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…