[See post to listen to audio]

So, yeah, I wish that was my life: Living in the mountains, and not just any mountains—the Blue Ridge Mountains; growing up listening to my parents and relatives sing songs from long ago; teaching those songs to my children while sitting on the front porch enjoying the view. Yeah, yeah—you can tell me that living in the mountains and learning/teaching songs can still happen. Whatever. The reality is, some times you give things up because it’s the only way you can see to make things work. And you love your family enough to make those sacrifices. That’s adulthood and the culmination of the choices one makes over time that have a way of leading to or denying opportunities. Sure, one day, IF Erin and I work hard enough financially, we will be able to go back home to Western North Carolina. And, maybe, if she and I work hard enough at parenthood, Maggie and Wyatt will visit and allow us to teach them and any grandkids they give us some songs we ourselves have learned. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the story put together by NPR.

Besides the beach being beautiful and kid-friendly (waveless w/ great sand), there were several cool things for Wyatt to look at. For example, there was a couple trying to get their bulldog to stand on one of those long surf boards that you paddle while standing up in calm water. At one point, Wyatt was busy playing near them which put me about 10 feet or so behind the husband of this couple. As I am watching Wyatt and therefore looking down at the water, I see these two things floating up to me. They were clear tubes about 5 inches long with either red or orange tops on them that acted like corks to keep the contents dry; think the proverbial message bottle in the ocean. I reach out, scooped them up, and read the writing on one of them. It said “California Compassionate Use Act” and gave an address. I thought about it for a moment and realized they were probably used for marijuana; sure enough, as I looked closer to determine if there was anything inside of either of them, I saw that one was empty and the other had—guess what—one joint inside. So, as I am standing there, with the Pacific Ocean and Wyatt swirling around my feet, I decided that it would be unwise of me to go ahead and stash these tubes in my pocket and enjoy the contents later (work requires the occasional ‘random’ piss test). I asked the guy with the dog if they belonged to him and he said they did, so I gave them back. I think he was a little embarrassed, although obviously he had no need to be. Obviously, this is pretty close to the very last thing I expected to happen to me on vacation in Hawaii.

• August, 2010: Mtn Home, ID to San Angelo, TX. This trip included all of us, even the animals. We had a nice time, including a trip through Arches National Park during which Maggie awoke and said, “Is nature over yet?”
• Feburary, 2011: San Angelo, TX to central New Jersey. I had to go for some additional job training while the family stayed in Texas. NJ in winter is not bad. I was able to make a trip to New York City, which was pretty cool.
• March, 2011: San Angelo, TX to Okinawa, Japan (via Dallas, TX and Seattle, WA). This was the big one, the one we found out about several months before and spent those ensuing months worrying about every day. What was it going to be like in Japan? Will the animals handle the journey okay? Will we like it there? How will the kids handle it?
• April, 2011: Okinawa, Japan to Fairbanks, AK. My dream finally came true—to see Alaska for myself. I went alone and was able to see a few moose, drive to Denali National Park (and kind of see a grizzly bear), experience deep cold, and even witness the aurora borealis (the Northern Lights), although not to spectacularly.
• October, 2011: …back to Alaska for another three weeks.
• November, 2011: Okinawa, Japan to Kona Coast, HI. We leave tomorrow for almost two weeks for a family vacation. It should be a good time.
• December, 2011: Okinawa, Japan to Misawa, Japan. I am scheduled to spend about 10 days ‘up north’ for work. More time away from the family…sucks.
• February, 2012: I may spend up to a month in Thailand.
• March-October, 2012: I will probably go on a long-term trip for work to parts yet unknown…really sucks.

I REALLY wish I was able to rack up the frequent flyer miles. I think I would have accumulated enough to fly to the moon, although maybe not all the way back.

I tell this story because it is obviously cute. But I also wanted to make the point that Wyatt has come a very long way in the last 2-4 months regarding his ability to communicate. There was a brief time earlier this year when Erin and I were beginning to get a little concerned because he just wasn’t talking in a way we thought was typical for a two year old. Now, though, I don’t think we have much to worry about. (By the way, I know some of you are thinking that boys typically development later than girls. I accept that for physical development at certain ages, but despite Erin and her mother’s best efforts, I remain unconvinced. I think some of it is people making excuses.)

Erin is nervous for her regarding tomorrow. I am too, a little. I can’t speak for Erin, but I know most of mine comes from worrying about how she will take to it. It will be somewhat similar to what she already knows. We started in pre-school at 17 months in Idaho; if memory serves, that lasted for two years. And then she did an early enrichment type thing when we were in Texas. So, she’s familiar with circle time, raising her hand, doing what her teacher says (though she doesn’t always—normal kid, right?). For this reason, and knowing her personality, I think she will be fine, but I still see the possibility she will not like it or that the novelty will wear off in a couple weeks.

I do think one of the things that will keep her interested is her teacher wanting to place her in a group with kids who are learning the same things she is. Ever since she’s been in school and has been learning all the basics, I have been worried about how she would deal with already knowing some of the things covered in a kindergarten classroom. Her teacher, during a home visit last week (which is required in this district), assessed Maggie as ‘high’ in all areas and requested she be able to do some additional testing this last Friday. Apparently, the teacher is going to construct the classroom in such a way that Maggie works with the other 2 or 3 kids assessed as at that level. Crossing my fingers that this actually happens and it isn’t just a teacher’s pipe dream, it should work out and Maggie should not get bored. I hate to sound like that parent who thinks his kid is the smartest in the class–such a ridiculous cliche.

Anyway, here’s to you, Nugget. You’re our little girl still, but you certainly are becoming. Just remember: This is only the beginning—there’s a lot more to come. If you work hard and find what you love, it probably won’t seem like work at all.

There is a funny side note to all of this. Part of the show included computer generated mock-ups of what prehistoric humans may have looked like. After the show was over and Maggie had made her way upstairs to go to bed, she told Erin those humans were scary to her. Erin had to comfort her by telling her that those people were only alive 2 million years ago and, therefore, were no kind of threat to her. She skeptically accepted that; here’s to hoping other things from the show also stick in her head for a very long time. Maybe, just maybe, that will result in my beautiful, charming, articulate little girl growing up to be a scientist of some sort.

Anyway, this resulted in a 13 hour day yesterday. I actually felt pretty good when I got home (although I probably have only caffeine to thank for that). I discovered when I got home that Maggie and her friend Taylor had gathered a sled full of green things that kind of looked like unripened walnuts that had blown off their trees and into our yard as a result of the 100+ mph winds. (Don’t ask where they found a sled on a tropical island…I have no idea.) They were apparently quite proud of themselves. Maggie told me she thought there were probably about 150 or so of these things. I saw that as an opportunity to teach her about making estimates. We talked about it for a while and I ended up telling her that if she counted them today and her results were between 130 and 170, I would take her for ice cream tonight, just her and I. (Is 5 years old too young to learn basic statistical concepts like ranges?) That kind of thing is always a great motivator for the Magpie. After she went to bed, I went outside with the intention of reducing the total amount such that she would win the bet and math would become fun and rewarding for her. Well, after looking at it, Erin advised me that I would have to take out too many and the girls would surely notice. So, Erin found other math games to play with the ‘walnuts’ and Maggie throughout the day today. Maggie and I still went out for ice cream after I got home from a 12 hour today.

I promise you, I don’t tell you this mostly mundane story from our everyday lives to bore you. Firstly, it’s just one of those memories I think I want to have 20 years from now. I also think it’s important for me to write about the possibility that I 1. am working too much and 2. am trying to make up for that with Maggie by doing special things. A short term, one time thing is not an issue. But if I see a trend of this cycle of work and guilt developing, I am going to need to get my hands wrapped around that.

It’s kind of nice to get a storm now and then because it usually means some time off from work. However, the fallout of that is being cooped up inside the house for who knows how long. The current storm is unusual because it has been lingering right on top of the island. A lot of them come and go pretty quickly, but this one has been with us since yesterday at about 1pm and will be here until at least tomorrow morning, a total of nearly 48 hours. It’s kind of been like that old college friend you used to go out and get hammered with who insists you and he re-visit the good ‘ole times; he leaves Sunday afternoon and you spend lots of time cleaning up and swearing you’ll never do that again—yet somehow, he visits again sometime later.

The kids have been dealing with the storm and house arrest pretty well. Erin and Maggie started a new tradition last night: typhoon cookies. Basically, they’re your basic cookie with a bunch of stuff added. They’re chaotic and unpredictable, just like the storms. This time, they put in the nut and M&Ms trail mix. Next time, who knows? Wyatt doesn’t understand why we can’t go outside and ride scooters. Thank God everybody like and the follow-on Mater Tales. Erin’s got her obsession with True Blood. I have a bunch of crap I could be doing but I’m usually trying to make sure the kids aren’t tearing up the house.

I posted the below video up for your viewing pleasure. Those of you who are familiar with this kind of thing will probably scoof and say it’s no big deal. You would be right: this one is only a category 2 or 3 with winds at about 100 mph. We’ve got a lot of storms ahead of us and I’m sure there will be a category 4 or 5 in there somewhere.

After a while we decided to head down to the beach.  I went back to the car to get the beach toys and Maggie, Wyatt and Daddy headed down to the beach.  When I returned, I couldn’t find them.  Then I looked way out into the East China Sea and saw them walking on the reefs.  The tide was out leaving much of the shallow areas exposed and easy to walk through with water shoes (love our Keens and Tevas!).  I walked out to meet them.  The water felt like warm bathwater - almost spiritual.  We spent quite a bit of time walking around the reefs and in and out of the 2 foot deep pools that had formed.  Maggie and I spotted a sea snake, some hermit crabs and lots of sea cucumbers.  The sea snake was hanging out in the ‘reeds’ of the water, almost sunning itself.  The hermit crabs were hanging out on the surface of a protruding rock. Usually they are in there shells but sometimes not.  Maggie and I like to hold them in our hands and let them walk around.  The sea cucumbers were really neat and very plentiful.  I picked one up and held it in my hand.  These sea cucumbers were black and between 6-12 inches long and very squishy.  The one I held squired water out of it’s mouth - well I hope it was its mouth. We were also lucky to see some small electric blue fish and a blue and maroon sea-star a boy was bringing to shore to show his family.  I’m sure we would have seen more creatures if we would have walked out further and also if I had felt a bit more comfortable taking the kids out that far.

We finished the day with pizza and playing on the water-slide and splash pad again.  Both children fell asleep on the short ride home from the beach.  Maggie and I had made a homemade chocolate cake in the morning and finished it that evening with some cream cheese frosting and decorations.  I think Wyatt really enjoyed his second birthday.  It was definitely one of the best family days we have had in a long time.