happy birthday america!

Ah, the Fourth of July!

The day was beautiful and sunny and perfect!

We discovered that the tide was pretty low late in the morning, so rather than spend the day at the beach (like most everyone else today!) we decided to head over to the tide pools!

Here we are.  

We got out there a tad later than I had hoped...but we still had plenty of time to hunt for crab and fish trapped in the pools of water created by the receding tide.

Here we are...exploring.

While Kaden looked on and guarded the bucket.

Jolee.  Posing with her net.

Which was purely for show.

She spent most of the time looking for hermit crabs and playing with the rocks on the beach.

Mitch, unfortunately, had to fly out the day before so I was solo out at the beach.

He came home later in the afternoon-in time for the evening festivities-but that meant I was busy watching out for this guy.

When he wasn't trying to escape my arms, he was fascinated with the bucket of ever-increasing fish.

These kids caught a LOT of fish!

 Here, you can't see too well...but the blue (and a red bucket, not pictured) had all the fish, while the yellow housed all the hermit and regular crabs. 

I think these are tiny Manini fish.

Super cute...and quite plentiful!

The kids caught a LOT of these guys.

Here's Jojo playing with a hermit crab.

Who refused to emerge from his shell.  Can you blame him?

Riho was the champion fish catcher.

The kids exploring the tide pools...

Dang...uploaded side ways.

But the water was cool and clear!

Atau caught this fuzzy crab.

Who totally played dead until we plopped him into the bucket.  

A lesson in crab hunting, perhaps?

These two enjoyed themselves by throwing rocks and guarding the bucket of crabs.

Amazing how many pictures I was able to take while holding this guy!

Talk about squirmy!  And determined to get wet in any way possible!

Ooh, a crab!

After tide pooling, we headed over to Airi's house for the second half of the day's festivities.
And since it was such a beautiful day, the kids hit the pool.  Of course.
Atau took this great photo...which led to a LOT more photos from this same angle.
Which happened to be INSIDE the pool.

And yes, my camera did sustain a little splashing from the kids...but hopefully nothing permanent.  :P

Kaden really loves the hot tub.
Mitch and I had to take turns watching him in here because he's starting to get pretty fearless in there.
As in, crouching down until his mouth goes under the water, jumping up and down, and of course walking all along the bench...which happens to NOT go all around the hot tub.

This was their Power Rangers kick jump.

Take 2.

All lining up and waiting patiently for their turn to jump in.

Me and my squirmy baby.
I think he was ready to get out by this time.

Kela's aerial shot.

And since we can no longer do fireworks here in Hawaii (cue booing...) we had a relatively quiet 4th of July celebration.  After watching the Waikiki fireworks from Airi's balcony (we had a GREAT view!) we headed downstairs for some s'more making.
I mentioned before that I don't care for s'mores, right?
But marshmallows we DO like.
Here's Jojo roasting hers.  Or, I was, but asked her to hold the stick while I took the picture.
Hence, her apprehensive face.

 Such a great day, spent with family and friends!

Makes me grateful for this wonderful country we live in, the freedoms we get to enjoy, and the beautiful islands we get to call home.

Hope everyone else had a FABULOUS 4th of July as well!

Click HERE for more pics from this day!!!