Rainy Sunday.

What to do on a rainy Sunday? Try and burn some wet wood! It didn't ever light, but the trying was fun. Emi's taking a sick day, resting, watching some Yellow Submarine (a favorite of hers) and napping a bit. All that excitement of visiting Grandparents means she needs a recovery day. She takes to bed, takes an ibuprofen, and puts on the eye mask until the head ache clears up. She gets a bit dramatic like that, and we're all used to it around here.

This picture of Grandma Judy, Grandpa Bill, and the kids was taken last week at one of the beach park/lagoons we have in Hilo.

Mid-November

It's Saturday evening, and after fifteen inches of rain in the past 2 1/2 days, it has finally stopped raining! Talk about some serious wet. I went down to the beach early, as is my Saturday habit, and went into a stormy ocean. There was a Great Frigate bird overhead, and rain coming down in buckets. After a couple of hours a flash of lightening got me scrambling to shore and then I actually saw a bolt of lightening a couple of miles in the distance. I don't see lightening bolts often, and I don't like being in water when I DO see them!

We just had a nice family visit: Aaron's Mom and step-Dad came and stayed for a little over a week. We were on vacation time, all except Emi who still had to go to school. But being that Hawaii now has the shortest school year in the nation (thanks to furlough days, budget crunch, and a govenor who thought it was a good budget solution) Emi only had three days of school in that week's span. All the more time for exploring waterfalls, shopping with the Grands, and getting all that attention! Charlie got both Grandparents playing way more "Go Fish" than anyone but a 4 year old can stand.

Post-Halloween

Phew, it's always a relief to have Halloween over. Facilitating and managing excitement both. This is our picture of our haunted house. A ghostly little face, hoovering over that very scary Cyclops. It's almost proof of apparitions. In the very least, it's proof that Charlie is a little monster. And he HAS been a monster, as he comes into his own as a big kid who prefers settling things the old fashioned way. He hasn't evolved out of the duel/showdown mentality and while he no longer dares try such tactics on his parents, his sister often is victim to the old one-two. Of course, he's usually the victim of mosquito like pestering of his big sister. She has a way of hoovering around and making irritating noises right when he wants to take a minute to focus on something.

Aaron's birthday is this week, and the kids are very excited about Grandma Judy and Grandpa Bill coming for a visit! It'll be a nice week, and I'm sure busy for all of us. We are planning to stay in Puna and enjoy the time with family.