koke'e: prawn, walk, flagpole

My parents are here and even though it is their vacation, it feels like it our vacation.  We do fun stuff everyday.  We eat good stuff everyday.  

I love it.  

Everyday is packed.  Just the way I like it.  Well, as long as it is with good stuff. 

Sometimes when sweet friends invite you up to a cabin up the canyon and you have a hundred things you're supposed to do, you turn it down.  But since we are on a seemingly perpetual vacation, we couldn't turn it down.  Real life, shmeal life, right?  We packed a big ol' lunch (meaning my mom cooked and I loaded it up).  Musubi, kiriboshi daikon no tsukemono (spicy daikon, carrot, kombu salady type stuff that I love so much and it makes me so happy that I swear if husband thinks I am so mysterious about things that make me happy all he needs to do is learn how to make this), tonkatsu (breaded fried pork), and yakisoba (delicious but not photogenic)...  And headed up the "Grand Canyon of Kauai."  

After the feast, we headed on a walk.  But first, we needed a trap for the prawns in the stream.  A Cutie bag, string, and a wire hanger, MacGuyver would have been jealous.  

It was more foresty than jungle-y up there and that kind of made it feel like we were in my hometown.  

Kids love a project.  They love a goal.  I love that.  And this walk was Project Catch a Prawn for them.  

Jeans and Plaid Shirt Club.

I watched Baby Maximus start getting kind of bored up there and he started feeling around for something to play with.  

My little family and my little parents.  Teehee.  

Looks like the boys in my little family don't like haircuts.  

And we're back to the prawns.  Can you see this one?  Right in the middle of the photo.  We don't get to see a lot of prawns where I come from.

So, sometimes you meet a mom that reminds you that it's really okay if your kid wants to climb into the shallow stream and catch a prawn.  Chances are, if the kid goes in by choice, he won't complain about the frostbite and hypothermia.  Just kidding.  There was no danger  of that.  But that is what I would be thinking.  That, plus the muddy and the soggy pants.  All those things would stop me from letting my kid go in.  But then I am robbing the kid of the experience and the memory.  Awesome mom, huh?  She even helped him catch it.  I need to remember this.  

I would have robbed them of the excitement of actually catching something.

Part cool.  Part ew.

I had to laugh at this photo.  Kids like a goal.  And grown up kids like a goal.  I turned around and these two are doing a little bit of mountain clean up it looks like.  You know, just moving some branches and whatnot.  

These two love each other.  They love each other as much as Eva is shrimpy and Maximus is giant.  That's a lot.  She likes to carry him and it always makes me a little nervous.  Maybe because they seem like they might weigh about the same.  

You know those sweet photos of the family where the mom and dad are both holding baby's hand, walking through the forest?  I don't.  Maximus would have none of that cliche' garbage.

I know the photo is fuzzy in one and his eyes are closed in the other.  But together they show how much of a ball kid he is.  Some things you don't teach a kid.  You don't say, "Now Baby, take this ball and carry it around the house all day.  Love it.  Find a ball wherever you go and don't let go."  They just come out that way.  

And sometimes you meet someone that reminds you that life can be pretty funny most of the time.  "Can you see me?" he said.  

Baby Maximus eating his fifth cookie.  Because for some reason, when you are sitting around a campfire, you eat more junk than you usually would.  Campfires are places where encased meat products plus a graham cracker chocolate marshmallow sandwich make a meal.  Right?

Fresh prawn.  Really really fresh.  They roasted it and ate it.  

This kid.  You also don't teach a kid to do painfully entertaining things like hook a flag clip to his belt loop.  They just figure out those things on their own.  

Zero fat Samuel.  Strong enough and light enough to pull himself up.  Strong Samuel.  Strong jeans.  We all watched it, we all thought it, we all couldn't believe it when he actually did it.  

I gave birth...

...to a freaking cartoon character.  

You never think about Bugs Bunny's mom, or Mickey's mom.  

I am Samuel's mom.  

Koke'e.  

Ate a lot.  

Learned a lot.  

Laughed a lot.