Seeing the Kids after Maui

I drove up to Bountiful last night to see the "Quints" - Nathan and the Quads - mainly to give them their Hawaii gifts and just to spend some time with them before tomorrow, when I will pick them up for their Friday evening sleepover and Saturday.

It was a delightful evening.  Nathan was sitting on the front step of the house as I drove up, and Esther and Annie were playing in the front yard.  The girls, and Levi shortly afterwards, ran up to the car and gave me hugs as I got out.  Even Aaron seemed happy to see me.   

After getting a soft ice-cream cone for everyone at Arctic Circle, we headed up to a local park where the children could receive their gifts.

Annie was first.  She loved her stuffed pineapple.

Then it was Levi's turn.  He, too, loved his present - a stuffed sea turtle.  Mark had spied this in a store in Lahaina and said, "There's Levi's present!"  He and Mark had had a lengthy discussion a couple of weeks before we left for Hawaii about the pet turtle that Mark used to have in his pond in the backyard and about how it had escaped.  So they had formed a special "turtle-bond."  Nevertheless, Levi's decided to call his turtle "Joe" after his dad. :)

Next came Aaron.  I was a bit apprehensive about this one.  When I had talked with him on the phone while in Maui and he had asked about his present, I had told him I couldn't tell him what it was; it was a surprise. "I don't like surprises," came the deadpan response.

Well, Aaron loved his coconut monkey bank and accompanying chocolate-covered macadamia nuts.  I was very pleased.  By the end of the evening, he, too, had named his bank and was photographed kissing it.

Next came Esther, who had very specifically requested a shark-tooth necklace.  She was pleased ... and she asked that on my "next" trip to Hawaii, that we bring her a stuffed shark.

We purchased Nathan a t-shirt and a coconut shell necklace that was made by Tika (pictured below), the same woman that made our "Aloha Spirit" Angel whom I blogged about while in Maui.

Mark had suggested that we get an inexpensive ukelele for all the kids, and that proved to be yet another wise selection.  They all loved it, including Nathan.

He announced that he thought he could probably find an "ap" for his iPhone that would help him tune the ukelele, and he was planning to immediately learn a song.  :)  I was so glad that he expressed such an interest in it.

Speaking of Nathan, he shared with me some pictures he has taken just in the last couple of days.  The first is of a sunset over Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake, taken just last night.  The other two are of flowers that he saw on the way home from school.  I think it is so cool that my 13-year-old son is taking pictures of flowers and sunsets ... and feels comfortable showing them to and sharing them with his dad.

There was a playground at the park, and Levi insisted I play tag with him and Esther.  I used to be self-conscious about being a 53-year-old father playing with my kids at parks such as this, amidst all the other parents of whom I am old enough to be their father.  Now, however, I just go with it.  It's worth it to see the smiles on my kids' faces and to feel their tender child-kisses on my lips and cheek.

Esther hanging around

I love, love, love this picture of Aaron

Speaking of child-like tenderness, Levi had left this note in the "in-basket" at the house where I pick up any mail that has been sent there.  (Deep contented sigh.)  (Levi's in 1st grade.)

When I was talking to Nathan about the ukelele, I told him about the Hawaiian singer, Israel "IZ" Kamakawiwoʻole, then found and played the following video for him on my iPhone.  I think it is a fitting way to end this post.

Aloha