Next time I whine, send me here.

This is what happens when I take a weekend off. I wake up grumpy and note that I am fatter today than I was yesterday. My husband and our friend Scott head out for a long run.. how nice for them. I break the dryer somehow, and do lots of dishes. I step on a gecko - barefoot. And then, instead of longing for Waimea Bay as I ride by, we pack up the wagon and head for the country. It is this kind of day:

The dolphins are close when we arrive. I break the vow not to swim, because how can I not? Sky climbs on my back and off we go to the middle of the bay. We're in forty feet of clear water and the dolphin chatter is incredibly loud.. and then they're all around us. Sky lets go completely and swims a few feet away. And we just hover below the surface. I thought she would be scared and cling, but my little four year-old in her string bikini just floats with me, all pink goggles, yellow hair and giant grins. She pops up for a breath, yells that she sees dolphins! and is under again, spinning around watching. Ramsey swims out and for five or ten minutes 30 dolphins whirl around us, jumping up and spinning so close they splash us when they land. We stay out until our fingernails turn blue and Sky's tongue gets all wrinkly. Then we hold hands and swim supergirl - airplane back in (it seems breast stroke has a new name at swim lessons). I need an underwater camera, the image of her suspended a few feet below the surface with dolphins all around her will be one of my favorites (in my head) forever.

Lest you think I play favorites, I can assure you I begged those boys to come out with me. But they have discovered sharks, and refused. I should probably stop taping their eyelids open and making them watch Jaws when they're bad (I kid.) Wyatt had the quote of the day when he called Sky buttercup in attempt to insult her. Ramsey told him a buttercup was a pretty yellow flower. Oh, he says.. Well then, I meant like a cup of butter. 

We follow Waimea with a BBQ at our friend Todd's where the boys play checkers while we eat malasadas and Sky squirrels away mangoes in the front yard. Eileen updates me constantly on Bree's progress in Japan - speaking of dolphins, a 52 minute swim!? Bree went 9:37 and placed second in her second Ironman today.. she is so talented.