Epic adventures

Truth be told, this weekend was probably one of the top 5 weekends of my entire life. But, you don't read this blog for a long sappy list of things that give me warm fuzzies. So here's the other side of my storybook weekend.

We have 3 friends visiting from Montana. As we planned activities to do with them camping came up as a fun activity. I did my duty as host and Googled and facebooked my way to a cabin rental in Wainapanapa State Park.

We packed up Sunday morning and headed off into the rainforest that was currently full of rainstorms. About halfway along every phone in my minivan began to buzz, vibrate, chirp or jingle with a text announcement that someone in the other car needed to pee. We hurried along to one of the only rest stops along our journey with only a brief way lay for the fallen tree who's upturned roots had to be driven over precariously.

Moderate to severe car sickness aside, it was a pleasant, albeit wet, drive to the east side of the island.

We arrived to find our cabins placed some distance away from each other. Okay, but not ideal. We walked in, very unsure what to expect, and immediately someone drew in their breath, exhaled and announced, "these are amazing! They smell like camping." The beautiful baby had beautifully stinkified herself on the car ride so she was stripped down and quickly made her way to every nook and cranny of the cabin clad only in a diaper and rain boots. All 3 boys had made a tree fort within 5 minutes of arrival that they proudly announced was mostly rain free. Larry made me a leaf umbrella since the fort was a kids only zone. He's thoughtful like that.

And so our camping trip began. We went to the beach and swam in the ocean in the rain. We hiked to nowhere along the oceans edge and did some cave exploring.

Dinner was an inside job due to rain but my magical all in one rice cooker, sautér, steamer and crockpot quickly helped us put together some steak, quinoa and veggie deliciousness. Games, after games after games were played until we all fell into our twin bunk beds exhaustedly.

Our beautiful baby woke up and wanted to go home in the middle of the night so my dear husband and I took turns basking in her awfulness and pretending we could sleep through it. She gave up the fight around 3am but managed to use her gigantic 20 lb self to take up my entire bed making sleep an unfulfilled dream.

We were up bright and early the next morning to pack up our cabins, play phase ten, do more exploring now that the rain had stopped and other fun things. Before leaving Wainapanapa we headed back to the caves for more cave pool fun (by we I mean, not me, or the tired baby, or my sister who hurt her knee. But everyone else.) My boys came back from the adventure and were most excited to tell me that my best friend said a bad word really loud in front of them when daddy swam through a rock wall and she didn't know if he was okay. They knew he was okay.

We finished our adventures with a trip to the Hana Lava Tube tour (which is well worth doing!). 35 minutes of underground cave exploring with stalagmites and chocolate stalactites plus a ti leaf maze above ground, what's not to love?

We took the back way home through Kaupo and included a stop at Ulupalakua Ranch so we could be sure to say we really and thoroughly enjoyed East Maui. It has a lot more to offer but for our family  it gave us exactly what we needed. I can't wait to go again.

Broken posts

Sometimes I try to post but it comes out too sappy, too judge or too boring, so instead you get nothing.

I start and stop posts a lot. 

Today I was going to write about acting like a grownup and how I cleaned my car, had a garage sale, finished responsibilities instead of going to bed when I was tired, blah, blah, blah... It was preachy and boring. I originally thought it was going to be funny, she said as she shook her head in failure.

I erased it and was about to go to bed, leaving my loyal fans with nothing to read. I felt bad, so I came back to give you a very short post. It probably should of just been a Facebook post. It's late, I'm tired, excuse, excuse.

Here's the story:

The other day my twins ran into the store to run an errand for me. They came out 5 minutes later cracking up at the crazy guy they saw.

Naturally, I asked what made them think he was crazy. Here was their long list of reasons in the order they stated them.

- he wasn't wearing a shirt, and he was in a store!

- he was wearing a backpack.

- the backpack looked like it had all his clothes in it.

- he paid for his stuff in all coins and it took a really long time to count out.

- he had jugs hanging by ropes from his backpack.

- he was talking to himself.

- he was wearing shoes that were missing the toes.

Then they went on to explain all the things he was saying, which were mostly nonsensical, and the main reason they came out giggling. I have since forgotten all those funny things.

Clearly they came across a man who had experienced some hard luck.

Also, they clearly think everyone without a shirt that wears a backpack in a store (which is a large number of people in Hawaii) is crazy.

Finally, I sometimes pay for things using only coins, does that mean they think I'm crazy? I do wear a shirt so I'm hoping I'm in the clear.

That's all folks. I'm on a mission to find better fodder for the next post. Wish me luck!

I got older today

It happens every day. We all get 24 hours older.

But today was the annual event where the world stops and honors my birth. Or, at least my family does.

Getting older is a wonderful wonderful thing for me.

With each year that I advance I have the opportunity to gain wisdom, patience, kindness, knowledge and understanding.  I like to think that each year makes me a better person. Of course, I have now reached the point where I can throw grey hairs and wrinkles onto the list of annual attainments, but I actually think they're pretty great too :) I hope to become a silver fox sooner in life rather than later.

I'm not a big fan of celebrating my birthday, although I do love presents, so don't skip that part! Planned celebrations that are focused on me feel a bit like tempting fate so I try to avoid them. Surprises are out too, they make the control freak in me cry a little, and that's not fun for my birthday. I like my birthday to be normal and average in every way, except everybody has to be extra nice to me. Trust me, it makes for a great day! (Not convinced? Just seemy picture of my feet all comfy on the couch. People were being extra nice and letting me chill and put my feet up. I loved it!)

So cheers to a great day and another great year. Just wait til you see me at age 34, I'll be that much more me and you may need sunglasses to shield your eyes from my effervescent amazingness.

I'm telling you, life gets better with age my friends, so much better!