The Souvenir

We flew home on Saturday. We had a wonderful vacation, although I have to say that it's really nice to be home. The last few days on Kauai the sun was very intense and C, dad and I all received a stinging sunburn. The cool shady redwoods are very soothing. The kids are still asleep and it's 9:30am! I'm going to have a heck of a time getting them up for preschool on Wednesday. But the house is too peaceful to wake them up right now. =)

I did get out to surf a couple of times, if only to soothe my aching ego. The last couple of days in Kauai C was OBSESSED with getting a souvenir. How did we set this expectation? Ugh. He woke early Friday morning and the first words out of his mouth were "When can we go get my souvenir?" It wasn't even 7am yet! The night before we had been in a children's store and I bought K a cute little hula girl kit, complete with DVD hula lessons. C saw this and HAD to have something too, but it was late, he was tired, and any choice he made was sure to be impulsive. He had his mind set on a plastic volcano kit, but I didn't let him get it because he spent about two seconds picking it out. Well, I paid for my decision when C had the biggest meltdown on the western edge of the United States. We hurried to the car and on while driving back to the condo he managed to understand that I wanted him to make a wise choice... not one he would be unhappy with later. I realized the next morning as I was standing on the patio looking at the waves, that I was obsessing about getting out, just as C was obsessing about his "souvenir". And it was C's whining all morning about WHEN to get the volcano, that finally drove me out of the room and down to the shore. I didn't catch any waves to speak of, but it was so peaceful to be out on the water, with the occasional fish flop out of the water. Surfing is to me a form of meditation because when out on the water there is only one thing you need to think about. The next wave. All other thoughts get pushed far far back into the recesses. The next wave is all that matters. Will it be too small? Will it be just right? Or will it be a monster that you need to paddle like hell to get out of the way of.... Two hours of waves washed away my impatience and I returned ready to head out shopping with C. He was very well-behaved and patient... he had been looking forward to this ALL day! I made him suffer through shirt shopping, coffee, and dancing hula dash-toppers before we went back for the volcano. What a trooper! And finally, we picked out the volcano, and as I was browsing the store for other items he saw the ultimate.

The pirate chest! Complete with eye patch, jolly roger bandana and loot too! There's even a secret compartment in the chest to hide your loot! I was happy, because I wasn't anxious to fork out change for a one-time paint your volcano kit. This chest was going to last a while. C was thrilled and we were all relieved and happy too.