A Successful Liberation Day

Wow what an awesome Liberation Day we had!! Despite some last minute protests, my son successfully participated in the Liberation Parade! The 1.5 mile walk was packed with people and tons of fun. However, by the end of the parade route, the boys were all getting tired. After the parade, I loaded my tired and sweaty boy on my back and hiked to the parade start to meet up with the rest of our family and our friends. Though the smoke was thick, it was fun to walk past all the family tents along the parade route, and check out the many varieties of barbecue. Grilling is serious sport on the island! After the parade, we all came back to our house for a Liberation Day party.

One of the things I like best about having a party is having lots of kids running around and playing. This party was no exception. In providing one of the party’s lighter moments, the kids were playing outside in the driveway on bikes, scooters, etc, when they pulled out the wagon. They got the idea to harness our 70 pound chocolate lab Hana to the wagon and have her pull it. The adults weren’t paying much attention to the kids’ antics until suddenly my son came flying into the carport in the wagon, pulled by the dog running at full speed. The dog sent the wagon careening into a fancy beer cooler-stand thing that we had set up. It was house-warming gift, and we had the top tub full of beer and ice. The wagon ran into this thing at full speed, and the entire top bucket dumped into wagon and onto my son’s lap with a thunderous crash! I did my best Mom’s scream, and pulled him out of the beer and the ice soaking wet. Amazingly, he wasn’t hurt- just wet and embarrassed. Not a single beer bottle broke because everything landed inside the wagon. Once we realized he was ok, everyone starting applauding. It was quite the move, and something that will go down in family party history!

For her part, Hana the lab survived the party very well. When we have people over, she goes on food patrol and will wrestle any crumb she can from the younger crowd as well as get into any plate or napkin left sitting unattended. By the end of the night, I know she ate at the minimum one bowl of red beans and rice, an entire loaf of pumpkin bread left of the edge of the counter, and numerous chicken bones. Aigoo…that dog would risk a smack on the nose any day if it meant a chance at more food.