Beautiful day

Round 16: July 2025

Alexander and Bobbie Greene are 74, Camryn and Patsy are 34, Mia is 11 and Hanna and Jared are 4.

Narrated by Patsy.

We finally gave in and bought a new dog. Poppy's a labrador and she's already become a part of our family. The kids have loved spending time with her and I have to say I'm quite fond of her too.

Mom was really reluctant to get a new dog at first but she's warming up to Poppy now. Poppy's had some training but she can cause a lot of damage just playing around the house. Mom's been really cool about it though. We all agree that Poppy needs more training though.

I know that mom was also worried that she would end up being the one to take care of Poppy but she really didn't need to worry. Mia loves feeding Poppy and taking her for walks and the twins also help a lot.

Camryn and I decided to head out to a island holiday with the kids instead of driving up to the cabin. Mom and dad gathered us all to sit down for a dinner with them the night before we left. Mom told us to take a ton of pictures. I think she'd really love to go on a holiday at the island again. The one time she and dad went there was on their honeymoon and they had to cut the vacation short because she was pregnant with me and had awful morning sickness.

We arrived at Kalaupapa Island before noon and the kids wanted to go out to the beach right away. We barely had time to check into our rooms in the hotel before they dragged us out. Not that I was complaining because it felt so great to just unwind.

We decided to have dinner in the restaurant at the hotel in the evening. We were all too tired to go out so we decided to stay in and explore the island the next day.

We booked two separate rooms - one for the kids and one for Camryn and I - mainly because they didn't have big enough rooms for all of us. The kids loved the idea of having their own room though. Mia doesn't care about the bedtime stories anymore but even she won't object to being tucked into bed every now and then. Sometimes it's really hard to accept the fact that our little girl is growing up but it's just something we have to get used to.

Having a room just for us meant that Camryn and I could enjoy some quality time together after we'd put the kids to bed. We go to the cabin quite often but it feels completely different to go on a vacation somewhere else. This almost feels like a honeymoon.

We spent the rest of our vacation exploring around the island. The kids were especially thrilled about the old pirate ship that is open for tourists to play around on. We had to practically drag them away when it was time to get back to the hotel.

We also took full advantage of the beach by swimming in the ocean, building sandcastles, digging around in the sand for treasures and just relaxing and unwinding.

I wanted to see the old ruins but since I was the only one we decided to skip them and went on a helicopter tour instead. It was awesome to see the whole island. Hanna was really reluctant to go at first but she did enjoy the tour once we got up in the air.

On our last night we sat on the beach around a little campfire and roasted marshmallows. The vacation was a real dream come true but it was nice to go back home.

It was easy to tell who the kids had missed the most - Poppy of course!


Notes:

• Title reference: Beautiful day by Joshua Radin.
• Sorry for the long pause in the updates. I haven't been feeling too well over the past few months and the energy to play has been pretty hard to find. I'm feeling better now so hopefully that means more frequent updates as well.
• This was Mia's last update as a child! I'm so excited to see her as a teenager. She'll be the first of Bobbie and Alexander's grandkids to start high school so it's going to be special for the whole family.