Hawaiian Odyssey Part XII - Farewell To Thee

Our last day in Hawaii. What did we do?

Gathered round Uncle John's computer to watch videos.

Took another trip out to the rubbish chute.

Headed out to Pearl Harbor.

Pondered a day that will live in infamy.

Tested out some diving equipment.

Examined a sunken battleship.

Boarded a plane and amused ourselves with angry birds.

Played the dumb game from our last fast food kids meal.

Made faces when we decided we'd been on a plane too long.

Ran around at the curb while waiting for our ride home to arrive.

Sat back and relaxed, glad to be home.

Aloha ʻoe, aloha ʻoe

E ke onaona noho i ka lipo

One fond embrace,

A hoʻi aʻe au

Until we meet again

Can You Spot the $25?

Sue invited Grant to help her shred some old bank statements. She was cleaning out our mail caddy and had made two piles on the floor: one to keep, one to shred. She indicated to Grant which pile to shred so of course he immediately went to the non-shred pile, grabbed the first thing that caught his eye and put it into the shredder. Sue caught a glimpse of it as it chattered through the slot. From her shriek I thought he might have shredded the Declaration of Independence or the Magna Carta. Actually, it was a Target gift card we received during Christmas. Once she identified it, I shrieked as well. Without much hope I suggested that she fish the pieces out and see if the numbers were still legible.

Okay, I purposely obscured a few of the numbers in the picture for the hindrance of our more enterprising readers but they were all there. It was the most expensive puzzle I've ever tried. When we entered the numbers into Target.com, they said "giftcard information entered is either invalid or incomplete." We checked the numbers again, made a couple of corrections and voila! $25 is ours.

Paper Jumbo Jets

What do you do if dad brings home a stack of old construction blue prints from work? Make giant paper airplanes of course.

Hmmm, looks like someone was practicing their camping skills earlier in the day.

Some people just insist on weaponizing planes.

Come fly the none-too-friendly skies.

Caught red handed...

...and red cheeked!

Surgery on the Chair

Dr. Cole made the incision,
and Dr. Dad stitched it up.
The Chair is resting comfortably, and although a complete recovery would be nice, it may be scarred for life. We'll still love it, though.

The Jack O'Lantern of Sleepy Hollow

The boys just couldn't get enough pumpkin carving this year. They just kept going...

...and going... ...and going until Cole's didn't have a face and Grant's only had a top. Grant is proudly displaying the "owie" on his finger from the pumpkin saw.

I did a pirate and Sue did an angry Jack O'lantern. You can't see Bryn's gnaw marks in this photo but take a look here. A couple of days after they decimated these, the boys took a couple of new pumpkins from our garden and reduced them to bits.

Dear Mom,

I just wanted to apologize for spreading our toys out from one end of the house to the other when we were little. I see, now, how truly annoying that must have been! A complete disaster that takes kids minutes to create takes all day to pick up. I'm sorry we made you do all that work!
I guess the boys will finally understand why it drives me crazy when they have little mess makers of their own. Until then.....
this is our lovely living room. Watch where you step.

Love,
Sue

Two Little Hands

When they're not folded snugly and tight... ..they might be digging in the dirt... ... or getting slammed in a door by a careless twin brother... ... or somehow, mysteriously, getting covered with purple and orange marker. "I don't know how it happened, Dad!" I'm guessing the left hand knew exactly what the right hand was doing... and vice versa.

Plenty, indeed, for these two hands to do.

Vandalism Reported at Cruncher Residence

At 11:30 am, Friday, Feb. 20th, a local mother reported a disturbing discovery to authorities. Detectives were dispatched to the residence immediately.
The CD player, although still intact, was suddenly ejecting any and all CDs. A top investigator/mechanical whiz was called on site with hi-tech equipment* to get to the heart of the sound system. After struggling momentarily with the "home repair proof" assembly, he finally cracked the code and made a startling discovery. Vandalism, rather than planned obselescence by manufacturers, was the possible culprit. It appeared that a "calling card" of sorts had been left by the vandal. Whether the business card reveals the mischief-maker himself or someone else, is unclear.** However, the individual pictured is wanted for questioning.
Authorities have asked for neighborhood residents to report any suspicious activity, and any sighting of this person of interest (enlarged for investigation):

Investigators considered the victims fortunate. In other cases, pennies were put in the CD player, causing complete system failure, requiring replacement .

*"Hi-tech equipment" refers to a tool kit gift to the whiz by his father when he was 14.

**All evidence is presented exactly as found by detectives, to which they found the carelessness of some criminals amusing.

Constructive Deconstruction

What should you do with a rice cooker that suddenly stops cooking rice? Well, if you've got a toddler with a bit of dexterity and a hankering for some screw removal you have a fun evening activity.

Concentration is a must. Voila! And the fruits of our labors: Just remember to safely discard the old cord, lest your boys try to invent some sort of bug zapper... But if you forget and they accidentally trip a breaker while attempting to electrocute a bug, go easy on 'em, especially if they were careful and used electrical tape. Just a little something I learned from my Dad.

Death of a Snowman

Once there was a snowman tall, Tall, TALL! In the rain he melted small small small

Snow Problem

This is what several inches of nice fluffy snow looks like......with Tucker walking on top of it......thanks to a layer of freezing rain...
...which can be pulled off in sheets...
...and thrown like a frisbee.

A Christmas Fable

What Cole wanted for Christmas:
What Cole got for Christmas:What we can all learn from this:

• Never look a gift horse in the mouth, unless you need its teeth for some other project.
• Necessity truly is the mother of invention.
• Invention is the mother of destruction.
• The "child-proofness" of anything is limited by inventiveness of the child.
• A key in the hand is worth a set of screwdrivers in the bush.
• Never put off until tomorrow what you can accomplish today if you just improvise a little.
• If you touch an uncovered light switch in the wrong place it can be "really hot" (according to Cole).

Fast *"Break"

We don't find pen "marks" all over the house, now, as much as we find pen "parts."

Now, I consider this a safe activity. However, I jumped in the shower before my visiting teachers came this morning. They were a little early, so the boys let them in. Cole greeted them with a screwdriver in one hand, and an outlet cover in the other. They helped him screw it back on the wall, and I'm happy to report there were no electrocutions.....today.

*I take 2 min. showers. I think Cole plans ahead so he can make the most of this short, unsupervised time. And I thought we hid that dumb "two-diver" (as he calls it.)

A Word to the Wise

This is a "mini" (a.k.a. ridiculously small, useless car.)

This is our behemoth. (a.k.a. SUV, family wagon, "rig" (for those in ID and UT) and other useful names.)It's also good for fuzzy kitties to climb on.
If any of our faithful readers out there think a mini might be a fun, peppy car to waste your money on, I hope I can help before it's too late. Please consider the following discovery I made after just barely backing into one in a parking lot today: (and yes, I am a car bigot, and tend to class peoples' personalities by the cars they drive - just certain cars. Let the record show I was 100% accurate on this one before the driver even opened her big mouth.)

1. You will be impossible for any car of substance to see (especially if you insist on riding someone's tail.) Most cars could run right over the top of you, and not even know it (or think they hit a small rodent.) Which brings me to the second warning:

2. You will be become "one of them." (egocentric, Obama lovin' 'great and spacious building' type of victimized pip squeak.) So not only should you avoid buying one of these remote control toys, but you should avoid any encounter altogether with anyone so proud of their car.

3. If you're ever going to get into a fender bender, PRAY (or not, because you'll probably be godless at this point - see #2) someone hits you, because you wouldn't be able to afford to get it fixed - only pure gold could cost more than the plastic these things are made of.

So naturally, our car doesn't even have a scratch, and none of our little crunchers were even aware of anything. And they were safe inside our mammoth of a car, unable to hear the string of ugly profanities pouring out of this pathetic and shrill excuse for a woman. My only regret is that I couldn't go into some post partum breakdown, and gain control of the situation by becoming the victim myself. I just don't think quickly on my feet. However, my mere mention of 3 kids under 3 in the car stopped her cell call for a policeman as she was dialing. So she wasn't entirely irrational. I talked her into just exchanging info.

I'm just grateful I had three beautiful children in the car to remind me what truly matters in this life. There are many miserable people out there forever searching, and always coming up empty.