud (us) and chased by mosquitoes (him). We had a great time, met some super nice guys jumping off the cliffs surrounding the falls, and slogged our way through a ridiculous amount of mud to get back to the car. For some reason, if you ask anyone on either of the Maunawili trails how far it is to some landmark, they will be 50% off in time or distance estimate. And the well-worn falls trail is surprisingly easy to screw up! We passed a group that had already circled once, doing a second lap of mud slog on their way to the falls. We almost crossed the stream at the wrong place until I asked a group of girls which way and found they were following ME! We got ourselves set straight (thankfully we were going opposite directions so we actually knew the right answer) and continued on. Sam loved stabbing his hiking pole into the suction of the mud, then tried to pry it loose, only to get launched onto his butt. He loved it. Loved jumping off roots into a 4″ deep puddle, spraying all of us around him. And when a girl walked by who’d obviously taken a skid into the mud (legs totally covered in muck) he looked at her, wide-eyed, and went “whoooooah” such that all the guys with her cracked up! Another girl was standing, still, just talking to us (the group which had done a loop already) and all of a sudden she was DOWN! Smack! Everyone cracked up. It is nuts here. Someone wrote on the web this trail is suitable for small children. HA! I almost split Ben’s head on a rock, and careened down a hill with him in my arms despite having hiking poles and trail runners on (not slippahs as most wear). Not for small kids. On one level I really hate this trail, but on another level I totally appreciate the attraction and the insanity of how filthy you get. All in all everyone had a great time. The Maunawili Demonstration Trail and the connecting ridge are gorgeous. Absolutely. It’s 3 miles on the nose to the connector, then another 0.7 to the falls, almost all downhill. Today we through-hiked it 5.7 miles from Pali parking lot (Richard says there were signs near my truck saying “no parking” but I didn’t see those?!) to the trailhead for Maunawili Falls. Had a good time tonight telling Dave all our stories. Sam promised to teach me how to jump like the guys leaping from the cliffs. He says we’ll start small, off the deck, about 4 ft up. Those guys were really fun – young 20s, jumping 35+ ft off a cliff into the pool below. They were under water about 4 seconds. They went deep and still didn’t touch. Amazing. I think starting small is just fine. Apparently boys start jumping off cliffs around age 13. That’s what the guys said. I have some time to ramp up here ;0

Uncle Tom we're so proud of you! Congratulations on a great race!

I never take any finish for granted, and I’m sure you don’t either. Congratulations on having the determination to make it to the start year after year (among the many others you’ve done) and even more so for sticking it out until the end! I hope the weather treated you well. I checked your splits often and you did great. Seems like you stuck to your plan pretty well! We love you!

Biggest humuhumunukunukuapua'a on the planet!

Finally caught this sneaky dude on film! This trigger fish, the state fish of Hawaii, is about the size of a football! The Hawaiian name means “fish with nose like a pig” and its set-back eyes allow it to feed on sea urchins without getting stabbed in the eye. I am so happy to have gotten a picture of this one, whom I’ve seen several times in this snorkel spot.

Sam gets to check out a drum used in the performance!

The only drum and bugle corps representing our armed forces was on tour throughout the Pacific this week, and came to the Marine Corps Base for a performance this morning. It was very impressive, to say the least! We were honored to get to see it – usually they perform for heads of state, either visiting D.C. or when they travel (50,000 miles a year and 500 performances!). We learned a little about how to join the drum and bugle corps, and I asked a bunch of questions, such as did you always drum or did you come to the drums later in life (Sean, pictured above, told us his mother said he “came out of the womb drumming!”). Sean said he’d drum on anything – old cans, whatever. Sounds about like Sam. We have two sets of scavenged drums in the garage that were given to us from neighbors all done with the banging in their own yards and homes 🙂 (Mahalo Giji and Andrea!) What a thrill to see these guys (and seven women) march in precision while playing. Then the amazing silent drill team (28 guys with operational rifles affixed with bayonets) came out to perform. Wow. Tossing bayonets around, twirling them, marching in criss-crossing lines without stabbing anyone. Amazed at their concentration, I asked them if an earthquake started while they were performing would that cause them to lose concentration? No, probably not, unless something were to topple on top of them, they said. We hooked a drum up to Sam in the yard with an old innertube tonight. He had fun marching around and drumming 🙂

Nice way to end an epic hike - watersliding!

This was super fun, and super slick! I got launched into the pool – catching myself with my hands and going up to my waist! We’d just hiked with Mom and Richard from the Ko’olau Golf Course (and the First Pres Church) all the way up to the Pali Lookout and back! What fun to explore the ancient (circa 1850s) carriage road, then the Old Pali Road, and finally see the “new” Pali Hwy just below us as we gazed across Kaneohe all the way to Chinaman’s Hat (with Ben saying “take kayaks out” when he saw it). (For a great pictorial history of the route over the Pali, see http://www.pacificworlds.com/nuuanu/memories/memory5.cfm We didn’t exactly set out to go that far – when I’m hiking with folks new to me on the trail, I never plan on how far we are going to go. We just play it by ear. With all Richard’s joking about already being tired only .25 miles into it, I was thinking we’d be lucky to make it to the carriage road. Turns out, he later tells us after charging right up the trail, that only about 20% of what he says is true. Good to know! Mom is a real trooper hiking in slippery Crocs (without even having the back strap behind her heel, but she gets so much unsolicited advice on the trail about which stick to use and what root to grab I decided not to mention that little nugget as I’m not sure it’d help anyway). Sam led almost the entire hike, and really set a good pace for all of us. Ben actually hiked the entire way from Pali Lookout down to the parking lot (3 miles). I really couldn’t believe it but he was fine, hiking at just our pace, and did NOT want to be picked up (“Ben down!” “Ben walk!”). It was just shy of 1000′ elevation gain over 6 miles roundtrip. Everyone earned their lunches! Ben was so excited he skipped nap afterwards (huh???) and Sam ate more than I did. What a great day full of views, dense jungle, history, and good exercise. I had a blast doing that waterslide!

New big guy boogie board! Thanks Gramma and Richard!

 Saturday late afternoon we went to boogie board in the surf at Kailua Beach – it was cold and rough but the boys loved it. Ben was shivering and blue but he wanted back in. Before bed I chatted with him about his time in the waves, just beginning to learn how to paddle and body surf in the gentle bubbly froth as the waves lapped the shore. Here’s what he said:

“kinda rough”
“climbed da woller”
“climbed up da woller!” (roller)
“fell back in da water”
“head under”
“it’s ok”

Ben playing in the "big rollers!"

Among the Cook pines on the Judd trail. Such incredible trees, and a nice shot, Dave.

This morning started with a Skype “date” with Nana and PopPop on Long Island – see the picture below of the “cross-country concert” with PopPop (Sam on uke and PopPop on guitar). Dave’s dad, Bill, has such a beautiful voice. Ben loved seeing Nana, exclaiming “Nana! Dat’s Nana!” Then we went out for a hike on the Judd trail today – you start with a stream crossing (always potentially interesting, especially in winter) but it wasn’t very high and I was able to cross with Ben in my arms no problem. Feet stayed dry 🙂 Everyone got wet and muddy…and loved it. Ben is pretty funny with his hands, though. He doesn’t like messy hands, so when he puts them down on the ground to break a fall, he uses fists, or the backs of his hands! Mom and Richard met up with us at the Jackass Ginger Pool – it was fun to see them there! They’re at the laundromat now – Richard finished off his last pair of shorts on the trail 🙂

Sam and Ben listening to PopPop sing Puff the Magic Dragon (and play on his guitar).

Having a little fire while waiting for dinner...click for larger size.

Sam just cracks me up! He was carrying a little lizard around, showing it the fire (“now don’t climb up there, it’s hot”), and it eventually fell asleep in his hand. I was in a funk this afternoon and finally decided to start a fire – give me something other than the kids to obsess about (Ben was being a bit of a bear), and something for the kids to focus on other than harrassing each other or me! I love these funny guys 🙂 Thanks to mom and Richard for arriving with a yummy pot roast for a famished family, and Dave walked in just as we were serving.