We celebrated my little monkey princess #2's birthday and Easter by going camping.

When we were driving to our campsite, we drove through really heavy rains. I for one was not looking forward to setting up in the soup. And for those preparedness folks that will say it's good practice, I've been there and done that and prefer to do it dry. As luck would have it, the rain stopped shortly after we arrived so I hustle out to lug our gear to our spot and set up. Since we took the van instead of my truck, I have able to unload and set up in a more modular fashion. First the canopy went up, then the tent on a slight rise. This was the first time I tried rigging a tarp from the canopy to the tent. This gave us a 10x10 "front porch" and allowed us to go in and out of our tent dry! Yeah! It worked great.

Right after I set up, other folks arrived and I helped them set up. In the process, the heavens opened up. Within the hour, I was ankle deep in water. Thank goodness for site selection for the tent. The slight rise kept us out of the swamp.

By the time we were all set up, we were soaked to the skin. I didn't bother putting on a poncho as it wasn't windy and cold. Plus with all the arm raising to set up the other campers canopies, the rain would have run in under my arms and I would have been soaked any way.

With the heavy rains, I didn't break out the camera until late in the day when it let up.

Anyway, here are the pictures.



There were a whole lot of waterfalls with the rains and these three were about 4 times wider when it was raining heavily.

With the heavy rains, the worms and bugs were all on the surface and the birds were happy. Here are some of the birds and other critters.

















Someone found this egg and gave it to one of the moms. Since we didn't know the person who found it and they left before they could tell us where they found it, one of the kids took really good care of it by making a sort of compost nest to keep it warm. She took it home to try and hatch it.



More to follow...

Awesome scenery!!!!!!!!!!

I hope everyone enjoyed themselves thoroughly!!!!!!!!!!!

The most important part of family camping is the keiki get to have a good fun and safe time.

They had bubbles, scavenger hunt, glow in the dark wand making, fishing (I didn't get pictures since I was working on birthday stuff and didn't go with them), hiking and an Easter egg hunt in addition to the usually playing outside.



















More to follow...

The kids really enjoyed hiking to the lake to feed the fishes and ducks...



















More to follow...

And of course, the adults had a good time too. We got to eat, play with the kids, eat, make fire, eat, hang out, eat, go on hikes, eat, did I say eat?













And finally, after we got home and cleaned up, the monkey princesses and my queen and I had ice cream.



Thanks for looking.

Thanks Wildman,

We all enjoyed ourselves and I am glad you enjoyed the pictures.

Aloha Aloha.
In the pictures just after the pig and before the egg, are those two pictures of a mongoose?
Other than that it looks like the kids were all having a great time, and as you say, that is the real point of it.
Thanks for the pictures, I really enjoyed seeing them.

Those were indeed mongoose. When the kids and other parents went off to fish, I was preparing the birthday lunch and stuff. When I had some time, I would sit very quietly and watch the critters (mostly birds and mongoose). They got within five feet of me. I took two pictures of the one by the stroller. The first was of its backside as I got the camera ready when it wasn't looking. His buddy saw me and started to take off. That was the other mongoose. The picture with the yellow arrow was of a pig I spotted rubbing itself against the tree. Sorry I couldn't zoom as I only had my phone camera at the time.

Great to hear you had a good time despite the rain. At least it didn't rain all day long the way it did over here and ruined my plans for a perfect weekend hike.

Actually, I don't mind rain that much either as long as the weather isn't too cold but I couldn't quite convince my GF to agree with me. So we had to cut our trip short and I ended up buying a 6-pack of Heineken cans to finally tackle the ultralight penny stove project. Heck, at least now I got something to do on a rainy weekend, plus it's a fairly decent excuse to drown my sorrow in lousy tasting beer.

Anyway, rain sucks but I'm glad you still managed to have some great otudoor fun! Besides, the scenery really is great. I have to visit that place one day.

Tom,

Rain never stops our fun unless there is lightning. Then we just hunker down until it passes and resume play. The wives on the other hand are not too fond of rain. So I guess it's the kids that like playing in the rain and the men fit into the kids category. I am proud to be like a kid.

Dude, one of us needs to move!
Awesome pics of a great time, thanks for sharing!

-Blast

WOW, even a rainy camping trip in Hawaii looks amazing, thanks for the dose of spring.

I have never seen a mongoose before, are they native to Hawaii?

Mike

You have a spare room?

Mike, mongoose were introduced in the 1800's to control the rats that came with sugar cane farming. They ended up doing major damage to the bird population instead.

Great pics... Makes me want to get outside more...

Thanks Mike. Then you need to be outside more! Actually, I do too.