Im up!

I'm not supposed to be up... my alarm was set for 6:45 and that was gonna be early! but i was up a good hour before that! I can't decide if thats a good thing or not. I was planning on swimming this morning and then Stuart was gonna surf so I thought I would ditch the swimming and surf with him... he's still in bed and I'm off to the pool.

On a side note.... last week I was up before 6 am 4 times! Thats pretty good for me... but I hear it takes something like 21 days in a row to make it a habit.... I don't think that'll happen for me... but 4 days that's pretty good right?

Anyways.... good morning!!!

I Absolutely LOVE....

This sign...

Every time we drive it, I reach over and hug Stuart!

Stuart came home one day and told me about these cute signs that were along the road. This is the only one I got to see in real life and I wish the others were still up. They just make me happy! So if you're out there Mr. Sign Maker Man (or girl) please make more and put them up! I think it will make the world a better place!

Sneak Peak

Check out my "Last Chance" session with Shem and Andrea.

http://maliajohnsonphotography.blogspot.com/

Birthday Boy!

Uh Oh.... someone's getting old!




Today is my crazy brother's Birthday!


I wish he was out here so we could celebrate together and have a birthday surf session! But maybe next year!

We had so much fun when we were up at Mahina's for a visit this summer!

And don't you just love this picture... gotta love the blue flowery umbrella for a sunny day... and notice the little flower he has in his hand! Nice!

And what a stud, check him out...

Crazy spiderman! We got to go rock climbing while we were in Oregon... and I have to mention that the mom of the family we were climbing with was quite impressed with his calf muscles! She was making sure to get close ups of those bad boys! Ha!

Happy Birthday Kawika!!! I hope it was the best and that you got to surf your brains out! Love you Lots!!!

I Love the Rain!

Especially when it comes out of nowhere and just dumps on everything! Well when I'm inside that is..... or actually I like it if i'm outside too, and don't have to be anywhere and don't have anything that can't get wet. You get the idea.

So I was in my room folding laundry like a good little housewife and then I heard the rain! It made me so happy! I love the sound of rain... not to mention that it cools everything of!






It was pouring!!! You know how it is here... there will be a 7 minutes downpour and then clear right up and be sunny and bright! I guess it was a good thing I gave a second thought to closing the windows to tank when I got home this morning! I almost left both of them rolled all the way down!

Sneak Peak

I did a Maternity shoot this weekend... our timing was a little off so the sun went down before we had taken too many shots. But check out my Photoblog! To see what we did get!

MaliaJohnsonPhotography.blogspot.com

"Show me with your face how excited you are"

My "sister" is coming home! She's probably making the decent into Honolulu as I type! After a year and a half absence from the island (well, a little more than that) she's making her way back home! Jana has finished her mission in Nauvoo IL and is moving back. I can't wait to have my surfing buddy back! She and Audrey and I were crazy surf addicts the year after I graduated. We would all surf together at least once a day if not more! We may have been a little naive and crazy when it came to surfing but we had fun the whole time.... and we made it out alive and all in one piece. Some boards may not have been so lucky... I think Audrey had a couple broken boards (then she converted to Short Boarding and hasn't really broken a board since) .

Today Audrey came out and we had an epic morning surf session together just like old times.... just minus Jana so we can't wait to all get together! We were able to reminisce about the good old days and are excited to make some more crazy hilarious memories together!

Welcome home Jana Jones!!!

Liquid Silk... whatever that is.

I am sooooo not a morning person. But really truly wish that I was. I blame it on the fact that I have a hard time falling asleep at night, which causes me to be up late, which causes me to want to sleep in in the morning. I also blame it on the fact that there was always a reason "forcing" me to get up at the crack.... no no.... BEFORE the crack of dawn. There was early morning practice, seminary, oh yeah, and more morning practice... and then after college my roommate and/or friend and I would get up early to surf before work. Now that I don't have anything forcing me to get up.... I simply don't.

There is the occasional day where I will get up early to surf (lets face it those are far and few between especially since I wasn't surfing for the past few months), but today was one of those days. I got up at 5:30 am before the sun was up, put on my suit, grabbed my board and a PB&J and was out the door. The air was still a little bit chilly but the water was amazing! It was perfect. The first north swell of the season was today and we were on it. Our first stop was turtle bay but there wasn't much of anything there. I'm still glad we checked it out because the sight was absolutely breathtaking. Sure sunrises and sunsets are beautiful but what I saw this morning was even better, the big full moon low in the sky reflecting off the glassy ocean. And the moon wasn't white but had a little orange tint to it.

So we continued on and hopped in the water at one of our favorite spots. Paddling through the water felt like I was dipping my arms into liquid silk... if there was such a thing.

Its mornings like this one that makes me think that I need to learn how to wake up early. Like I said, pure perfection... now if only I could remember how to surf!

#1: Enroll in NYIP. CHECK!!! Giddy as a school girl!

Everyday for the past week I have been checking the mail eagerly awaiting the arrival of a brown box from here:




Inside I would find this:


Yesterday the box finally arrived!

That's right kids, Malia is back in school!!! Well not really "IN" school, but enrolled as a student of the New York Institute of Photography! This is a complete course in professional photography that covers all sorts of different types of photography as well as techniques to help you become a better photographer. It also covers the business side of photography so once i'm finished, I'll not only have the skills but all the knowledge and know-how to make this my work! It's sort of like taking online classes except not. Its more of a correspondence thing where they send me the lessons and tests and video/audio to help me understand the lessons I read through, and then I send them my tests and assignments. Then they grade the tests and critique my photos on a tape recorder so I can actually hear what they have to say about my work! Can you tell I'm excited about this?! Cuz I am!

In the past I have known people who were able to go to school with their siblings and I always thought that would be so cool! I thought it would be fun to be in school with my sister and now we sort of are! Mahina found this school, researched it and told me about it. I was super excited about it and wanted to us to be able to do it together. She signed up a couple of months ago and while I was in Oregon I was able to look at a few of the lessons. I was able to sign up a week or 2 ago and now we'll be able to go through the course together! We probably won't be doing it at the same exact pace but I'm super excited about it anyway! We have 3 years to complete the course but we go at our own pace and people have taken anywhere from 6 months up to the full 3 years to do it. We'll see how I go through it.

Oh yeah by the way....


#1 Enroll in NYIP...... COMPLETED!!!

You can check on my 101 list on the side bar!

9-11-01

I had just moved away from home and was living in the dorms as a freshman in College at the University of Hawaii. I had been there for no more than a few weeks. I didn't have a TV or radio and got up and was on my way to class. I was on the shuttle from the dorms to upper campus when I heard on the radio the news reports of what was happening in new york. Class was canceled. I returned to my dorm and found friends with a TV. We sat and watched the news for most of the day. Watching video of fire and smoke billowing out of the building where a jet was now inside, we watched in horror as the second plane flew right into the 2nd World Trade Center building. It was like a scene from a movie... unfortunately this was real. There were no actors. There were no safety nets. There were no stunt doubles. Just real people with real lives and real families.

It was a day that I will always remember. And those images are ones I will never forget.

Where were you and what were you doing when you heard about the World Trade Centers?

Skype Anyone??

Hey I just got on Skype so if you wanna talk to us or video conference you should get on board too! If you already have it and wanna chat let me know your name!

so exciting!

In about 5 minutes I am leaving to go to my very first hula class. I'm pretty excited about it but kinda nervous too... you know, the whole first day of school jitters. Thats what i'm feeling, what should I wear? what do I need to bring? Will my teacher be nice? Will I make friends? (thank goodness I'm going with a friend so I can cross that off my nervous list) Actually, if you know me well and have spent much time with me, before leaving to go anywhere I ALWAYS ask: " what do I need?" So hopefully I have everything I need! Wish me luck!

Have you missed me?

I haven't posted anything since I got back from my trip to Oregon... so I was just wondering if you missed me? I'm terribly sorry if you have been checking in and there hasn't been anything new for you to see.

My Oregon trip was tons of fun and it was so good to spend time with Mahina and mitch and the girls. And I was so glad that Kawika was able to come up for a few days too! Mahina made sure we had fun and exciting things to do while both Kawika and I were there.

In the space of 2 days we went River Rafting:




Wake boarding/wake surfing? (I don't know what the actual term is for surfing the wake of a boat):

*Kawika*

*Mahina*

*Me*

And Rock climbing:

It was such a great trip! But it's wonderful to be back home! Since getting home I've been able to get back in the ocean and surf a couple times and yesterday I went to Waimea Bay with Auntie Susan for an evening swim! It was so beautiful but since we were there for exercise I don't have any pictures for you... The water was absolutely perfect! Its been pretty warm here and the water was so refreshing and clear! Swimming back and forth from one end to the other I was able to enjoy the water and swim through schools of these little silver fish.... they were thousands of them and its so cool to see them all swimming together and changing directions all at once! Every once in a while I would see them jumping out of the water all together continuously (there had to be a bigger fish after them) and it looked and sounded so cool!
I also did some rock running, where you find a rock heavy enough to hold you to the bottom, pick it up and run as far and as long as you can hold your breath along the ocean floor. Good training for the lungs something I need to work on!

Anyway... its good to be home! Plus I kinda sorta missed this guy: