Catch with a Crustacean

This morning while the kids slept, the adults big kids, went for another early walk along the beach, and I’m happy to report no jellyfish this time. Speaking of jellyfish…..we met a lot of local folks that didn’t even know about the monthly jellyfish invasion which resulted in about a hundred people island wide getting stung. With thirty of them happening on Makaha Beach alone! We met one of them the other morning while talking story with Joey’s friend Fish, while at the beach. This local named, Tim, had been spear fishing that morning when he got stung on the only part of himself that wasn’t protected, his face. He said he had to swim over half an hour to get to the nearest house and then for whatever reason, they shooed him away! They wouldn’t help him. Luckily he had a lifeguard friend that lived nearby so he went to his place and he poured boiling hot water on his face to stop the stinging, and Tim said it helped. He also said he was really struggling to swim, as he was in such intense pain and felt like his muscles were trying to paralyze. It took him this whole week to recover, but we could still see the scar. I don’t think he’ll ever go out without a face cover again!

Anyway, this morning was much more playful. After resting our burning calves while sitting along the shore, little crabs started coming out of their holes. As soon as they’d see us they’d hurry back down, except this one. He just sat on top of his hole staring at us, so eventually I threw a little stone his way to see what he’d do, and to my surprise he chased after it like a puppy dog! He quickly got on top of that thing and hugged it as tight as he could. Thinking that was just a freak thing he did, we tried another pebble….and he immediately abandoned the first stone in favor of the new one. Then he did it again, and again, and again.

After a while we felt we teased the poor thing long enough so we continued on, only to find another brave crab farther down the beach. What are the odds to run into two crazy crabs in one day? Normally they’re gone before you can even spot them, and here we have another one just staring us down. This one was bigger and wasn’t interested in stones though, he was looking for a fight.

Joey slowly lowered his keys above him and he tried with all his might to get them. After a few failed attempts he’d run away from Joey backwards. But a crab running backwards results in him doing backwards somersaults. So he’d run, and then flip, then prance up real high on his tippy claws and run again, and flip backwards again. But he always came back to Joey for more. He could have easily ran back in his hole, but I guess he was probably having a little fun with us, too. (I just wish I would have had video on my phone, so you could see these silly crabs in action, too.)

Eventually the crab won, and Joey walked away in defeat.

**PS** No crustaceans were harmed in the making of this blog post

Just your everyday walk on the beach

Instead of our usual morning walk up to the water tower this morning, we chose to drive down the hill to Makaha Beach and walk in the sand instead. What an adventure that turned out to be….. with some new knowledge, to boot. (insert plug for unschooling here)

Those are not our footprints in the sand.

They were dozens……if not hundreds….of potentially deadly, Hawaiian box jellyfish. And we almost stepped on the!…….repeatedly…… They left a trail along the high tide line almost half the shoreline long.

Then the next quarter of the shoreline  was dotted with large holes with large piles next to them. Some of the holes were almost as big as my foot! Normally , during the day, we see only the small crab holes… so I guess you have to get up pretty early to see the big boys.

Continuing south the sand is almost completely washed away, exposing rock that had been covered all winter.

You can see where the sand level was along the right side ridge

It also exposed some tide pools

Back to the north end of the beach, and back to the jellyfish.

I noticed that the milkier ones would occasionally bubble up, like it was gasping for air, but the clear ones never moved. These two had the tentacles entwined. Like two lovers that couldn’t bear to separate.

When we got back home we told the kids about them, and first, Jewel was sad we went without her, but then we were all interested to figure out why this happened. (enter unschooling activity plug here). With a quick search of the amazing, ingenious World Wide Web, we quickly learned, of all things…….the spawning habits of box jellyfish. Apparently this is a monthly thing, just most common on the windward and southern shores. About nine to ten days after a full moon thousands of jellyfish come near the shoreline to spawn, and it usually lasts three to four days. I checked the spawning calendar on 808jellyfish.com and sure enough, we are smack dab in the middle of their egg laying.

It made me sad to see all these helpless jellyfish just laying there, but then we watched crabs start to come out of their holes and check out the jelly’s. We hoped they would eat them, so it was nice to learn later that the jellyfish did not die in vain, and will in fact be scavenged up by the sand crabs.

And we thought we were just going for a walk.

Our Beach in the Midwest

When we can't get to the coast, we can at least get to the beach. The beaches of Lake McConaughy, that is.

We stumbled upon this oasis last summer and have been itching to get back ever since.

The water was pretty cold the first day, so the next day we dug out the wetsuits.

And actually enjoyed putting them on! At least Jonas did.

Joey built sand stairs in an attempt to make it easier to get up and down, and Jewel kept up with the constant maintenance.


Joey also carved out a tiki man, but once he added arms and legs it looked more like Spongebob on steroids.


By the time we broke out the boogie boards the waves were gone, which left the boys waiting for the wake of a speed boat or jet ski. It was tricky getting the timing down right, but they were having fun figuring it out.



Joey captured this cool shot of Jacob with the noodle.

We're not sure which one was bigger.

It wouldn't be a Nebraska lake post for me without the obligatory toad shot.


Meet Toad, and Toad, Jr.


It amazes me how my kids expressions always seem to mimic those of their toad buddies.

I don't know, maybe it's just me.

We finished both nights around the campfire, with wood that I gathered....... by driving to another RV spot and taking the logs they left behind. Joey used to cringe when I did that, but if he really didn't want me to take it he wouldn't even tell me it was there. The last time I "gathered" he even helped! Let's keep that between us, though.


Get out of my way!

A storm was rolling in, and knowing it'll most likely pass within half an hour, we had to protect our fire.

It worked and we were able to finish off another bag of chocolate marshmallows.

Kansas to Missouri

I couldn't decide whether to drive to town so I could get internet and blog, or watch TV. I've already gotten up early today to make Joey breakfast before work, walkdanced around the lake twice, washed the outside windows, vacuumed, taken the kids fishing, and gotten a little tanner, so zoning out to some reality TV sounded really good, but I decided to leave it up to the kids. I asked if they wanted to go to a huge playground in town where I could put up a free signal and get online. They're climbing like monkeys.

****************************************************************************

After leaving Texas we had only TWO days to go 982 miles up to Minnesota. We knew it'd be tough, especially when we only made it as far as to the Kansas turnpike the first day. The next morning we knew we'd never make it, and since we were no longer rushing to get there we got off the turnpike earlier and learned a lesson into why the turnpike is worth every penny. I was following Joey thru Kansas City and he made a last minute turn onto another busy Interstate, and I got my first glimpse of the traffic stopped directly in front of me. I'm towing a 6500 lb. deadly object behind me and I almost didn't get it stopped in time! I was so scared, and thankful the kids were in the bus. I will never curse the tollway again!

We stopped in Missouri for the night, at Wallace State Park. When we pulled in the sign said campground full but I seriously doubted it was so went on in, and it wasn't. It was full for the upcoming memorial weekend but we could stay the one night before the crowds came.

It was a nice, quiet, beautiful park, with numerous small hiking trails. Joey, Jonas, Jewel and I walked down to Skunk Hollow Lake( while Jake probably played Wii).

I know I get confused easily, but they're sure not helping with this sign.

The trails were full of snails, making it at times hard to not step on them. Jonas proudly showed off his new friend...

....and wasn't even fazed by the poop dragging across his hand.

Our quick walk to the lake slowed down to a snail's pace when Jonas and Jewel brought their friends along, and carried them like they were glasses of water.


When you can't beat 'em..... give up and wait.


Even the girl doesn't mind the poop! I want to gag.


Someone left behind a bag of bread along the trail, so the kids have now focused on feeding the fish.


How could he not climb it?


Fun walkway thru the forest and over the muck.


He's talking Joey language to me, and I'm loving it.

Wait for me!

We finished the night roasting chocolate marshmallows (to die for when roasted), and watching Jewel twirl around her bubbles my mom gave all the kids before we left.


The next morning all the kids and I went on another hike, and just after I was thinking there could be snakes out here....Jacob almost stepped on one. We watched him a while until he finally slithered away, but we never did find out what he was.

This morning I also made the decision to walk every morning. I also decided to leave all electronics off at night. I'm really appreciating the calmness without the TV's and video games, and actually getting to sleep the same day I wake up. The kids are even going to sleep sooner and we're all interacting together more.

Have I mentioned before how much I love my life?