Even though it doesn't start until Thursday, we're in the summer-vacation mode here. The trade winds are back, which means that we are getting some rain every night and during the day we have a breeze, a few clouds, but mostly sun. Yesterday I called the two neighbor boys over (Aaron was in Kona playing soccer) and between the two of them, my two kids, and myself we managed to move a bulky but not-too-heavy dog kennel to the truck. We loaded it up and then went to my Mom's house. I backed in to her garden area with the truck, a kennel set up on the bed of the truck, and four kids in the kennel. The comment? "Looks like you have the kids exactly where they should be!" After the kids chased my Mom's chickens a bit and ran away from the goats (who live in the huge, fenced chicken yard and like to play chase), I took all the kids down to the park. Emi skated on her roller skates, Charlie played with his skateboard and some little boy on a bike. They had races. Charlie doesn't actually stand up, but uses his skateboard as a knee board. He's pretty fast, and only occasionally runs over his own fingers. The neighbor boys played basketball, which meant both Emi and Charlie had to avoid running into the boys, or the loose balls that would careen across the covered area at the park.
After the park we headed down the road to a grove of wild, invasive bamboo. We needed to cut a few for supports for the beans and peas that Emi and Charlie planted earlier this week. The kids all got out and loaded the bamboo into the truck. I succeeded in finding the only mud, as opposed to cinder and rock, in the subdivision and the truck got very slightly stuck. Not enough that we even needed to push it, but the tires spun just enough to make it exciting. Then as I headed down the road to turn around at the next street we saw a giant Albezia limb across the road, shattered into a number of smaller pieces. Albezia are one of the brittle 'weed' trees that grow here. I had the kids jump out and move it as a neighborly good deed. They got the job done in about ten seconds- they were in this super helpful, excited mood. On the way home we looked for a couple cats in trees to rescue, or maybe a house on fire to save, but no luck. They were in the mode to do good deeds after all that helpfulness.
Today the kids were back in school. Four more days and they have their six week summer vacation. I spent the morning surfing with my Dad, and the afternoon doing work outside. Aaron made the best pizza for dinner. It's actually a group effort, I suppose. I make the dough, he does the rest. I like that. Now Charlie is off at Jiu Jitsu with Aaron, and Emi and I are hanging out in a quiet house. In two weeks we're going to have visitors from the mainland- Lucy and Betsy are coming for a visit! Lucy was Emi's best friend, and they moved to Washington a couple of years ago. We've missed them ever since. Betsy and I are planning two weeks of non-stop beach trips! Maybe a trip to Volcano as well.
After the park we headed down the road to a grove of wild, invasive bamboo. We needed to cut a few for supports for the beans and peas that Emi and Charlie planted earlier this week. The kids all got out and loaded the bamboo into the truck. I succeeded in finding the only mud, as opposed to cinder and rock, in the subdivision and the truck got very slightly stuck. Not enough that we even needed to push it, but the tires spun just enough to make it exciting. Then as I headed down the road to turn around at the next street we saw a giant Albezia limb across the road, shattered into a number of smaller pieces. Albezia are one of the brittle 'weed' trees that grow here. I had the kids jump out and move it as a neighborly good deed. They got the job done in about ten seconds- they were in this super helpful, excited mood. On the way home we looked for a couple cats in trees to rescue, or maybe a house on fire to save, but no luck. They were in the mode to do good deeds after all that helpfulness.
Today the kids were back in school. Four more days and they have their six week summer vacation. I spent the morning surfing with my Dad, and the afternoon doing work outside. Aaron made the best pizza for dinner. It's actually a group effort, I suppose. I make the dough, he does the rest. I like that. Now Charlie is off at Jiu Jitsu with Aaron, and Emi and I are hanging out in a quiet house. In two weeks we're going to have visitors from the mainland- Lucy and Betsy are coming for a visit! Lucy was Emi's best friend, and they moved to Washington a couple of years ago. We've missed them ever since. Betsy and I are planning two weeks of non-stop beach trips! Maybe a trip to Volcano as well.
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