Exploring Kauai

Most of our time in Hawaii was spent on the Island of Kauai; an island that has two main roads, one going North to South up the East coast, and the other up the west. So a lot less developed than Honolulu. Kauai is the furthest out from the 'big island', the one with the volcanoes that made the larva that formed all the other islands - so no volcanoes for us to see, but plenty of beaches and other things. We had 2 houses for all 16 people, next door to each other and a short walk from the beach. 

Our biggest expedition was to see a canyon described as the Grand Canyon of the Pacific. Here you can see:

1. Wilder stopped for lunch

2. The 'wettest place on Earth' (it rains a lot)

3. The Canyon - that waterfall is the same one seen at the beginning of Jurassic Park

*These photos are going out of order - this is at a Russian Fort built in the 19th Century by some schemer who wanted to make money getting the Russians to take over Hawaii, or something.

4. More pictures of lunchtime

5. Back to the Russian Fort

6. Some cool old Volvos, same day as the fort in the town of Waimea nearby where we had lunch

7. Here is the view of the wettest place on Earth - note the clouds

8. That waterfall again

9. Russian Fort

10. a phone in Waimea

11. Lunch at the canyon

12. Lunch in Waimea

Return from Hawaii

So here we are back from our epic trip (Missouri then California then Kau'ai in Hawaii, then Honolulu in Hawaii, then a 10h flight home). We got back Tuesday and are more or less recovered - the top picture is Wilder eating dinner Tuesday night at the normal time. More will follow, but in the meantime, on the day we were in Honolulu after a week on Kau'ai, Wilder was talking about all the things he remembered from the trip. The highlights for him were:

1) 'bibi cryin' (his cousin Thad is a baby and did some (not an exceptional amount) of crying

2) 'Oatmeal' (instant oatmeal (porridge) was available for breakfast)

3) 'More slide' (we went to a swimming pool where there was a water slide which we took Wilder down many times til we could take it no more and had to leave. Wilder would've done it all day. And night.

4) 'Happ B'day Wilder' It was Wilder's Birthday while we were away, and he got cake. He also loves the happy birthday song.

Honolulu on the final day

'Mama Buppy'

Back home playing together quietly and happily

Ilona demanded I take this photo

Wilder's First Baseball Game

On Sunday it was Father's Day, and the Mets were playing the Cardinals, so we all hopped in the car and made the roughly 1h drive to Citifield for the big game. Unfortunately the Cardinals won (which pleased everyone else no end, and Bluet in particular really got into it. Aside from the result, a good time was had by all; - although to be fair this was not the ideal location for Wilder who doesn't really like to sit down in one place and watch a whole game - I am sure this will come; for now this was his first baseball game, and he did enjoy clapping along every time with the sound of the crowd. At the end of the game the kids got to queue up outside then re-enter the ballpark at field level, and come out onto the field and run the bases, just like real players. Luckily for me children too small to run by themselves could be carried by their parent, so I got to run the bases carrying Wilder - he was excited to see Mr Met on the way around, but when I put him down to run to home plate he was more interested in sitting and playing in the dirt so I had to pick him up and run the rest of the way home. 

The beach

Here is a post that nearly got lost - I uploaded the pictures from my phone but then never got around to writing anything. Anyway, a couple of weeks ago we had visitors - Emily's old room mate from College, and her Mum, so we took them on a day trip to the beach. The best thing about this was that this was Wilder's first encounter with sand and sea - as you can see, he loved it, although the moving water was a little confusing at first, then produced little laughs of joy. 

Gap toothed Ilona

Yesterday Ilona lost her first tooth (it was hanging on by a thread, so she let Emily pull it out while we were eating dinner). She was so happy (she wanted a loose tooth for months before she finally got one, and one time she told us she had 7 loose teeth at once). When she got home she decided she needed to wash it, and it went down the sink. So she wrote a note to the tooth fairy and left it under her pillow, and in the morning $2 was there - crisis averted!

Messages for planes