Half a year gone by... (Month #6)

Today marks the sixth month our restaurants have been closed. When we closed, I think we all imagined it would be for a few weeks or at the very worst, months. But six months later, here we are- no visitors, no vaccine, very little hope. Businesses keep closing. Unemployment filings keep going up. COVID counts and deaths keep rising. BLM v. MAGA.

Thankfully, we still have much to be grateful for. Ry has a very small social bubble of school and taiko friends that he sees regularly, and that helps immensely. I think it is EVERYTHING for his mental health/survival. Although it's still a far cry from seeing friends five days a week at school, and at the usual activities on weekends...we are so grateful for the people in his life. His greatest blessing, hands down, aside from health and family, are his friendships.

Studying with a friend and her visiting birds, who arrive daily, walk through the house, and expect to be fed. So adorable! The kids feed them out of their hand!

Ry gets together regularly with this little social bubble, which are mostly his taiko friends.

We hiked to Kiholo bay with friends, and Ryan got to invite his longtime BFF. She is like his sister now, and we would love to adopt her forever, but her family won't give her up. ;-) 

Immersed in the freezing bracking waters of a collapsed older lava tube...

Hanging at the pier with his other social bubble, a large group of sweet and fun siblings he's known since pre-school...

Baking chocolate silk vegan pie with his BFF...they've cooked so much together recently- gyoza, tonkatsu donburi, brownies, cookies...