Kauai Part 2 - Can we send the kids back to the mainland?

I love my kids. I really do. Although people hearing the way I yell at them sometimes may not believe it. But they make me do it! I think it's the numbers. I could handle one or two. But when you have four kids, there are many permutations of ways for them to aggravate each other, and by association, their parents.

The kids starting waking up at 5 am this morning Not too bad considering the ubiquitous island roosters start waking up at 3 am. I think that the long travel day and jet lag finally hit them because we had a ROUGH morning. They fought about everything! I can't even count how many times we had to discipline them before noon.

The day did get better. We drove up to some scenic overlooks and then took a boat cruise up a river to the Fern Grotto. Apparently tens of thousands of people have been married at the Fern Grotto, so the tour guide talked about marriage and weddings a lot. Maybe it's because I was a little crabby from the kids, but I got a little annoyed after awhile. Like all these couples on the boat ride were so proud of how long they've been married. I wanted to ask, But are you happy? Are you still putting in the work to make sure it is the best marriage it could be? Or maybe, What about us? Lisa and I have been together for 15 years and are raising 4 kids
together, but where's our applause? Actually, if I were a better person, I would have shouted out our "marriage" stats, but I wasn't feeling up to stirring the pot.

We lunched back at the condo. Eating in is probably saving us a lot of money, but seeing how
much things cost at the grocery stores here, I'm not so sure. Then we spent the afternoon on the beach. The kids had a blast wave-diving and boogie-boarding. I did too. The waves are bigger here than what we've experienced in other parts of the U.S. and I got a little nervous. Especially for Claire, who repeatedly got knocked down by waves, disappeared under the water for a few seconds, then came back up for more punishment. Because of my apprehension, I actually had to pay attention to the kids in the water, so no reading or napping on the beach for me!

Like I said, the day got better. The kids are crashing and I've had a couple of beers. I'm back to lying on the bed with the tropical breeze and waves as my background music. Oh, and the roosters.