What's a hike anyhow?

Mike went on a hike with his squadron the week before last.  And he came home saying how great it was.  He said he thought it was something the boys and I could do.  Of course, he told the boys about it and they got all excited, so we made a plan to head back there and take Jackson and Max on their first hike.  

I had the opportunity a few days before to meet up with some of the spouses from the squadron.  I asked them if they had ever been on the Pillbox Hike.  The ladies that had been on the hike before said they all thought I could do it.  They mentioned that the beginning is the hardest part and feels the steepest.  

An Oahu Family Activities site puts it this way:  

"Located in Kailua near Lanikai Beach, Lanikai Pillboxes is nicknamed for the 2 WWII bunkers at the top of the hike that resemble pillboxes.  This hike is short and should take the average family around 30 minutes to reach the top of the pillbox for an unforgettable view of the Mokulua islands. Use a hiking carrier for the small keikis."

Okay, so I think I am prepared right?  Well, I did not take out the camera and get a picture of the beginning of the hike.  In my opinion, it did feel super steep and super slippery.  I was grabbing onto tree trunks in order to help myself along and up the trail.  When I was thinking of a hike, I was thinking more a nice, but cumbersome, walk through some woods.  I was not thinking of mountain climbing.  Yes, I consider my husband to have taken his 7 months pregnant wife mountain climbing.  

Oh yeah, it doesn't stop there.  We kept right on going past that first, steep, slippery part of the trail.  I think, 3 days later, that I might be blocking some of this whole experience out because I cannot quite remember what we saw when we emerged from that first part, but I do remember, it felt like mountain climbing.  

Max gave me an ongoing heart attack for pretty much the whole hike.  The boys both did really great and remained enthusiastic about the whole experience through pretty much the whole "hike."  I give them way more props than I give myself!!  Max was excited and wanting to climb himself.  I was a basket case, thinking of how close to the edge of the mountain my klutzy son was at all times.  I was close to the edge too, and I had these crazy visions of us both going right over the edge.  

Who knew I would be that afraid of a little mountain climbing?  I have never been all that afraid of heights before, but this climb brought out irrational fears.  Pregnancy related?  I sure hope so, because I know my little guys were thinking how wimpy their mom was the whole time we were climbing.  There were a couple families that brought dogs and/or babies along with them.  I honestly cannot imagine either of those scenarios

Some of the views from our stops along the trail.

We made a few stops for Mom to rest a bit and catch my breath, and also, to allow me to assess the trail and wrap my mind around the continued climb.  The only way to get the boys to stay close was to have them sit down for a rest for themselves.  You can see how dirty Jackson's legs are in this picture.

This is the only good picture I got of what a part of the trail looked like and I personally don't feel the picture quite does justice to how steep it really felt.  You can see the first Pillbox at the top, but it still felt like we had a really long way to go to get there.

The boys wanted a picture from the Pillbox with that rock island behind them.  Mike obliged.  You cannot quite tell how dirty Jackson really was because of the shadow of his hat, but I think this is the dirtiest that boy has been in his whole life.

I made this picture extra large in order that you might all see the little dot of pink.  That is me.  We got to a place on the trail where we were really close to the first Pillbox and the place where we had planned to be the end of our hike.  I looked at what I was supposed to climb to get up there, and I might have freaked out a little.  Okay, maybe a lot.  I started to cry (which was hidden by my sunglasses) and I just could not catch my breath and get it together.  There was no way Jackson and Max were stopping there, so close to the goal, but I just told Mike I could not go up there.  I sat down, thinking I would catch my breath, rest a few minutes and then follow the boys up there.  I could not make myself get up.  I have never felt that way before in my whole life, and it was so weird.  

Here's the funny:  Apparently Jackson told Mike, "God put a baby in Mommy's belly and that made her not a good hiker."  I told you he thinks I'm a wimp.  Oh well, I guess once this baby is out, maybe I can try it again and see if I can redeem myself.  Not sure yet.  

View from the top of the first Pillbox.  Beautiful Hawaii

After the hike was my own favorite part:  brunch at a place called Cinnamon's.  OMGoodness, the food was amazing.  The boys all remembered to bring a second t-shirt to change into, but not me.  Well, I brought a sundress because I thought it would be cooler.  However, I forgot some flip flops, so I opted to look sweaty and gross, rather than silly in my sundress and running shoes.  Mike had these Guava Pancakes and I got a cinnamon roll and omelet.  We shared everything, because my hubs is the best kind and those pancakes were out of this world.  The boys ordered a grilled cheese and fries (which Mike and I thought were delish), but they rejected it and ended up eating the buttermilk pancakes that came with my omelet.  Mike and I decided that we will no longer give them an option as to what they will have at a restaurant if there is any question about whether or not they will like what is presented to them.  

This was definitely a place I would drive to take a friend or fam when we get our first visitors.  The restaurant I mean...  not so sure about the mountain climbing dubbed as hiking.

29 weeks

29 weeks and counting down!!!  I never would have thought that I would be desiring a baby to come before the appointed time of 40 weeks or so.  But this time...  well, let's just say if Baby Clemens 3 wants to make his debut earlier than anticipated, this mama will not be complaining.  I feel like I can't hold my belly in anymore.  Sitting on the floor to play with the boys gets harder every day.  And, I am still getting sick.  If I don't get up and get right to the kitchen to make the same breakfast I have eaten for at least the last month and a half, I am in the bathroom throwing up nothing.  I am ready for this little one to get here and relieve me of these physical things that come with pregnancy.

I was sick like this with Jackson, through the whole pregnancy.  Could we be getting another little Jackson look-alike?

Halloween baking fun:)

My boys LOVE to be in the kitchen with me.  The kitchen in the Azores was ideal for having their help.  They could stand on chairs on one side of the counter while I was on the other side passing whatever we were working on back and forth easily between them.  This house...  not as easy, but we are making it work.  I can bring a chair into the kitchen and have one boy at a time help me.  They have become pretty good at taking turns with the mixing and measuring and dumping in.

Mike's squadron had a Halloween party/picnic, which also included a dessert auction.  The boys and I volunteered to take our favorite lemon sugar cookies, which of course, include rolling and cutting out.  Mostly the boys will "help me" roll out the dough, cut out a few cookies, and then ask for their own dough, which they then pour a whole scoop of flour on and attempt to roll and cut out multiple times over, never actually achieving the perfect cookie.  Usually, they achieve small, floury lumps of cookie dough that break apart and they are unable to make it into a cookie, but they have a ton of fun.  As you can see from Max's face, cutout cookies are very serious business.
 

Jackson's hands look like this almost every time.  He likes to paint the table in flour and draw shapes in it while getting himself covered in flour.

After the cookies were cool, we made some lemon royal icing and we kept it white for the ghosts, I made it orange for pumpkins and grey for the bats.  The boys used some cheese knives to help me frost the cookies.  Again, very serious business. 

We had a minor catastrophe, wherein, Mommy accidentally bumped a tray of cookies, which slipped off the counter and right into the sink, into a bowl of water.  This was every single pumpkin we had made:(  A very sad moment for me and the boys didn't have anything good to say about it either.  The cookies did not, of course, fall into a dry sink, but into a bowl of water, making the frosting immediately smear and the cookies started to "melt."  

Our finished ghosts.  Yummy and cute!

Dolphin Quest Field Trip

This past week, the boys and I had the opportunity to attend a field trip at Dolphin Quest Oahu, which is at the Kahala Resort.  One of the homeschooling moms in the community set up field trip times and dates and all we had to do was say yes, we wanted to go and send in the money.  So I did!  The field trip sounded like fun and who would pass up an opportunity to see/meet some dolphins??

This is the view of the beach we walked along to get to the resort where the field trip was.  Beautiful!!  

The first part of the field trip centered around the kids learning about different animals, which included sea turtles, dolphins and whales.  The teachers had a cool visual set up so the kids could see how long all the different whales were in comparison to themselves and to each of the other whales.  They learned how to "train" a dolphin, using fish and other stimuli.  

Bag of balls, which represented 100 sea turtle eggs.

Max, seeing the size of a hatched baby sea turtle.

The boys learned that, because of many different things, only about 1 out of 100 baby sea turtles makes it into the ocean.

They learned how they can help to keep baby sea turtles getting back to the ocean:)

They got to see a sting ray and how the trainers are working with it, but they did not get to touch it.  

I only got a few pictures of the dolphins themselves, or the boys getting to "meet" them.  I was a chaperone with them out on the docks, so I got to see the dolphin show up close too.  The kids gave them hand signals along side the trainer, which they thought was so cool.  The dolphins showed us how fast they can swim and how they can jump up from the water, among other things.  The resort has a photographer that took photos for us while we were on the docks with the dolphins, but I have not seen them yet. 

This cool waterfall was at the resort.  Another mom offered to take a picture of me with the boys.  Obviously, Max was a tough sell on the picture.  I think I tried to bribe him, but he still didn't give me much of a picture, lol.  Gotta love that boy!!  Jackson, on the other hand, is almost always up for a photo and he poses like a perfect gentleman:)  Gotta love that boy too!!

On the Real Me...

If you are coming to my house than remember that it is my house. If you don't like how clean it is or how many toys are around, then you can leave my house. I will not present to you someone that I am not. I don't have time for that, and it is not fair to you. You should not think I have it all together if I don't. You should think I have it exactly like I have it at the moment that you knock on my door.

My friend Wendi wrote this in a blog post entitled "A Real House."  You can find the whole piece here:  

http://www.flakymn.blogspot.com/

The part that I put in bold is something that I found out about myself in the Azores.  It is hard for me to live this, not that I want to look perfect, but because I don't like confrontation or having to say no to people and sometimes, it seems, these things come as part of the package of presenting who you really are.  I have been thinking so much lately of how many people know me, and I mean, really, really know me?  

I can only list maybe 3-4.  They take me for who I am, what I believe, where I am at in my life (2 kids and another on the way kind of place), and they just accept me there.  They know I have strong faith beliefs and that I consider the Bible to be my highest authority, but they also know that I am so far from perfect that I do not do what it says all the time.  They know that I can be blunt and opinionated, but that I have worked hard through the years to soften these qualities that I do not like about myself.  Again, still far from perfect.   

They know I am late with birthday cards and gifts, if I send one at all.  Heck, they know I run late to just about everything, no matter how hard I try.  They know I love to bake, scrapbook, and read, but these things rarely find time in my daily life (those three pesky boys and all).  They know I love those 3 pesky boys (four if you count Mike) more than anything and I would do just about anything for any of them.  

They know the little things about me:  how much I love a warm cup of coffee in the morning (or all day, lol), how I love a good Peppermint Mocha from Starbucks, how I would eat good ice cream almost anytime ever.  And they listen when I talk and surprise me that they remembered stuff I said or stuff I wanted.  

Genuine relationships are built on years of knowing people and/or making the effort to know them.  They are hard to put time into and hard to come by in the first place.  They are about showing your true self, allowing yourself to be known, and not having to worry that someone is going to stop loving you.  

These people are the ones who could knock on my door and see whatever is going on and just come right in and get their hands dirty.  They would not mind if it was chaotic or loud.  And if I actually had my feet up on the couch, they would go sit at the other end and put their feet up with me.  They want to know me and what is going on with me; they want me to give them a piece of my heart and they give me theirs in return.  For these people, I am thankful.  For the moments that I get to spend with them, growing our relationship I am thankful.  And for the moments, like this one, this morning, I am thankful for the memories we have made, for the times we spent together and for how you have helped me grow up and for how you will continue to help me grow better.  

Awana

I have been meaning to write a more in-depth post about Awana for a while now.  Jackson and Max love this program!!  Awana is an international, Bible-centered kids program where the boys go to a weekly club meeting and have special books they bring home with them to work on and memorize verses through the week.  Jackson is a Spark this year and Max is a Cubbie.  They were both Cubbies last year.

Jackson was excited to move up to Sparks this year and I knew the books would be appropriate for his learning level.  By memorizing Bible verses, the kids earn patches to sew on their vests and jewels, which go into a pin they wear on their vests.  They also get paid in "Awana bucks" for coming each week, bringing their books, wearing their vests, bringing a Bible, and learning the verses.  Then, they get to shop at store night 3 times during the year.  Those are definitely exciting nights!  Each club night has a group lesson time, game time, and handbook time, where the kids recite or work on verses.

Max is a Cubbie this year.  The idea is the same as Sparks, but the verses are broken down into shorter segments or summarized as shorter verses.  He is having lots of fun in the class and has a wonderful table leader.  He has become fond of the table leader's daughter and it is really cute to hear him talk about "his friend ______."  He comes home every week with coloring or some kind of craft they have done and then we work on a new verse for the following week.

Since we started the year a bit late, Jackson is very interested in catching up on verses.  This week he will have memorized 7 verses, with two of them being repeated.  Here is a video of him saying the verses.

And here is a picture of Jackson in his Sparks vest.  Max was being too silly and I couldn't get a picture of him.  Par for the course with Max, lol.

Legos for little guys

Jackson and Max took a liking to Legos at some point in time last year, I believe when they received a set that had to do with some superheroes.  Mike proved a perfectly wonderful father and sat with them, allowing them to help or do each of the steps in the instructions.  In the past they have built little things like cars and planes, but they also got some kind of Avengers boat and Lex Luthor.

When we went to Mike's parents' house Mike's mom pulled out many boxes of his things from his growing up years, which included TONS of Legos.  We found lots of different instructions to go with all the legos.  We sent four boxes packed with Legos (and other things) to Hawaii and they have been opened and sorted.  So far they have built a pirate ship and they are working on a castle.  Mike found a way to order pieces that are missing from such sets and so far they have had to table both projects in order to allow the pieces to come in the mail.

Here is a picture of Jackson and Max with the finished pirate ship:

The boys made a deal with Mike that they would build all that they can with the instructions we have and then be allowed to play with them at the end.  So, the pirate ships sits up on top of the dresser, awaiting the completion of the other projects.  And the boys just spend their days playing with the Lego little people and the smaller bin of play Legos we have set aside for them.

They also have a play room all to themselves, which is usually wonderfully messy.  We try to clean it up every night, because they seem to be more willing to play in a clean space.  They have tons of Geotrax, which they can play and build with fairly independently now.  When we first got them, I had to sit with the boys to put them together because the tracks were too difficult to snap together.  

Train ride, Ewa Beach

There is a train ride in Ewa Beach offered by The Hawaiian Railway Society and our friend Miss Sonia and her kiddos, Alexa and Nathaniel invited us to come along when they went for their ride.  The train runs on a historic railway, but now there are modern things built up around it, to include a Costco, some golf courses and a couple of resorts.  The boys did wonderfully on the ride, which actually surprised me, as it was rather long and the second half was hot.  They love being with their little friend Nathaniel though and just the excitement of being on the train must have been enough.  

View of the mountains from the train.

Flower of Hawaii:  the yellow hibiscus

Hawaii has many different, beautiful flowering trees!!

How about a vacation somewhere like this? 

Jackson and Nathaniel

The small beach at the end of the train line in Kapolei

One of the resorts

The only train that the kids are able to get into to explore and play.  Jackson and Max would have stayed on this little train all day.

Homeschool... Already more than a month in!!

I have been meaning to write something about our homeschool time, as it is a big part of our daily life.  The boys are so much fun, which is part of the reason I have wanted to homeschool.  They keep me laughing and I love watching them learn.  They have very different personalities, so that is teaching me a lot right there.  I don't know how public school teachers work with some many different little people in their charge at one time!!

The nice thing is that we have lots of time and one teacher for only two students.  Our day can start whenever we want, although, I find the earlier in the day, the better off and more focused we are.  That gives us maximum time to get through all that we might have to and want to do that day.

First day of school in the new house.  Jackson was studying how to compare how much things weigh, so we made our own "scale" our of a hanger.  Then, we attached the things we wanted to weigh to either side using string.  A little more work than if you had a readily available scale, but the boys had fun and wanted to weigh things all day:)

We made these letter cards using white beans last year to help Max with his letters and fine motor skills.  Trace the letter in glue onto a dark colored cardstock and then have them put the beans along the glue.  This year, we are using the cards for him to make small phonetic words:  cat, pan, bat, bed, etc...  

Jackson surprised me when he came down the stairs shouting, "I can tie my own shoes!!!"  On the first day of school, he mastered a skill we have been sporadically working on for at least a few months.  

Jackson is working on 1st Grade this year, although I think he will finish the actual curriculum pieces I have gotten for him early.  I was on the fence about what I wanted to do with Max.  I had to register Jackson for 1st Grade through the local public school and I hesitated to register Max for kindergarten, in case I wanted to make the year very easy and work on kindergarten stuff next year.  However, I am finding that he is picking up on things faster than I thought he might and I might regret not just going ahead and making it official.  I decided to make it official this week by putting in the form through the school.  After all, we do have a whole year to work and he is definitely capable of at least being close to reading by the end of the year.  Handwriting is what is frustrating for him, but I think it has to do with his size and hand muscle strength more than anything, so time is what we will give him:)

Both the boys LOVE to craft, although I still usually end up finishing for Max whatever it was we were working on, lol.  This is a challenge, even for a scrapbooking person like me.  Arranging something they will both enjoy and is not an over the top amount of work for me takes some planning and searching.

This was the beginning of an easy fall craft I found.  It involved painting, which both boys like.  You print out some leaves and paint.  Then glue them onto a pinwheel thing you also paint.  See below for finished project.  At this moment, I would have to go back and look through some sites to find the right link.  We will see if I actually do that, lol. 

Play doh day!!  And this was Jackson's "setup," which is his lingo for "all the stuff he created."

Finished fall leaf craft, which we hung from the ceiling.

My sister told me there is a lot she feels like I am leaving out, lol.  Of course, that happens when you don't write about these things until days or weeks after they happen.  I hope to be thorough, but if there is something you want to know, by all means, shoot me an email or leave me a comment!!