keeping busy during "the virus"

For the last few months, we have been doing our best to stay busy, sane, active, and healthy while we wait out "the virus", as Gordy calls it.  

Todd found a tricycle that someone was giving away on craiglist, so Gordy has been riding it a ton.

We've been doing some sort of art (cutting, painting, gluing, coloring, etc.) at least once per day.

We've been keeping up our sprint 8's each week.

Gordy has recently started really enjoying looking for creatures in the ocean, so we've been snorkeling quite a bit.  We've seen loads of wana (sea urchines), honus (turtles), sea cucumbers, and fish!!

All three of us have been doing some house projects. 

We've refound the sprinkler.

Gordy decided to build himself a skateboard - he picked out his own wood for the board and wheels, painted them, added glitter, and with a little help from Todd, connected the pieces together.

Our typical hiking trails have remained open, but since everything else is closed, they have been packed.  However, we've managed find days/times to visit when we aren't bumping elbows with people.

We picked some catapillars off of our kale in the garden and kept them as pets until they turned into butterflies.

And, we've had some nice beach days.

Yesterday was the first day in weeks where we had 0 new (tested) infections.  Our state celebrated by beginning to open up... and then we had 3 new cases today.  The number of incoming tourists per day has increased from about 100 per day a few weeks ago to 500+ per day in the month of May.  It's hard to say what our future will look like, but our little family is happy enough to continue our isolation for a little longer just to be safe.

Happy Easter

social/physical distancing

Gordy's vocabulary now includes "social distancing".  Anytime we get near another person, he will yell out to them that we are social distancing and will then ask if they are doing the same.  I know that he doesn't have a complete understanding of what's going on with COVID-19, but he does understand a little - he knows that there is a "sick bug" that is going around that we don't want to get, and he knows that we need to stay away from people and not touch them or things in order to avoid getting it.  All that being said, this whole thing is very frustrating for him.  He so badly wants to play with his friends, and go to the playground, but the playgrounds are all closed and his friends are staying home as well.

Since Gordy won't remember much about this pandemic, this post is a quick summary for him to read later:

• Hawaii has been under a "shelter-in-place" order for the last few weeks.
• We are allowed leave our house for things like "essential" work, to get supplies (i.e. groceries), and to exercise.
• We are not allowed to hang out on the beach, and/or congregate in groups of 10 or more.
• All non-essential shops are closed.
• All restaurants are take-out only.
• We were previously told not to wear face masks because they would not help us to avoid spreading the coronavirus.  The CDC has recently changed their minds and we are now encouraged to wear masks when we leave the house.
• The economy is crashing.
• Your Dad is frustrated with the fact that everyone is calling it "social distancing".  He thinks it should be called "physical distancing" because the physical distance is what is important.
• The president (our dear leader) is a moron and refuses to wear a mask, can't stop shaking people's hands, and is more concerned with his Facebook popularity than the people dying each day.
• Hawaii has begun a "mandatory" 14-day self-quarantine for all incoming travelers (which is completely unenforceable).
• Due to the stay-at-home order and the traveler quarantine, the North Shore has quieted down quite a bit.
• We've enjoyed a couple of trips to Pipeline appreciating the lack of traffic, ease of parking, and Gogo pools all to ourselves.
• Toilet paper is hard to come by in some stores.
• My entire office has shut down it's location and is working from home - score for me!
• Waialua Beach Road is almost pleasant.  We can make it through 10 minutes of television without missing a majority of the audio.
• Your dad's foiling career is really taking off... or so he says.

We are all wondering what the effects of this will be.  Some are surely only temporary but some may be lasting.  We've read articles about positive effects like:

• Pollution around the world has significantly decreased.
• Air quality has improved.
• Seismic noise (due to human activity) has reduced and may therefore, allow seismic detectors to spot smaller earthquakes and other seismic events.
• Abandoning of handshakes as a greeting.

And, while the above sounds great, people are dying every day.  The world is in a very bizarre, sad, and scary place right now.  To be continued...

1st big digger

Two days ago, I took Gordy up to Peacock Flats for a bike ride with our friends.  It's a ride we've done a few times before that starts out very flat, but after about a half-a-mile, it starts to get hilly.  On this particular day, our team of four decided to trek a little higher than we've gone before to reach the 1 mile marker which meant scaling more hill.

All went great until our desent.  Gordy charged down the mountain on his balance bike (without any brakes) and soon found himself going WAY too fast.  The slightly wet ground caused his front tire to slip and Gordy and his bike went tumbling multiple times over.  

After we assessed the damage, we found that he had almost bitten through his top lip with his two front teeth, had split open his bottom lip, had two goose eggs on his forehead, and had quite a bit of raw road rash on his face, knuckles, fingers, shoulder, elbow, and knees.  His shoe had gone flying in the madness, but we were able to locate it a few meters away.  On the good side, his nose wasn't broken - no broken bones at all, his teeth were all in tact, and no concussion.  Phew.

So, we took him home, gave him a quick soapy, screaming bath to get all of the asphalt out of his wounds, and creamed and band-aided him up.  Then, the adrenaline wore off and I melted down completely while lookng at his poor swollen face all covered in bandages.

Two days later, my heart still breaks to see his wounds.  I know he's ok, but I also know that he's very uncomfortable and it breaks my heart to see him in pain.  The good news is that he's healing and the worst is over.  

Todd examined his helmet after the fall and the front is fairly dented... thank goodness for that helmet, or this could have been a very different story.

chip-chip-hooray!

Gordy's Uncle Chip made 50 this month, so we celebrated with him and 70+ of his friends and family on the north shore of Kauai for the weekend.  Lots of beach time, monks seals, good food, nice people, a muddy hike to the Queen's Bath, driving lessons, a new best friend/girlfriend (Scout), caves, and even a slip-n-slide!

kaena point

We've recently been introduced to the trails at Kaena Point, and they are perfect for kiddos to do some mountain bike riding!  We've been out there twice now and are already planning our next trip.  The views are gorgeous, the trails are fun, there's a cool tree tunnel to climb through, plenty of mud puddles to play in, and tide pools to rinse off in.  I'm can imagine that the trails may become unbearable in the summer due to heat and dry conditions, but at this time of year, they are perfect!

so many trucks

Gordy loves things that go - trucks, constructions vehicles, boats, emergency vehicles, airplanes, helicopters, trains, rubbish trucks, monster trucks, etc.  Sometimes, he'll line them all up in some sort of organized manner to proudly display his "collection".  Todd is pretty sure that Gordy has way too many, but Gordy couldn't disagree more.