The latest ...

Friday Dwight took the boys to the tide pools for snorkeling. Ty and Chance had their first opportunities to try a mask on and see the "fishes". It can be very scary to put your head under water and learn to breathe through the snorkel. Chance sketched out a bit. However, Ty went for it! He loved it, in fact.

They all came home exhausted, but happy. The landlord and his friends were out practicing their team roping again. Everyone went to watch and some of the boys were able to ride again. Looking forward to this summer at the ranch, when they get to do some more riding. Burnell found a rope and has been practicing roping. He even set up a chair to simulate the "legs" he needed to rope as well. Lots of fun!

Saturday, Grandpa Ted and Grandma Gail went off on a date. Dwight and the boys chilled with Mama and Wyatt at home. It was a delightfully restful day as a family. Dwight took care of breakfast for us -- in which the munchkins ate and ate and ate. They are bottomless pits these days. While Daddy took a rest, I was able to sit out on the back porch with my 6 little men and watch them play. Burnell was commissioned to make lunch and did a fabulous job at making PB&J for his brothers and Mama. He insisted on feeding everyone halves until they were full, and then serving himself. Orin made his own sandwich. During nap time, Daddy sat on the back porch and did math lessons with Burnell and Orin for 2 hours!

They are fascinated with learning subtraction. Dwight kept trying to trip them up and even threw in a "negative" answer. Lots of fun learning. Dinner was a costco lasagne and then we watched the movie Hidalgo - a story about a man with a mustang horse competing against Arabian horses in a 3000 mile race across the Sahara desert. It was an education on the Arab customs as well as deserts and their many trials (quick sand, sand storms, locusts, desolation).
Sunday was another beautiful day and the troops headed out to the beach again. They took their snorkel gear and found a few places to snorkel as well. Apparently, Ty can't get enough of snorkeling. Dwight took him around and he kept going after fish and kicking. No fear, that guy.

Monday, Dwight, Grandpa Ted and the 4 oldest went to check out the Mauna Loa macadamia nut factory. There you can watch the factory line workers as they line up the little chocolates and fill the packages. Mmmm....

Then, off to the Akaka waterfall. This was the one we had driven to earlier in the trip - through the old sugar plantations. Once there, you hike 1/4 mile to the falls, passing beautiful flowers and ferns along the way. It drops some 800 feet into a cavern. After the hike, the troop visited a local shop that serves homemade ice cream. Grandpa and Grandma had visited here on Friday (on their date) and found a macadamia nut ice cream that is killer. They brought some home for me today. They also tried a mango (Orin), banana (Burnell) and coconut (Chance and Ty) ice cream. The shop also sells homemade jams, which we bought a few to bring home. Mmmmm.....

Back home, Dwight spent hours outside playing freeze tag with his little guys. Whew! That'll wear anyone out, except the energizer bunnies that we're growing around here. They just keep going and going and going!

We finally got a pic of Chance with Wyatt. :-)

The tiniest lizard ever. :-)

Quint's adventures -- STICKS!

Ahi SUSHI

An awesome Bantam tree

Grandma Gail ready to serve dinner

Grandpa Ted - making some INCREDIBLE Mahi Mahi!

Thinking of and missing all of you that were able to make it to the Johnson family reunion in CA this weekend. How did the hayride go this year?? :-) :-) Love you all and hope you had a blast reconnecting with one another.