Such a good time!

The last day of our visit started with a school production that is apparently a big deal each year. They called it their May Day celebration, though Hawai'i generally celebrates this holiday on the first of May along with the rest of the world, as a spring festival. Thursday night before bed, Cassie noticed that Nicademus had played in the sprinkler with his shoes on, even though she'd told him not to. At that point she gave him a choice for the next morning: flip flops or wet sneakers. I don't remember which he chose; perhaps he expected mom to put them in the dryer for him, and maybe she even indicated while she was out of my earshot that she would try. But as the evening worked out, there wasn't a good chance for her to do that, and in the morning Nic reneged on whichever choice he had made the night before. So g-ma and I took Hannah to school while mom and dad worked out Nicademus' issues and got the other girls ready. We were trying to figure out the best place to camp at the school field to see the kiddos dance, but as it turns out there was no good choice. We also kept an eye out for mom and dad's arrival with the rest of the kids (and the chairs we'd need for seats). Finally we saw them, Nic on his crutches, little Nic needing to be taken to his classroom. I quickly walked across the field to meet them and remove Cassie's burden of chairs so she could take her little guy to where he needed to be, and we set up in a place that really didn't afford us a good view of where either of the kids were in their dance formations. Oh well. The program was filled with mostly traditional Hawai'ian dances by each of the grades, in the large field behind the school. The kindergarten classes, however, including our grandson Nicademus, did the ChaCha Slide. It was a fun program.

Afterward we headed back to the house, where Madelyn needed her morning nap and the rest of us needed to figure out what beach we were going to. It turned out that the choice was Bellows, but Nicademus wasn't pleased with that - he was afraid the surf would be too rough for him - and decided to hang out at home with daddy instead. The rest of us gathered our stuff together and headed out.

I had never boogie boarded before. I'm pretty sure I'll never enjoy it more than I did my first time with my granddaughter Hannah! The particular place near the east end of Oahu is one of Cassie's favorite for hanging out with the kids, with a small streamlet which also has sea water that washes into it from the surf.  It provides a nice balance for the smaller kids to be able to play in calm, shallow water while the bigger kids can play in the surf. On the other side of the breakers is the beautiful ocean, and the sand there is the finest we encountered all trip.

On Monday the surf was a little rough, but Hannah was able to get comfortable with her boogie board in the inlet area, and Emma and Grandma boarded for a while, too. After a while I grabbed a board and hung out with Hannah for a bit, venturing out far enough from the inlet that I could tell she was ready for the big beach. She was a little nervous at first, but soon got the hang of it, and we ended up having a great time! I was glad to be able to off her the additional security of my presence; I only hope she doesn't get so emboldened by the experience as to become careless in her future beach play!

It was a wonderful way to spend our last day in Hawai'i. We made our way back to the house through the traffic, and hung out there until we shared our teary goodbyes with everyone. As usual, Hannah was the most upset at our departure, along with g-ma and I. We love and treasure our time with them, and hate it when we have to leave!