A Trip To Volcano National Park

To celebrate free National Park week, we went on a hike through the Thurston lava tube this weekend.  Esme walked the entire thing, almost a mile!  We were so excited for her even though it took some coaching at the end.  The kids loved listening to all the birds in the forests and it was a nice reminder that we need to get out and do more stuff like this when we can.

I don't know if I mentioned but Esme's also been doing swim lessons on the weekends.  She's taken her time getting her head wet and blowing bubbles under water but we're getting there.  After her first 2 lessons she said she'd rather not have mommy or daddy in the pool with her.  I think she really likes the one-on-one time with Aunty Peggy, her instructor.  Chan has also suddenly showed a love for the water and it's a little scary.  He just loves to jump right in, no fear.  Yikes!  Nana's gonna start doing little lessons with him when she starts watching him next month.

Chan was given some little hot wheels cars at a health fair this weekend and he won't part with them.  He's had them in both hands since Saturday and even demands to sleep with them.  He's obsessed!  He loves running them over everything and making all those loud noises.  Boys!  His favorite book right now is Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site and he can sit still through the whole thing.  He can't do that for many other books.

An afternoon hike in Hawaii Volcano National Park

The family selfie before entering the tube

On the way home we stopped to see how Uncle Sterling's house was coming along.  

Esme And Chan Share A Room

Hmmm...I think we left off with Chan's crappy sleeping schedule after spring break.  Well we ended up putting Esme in his room to see if he'd sleep better at night and it worked!  We'd been thinking about it for awhile so we figured we might as well try it out.  Then he got sick with a cough and cold so he's waking up early again. We can never win with this kid!  Ha ha!  But Esme's learning to sleep through so much noise when he's crying however we're not sure if Chan's learned anything from this.  Oh well.  Now we converted Esme's old room to a play room since we missed our separate family room and living room in our old house.  It's so nice to be able to contain the toys again!

I think I forgot to post on Easter too.  The kids woke up with eggs all over the house so they got to hunt right away.  Esme was excited to find the eggs and Chan was content just chasing after her.  The eggs were filled with toys and stuff so we didn't need to worry about an early morning sugar rush and the kids still had fun.  Then we had a nice family brunch at Aunty B's ranch house and a much bigger hunt with all the cousins.  We contained them to 2 rows in the orchard and then sectioned off an area for Chan and Mahina.  They were much more slow going as they wanted to open and eat (if possible) as they went.

Happy Easter everyone!!!

Two cool kids on the way to the hunt

The pre-hunt line-up

Mahina taste testing her egg contents

Chan doing the same

Easter egg hunt in the orchard

Esme had to get her boots on to find this egg

The kids showing off their loot

Chan borrowing cousin Tosh's robe and slipper set

Home Depot kids workshop

This is Chan, not feeling so well while mommy cooked dinner

Then this is Mimi and Chan, before school one day

Esme saying goodnight to Nana and Chan trying to pipe in