Each year we are faced with the daunting challenge to attempt to express our appreciation, love, and respect for the person we all call, "mom, mommy, momma, ma, mother, momma T, m-squeeze, or whatever term of endearment we place on that person who fought nausea, fatigue, incessant food cravings of pickles and vanilla ice cream, or the occasional fetal roundhouse kick to the ribs just to bring us into this world. At 7 lbs. 11 oz., at 11:06 p.m. my mother introduced me to the delivery room at Castle hospital.
I said earlier that we are faced with a daunting challenge.......a challenge that only calls once a year for us to take a day and show our mothers how much we appreciate them. Motherhood is a fulltime job that never ends. My mother was up at six each morning waking me and my brothers up for school. Breakfast was definitely an interesting meal many times throughout my life. Sometimes we walked out to the usual bowls of cereal and milk. Other times, mom would throw together a breakfast pizza with whatever ingredients were around the house. No matter what she put on that breakfast, it always tasted awesome! She would drive us to school and pick us up everday. She drove us to basketball practices and games and was our biggest and loudest fan in the stands. I can still hear her, "WOOHOO" in that high-pitched yell echo through the gymnasium above the roar of the crowds. I remember her baked goods for the team or just for the family at home. Many times she baked for other families or for her visiting teaching families that she would visit. Oh how I wished I was one of those families on the receiving end of those desserts. Mom can bake a pan of flour and water and make it look and taste like something out of a magazine.
I also know the things my mother has done that are unspoken or unrecognized, usually because she doesn't say anything to bring attention to herself. My mother like many mothers out there share a common thread......compassion. I know that as a young boy we did not have a lot of money. I know my mother would not eat for days so that my brother and I could have food to eat until something panned out or money came in again. Another time my mother, seeing a car coming at them at 65 mph while turning left quickly turned the car to the right not to avoid getting hit, but so that the oncoming car would hit her side door and not my brother's door. My mother has endured these last few years of my father battling cancer, all the while caring for herself, the family, extended family, working fulltime and never asking for aide, not just for the physical caring for herself and my father, but also aide in shouldering these heavy responsibilities that have worn on her emotional, physical, and mental well-being. My mother is the unsung hero whose shoes I cannot fill and whose love I cannot equal.
So, on this one day a year, we try to say, "thank you" to our mothers for a lifetime of sacrifice and pro bono work done so that we may grow up to be intelligent, caring, law-abiding citizens. I say thank you to my mother and want to let her know this........your sacrifices have not gone unnoticed and your willingness to be a mom has not gone unappreciated. So, to my mother on this one day a year, from your oldest son, thank you for being you and being a part of my life.
Swinging on the vines
This is Napela the second time around.
Here is Napela the first time around :)
Nobody wanted to look at me.
Where the waterfall flows to.
Above the falls.
The Easter Egg Hunt
The pictures are all backwards in order. Oh well. The Easter Bunny did a scavenger hunt Easter Egg Basket this year. The kids had a blast. They loved it sooooo much. 
The clues were hidden in plastic eggs around the house.
Excited to start the hunt!
Dying Eggs. We actually put Ileana down to bed and then Dyed eggs with the older kids. It went smoother this way and we had a lot of fun. Napela dropped his egg, so he HAD to eat it. Next thing you know the other kids dropped their eggs too. hhhhmmmmm. 
We also did an Easter egg hunt with the Community at a baseball field. Funny story. Ani is our jogger. Just jogs everywhere. He loves to run, and he can run forever, but in a pack of kids like this, he needed to step it up. So Pono sat down with him and told him that he needed to run as fast as he could so he could get a lot of eggs. He told him to run till there was no one around you and then start picking up eggs. WELL.....All the eggs were on the outerfield of the baseball field. Ani was on the far Left Field. They sounded the horn, and Ani took off! He ran, and he ran. Through the Left Field, through the Center Field and he finally stopped about half way through the Right field. We thought he wasn't going to get any eggs because he spent the whole time running, but he raked. It was hysterical. Mychaila got a TON too. She has got it down pat. Pono called her the "Predetor" because she was on the hunt. The candy was junk, but the kids had a blast! Ileana even scored. 
The boys getting ready to go in for the hunt.
And the girls.
These are the rest of the pics of Onomea. There is a hike there too and a botanical garden we are going to check out.
On the drive up was this huge tunnel with water gushing out of it.
Ani swinging on a tire swing.
Napela enjoying the swing too.
Ileana at Earth Day, sporting the 80's.
I thought that since no one wanted to see a whole blog of scenery I would just post a pic towards the bottom of some places we have been. This is the first waterfall we saw on Onomea scenic route. Fell in love with Big Island on this drive, and have been amazed ever since.
Aiken and Mychaila going to eat the bubble.
Eva blowing bubbles.
Aiken had convinced everyone how yummy the bubbles were. Then Mychaila actually tried one....hehehe, it was still soap, despite the yummy smell.
Eva hanging out.
Ani, swinging on the tree.
Ileana exploring....
Mychaila helping Ronin WANT to walk. He can walk, he just prefers to see things from a lower perspective.
Some yummy food.
A little Honi Honi
Enjoying some yummy lollipops
An awesome pinata, in fact, 3! It was an octopus made by Papa
Goodies
Mychaila busting one open.
Mom, look there was a lizard inside.
Afterwards, Uncle threw balls while the kids tried to catch them in a cup. Sorry its blurry, Aiken was farther than the other kids.
These two trying to catch too.
