Swim lessons

Swimming lessons came to an end at the end of last month. It was so much fun to teach these keiki how to swim and see their excitement for accomplishing something that used to be scary and unknown to them. My favorite day was when all the girls in Kezia's class each rushed to me with something they had learned to do, like swim without floaties or put their face under water or such. I also added something this session: goal setting. It was cool to watch these kids make goals and really try to reach them. Kezia and Ivy (and all the kids) had a great time and learned a lot.

Chillin (I mean steaming) in the hot tub with the swimmers (minus the 2 boys who weren't there that day)

Life moves quickly. It's up to us to slow it down.

And speaking of, we saw the coolest thing in our parking lot the other day: a huge, fat caterpillar that was 4 inches long and a good 1/2 inch across! It was a white lined hornworm that would turn into a sphinx moth -- you know, one of those huge moths bigger than your face. Here's a little video the kiddies might enjoy.

An Empty Wheelchair

The Empty Wheelchair

Last Tuesday there was a man who was pushed in a wheelchair to the beach. He watched the waves. I took my board and went out to enjoy the waves. As I was out there, I saw him again, this time on a board. The man was almost completely paralyzed. He was on a special board and his friend was pushing him into the waves. Each time he caught a wave, his friend whispered, "Yes! Yes! Yes!"

So grateful for Elysse

Lately Nate and I have been falling asleep exhausted before we even mean to. On Tuesday night Nate fell asleep with his contacts still in. He woke up in a lot of pain and took them out. He spent the day doctoring his eye and hoped it would be better by the next morning. But I woke up at about 5 am the next morning to watch Nate pacing up and down the hall like a mad man with his hand over his eye. Just watching him made your eyes hurt. He had been up since 4am in terrible shooting pain. The doctor's office didn't open til 9am. Nate said it could have been months til it opened and it wouldn't have seemed longer.

The doctor couldn't see him til 11:20, so we dropped Kezia and Ivy off at a friend's and put a sleepy Elysse in the backseat and drove off to Walmart. I found a parking spot in the sun and thought, "oh well, there's nothing in the car that'll need shade" and Nate and I went to the doctor's. We filled out the paperwork, got his eyes airblasted, and waited to see the doctor. And then it hit me: ELYSSE!!! Omigoodness, with the older girls at our friends and our concern for Nate's eye, I totally forgot her!!! And now it was at least 10 minutes later in a car in the sun!!

I dashed out of there so fast. I could hear a baby crying in the distance and my first thought was someone got her out and now they're calling CFS to convict me. The crying continued as I got closer to the car, so then I thought she must be screaming in the car. But as I yanked open the car door, I found a quiet, drowsy, sweaty little girl. (I am thinking (hoping) the drowsy part was because she had just woken up). Although I had gotten the stroller out, I didn't put her in it. I held her close all the way back to the store. I am so, so, so grateful for the Holy Ghost and that she is ok. Since the girls were at a friend's, the thought was in my head that the girls were gone and it was just Nate and I. Once we returned to the car later, it was hot enough that we would have probably lost her had I not remembered earlier.

So now both my parenting nightmares have come true: 1. locking my children in the car without a key and 2. forgetting a quiet baby in the car. And both times have turned out alright.


And what about Nate? He had an abrasion on his eye, probably due to pulling off a layer of eye skin while rubbing his eye with a dry contact in it. He is fine now.

My very happy birthday

I have entered into my last year of young-hood. Yep, as of June 29th, I am now 29. As I am writing this, I realized now that it was my golden birthday, 29 on the 29th. I remember thinking of that when I was younger and thinking it won't be for a looooong time. Hmm....Next year I will be old. Or at least my age will be. Or perhaps I will adopt my friend's advice and be "forever 29"

I had a wonderful birthday. I loved all the phone calls and cards from people I love. It makes me feel great to think that people think of me!

Three people especially did great things for me on my birthday that made it really nice. First of all, Kay, Nate's mom, watched Kezia and Ivy over night Friday night and it was great to have a break. Saturday morning Nate and I dropped Elysse off at her house and had a great paddle down the river. Nate finally finished the paddle he gave me for Christmas, and it works great! Not bad for a first try.

We began at Three Tables and paddled all the way to Haleiwa, about a 5 mile distance. We stopped at a beach for lunch and a snorkel, and once we got back on our boards, the wind had switched direction and the water was choppy, testing our will to get to the end. In all, it took us 5 hours to get to the shore, a lot longer than we were anticipating. It has been a while since I have been in water, which is where I feel most at peace, and it's been a while since Nate and I have had time together, so spending that much time in the water with my best friend was a great birthday celebration.

But that wasn't all. Kezia made sure of that. Since the beginning of May, Kezia has been compiling gift bags in the corner of her room full of paper gifts for me. Every day she has asked me how many more days until my birthday. Sunday morning she presented me with all the gifts. I pulled out math equations and words spelled on paper, collages, pictures of women from a magazine ("because (I) would like them") a bracelet made from a magazine picture, a paper fan, clips of black construction paper, and a birthday crown. How cool is that?



But it didn't end there. Unknown to me, she had a whole birthday celebration planned. After I unwrapped my gifts, she said, "Well, since you don't have a pinata, we'll just have to make one." Soon she was back with paper bags filled with toys from around the house and a golf club. It was pretty funny to see Kezia try to protect her face while holding the pinata for Ivy to swing at. Then it was Ivy's turn to hold a bag. She held it right next to her chest and said, "Ok, Kezia, hit it!" Thankfully, Kezia, the wiser one, showed her how to hold it to the side.

Ivy taking a swing at the brown bag pinata

Then we had a pony ride down the hall on the golf club. And then we performed hula hoop tricks. What a great daughter (and daughters) I have.

The girls spent the day again with Grandma, who gave me a beautiful, homemade plumeria lei. That evening we went back to her house for a classic Burgoyne feast with a classic chocolate cake with too many hot candles on top.



And the evening ended with a luxurious foot massage by Nate.

Yes, I had a great birthday.