11, 12, 13

Day Eleven
We got up and headed to Lahaina for Garrett's surf lesson. When we got to the surf shop it didn't take long before we met his instructor. Mike was seriously the best teacher I could have hoped for for my five-year-old. He started off calling him "bro" and "dude" and Garrett was eating it up. When it was time to walk to the beach for the dry land instruction, my mom headed back to the parking lot to tell my dad where we were going. I was going to walk with Garrett and Mike but my son looked at me as though he was seriously mortified. "Mommy," he said through slightly clenched teeth, "go with Grandma." Then he paused dramatically and whispered, "Go." Mike assured me that it was fine for me to go ahead and leave and so we followed them from about twenty yards behind. Garrett was strutting like he was an old surfing pro, chatting it up with his best friend, Mike.

He did some dry land work and then the hit the waves.

The first wave came, Mike pushed Garrett into the wave. Garrett stood up. And surfed.

Then he surfed more. And more.

I was so proud of him. When we got back to the surf shop, another instructor asked me how old Garrett was and told me that he did awesome out there. I said, "Thanks." And he said, "No. I mean, he's really good." It was really fun being the mom of the good child surfer. Too bad there isn't exactly good surf in the great salt lake.

When the lesson was finished we all had shave ice. The boys spent the afternoon in the pool and that night we had a serious fiasco with Garrett's poor eyes. He is really sensitive to chlorine and it bothered him so much that it took several hours of him keeping his eyes glued shut before he let us pry them open and put saline in them.

That night, my dad decided to slice his finger open on a super sharp knife. My parents spent several away driving to and from the ER and, of course, waiting to be seen. In the end, they were able to glue it and wrap it so that he didn't have to sacrifice the remainder of his trip.

Day Twelve
On Saturday we kept my dad out of the water. We had a kind of lazy day. Garrett and I built sandcastles and played in the water right outside our condo. My parents went to dinner that night so I cooked stir fry for the boys and me. They left early and I let the boys swim a little before we ate. After dinner, I got them into bed and spent the rest of the night reading.

Day Thirteen
On Sunday we had fully intended to go back to the same church but Garrett got a free surf board rental with his lesson and the only day we could use it was Sunday. We were going to go after church to get the board but, with Garrett being so little they strongly suggested that we go earlier, when the conditions are better. I hadn't missed a Sunday of church this entire year so it was a little weird but I did a Sunday school lesson with the boys later that afternoon so as not to teach them that we go surfing instead of to church. Even though, well, that's exactly what we did.

We got the board down in Kihei and the weather was incredible. The beach was great and the boys had a blast. Garrett didn't want to use the board for the entire three hours that we had it so my dad took a few turns and managed to get up. I also tried my hand--for the very first time--at surfing. It took me awhile to actually get up but I kept trying. Eventually, I rode a wave and quickly decided that I should have taken up surfing long ago. We had a great morning in Kihei.

That afternoon there was more pool time and a Sunday school lesson and, like all the other days, we fell asleep to the sound of the waves crashing just outside our condo.