catching up a lil' bit...

My Kai turned *nine* this month. All is NOT right with the world - what happened to my little boy? Ah, lamenting the never-ending procession of time does me no good. He's a happy little man, *love, love, loved* the video game we gave him, and all the gifts from his brothers, grandparents, aunties, etc. He had a pretty good day, I think.

He chose (gag) Asian Buffet for his birthday lunch. Everyone I know loves those places, Kai included, but really, it's a collection of greasy food, scary sushi, and mediocre desserts. But I guess the draw is that there's at least one thing that everyone in your party will like. Kai just loves the beef & broccoli and the jello cubes. And you're guaranteed to have beef broccoli and jello cubes at *any* given Asian buffet place at *any* given time. Keo pretty much ate them out of orange slices. Peel and all.

Keo also got to Kai's birthday cake well before Kai did, grabbing whole handfuls of frosting at a time. I think he figured the Nerf gun he gave Kai was payment enough. Or he's just that spoiled and thinks any cake would naturally be for him. Probably theory #2.

 

My parents were in town for a whole week. We went camping, went to an amusement park and just loved the time together. The day they left, we decided to take a day trip to Twin Falls, Idaho, with them. It was a lot of fun, and the Shoshone Falls are amazing!

 My Jojo is the funniest little guy. We didn't tell him to do this pose, he just comes up with these things himself. He does also think himself pretty awesome...

So last Friday I had a day off and took the kids (my boys and two of my sweet nieces) on a hike that they have been asking to go on for about six weeks now. I told them a while ago that they could hike the mountain next to campus, and the idea just really stuck with them for some reason. So they kept asking when they could do the hike, and when the girls got to spend the night on Thursday night it just seemed like a perfect time. I warned them that they would have to get up early and they did grumble a bit, but they got up. For me, there were two problems: First, Thursday was my Friday, so I went to see "Inception" that night and didn't get to bed until 1:00am Friday morning. Second: it was my day off with my kids so I thought I really needed to bring the baby. On a two mile round trip hike. With a nearly 1,000 foot elevation gain. With exactly four hours' sleep the previous night. Just *so* smart. Can I tell you how many times fellow hikers passing us on their merry way said, "wow, aren't you ambitious!" Many, many times. And no, I am not ambitious, I just have issues about not spending every single second of time away from work with my kids. This hike may have helped me get on the trail to recovery; I will not take Keo on another hike until he is 18. He did not hike one. single. step. Every time I set him down he would stand still and cry until I picked him up. I managed because I thought it would be really cruel to the children if their mom/aunt had a heart attack right there on the trail. Holy cow I am out of shape. So anyway, the picture above is the kids at the base of the trail. 

I should correct the previous statement. Keo actually made it to the line that Maile is standing on in this picture. Then he decided that I would be carrying him for the rest of the adventure. This picture was taken directly inside the gate at the base of the trail. Fun! For the first ten yards.

There were ten turns on the switchback trail. The kids realized quite quickly (they're pretty bright kids :)) that this was a bit of work. Every turn resulted in at least one child exclaiming, "we're only on Turn THREE (four/five/etc)???" This picture was taken at Turn 7 and at this point they were pretty much resigned to the fact that they were closer to the end than the beginning so they may as well finish. We hiked early enough that the sun was still behind the mountain the entire time. Which was good as it's been about 80 degrees by 8:00am these days. Desert sun would not have mixed well with grumpy Keo and the mildly disenchanted big kids.

And they made it!! They were so excited to finish! Except Keo. He was quite irritated by the time we reached the top. Go figure.

The little tiny blue thing way back behind these guys is Kai. Here they are, enjoying the view. They spent a lot of time relaxing, checking out bugs and stuff. They were really happy that they made it to the top!

The view!                                                  ^Kai

We all made it back down just fine, but at one point I heard Kai say to Kea, "Remind us to never hike this hike again!" Jojo was ticked because I made him take this picture, I thought it was pretty funny. But we had to have a before and after picture! They were *really* happy to be done with the hike.

I'd better finish off with a pic of my Keo. Why not?