We were up early as is the custom around here, honestly I was suprised that we didn’t hear from the kids earlier 06:20 was sleeping in. We discussed what to bring for our planned BBQ with Cliff and Tabbitha our neighbors and took the trash to the transfer station. On our way we found out that the much anticipated baby Tabbatha had been waiting for (not hers but a friends) was on the way so we needed to reschedule our BBQ and make new plans for the day. No problem I knew exactly what I wanted to do. We hadn’t done much caving and there is a big lava tube right outside of Hilo begging for us to explore it. We stopped at Walmart to get headlamps and when we came out we noticed our very flat tire. Thank goodness for AAA. They came and changed our tire to a donut while we B-lined it to Ross Dress for Less to wait until we could get a hold of the guy we were renting the car from.
We found some great finds at Ross and did finally get ahold of our car guy. He made an appointment for the car we just needed to hang out in town for 2.5 more hours…hmmm. We drove across the road to the mall and went to IHOP for lunch. I told the kids to show me how they felt about our flat tire and this is the look I got. 
We window shopped and used the coin propelled kiddie toys as a playground until our appointment. 
At Firestone we waited again two more hours.
Eve took these pictures as a means of entertainment. We then sent the kids over to the convienience store with $6 and instructions to pick out some things to share and remember taxes (a hard concept for our Oregonian kids). They headed out cautiously across the parking lot Eve holding Caleb’s hand. The car finished up so after a little while we went over and checked on them. Their original purchase gave them a whole dollar in change so they were each picking out a tootsie pop. They had behaved well in the store and the cashier was all smiles as she helped them buy the last three items. Chad grabbed some coconut water for us and we sat outside to enjoy them. 
They bought three cokes, gummy worms, and tootsie pops. It was pretty good shopping for food in Hawaii let alone a convenience store. We got in the car and Hannah gleefully sighed about how awesome today was. The last stop was grocery shopping. We are more tired after a day of waiting than after most of our days of exploring! But really it was still a great day.
Owens Endeavors 