Hiking was an activity that Lynnette, Madison, and I enjoyed before the twins were born. We had planned eventually to get back to it, but that proved difficult with the ever-unpredictable Avery. Perhaps feeling ourselves a little since Avery’s success on the airplane, Lynnette and I decided it was time to give it a try and we chose Manoa Falls, that most reliable of beginner’s trails.
My quick research found that we hadn’t been to Manoa falls in nearly 9 years to the day. What a crazy coincidence. Anyway, aside from not losing Avery somewhere in the depths of Manoa Valley, I was just hoping for decent weather and insect repellant that would hold up. I got both and a pretty good day with the family.
Lynnette is finally back home. She had been gone for a week and things mostly went smoothly, but there’s always a kind of underlying, unspoken incompleteness when she’s not around. I know the kids feel it. Avery waited up pretty late for Lynnette to come home that first night she was gone. Luckily, we had Madison to put her to bed. Avery got used to a new bedtime partner, and Madison said putting Avery to bed was the exact moment she missed Lynnette the most. Madison had to step up into some of Lynnette’s or my roles this past week, but she didn’t complain. Not loudly, anyway. Cole Boy was always interested to know what Lynnette was up to each day, and regaled her with some kind of Transformers-related information/update over FaceTime. We brought Brookie with us to pick Lynnette up from the airport and she was so excited when the van door finally slid open and she saw her Mem for the first time in a week. Madison held her up and all four of her legs were swinging wildly as Brookie tried to air swim/run/fly to Lynnette. We scooped up Lynnette at something like 3 Friday afternoon. By 6:30 that evening, it was like old times in the house. So much so, that I had an epiphany. “You know, babe,” I began. “I never realized before this moment, how great it was to be the final word in the house for such an extended time,” I finished. “What?” she said. “For an entire week, no one overruled me or vetoed me or reminded me of the same thing 5 times in a 12-minute span,” I said. “I going back to San Diego, already” she said. “Nahnahnah,” I said. But I gotta be honest – it was nice to be the boss for a week.
No matter what we do or where we go, Cole Boy’s always got a heel turn in him, waiting to strike at some terribly inconvenient time. For the first portion of our journey, I think he was genuinely moved by scenes of nature he encountered. He used words like “beautiful” to describe the greenery, and on more than one occasion, described the sound of the moving water as “peaceful”. But then I guess he got tired because he started saying things like “I think I’ve had enough of this nature” and “is it almost done?” When he finally came out and said that his legs were tired, we asked him how he was going to make it through Disneyland and Universal next year. He growled and stopped complaining vocally, but moved his protests to his facial expressions. This frickin’ guy. When we got to the waterfall, he refused to smile for a picture with it. Then when we were climbing out of the area, he muttered something like “you shouldn’t have brought me here, I could get hurt or die”. He’s so damn dramatic when he gets like this. And maybe this is insane, but the only way I can bring him out of it is to take his mind some place else. I had to ask him if he thought Optimus Prime would give up on the hike. Cole told me no – but Optimus Prime has longer legs and therefore bigger steps. I cannot.
Madison was a pretty good sport about the whole thing, even as her bug spray began to wear off. She posed for pictures and muttered things like “are you serious?” and “again?” through her smiles every time I tried to set the three of them up together. She was down to head closer to the falls and probably indirectly peer pressured Cole to join us. She’s going to be a sophomore in the fall and she’s pretty good on her own. I keep asking her if she has plans with her friends for the summer, but she just says that none of them drive. We’ve had talks about her learning to drive as soon as she’s able; we’ve joked about getting her a kei van, but I think she might be serious. To be fair, it is exactly the kind of car Mad would drive. Sometimes, however, she grows and changes so quickly that I feel like I don’t even know her. Case in point, she’s started eating the Chick-fil-A honey mustard sauce. I would not have believed her capable of that ever. But here we are.
Big Beef did not join us at the falls because she was too busy inhaling Funyuns. She was so hungry by the time we got to the end of trail, she practically mauled Lynnette for the snacks in her backpack. For a second, I thought that Avery might be interested in getting as close to the water as usual, but she turned away when I asked her, instead retreating into her yellow bag. When I got back to her, she had a full beard of Funyun crumbs along her jaw and mouth. I saw her blow into the bag to expand it, then hold it to her face like an oxygen mask before leaning her head back as far as possible to get every last bit of Funyun. She’s an elite problem-solver. As noted, Lynnette and I were most curious to see how she’d do on the hike, and she was awesome. By the end of it, she let go of Lynnette’s hand and was mostly interested in hiking down the trail on her own. Cole noted that every time she slipped, Avery’s arms would raise and hit strange, sharp angles. I explained to him that it was a way of balancing herself. “Like this?” he said. Then he dabbed. Brutal. Though Avery was mostly behind me on the way down, I could hear every time she slipped a little. There’d be the sound of her shoes, then a gasp, then heavy breathing or a small giggle. She loves adrenaline, after all.
Thanks for a great morning, Manoa Falls! I think it’s the Friendship Garden or Makapu’u Lighthouse for us next!
Hey, That's Us! In Words and Pictures! 