Happy Easter!

Happy and Blessed Easter to all of you!  Appropriately, the sun came out, the snow melted, and my flowers began to bloom.  New life, new life!!!  The boys even saw a wayward bunny hopping through the yard right after they woke up.  It was pretty exciting in these parts.  We went to brunch and then to church, after which we had an Aho egg hunt, played a little baseball in the yard, and then had an enormous feast, with much to much food for five people.  We're currently all snuggled up and watching The Voyage of the Dawn Treader to top off the wonderful day.  We have many,many blessings to be thankful for. 

This is a very wise analogy that Colby came up with a few days ago, and expounded on for the video camera.  I don't know if HE was thinking it was an analogy - I think he was considering it literally, but the analogy is true, nonetheless.  Softer things don't break when thrown off a cliff.  Hard things do.  I think it's profound.  Of course, his argumentative, legalistic brother doesn't, as you can hear in the background.  PHHHT!

Holy Saturday

I really have no idea WHO invented the tradition of dyeing Easter eggs (of course, I can never ask a question without Googling an answer), but whoever it was -- they hated Moms. I'm positive about this. I enjoyed it as a kid, when I wasn't the one in charge of boiling for hours, preventing dropped eggs on the floor, and un-dyeing the children afterwards. Now? Not so fun. Manic messiness.  We don't have the luxury of decorating eggs outdoors, as we woke up to a good 4" of fresh snow.  SNOW.  

 Reagan was confused with the whole concept, and thought she was supposed to decorate HERSELF. So she proceeded to color herself with a red permanent marker, and dye her hands blue. Colby announced in a panic that she would be colored FOREVER!!! OH NO!! I sure hope that egg dye and and permanent marker comes off in the shower with soap and a good scrubbing, or else we're gonna look mighty swell for church tomorrow.

The Big Sleep

Put Reagan to bed at 6:30 Michicgan time, and the boys to bed at 8:30 pm.  Rob went to bed at 9:00 pm, I went to bed at 11:00 pm.  Rob slept til 9:00 am, Colby til 9:30 am, I woke up at 11:30 am, and Quinn and Reagan are still sleeping at a quarter til noon.  WOW.

Annnnnnnd.... We're Home!

The jet stream worked in our favor on the flight back from Hawaii.  Thank GOODNESS.   It was the red-eye from Honolulu to Chicago, and we shaved over 2 hours off our previous trip.  Two more hours on that plane just might have done us in. 

The boys were fantastic - we had Quinn sit across the aisle from the rest of us, in order to separate the boys, and he was content to jabber at the lady next to him for HOURS.  Luckily, she was a patient soul, who now knows a whole lot about boogey boards and the rides at Disneyworld.  Rob actually fist-bumped me on the brilliant strategery of separating the boys.  Thinking outside the box, you know. 

Reagan, on the other hand, was a force to contend with.  She was manic.  CRAZY.  Crying, hitting, pulling hair, fussing, pinching, squiggling, kicking, yelling.  Just miserable.  For three and a half hours.  I actually gave her Benadryl to try and shut her little body down.  TWICE.  It didn't take.  Rob said "forget about medicating the child.  I think you should medicate the parents."  Exactly.  Finally, I put Colby on the floor,  let Reagan lay down on Colby's seat, wrapped her up tight in a blanket, laid on top of her, and stroked her forehead, forcing her eyes to shut.  Within 1 minute she was out like a light.  Quinn tried to ask me a question during this procedure, and I told him in no uncertain terms to GO AWAY, IF YOU WAKE YOUR SISTER YOU ARE DEAD MEAT, MISTER. 

I'm sure that Colby's "supine on the floor" position was not standard passenger safety for the airlines, but we were desperate, and it was the only thing that worked.  Luckily, our legs hid him from the prying eyes of the stewardesses, who, again, were less than sympathetic to any of the passengers on such a long flight.  I think they all must hate their jobs.  Seriously.  One made a snide comment as she passed --  "I'd hate to be the one to have to clean up after THIS flight".  In my head, I tripped her as she walked by. Lady, they are cookie crumbs.  We have three small children crammed into something the size of a tuna-can for hours on end.  If a few cookies saves our sanity, and some crumbs end up on the floor... I. don't. care.  Fifteen seconds and a vacuum cleaner will clean that up.  Go back to your People magazine in the back and leave us the heck alone to survive the best we can.  Good grief.

We arrived in Chicago at 4:45 am this morning, and drove straight home without a break.  Zilcho sleep for the Daddy and me.  Fun fun fun.  I figure our exhaustion will make it that much easier for us to re-adjust for the six hour time difference, and get back on Michigan time.  We WILL sleep well tonight.

The U.P. is 39 degrees and windy, the house a balmy 45 degrees indoors now that we're home.  But the snow is gone, and my crocuses are blooming, which tells me that Old Man Winter has shipped out, and Spring is finally here to stay.  YEAH. 

I unpacked the flowers that Bob sent home with us.  He said he had sent "some", and guessed maybe four dozen or so, which seemed extravagantly generous.  After I got through the box, there were SEVEN dozen anthuriums - enough for three enormous flower arrangements.  They are gorgeous.  I only wish I had the skill to truly arrange them more artistically. 

Real life starts again tomorrow.  Holy Week approaches!

Hilo

We're finding that nine days doesn't seem nearly enough time to see everything that there is to see on one relatively small island.  Suprisingly so.  We drove to the east side of the island today - the lush side, the rain forest side, the side with all the waterfalls. It. was. gorgeous.

We met Bob Koimiagi for a picnic lunch - again, we brought peanut butter and jelly, and he brought us soba salads,  chi chi mochi, and a pork and salmon dish wrapped in a taro leaf.  He politely ate the peanut butter and jelly we offered him, despite admitting to a peanut intolerance.  :).  After lunch (during which Colby got stuck up a tree and had to be rescued), we went to a farmer's market, where Bob bought us more rambutans and a coconut for the kids to drink.  Then it was off to Bob's anturium farm.  He's been growing and selling anturiums for more than 40 years as a way to "relax".  I can understand why flower farming would be peaceful - it was absolutely beautiful there amongst the plants.  He was incredibly generous and sent us home with a box of FOUR DOZEN of these gorgeous things.  Let's hope they make it back to the U.P. intact! We are going to have an amazing centerpiece for Easter Sunday!

We took the south road home, which means we circled the entire island in one day - a total of about 5 hours of driving time.  The views (and the sleeping children in the back) definitely made it worth it.  We're going to miss Hawaii!