Ke Ola Maika'i

Yeah it's official.

2011-06-05T01:39:00.000-07:00

I'm the world's worst blogger! And there's been a whole lot of fun going on around here that I haven't blogged about...

So this one's about the "King of the Cloud" contest that was held last week out at Cloudbreak. It was AWESOME! Not only were the waves pumping but this big Cat (catamaran) was out the whole day which made watching and everything so much fun! It was perfect for competitors, spectators, and the judges who sat on top with a great view!

It was an absolute gorgeous day. We couldn't have asked for better waves or weather (i personally could have asked for the waves to be a bit more "Malia Friendly" but for everyone else, the bigger the better).

Stuart did so well out there and I am so proud of him! He wasn't crowned KING of the Cloud but he was definitely in the running! He made it all the way to the finals beating out some tough competition he had to go against in the rounds leading up to the FINAL FOUR!

ABOVE PHOTOS (from top left to right to bottom) 1: Me and my Love under the Cat 2: Everyone enjoying the sun and the view 3: Stuart on a wave in the Finals 4: Me and Ulai (if you've ever seen Endless Summer 2 he's the skinny kid up the coconut tree that drops a coconut almost killing Pat and Wingnut) 5: The finalists before the heat (L to R: Inaki from bass country, Aca (our boat captain) Paul (another local boy) and Stuart (my love) 6: Me swimming in the Crystal blue water 7: Close up of our Fiji Surf Banner... that's who we work for :)

ABOVE PHOTOS: 1: Me and the other girls in the comp relaxing on the boat ride out. 2: A few boards hangin out under the Cat 3: The inside of the boat, everyone getting ready with stretching, waxing up boards and lathering on the sunscreen! 4: Yes that's stuart at the front showing us the way to Cloudbreak (Tavarua Island in the background)

The finals were up in the air with Stuart taking the lead early on and all four competitors neck in neck. Late in the heat Captain Aca ran away with the title catching 2 of the best waves in the heat and finding one of the only Barrels that came through that heat. Aca also received a perfect score on his last wave! Hard to beat that but Stuart came up just 1/2 a point shy of 2nd place! I'm so proud of my Man!

We had such a fun day out on the boat hanging out with friends and members of the Fiji Surfing Association! Hopefully you enjoyed this little post! I hope to be back again soon!

Oh and if you haven't already... check out my new Photography Blog at: MaliaJohnson.com/blog!

Expecting!!!!

2011-04-13T18:04:00.000-07:00

See this sweet Girl?

Well lately she's been extremely lazy! She's either sleeping or asking me for food! And she's getting a bit round (compared to her normal self) She's quite a skinny kitty...

But would you take a look at THAT BELLY!?!?!

Kitty's Expecting!!! Any day now! I'm sure she's ready to pop those babies out since she looks a bit uncomfortable and is starting to waddle. :) I love this girl!

What to do?!

2011-04-13T15:05:00.000-07:00

There are so many things I should/could be doing.... but where to start?

I could do the pile of dishes left in the sink last night:

(Sorry i'm sure you don't wanna see this but I'm just keeping it real around here)

Do this Laundry... maybe not, its way too hot for that!

Or blog about this sweet Girl:

There are quite a bit of other things I could be doing too... our entire house could use a good cleaning. I'm not too worried about that because we do have guests coming next week and we always get it cleaned up before they arrive (thank goodness we have visitors ALL THE TIME or else this house would never get cleaned up). Since I'm not surfing today, I guess I'll do a little bit of exercise first!

EDITED TO ADD:

Well, the sink is cleared! Yay! And Since the sink was clear I was also able to refill all the empty water bottles around the house and put them in the fridge so we have lots of cold water to drink!

I didn't do the dirty laundry (like I said, WAY too hot for that!), but I did get all the clean, dry towels off the line and fold them up!

I also got a nice little workout in! And a post about Kitty! Not bad If I do say so myself!

I hope you're all having a wonderfully productive day!!!

I'm Coming to America!

2011-01-30T15:38:00.000-08:00

We've been out here in Fiji for almost 7 months now and it is AWESOME! We love it! We're living the dream for us in this stage of our life. Next week I'll be taking a break from this dream for a little bit and coming back to the states! Out here in Fiji we meet some great people and we were lucky enough to meet our friend Michelle who is a pilot for Continental airlines. She was nice enough to offer to let me fly on her buddy pass to get back to visit friends and family! So next week i'll be taking off for about a month. I don't know my complete schedule just yet but I'll be stopping in New Mexico so I can meet my sweet new nephews Makaio and Maui, Las Vegas to attend the HUGE photography convention: WPPI, California to see more family, and hopefully Hawaii for a few days! I can't wait for this big trip! And there's no way I would be able to do this without Michelle's kindness! I'm so grateful because I really wanted to see Makaio and Maui as Babies but didn't know if I'd be able to! And now I will!

Unfortunately I'll be gone for Stuart's and my birthday and Valentines Day but Stuart told me I should go anyway. We'll just have to celebrate before and after the trip :)

A few things i'll be missing while I'm gone:

My one true love (Stuart of course)

Mochi-Me Time

Kitty

The surf (it's supposed to be really good during the months of feb and march)

Stuart's Birthday

My Birthday

Valentine's Day

Our Christmas presents to each other will be arriving while i'm gone (custom surfboards!!!) I can't wait to see pictures of them! And when I do, I'll share them with YOU!

A few things I'm looking forward to:

Seeing all these people!!! (and more)

Cold weather.... and hot showers
Frozen Yogurt!!! Yogurt Land anyone???

Attending WPPI for the 1st time!!!
Getting my hair cut!!! Finally... and donating it :)

I'm trying to work a little while i'm on my trip to help pay for it so if you or anyone you know wants a photo session with me while i'm in any of those places let me know! You can contact me at MaliaJohnsonPhotography{at}gmail{dot}com to check availability and rates!

Mochi

2011-01-04T17:49:00.000-08:00

Remember how cute and Little Mochi was back here? Well he's been doing some growing and I wanted to show you how cute and big he has gotten!!! (plus my mom has been asking to see him)

I still need my Mochi-Me time... it's just a bit harder to get him to lay on my belly like he used to :)

Merry Christmas From the Johnson's!!!

2010-12-26T00:16:00.000-08:00

We wanted to send you all a Christmas card but didn't really have a way to print them and send from Fiji so this will have to do:

We hope you had a wonderful Christmas and are looking forward to a wonderful new year!!!

Christmas Time?

2010-12-16T12:50:00.000-08:00

First Noel- guitar-Stu Johnson-Yako Organic recordings-Fiji by mainlandmoke

As the youngest child of six I watched as each of my siblings graduated High school and subsequently vanished our east Los Angeles home in the suburbs, off to start a new life far away from Mom, me and Whittier. When the end of high school drew near, there was no question about what my next steps into life would be. It was subconscious instinct that I was out of there as soon as I could. My post High school proverbial "walk about" into life had a different travel itinerary. My belongings never made the cramped car ride up the Cajon Pass and Virgin River Gorge to eventually arrive in the familiar foothills of P-town. Instead I took a Five hour plane ride over the Pacific to an Island chain I only knew as the paradise romanticized by radio promo give aways' and popular surf films. Coming off the plane was magic. The foreign combination of heat, humidity and coconut palms only highlighted my excitement of starting my long anticipated life away from Via Del Palma. This is what my siblings experienced!? This is it! Magic!
From that moment off the plane I found a new inner instinct which I believe my siblings share. To take head on unfamiliarity and make it familiar. This is what I saw in my siblings as they moved,lived and worked in "foreign" lands across the country. (Yes, to me Utah remains foreign and mysterious).
I went into this walk about of post high school life without any preliminary rules or expectations and I find no instinctual pull toward laying foundation in once familiar communities. However my heart is not completely stone as you might think. Nostalgic smells and sounds remind me of my family who I love more than anything. But why do I chose to live so far away? I would live closer but the precedent to leave as soon as possible was set before I had any real choice.
Luckily for my own sanity's sake, its rare to ever smell or hear things that would trigger nostalgic memories, instead of the sweet smell of fresh Christmas tree shaped cookies we know curry garlic and ginger. Instead of Holiday Carols we know the bass driven reggae beats of the islands. When Sufjan Stevens rendition of the First Noel came up on shuffle I was reminded that its Christmas time despite the lack of holiday decor. This is my favorite time to be with my family. And though we have all spread out and moved away from the 90602, we will never forget our home there and the familiar smells and sounds that filled the house. I don't know why we all left in such a hurry!? Cant wait for our next Christmas all together.

Yako Organic recordings -Fiji Studio-

2010-12-04T21:15:00.000-08:00

I love recording music but am never satisfied with the production. Its a combination of our poor quality microphone (stock mic in macbook) and the surrounding racket spoiling every take. Ive had it!!! I concede to the fact that my home will never be a sound tight studio. Now from these ashes of defeat, comes the timely introduction of "Yako Organic Recordings." I now embrace the sounds of skreaching maina birds, the chirp of the gecko, the crackle of our hot tin roof, and our dog Mochi barking at everything that passes. I will produce one track a week, mostly covers, (unless I can find one of my own songs i like enough) with minimal takes and editing. Like most things organic, this will most likely be an unpleasant experience since your pallet is accustomed to the MSG filled perfection of your favorite studio artists. Thats the nature of the organic medium; its free range, raw and tough to chew but if you try really really hard you might taste or hear something fresh and untamed. Hope my new venture doesn't cause acid reflux...

The first of this collection is a cover of the Iron and Wine track, "Each coming night"
From the Album Our Endless Numbered Days
A song of loss and the memories that never leave

Each Coming Night by mainlandmoke

Will you say when I’m gone away
"My lover came to me and we'd lay
In rooms unfamiliar but until now"
Oh oh oh oh
Until now
Oh oh oh oh
Until now

Will you say to them when I’m gone
"I loved your son for his sturdy arms
We both learned to cradle then live without"
Oh oh oh oh
Live without
Oh oh oh oh
Live without

Will you say when I’m gone away
'Your father’s body was judgment day
We both dove and rose to the riverside"
Oh oh oh oh
Riverside
Oh oh oh oh
Riverside

Will you say to me when I’m gone
"Your face has faded but lingers on
'Cause light strikes a deal with each coming night"
Oh oh oh oh
Coming night
Oh oh oh oh
Coming night
Oh oh oh oh
Coming night
Oh oh oh oh
Coming night

#55 Paint Tank COMPLETED

2010-12-02T23:05:00.000-08:00

Okay so I know I'm way behind and going back in time by posting this one... but I was going through some photos and found some before and After pics of Tank's Paint Job. You have to understand that Tank was part of the family and we LOVED him! We were sad to sell him but we had to sell A LOT when we moved. Here's Tank before... pretty rugged :)

Tank Before

After...


What a sexy beast!

What a great truck he was! This job took about 2 hours, 3 people, and 6 or 7 spray cans... if I remember correctly.

The West is Best!

2010-11-22T15:39:00.000-08:00

When moving out to Fiji, the plan was to live in Suva (the south side of the island) Stuart would go to school and I'd work. When we got here, we were there in Suva trying to get things settled. We were looking for housing, going to USP to get all of the details taken care of for Stuart to enroll. During this time, we were finding out a few things we didn't anticipate. We decided Suva wasn't the place for us and Stuart wasn't going to go to school anymore.

We'll just treat it like a long holiday and move back home to Hawaii. We had rented a little spot in Pacific Harbour for the month. We would finish out the month there while we did fun stuff people do when they go to Fiji. We were looking for flights, and even asked a friend if he could pick us up from the airport.

We knew people would be asking us how the surf was and we had to try and surf Cloudbreak and all those spots. It was almost the end of the month and time to buy our return flight. But before that, we had to go surf. We found a company that would pick us up, take us out on the boat and drop us off afterwards. That's when we met Ian, the owner of Fiji Surf Co. Ian was looking for some surf photographers to work for him so he could offer that service to his guests. We talked a little bit about what he was looking for, and what we had to offer. We had found our match!

We were moving to the West!

Stuart remembered there was a family who lived really close to Ian's house and the boat launch where the surf trips left from everyday. He also remembered there just happened to be another house on the property that didn't have anyone living in it back when he was serving his mission. We spoke to the Reddy's asking about the house to see if it was empty and if we could live there. Everything was falling into place perfectly!

Now a whole bunch of photos... Pretty much just of our house and the "kids". Sorry if you get sick of seeing mochi and kitty but they've already grown so much so I need to put up their little pictures so I can remember how small they started out :)

I love my "Mochi&Me" time. He's gotten a little too big for him to sit comfortably on my belly now so he's always trying to get away.


This is pretty much the whole front part of the house... sitting room and kitchen. I'm backed up against the kitchen sink. I'm strategically down low so you can't see our messy kitchen table :)

I love it when Kitty Sleeps with her tongue hangin out like that.

I'm pretty sure this was a one time thing. He started out as a good sharer. Then I think he tried to "share" some one else food and he learned to be selfish when they barked and growled at him.

He's so little! And so cute! I'll have to post a more recent picture because his ears aren't floppy anymore. Heeler's have ears that stick straight up

Our House!

View from out our front door... You can't see them in this photo but on a clear day I've counted more than 15 islands out on the horizon!

Kitty

The papaya tree in front of our house! Sooooo Good!!!

Mochi, back when he was still having a hard time climbing onto the deck...
Oh and this deck Stuart and Bro. Reddy made one night without any power tools!!! Pretty impressive :)

We made Board hangers in the rafters... saves space. Not to mention how awesome they look up there!

We're happy and healthy out here in Fiji and living a wonderful life! We miss our family and friends but are grateful that we are able to have such a crazy adventure together.

Have a great week!!!

#4: Take a Trip to Fiji. CHECK!!!

2010-11-11T09:06:00.001-08:00

I must say that I think I went above and beyond on this one! I didn't just take a trip to Fiji, I moved here! Do I get extra credit for that??? I think I should :)

Here's the stamp in my passport from when I came in:

Fiji has BEAUTIFUL water:

Uh... yeah:

And BEAUTIFUL waves:

#3: Add to our Family of 2. CHECK!!!

2010-11-10T14:18:00.000-08:00

I've been slacking big time. I've also noticed that I've checked off a few things from my 101 in 1001 list so I need to update the list and blog about some of them... The interesting ones at least. #3 is: Add to our family of 2. Now don't get too excited just yet. We're not having a baby within the next nine months... but we have added to our family. We have 2 "Kids" now. A boy and a girl named Kitty and Mochi. Here's a little video of them.

Kitty is great! She likes to eat spiders and cockroaches which I love!!! She also keeps any rats away... I haven't seen any around since we brought her home. Unfortunately she also likes to eat geckos and these cute little birds that hang around our house. It was so sad the first time I saw it... but now its no big deal as long as she doesn't bring it inside the house I'm fine with it... Survival of the fittest (or biggest, sneakiest, and quickest) right?

I've always, always, ALWAYS wanted a puppy... and know we have one! Mochi is awesome! He's so cute and he can swim :) We took him out on a stand up paddle board and went up the river... we had a few spills but nothing he couldn't handle. Such a trooper. Mochi loves to play with Kitty... I'm not so sure the opposite is true. Mochi just wants to play but he tends to be a little too ruff with his sister... good things she's tough and can handle it :)

Kitty is a funny girl... I think sometimes she thinks she's a puppy because whenever we come home from somewhere, she's always running out to greet us... it's pretty awesome! We love our Kids! They're so fun!

ps... we've learned how to use iMovie so we're making videos now :) ENJOY!

Snap Crackle Pop!!!

2010-11-07T14:29:00.001-08:00

This morning I woke up to the sound of.... well I wasn't sure what it was at first. In the state of confusion I'm usually in right when I wake up, I couldn't tell if it was POURING rain on our tin roof, or firecrackers going off (Yes when it rains hard, the sound can be confused to firecrackers, don't be jealous:). It was neither. It was the sugar cane field being burned to get ready to harvest.

There have been sugar cane fields burning around here for the past few weeks (or a couple months maybe) and I have been wondering when Reddy (our landlord/neighbor) would burn his. Since we live right next to it I was looking forward to witnessing it! A few days ago we were going past our house on the boat and saw the field burning. I was so bummed because I wanted to be there, up close and personal. And I wanted to see it burn at night... I thought it would be more dramatic that way and make for a better photo op. Turns out they only burned half of it. Lucky me!

So I woke up grabbed my camera and headed out to get a few shots of the guys hard at work. It's pretty amazing that they clear the whole entire field by hand! No machinery is used to cut the cane. Its just a bunch of guys with their cane knives. The only machinery used is for transporting the stuff!

Hard at work:

Oops! I've been spotted!

Here's Reddy taking some juice to the workers:

Taking a break:

Off to quench the thirst of more hard working men:

Some burnt sugar cane:

And of course Mochi was happy to be out tromping through the remains of the cane :)

And this is just outside our house and I thought it was pretty :)

Thanks for stopping by!

I know this doesn't show you much about what we've been up to but there's more to come :)

Fiji!

2010-10-06T20:05:00.000-07:00

I'm gonna try to blog again!!! Here are a few photos from our first month here in Fiji! This first one is kinda funny... it's where Stuart would have been going to school if things had gone as planned...

We spent our first few days in Suva looking for housing and checking thing out. We would jump on the bus and go into town or over to USP to get some stuff done. The buses are pretty awesome! Nice and open... they blast the music, unfortunately its the super irritating stuff (and the same 5 songs).

The beautiful beaches of FIJI:

Pretty stinky actually.... I don't know if Suva has any pretty beaches, I didn't see any. But this is where we would have lived.

This is the guard in front of the President's House. They're not supposed to talk or smile or anything... but we got him to talk... just barely, and through closed lips hahah! Stuart was speaking Fijian and he said it freaked him out! Ha!

Thats our green bus we always took to get back to where we were staying:

Me on the sea wall at Suva Harbor... there's actually a pretty fun wave out there that would have been our home break... but Tavarua/Namotu waves are better :) And there's way more options! Plus it's FREE! Can't beat that!

Hare Krishna Ice cream!

One day we went up to see Stuart old Mission President who is now the temple president... Jolly little couple!

Here's the Suva Temple! Beautiful... this shot was taken by the Security guard we were hanging out with while waiting for the Woolley's to come home.

Here we are on our way to our very first surf in Fiji!

Stuart waxing up his new board for the first time!

We had to go out from the Resort Waidroka (a beautiful spot) but it was pretty pricey)

Since it was our first time out, neither one of us wanted to play photographer so this was the only shot we got .

We moved out of Suva while we were trying to figure out what we were going to do and landed in Pacific Harbour. In a place called Arts Village. We had a cute little flat there.

It had the best pool ever that we would go play in every day! Tiki Pool Bar!

No one else was ever there so we had the place to ourselves... yeah thats a slide coming out of the Tiki man's head :)

I've never tried to post a video on here so we'll see how this goes :)

This was the view from our window!

We loved our little place in Arts Village while we were there but we were ready to leave when we did. And we're loving our new home in the West! The West is Best!!!

Hopefully I'll post more soon!!!

hug the ones you love

2010-01-08T18:50:00.000-08:00

Some friends of ours have suffered something i hope I never have to experience... I posted more details on my Photography Blog so please visit that for more details and to see how you can help. And if you want to help some other way, let me know.

Moms and Dad's out there hug your little ones... and even your big ones. Some people don't have that Luxury. And you don't have to be a mom or dad... everyone, just hug the ones you LOVE!

You can visit Natalie's Blog to get to know her if you aren't lucky enough to know her already.

I hope....

2009-12-31T01:37:00.000-08:00

You had a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS! And are planning on having a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! So I had planned on getting Christmas Cards out, we even had a little photo shoot for it... then things got busy, so I thought about Making them New Years Cards.... but haven't gotten around to those photos yet... so I threw this together and decided to put it up here for all to see! Sorry you won't be getting a card in the mail from us this year, but this will just have to do. I think this photo is quite Christmasy. We were all bundled up on our trip to New York.

Thanks to Evan for this shot!

I NEED YOUR HELP!!! This will take less than minute!

2009-12-17T14:20:00.001-08:00

I have entered to win a scholarship to the Mike Colon Workshop in Honolulu next month. And I need YOUR help to win! All you need to do is go to his blog and cast your vote for yours truly! This is an amazing opportunity that I don't want to miss! What do you get out of this you ask?

To sweeten the deal, and entice you into voting and getting your friends to vote also... here's my proposal: If I win the scholarship, I will be holding my very own giveaway right here on my blog. I will be offering one lucky reader a free photo shoot! Don't live in Hawaii? I'll figure something else out equally as awesome (or we can save it for when I'm in your area)!

VOTE NOW!!! Voting will end at 5pm PST.

And because every post is better with a photo... I leave you with this shot from Valley of the Temples

New York: Day 6

2009-12-02T19:39:00.000-08:00

On day six we set out to walk around the city a little bit. We wanted to go to the Cathedral at Columbia that we had walked by on our first day in the city. On our way, we came across this... the restaurant on Seinfeld.

We found A cathedral but it wasn't the one we were looking for... still a beautiful building. We took a look around inside and it was HUGE! Crazy how things get bigger once you're inside.

We walked around who knows where for a while and hopped on a bus... bad idea, at least at the time that we decided to do it! We wanted to get for one point to another and on the subway it would have taken us 20 minutes max (at least i think)... we sat on the bus probably for an hour. It was a cool experience though... We saw all the Nannies picking up the little private school kids and taking them home on the bus.

We wanted to see South Pacific to see a different type of show from In the heights. In the heights was set in todays time and South Pacific is a classic that I grew up watching (vhs). We couldn't resist taking some photos in front of the big sign!

I'd say we did an okay job with setting the camera on a bench and doing a timer shot.

After we picked up our tickets we headed back to our favorite place to eat TAIM in the Village. As I sit her blogging about this my mouth waters and my tummy grumbles! This place was SOOO good!

While we were running across town for dinner and back to Lincoln Center for the show, I had somehow LOST our Tickets!!! Uh oh! Thank goodness I paid with a credit card and the guy we bought them from was still there at the ticket window. So he was able to reprint them for us! I got super lucky on that one! I think I would have cried!

While we were watching the show it started to rain, we didn't have an umbrella but we didn't mind... we just ran to to the subway and it takes you so close to anywhere you need to go! It's amazing!

One more day in New York! Coming soon!

I WANT SOME FALAFEL!!! Can anyone suggest any here in hawaii?!?!? I'm sure I can find some somewhere in town, I just have to look for it!

New York: Day 5

2009-11-25T00:07:00.000-08:00

Another awesome day in New York! We started the day off by going to Grand Central Station. What a cool place that is! We just went inside and took a look around for a bit.

On our way out there was this big open area that look like it was roped off but not really. No one was there and we just wanted to go walk around and sit on the benches. As we walked up we noticed there was something left on the bench. As we got closer it looked like an iPod touch or iPhone. sure enough when we got there it was an I phone. We opened it up to see if we could find a number to call to return it. We called the last number the person called and it was the woman's husband. He told us where she worked so we set off to return it to her... but not before taking some self portraits with her phone! hahah!

Here's stuart on the phone:

After our wild goose chase trying to find this lady we met up with Evan for a quick lunch. I forget what it was called but it was another rueben sandwich kind of place and oh so tasty. It was right down the street from this cool building (the flat iron building).

Stuart took this picture... see me?

We really wanted to see a Broadway show and were told to try and get tickets through the lottery they hold the day of. We were trying to get tickets for "In the Heights". They only have so many available so you line up and at a certain time a lady comes out tells you to write your name on a paper and whether you want 1 or 2 tickets. You have to come back in and hour or so and she will draw names until all the tickets are gone. Me, Stuart, Tam, and Evan all filled one out for 2 tickets each to better our odds. We were feeling lucky and Tamara and Evan's name both got pulled so we were all able to see it! Tickets were cheap and such good seats!!! We were FRONT AND CENTER! It was an awesome show full of great music and dancing and some very likable characters. Here we are so excited about our tickets!

Here we are after the show in Time square!

What a fun day!!!! More fun is sure to come, so stay tuned!!!

New York: Day 4

2009-11-23T22:41:00.000-08:00

I'm Back with another installment of New York! This is day 4 and 1/2 way through our trip. It started out with us hopping on the subway to go to church... the church building in New York is interesting because its in the middle of the city (I don't know if "middle" is the right term because whenever we were going anywhere we were underground so it was hard for me to get a feel for where anything was in comparison to anywhere else that we had been). It was right across the street from Juilliard which was cool to see. Not only that but the same building houses the chapel as well as the Temple! Pretty awesome!

Pretty awful angle I know... (we were about to go down to the subway when I remembered I wanted a photo of the temple) oops.

After church we took a walk down to Central Park. It was so beautiful! And I got to see those beautiful fall leaves that we don't get over here!

Not only were the trees beautiful but the light was awesome!

I'm not really sure but I think Stuart told me to be serious.... I couldn't hold that face long enough to get and shot of it but that's ok.

One of Stuart's old mission companions lives in NYC so we met up with him so they could catch up!

And since the game was rained out last night.... It's game day!!!

Here's Stuart supporting our angel's!

We were all about supporting the Angel's in Yankee territory. So we got all of our red stuff and Angel apparel.

We took the subway into the Bronx with the Thousands and Thousands of Yankee Fans. We got quite an ear full but we found a couple nice ones who were willing to pose for a picture. Don't they look fierce!?

Another awful shot but I had to put it in here.

Here's Tam and Evan in front of Yankee Stadium!!!

Go Angels!!!

This is obviously before the game =) haha!

So is this one! I have never in my life been boo'd at so much! It was incredible! When we got off the subway and were walking with all of the other game goers there were security guys in the tunnels with megaphones and as soon as one spotted us, he announced that there were Angel fans there and everyone turned and boo'd us! And told us to go home! It was hilarious! That was all in good fun but there were some seriously mad people who were disgusted to see us there.

We were pretty much at the very top of the stadium so when we walked up the stairs and turned the corner everyone above us saw us immediately (i mean how can you miss that clifford the big red dog parka?) and started yelling at us! And those who didn't see us immediately, turned to look as soon as they heard all the booing and promptly joined in!

The shot above is funny because we wanted to get a photo with the field in the background and were doing the whole self portrait thing when the guy sitting behind us offered to take it. After he snapped the shot he said "oh, I didn't see your hat" Apparently he wouldn't have offered had he noticed we were angel fans! SO FUNNY!

Bobby Abreu is my favorite so I had to get a shot of him on the screen since I couldn't get one of him in real life. He just looks like a cute cuddly teddy bear! Good reason to be my fave huh?

What an amazing stadium! I'm so glad we were able to be there! What an experience!!!

It started to get really cold really fast! So I bundled up as much as possible. There was a guy sitting in front of us wearing shorts! I couldn't believe it! I was freezing!

Even though the Angels lost, and that was sad, it was super cool to be there at game six! And watch the Yankees win the American League Championships! Too bad it wasn't the Angels.

GO ANGELS!!!! We still love you! And there's always next year!

Another wonderful day in new york! And still more to come!

New York: Day 3

2009-11-12T09:59:00.000-08:00

This is gonna be a short post. Today was supposed to be game day! As soon as the angel's won in Anaheim and we knew there was going to be a game six in New York jumped online and found tickets to the game! We were super stoked to be going to an angel game at Yankee stadium! Can you imagine???

First we went to Lunch (yes, lunch was first... remember how we stayed on Hawaiian time? Six hour difference... no biggie!) at the world famous Katz's Deli.

Yes Stuart and Evan are sporting their Angel's Gear in New York City... Yankee territory! Brave I know.

Here we are having a playful "discussion" with the workers of Katz's. They didn't like Evan's Jersey. Neither did a table full of guys that told us to get out of the city! And they weren't even joking about it. Looking at their faces you would think that we had done something really terrible like stolen their little sister's kitty cat and strung it up in a tree. The workers were nice though.

Here's Stuart waiting for the subway. I must say, the Subway is amazing and I loved it! What a brilliant idea that works perfectly. And the people who live there and use it all the time know all the ins and outs about it! I personally got turned upside down and around every time I went underground and came up again... but it's really an amazing system they have going there!

Another shot... pretty much the exact same but I like both. I like the yellow streak but I also love the one with the american flag passing by!

So like I said... it was supposed to be game six but it got rained out. I think instead we stayed in and watched a football game.

Stay tuned for day 4!

New York: Day 2

2009-11-09T19:48:00.000-08:00

Wow that took a while! Thanks Andie for the reminder and encouragement to get day two and more up on here!

Day 2 we started out at the early hour of around noon. =) Apparently we decided to just stick to hawaiian time and not do the whole time change thing. I guess thats ok to do in the city that never sleeps.

Stuart and I ventured out on our own and made our way down to the the Staten Island Ferry. I wanted to see the Statue of Liberty while we were there and this was perfect.

This is a FREE ferry over to Staten island that goes right by Lady Liberty. We rode over to Staten island where we had to get off and then just walked right back on. We were told that there is absolutely nothing to see or do over there so we got back on the ferry.

Isn't she lovely!?

After our ferry ride we went to Greenwich Village! We love it there! We just walked around the little neighborhood looking at the cute apartment buildings and the little businesses there. If we had to live in New York this is where we would want to be for sure! We also found our all time favorite place to eat! There'll be more on that in another post! Evan and Tamara came and met us for dinner which was amazing and I crave it now! Tamara's friend had a show at a comedy club and got us on "The List" so we got in free.

I took this photo before they got up and said no photography or video allowed. So after that I obediently put it away. But I'm glad I got this shot first =). Ryan Hamilton was the comedian and he was hilarious!!! You should google him for sure! And the main guy was also really funny and the show was awesome! It was our first time in a comedy club and it was such an awesome experience and I'm glad we were able to go!

After the comedy club we went to the driving range at Chelsea Piers. It was super fun!

Stuart broke one of the clubs while we were there. hahah. But it was no big deal, they just gave him another one... Is that common or something?

Oh he also hit the ball so far it hit the net.... I think he even hit one out and over it into the water! Stuart LOVES the driving range.... I don't think he'd like real golfing too much but he just loves to see how far he can hit the ball!

Another awesome day in New York! We probably went and got Pizza when we got home at midnight too. I wouldn't be surprised... we ate a lot of pizza while we were there.

I hope you enjoyed day 2! I know we did! More New York posts to follow... hopefully it won't take as long this time!

New York: Day 1

2009-10-31T16:00:00.000-07:00

Stuart and I were lucky enough to be able to take a trip out to New York last week and it was AMAZING!!! We had a blast while we were there and did so many things it was unbelievable! It was a once in a lifetime experience and we're glad we did it! I took a ton of photos while we were there so I've decided to break it up into multiple posts organized by day... Here we have day 1... enjoy!

We flew into Newark at about 7:30am and this was the view of the sun coming up over the city!

This trip was full of firsts for me, one of those was my first time on a real train!

We came up from underground and this was the first city building we saw... it was so tall (this photo doesn't do it justice)

As we were walking I saw this sign on the sidewalk and thought it was hilarious!

We got to Evan's dropped our stuff and were off to see the city... and meet Tamara! She's Awesome and we love her and couldn't be happier for the 2 of them!

We went to central park and walked around for a bit.

There were beautiful Fall leaves there for us to see! Loved it!

After central park we headed over to the Top of the Rock.
There was such an amazing view of the whole city from there!

(Yes Stuart got yelled at for sitting up here)

This is just a crazy looking Church that had such cool light reflecting onto it from its surroundings!

We checked out FAO Schwartz and played the BIG piano.

Here's The PLAZA

And a shot from Top of the Rock!

It was such a beautiful day! We had perfect weather that first day that we were even able to wear shorts and a t-shirt! We were so beat from our LONG day of traveling. We went home and I ended up taking a 6 hour nap! I woke up at 11 pm wondering where Stuart and Evan had gone but they showed up literally 3 minutes later after going to sing karaoke with friends and watch some of the angels game... talk about perfect timing! Ahhh what a perfect day in the city!

More to come! So stay tuned!

I can see clearly now....

2009-10-16T23:17:00.000-07:00

I haven't gone to the eye doc in an extremely long time... I finally decided it was time to go because I was sure that my contacts that are over 4 years old were not the right prescription anymore. Not only that but these days these eyes are my money maker! I've got to take care of these babies! Since I don't have insurance, and I don't have any loyalty to any doctors, I went to the Costco eye people. It was quick and (mostly) painless and they tested my eyes and checked them out. They gave me a knew prescription and sent me home with some free loot (actually, I guess I paid for it in my bill) as well as crystal clear vision!! I'm not sure if it is possible for better vision to make colors seem more vibrant or if the last few days have just been absolutely beautiful out here! It's hard to tell but either way, I'm enjoying my new contacts!

While I'm enjoying my clear vision... I'm still longing for some laser eye surgery so I can be done with the hassle of contacts. I get so lazy with my eyes that I would end up just sleeping with them in... for days and days at a time. I know how bad that can be, I got scoldings from Doc when I was there and I have already changed my ways. I now take out my contacts every night before climbing into bed. I guess I need to start an EYE Fund then maybe in a few years I can do it! Wish me luck!

Kauai weekend getaway!

2009-10-14T00:25:00.000-07:00

*This is a really long post... so if you want to skip all the details: We went to Kauai, and had a blast! Now you can go down to the bottom to see a few photos of our adventures! But if you want the long story here it is....

This last weekend Stuart and I took a quick trip over to Kauai. We took the 1st flight out in the morning and the last flight home the next night. It was a fast 2 days but such a fun trip! We were having so much fun that I didn't remember to get the camera out until the last 1/2 of our second day there.

A LONG review of what went down:
Landed in Lihue and walked out to the parking lot where our friend's uncle parked his car earlier that morning for us to take and use for our 2 days there (he flew out and we flew in, so instead of the car sitting there for 2 days building up a big parking ticket, he let us borrow it). Stuart got a text that said "walk out to parking lot turn right and walk 45 steps". Hahaha! I love how small and simple that airport was!

We were lucky enough to be able to stay with my friend Joy's Parents. They were so welcoming to us and are some of the nicest people I know (it's so obvious where Joy gets it from)! We had some breakfast and headed off to Hanalei. They even let us borrow some boards so we could surf. When we got there it was a bit rainy and cloudy and once we paddled out, the clouds clear out and we could see the big green mountains with waterfalls spread all across! It was such an amazing view! Complete paradise! I know, I know I should have taken a picture, sorry.

After a 2 hour surf sesh we grabbed a bite to eat and headed back to Lihue for the purpose of our trip, the mini water polo tournament. They have put together a little club team on Kauai and wanted to invite some polo players over for the 1st ever water polo tournament for that island! It was so much fun. We had a great team of 8 or 9 players, so we all got plenty of PT. It was super casual and fun and everyone had a great time!

*little side note: My man Stuart is SO GOOD! I never got to see him play because the polo program was cut right after we met. I'm quite impressed with his water polo skills!

So they put on a nice BBQ for us after we were done playing which was perfect! By that time we were exhausted and ready to go home and crash. Which we basically did. We went back to the house and were asleep by 7:30! (oh yeah, we had to wake up at 4:30am that morning so that explains why we were so tired) It felt so good to sleep and we got 12 hours in! Which was nice so we would be ready to play another game of polo!

We went back to the house after our game (and brought our friend Janna from the teamalong) and had lunch with Auntie Liane and Uncle Mark (Joy's parent's) and were able to hang out and talk with them for a while. We still had quite a bit of time before we had to go to the airport so we decided to go for a drive and check some stuff out. We drove by a lighthouse and then wanted to find some dessert so we drove until we found some ice cream! It was perfect!

Our trip was absolutely wonderful!!! And it was a nice little warm-up or practice round for our travels to New York next week!

We drove past this place on our way to and from the pool and airport and I just loved the name of the store, not to mention these cute statues! It was called "Two Frogs Hugging"

I had to get a photo of them before we left and when we pulled in, we realized that there were these gigantic chairs out in front that we NEEDED to climb on top of and take some pics! Plus we were just killing some time.

Here we are in front of the sign of a place we didn't actually eat. Just thought it would be funny to take the photo.

Sorry it's been so long since my last post, but as you can see, We are having so much fun!!! My husband is the best ever! And we are living the good life for sure!

I bet you can't tell me that those frogs aren't the cutest ever! Can you???

Good News!!!

2009-09-29T22:58:00.000-07:00

We are going to be quite the little travelers this coming month! Not this week but the weekend after, we will be going to Kauai for a little Water polo tournament that we get to play in! It should be really fun and mellow, and a good chance to get in the water and play a few games!

But here's the really exciting, big news... the week after we will be heading out to NEW YORK!!!! I don't know how long I have dreamed about going to New York but we're really going! We bought our tickets last night so there's no turning back =) We are super Lucky because we get to stay with Evan (Stuart's brother) who has been living there and going to Columbia. He'll know everything we need to do while we're there! That also saves us a huge chunk of change not having to book a hotel! We're so excited! We also saved a bunch on our flights because when we were flying home (from our panama trip) we had to sit on the plane at LAX for 4 hours. United felt bad about it and gave each of us a $250 credit voucher for our next flight with them. SCORE!

We are so looking forward to spending time with Evan, checking out the sights, seeing a broadway show, eating yummy food... and maybe even catching a Angels/Yankee game!

GO ANGELS!!

I"M SOOOO EXCITED!!!! Bet you couldn't tell. ; )

Photo Credit: Google Images

Geckos

2009-09-22T00:00:00.000-07:00

I know you feel like I've neglected you! And I truly am sorry. And this post probably won't make you feel any better. It might make you laugh... or at least smile.

I help a gecko move away from home today. I don't know if he wanted a new life but he sure has one now. I hopped on my bike this morning to go to work (subbing at the high school) as I peddled away from home I noticed I had a little friend along for the ride. A cute little gecko. I wasn't sure if he would jump off but I kept my eye on him and he just stayed put. All the way down to the elementary school. He was just cruizin on my little black basket. I had to go off a little curb and when that happens, my basket bounces quite a bit. When the first tire went off it bounced him off the basket and onto my bag sitting inside the basket. However when the second tire made the drop, it bounced him right out of the basket. He landed on the ground and scurried away to explore his new life.... i'm pretty sure they aren't like cats and he won't be finding his way home to P-Loop. This was like moving to the other side of the world in gecko land.

Image Credit: Google images

Jersey Sheets and a little motivation

2009-09-06T15:54:00.000-07:00

Those jeans on my wall haven't been worn for about 2 1/2 years. Its sad really. They've been sitting on a shelf or in a box and most recently packed in a suit case (not because they were going anywhere but because they were being stored). They are my "Goal Jeans". I like these goal jeans because its realistic. When I bought them, they fit me perfectly. I have a picture with me in them (thats it on the wall). I figure, my goal jeans weren't doing any good packed away and needed to be seen. Now they hang on the wall with proof that I can get into them! I hope they won't be up there for long and i'll be wearing them comfortably soon enough!

Oh yeah, I bought some new sheets. They're bright green and sooo comfy cozy! We love them!

The Hobie Cat

2009-08-17T15:56:00.000-07:00

Saturday we had such a fun day! We started out in the morning doing a Highway cleanup with the restaurant that Stuart works at. That got us up and going nice and early. After that we got our longboards and went up to sunset beach for a little surf. It wasn't great but it was a beautiful day and nice to get in the water. We had some errands to run in Laie and just as we were finishing them up we saw our friend Mark who was just about to take out the Hobie Cat with his son. He invited us to come and we jumped at the chance!

Atticus is ready to launch!

Captain Mark

Stuart helping prepare.

Me!

I got the SPECIAL seat! It was super cool!!

We went out to Goat island and played in the water for a bit.
Looks fun doesn't it?!

We had a blast out on the water! And it was just a chance happening so it was fun to be so spontaneous! We're pretty spontaneous already but this was something so new! Mark's awesome and we're lucky to have such a fun friend!

#44: Get my first stamp in my Passport! CHECK!

2009-08-14T22:35:00.000-07:00

Remember my 101 in 10001? I had sort of pushed it to the back of my mind. However, I have completed a few more on my list! Like #44: Get my first stamp in my Passport! This was completed on July 11th 2009 in Panama City, Panama! It was quite a momentous occasion for me!

Yay for me and my Stamps! I plan on getting lots more in there! We've been bitten by the travel bug! Watch out world... here we come!

Good News!

2009-08-14T00:44:00.000-07:00

When we moved out of TVA we knew that this spot was temporary. From the beginning we were told that it was only until September. That was fine with us, it would give us 6 months of cheaper rent and we could find a new place to live. Since being home from our trip to Panama, we have been looking for a place to live, everyday checking out craigslist seeing if anything new was listed. We would see a few spots and quickly realized that as soon as we moved out of our home with the Kai family, we would be paying double in rent. Not to mention we are having so much fun with the kids in this house! We moved out of our apartment and into a home with a ready made family. We are so lucky and blessed to be in this home and a part of the family. Recently we found out that plans changed and we no longer have to move out at the end of the month! We are SO glad!

Plus we would miss these guys!

And the other kids of course... but I only had this picture of these 3 cuties!

A few nights ago, we played Hide & Seek with the boys. In the 3rd or 4th round I had THE BEST hiding spot ever! It took forever for Jurell to find me, and he even had to call out "Ollie ollie oxen free". And here I was:

I'm sitting in the sink of the old kitchen upstairs that is no longer used as a kitchen but more of a storage area. I was sitting there for so long that by the end of it, my entire lower body had to be asleep! Note to self.... if you have a really good hiding spot make sure its comfortable. Pros: You feel really good about not being found even though your a "big kid" and can't fit in the good hiding spots. Cons: after a while you can't feel your legs!

3 Years Ago...

2009-08-10T23:41:00.001-07:00

I married the boy of my dreams! We flew off into the sunset to live in paradise and enjoy our new life together. As it turns out, we are still living in paradise and still enjoying our eternal honeymoon! We are the very best of friends and as happy as can be! We live a simple life full of fun, laughter, love, and good surf!

This is from our drive to dinner tonight:

Stuart I Love You! You are my very best friend and I couldn't ask for a better life than the one we share together! I love our little adventures as well as our big ones! You make me laugh! You make me smile! You don't ever make me cry! You make me better! You inspire me to reach higher, create more, and achieve new and wonderful things! You are my One True Love! I want a million more years with you!

Today I love you just as much as I did the day I married you... and even more!

So long!

2009-07-11T00:37:00.000-07:00

Off to Panama for 2 weeks!!! Sorry but i'll be MIA for a bit.... I'm sure you'll be able to go on living without me here... Enjoy the next 2 weeks! I know I will!!!

Things that are cool...

2009-07-06T14:38:00.000-07:00

~ I got to watch a mama Jackson Chameleon give birth today... so cool! She's now the mama of 9 (i think).

~ I am flying out to California tonight.

~ I am all packed and ready to go.

~ I didn't even over pack (something I usually do).

~ I will get a stamp in my passport at the end of this week! My first one! I'll be crossing that one off my 101 in 1001 list (you haven't heard much about that in a long time! I'll have to go over that again because I've completed quite a few and haven't updated it yet)!

~ I get to surf all day every day for 2 weeks with my hubby, my brother, and friends! Super stoked!

~ I'm shooting my first wedding in a month! I did their engagement photos and they turned out awesome, I made a Guest Sign In album for them and expect it in the mail today!

~ My New Camera bag! I know I just got one "for christmas" but thats more for transporting gear. Its a backpack and I don't think it would look too professional to wear this backpack while i'm shooting a wedding! This one is perfect and easy to wear while shooting and OH SO CUTE!!!

~ I've been sleeping really good lately... love it!

Life is good... no, GREAT!

I know I know, boring post without a picture!

Oh wait... here's a fun underwater shot! Since I'll pretty much be a fish for 2 weeks!

This one's for you Dad!

2009-06-21T12:32:00.000-07:00

Dad you are the BEST! You are everything and more that a Dad should be! You love and support your kids, and we know it! You have always been there for me guiding me in the right direction and letting me make my own decisions. I wouldn't be where I am today without you and all you do! And even though we are an ocean apart you are still taking care of me! You are an inspiration to all.

I love that when us kids get together... we can talk about who is your favorite. I know I am... but Gavan, Mahina and Kawika are all convinced it is themselves. How do you do it?! When you hear this discussion, you just sit back relax and don't say a word, you're all smiles! But just between you and me... I know I'm you're favorite! *WINK WINK*

Here's a rainbow for you! I know it's late but maybe you can use it next year!

I LOVE You Lots Dad!!!

Happy Father's day!

Graduation!

2009-06-10T14:30:00.000-07:00

Stuart's Graduating! Lets Party!!!

2009-06-04T15:10:00.000-07:00

Stuart will be walking on Saturday in his graduation ceremony! We decided to make a graduation announcement and party invite all in one... we sort of got a last minute start on it and most people won't be getting there's until later... So if you are lucky enough to be on island and want to come party with us, we're having a BBQ at Kakela Beach Park this Saturday the 6th around 12:00. If you can come let us know!

Life is good!

2009-05-30T18:10:00.000-07:00

Yes we are still alive! I don't know if anyone is still out there but for those of you still here... thank you for not giving up on me and this little 'ol blog.

You would think that with Stuart being out of school, things would be less busy and I'd have more time to blog. Not so... we are just as busy as we were when he was in school but now we're busy with fun! It's been a great couple of months and we're looking forward to many more coming up!

*Stuart has been working (about the same amount as he was when he was in school) at the restaurant Ola and is really enjoying himself there. He's moved up to be a "Grand Peacock" as they call themselves which is a night time server, a few times a week. Stuart loves it because he basically has all day to surf and play and then he goes in to work... not a bad schedule.

*I have been subbing at the high school but the end of the school year is next week. I've really enjoyed myself.

*Stuart is always off on Wednesdays and Sundays. So I put myself unavailable to sub on wednesdays so we can have our "Date Days" then. The past couple months we've had a bunch of "Surf Dates". Sometimes people crash our dates and it gets a little crowded but we've also been lucky enough to have some really great surf just the 2 of us! A great date for sure, plus you can't beat the price!

*Stuart and I both have callings in our new ward. First Stuart was called as the scout leader for the 11 year olds! Sounds like fun especially since this is our first time in a family ward (not just a married student ward). A few weeks later I was called as the Den Leader for the wolf cub scouts! Talk about a calling I never even thought about! I already went on a little hike with the boys! It was fun and I think I'll have a great time in this calling!

*We have some fun things set on the horizon that we are sooooo looking forward to!

~First Mom (stuart's) is coming out for a whole week! Stuart has his graduation ceremony next saturday so she's coming out for that! And we're gonna have some fun!!!

~We also are all set for our trip to panama in July! This will be my first time out of the country so I get to use my sad little passport that I got a while back thinking i'd be using it last year! We have a few friends going and Kawika will be there with his friends too! Can't wait!

~A little less than a week after getting home from Panama, i'll be flying out to Utah to shoot my first wedding! My friend Jana is getting married and asked me to be her photographer! I can't wait for this! It'll be so fun to see her get Sealed and then be able to capture some magical moments between her and her husband to be! Plus I've been wanting to get into wedding photography and this will be perfect! Great family and great couple and people I already know!

We've got a summer jam packed with fun ahead of us! And i hope to keep you updated on all of it!

And because every post is better with a picture.... here's my man the graduate! This is from a shoot we did for his graduation announcements which you'll see soon!

Man what a hottie!

:^ )

2009-05-21T13:50:00.000-07:00

I Love My Sister!!! Check out her post of some fun pictures of us from my visit back in Feb....

Happy Birthday Dad!!!! / Happy Mother's Day!

2009-05-10T19:29:00.000-07:00

Today is my Dad's Birthday! And he is now 69 can you believe it?!?! He doesn't look anywhere near 70 (This picture is from last year but he still looks the same today I'm sure!).

Thank You Dad for everything! I hope you have had a wonderful Birthday and I wish we were there to help you celebrate! You are an amazing man and an inspiration!

Happy Mother's Day Mom! I hope you were able to enjoy your day even if you were away from everyone on a trip for work! I'm glad I was able to talk to you on this special day! Thank You for all you do! You are a great example to me and even though I'm not a mom yet, I'll be looking to you for help because I know I won't have a clue.

Mom and Dad.... I wouldn't be who I am today without you. Your love and support, your guidance and encouragement, your talents and your passion for different things have molded me and helped me grow. I am grateful for YOU. I Love You! And I'll thank You both ahead of time for the good genes I'm hoping you gave me! Hopefully I'll be as young and active as you when I grow up!

Love You!!!

xoxo,

Your Youngest Daughter

BUSY

2009-03-30T11:36:00.000-07:00

Been busy moving the last little while... but we are alive and well... just BUSY! We'll be back soon.

Gotta Love AAA

2009-03-27T19:43:00.000-07:00

Sorry about this extended absence that's been going on around here.

We have AAA for Auto insurance and just a few minutes ago while I was packing up our apartment, I found some mail from them saying it was time to renew. I quickly looked through the paperwork and found that I had missed the due date to make the payment on time. Uh oh... looks like our insurance lapsed... and that means that any time you try and get insurance the record of that shows up and makes it more expensive (the reason I know this is because I let our insurance just run out instead of canceling it when our old volvo stopped working and we were leaving island anyway, apparently that's no good and you get charged more when you get back and try an insure a new vehicle).

I called AAA to make the payment and asked if there was a penalty and the girl helping me was so nice and cheerful and said no, and that AAA is pretty lenient about that. Thank Goodness!

Back to cleaning and packing... but now i'm scared to find other stuff that needed to be done. Cross your fingers!

Moving on...

2009-03-15T16:04:00.000-07:00

The last few months or so we have been looking for places to move when Stuart finishes school and we get kicked out of TVA. And we found one! We actually went to a total of 2 spots to check them out! The first one was a studio so close to V-Land that it would have been absolutely amazing! It was a little bit more than we wanted to spend but when we saw it, we were willing to do it! We just wanted to check out one more place before we committed to it. The other spot, no one ever got back to us to let us know when we could come check it out... and the guy renting out the studio we looked at said that if we we're going to look somewhere else, the other guy would get it. Back to square one... things happen for a reason.

At the end of this month we will be moving into our new place! And its all inclusive! When I say all inclusive I mean ALL INCLUSIVE! This is a fully furnished room with attached bathroom, includes utilities, washer/dryer, Big Screen TV, Wii, PS3 (or some other video game console) some extra brothers and sisters, Auntie and Uncle, a bunny and a Jackson Chameleon. Oh yeah, and dinner with the family! All this for 1/2 the $$ of what we were finding before! Soon we'll be a part of the Kai Family!

Last week I saw my friend Krisha at the Basketball game, we were catching up a little and I mentioned that Stuart was almost done with school so we were just looking for places to live once he's done. She said her family was going to rent out a room in their house if we were interested. It sounded good so I told her I'd talk to Stuart and let her know. Stuart loved the idea so we set up a time to go see the room, as soon as we got there we fell in love with the place and are so excited to be a part of the family there!

It's been a good 2 1/2 years in TVA but we're excited to move on and move out!

P.S. Sorry no photo in this post, but thanks for reading through it anyways!

Actually.... since you read, you will be rewarded with this shot of the moon in the late afternoon New Mexico Sky.

Shameless Advertisment

2009-03-11T23:33:00.000-07:00

Surfing for me is not only an escape from the never ending demands of life out of the ocean, its also a space that fosters clarity of thought and revelation. While drifting idly in between the larger sets, my mind passively wanders back to the expectations of society on our little family. I think about cost of living, the prospect of owning our own house rather then renting, I think about my two jobs and my wife's day job and entrepreneurial ventures in Photography. I think about my family all across the mainland and wish so badly the could share in the beauty of the place we live. I think about finishing school (April 10) and how much that will change my daily life (basically replace school time with more surf time). I think about how blessed I am with good health, an amazing talented wife and a great family. Then a wave comes and I aggressively switch all my focus to the contours of the "bowl" (surf term describing the sharp curvature of the wave as it pitches)
Today while surfing some one asked me how, as a Life insurance agent, do I find new prospects. I wanted to say that there was more to what I do then simply opening my mouth but I couldn't. He caught a wave and I was left out the back floating by myself staring lazily at the sloshing horizon. My mind began, "how can I diversify the way I market my self as a salesman? Knocking on doors? fliers at school? free food and seminars? booths at public festivals? nah..." And then the genius idea seamed to fly through the salt air, into my eyes, soaking my brain... I thought..."ya, I should do a post advertising my services..."
Im sure Ill eventually have to make my own Life Insurance Blog to facilitate the high number of hits ;)
so coming soon to Ke Ola Maika'i...Stuarts shameless life Insurance advertisement...

This is is called negotiating the "Bowl"...all you who don't surf, see how much your learning?

Happy Birthday present to me!

2009-03-09T14:32:00.000-07:00

Remember when Stuart did a post about my birthday bike? Well here it is.... (actually this is just a google image, its been rainy and cold so I haven't taken the time to walk downstairs with my camera, move my bike and snap a quick shot of him... soooo lazy i know).

But this is pretty much what my New Birthday Bike looks like! and I love it! The blu on mine is a little more electric and I have a basket on the front! He's a beauty and so smooth! I ride him to the store, and to practice and its so nice an convenient! I love it!!!! Thank you Stuart! And thank you Mr. Man on craigslist who didn't want this bike!

Maybe i'll go take a real picture of trekie soon....

I survived!

2009-02-23T23:18:00.001-08:00

My first day as a substitute teacher! Last night I called the hotline to see if there were any jobs for me and there was... but it was at the elementary school and I was planning on going mostly for High School... that way, if the kids are horrible, you only have them for an hour and then you get rid of them. I was so nervous last night I could hardly sleep, I mean who am I kidding, I don't know what to do with little kids! I woke up early this morning, got ready and went to school. Turns out the teacher was on campus just in the library, there were 2 part time teachers that came in at different times, and after lunch there was a school talent show and "Super Raider" assembly (to honor the good students). I was happy to have someone else in the class who felt at home their, since its been quite a few years since I've been in the classroom. The kids were great and I don't think I messed them up too bad.

The biggest downside of today is that my feet are killing me! I haven't worn shoes in forever... and I only had 2 pairs that were kinda dressy enough for a teacher... one pair that I knew for a fact were ridiculously uncomfortable (but cute) and the other one that I was pretty certain would hurt my feet but not entirely sure (but once again, cute). *Note to self: next time you are buying shoes, put them on and walk around the store for at LEAST 15 minutes! Then decide. I vow never to buy shoes just because they are cute, they have to be comfy too! I have a couple pairs of shoes that are SUPER cute, but I never wear them (they're from 3-4 years ago when it rained for 40 days straight... whats a girl to do when you can't surf... I will take this time to blame Jana for that =) we went shopping.) I'm not a "shoe" kinda girl. If I wanna splurge on shoes... they'll be slippers and they'll be RAINBOWS!

Looking around at the feet of the kids, this is what I saw:

I was oh so jealous!! I wanted to run free. Only in Hawaii is it ok for you to show up at school barefoot. And maybe only this side. This made me think it would be ok if I wear slippers to school tomorrow. That's right, I'm going back tomorrow. This time its High School/intermediate. Wish me luck!

*Image credit: google images.... and I love this drawing/painting. So cute!

United

2009-02-20T16:18:00.000-08:00

Don't let your frequent flyer miles expire. And don't be fooled into thinking they don't expire when they send you a statement with all your miles that you've accumulated and under expiration date, they leave it blank. That probably means they're already expired. If you do happen to let them expire, you have a few options to get them back.

1. You can buy back the miles that expired.
- Oh really? and how much would that cost?
- Lets see.... calculating..... it would cost you One THOUSAND, Three HUNDRED and Twenty-Two DOLLARS and Seventy-Six CENTS.

Are you serious? I might as well just buy the tickets I was going to use the miles for... it would be much cheaper! Can you say REEEEE-DICULOUS!! (I Can.)

2. You can sign up for the Flight Challenge Promotion that we are running.
- Oh ok, how does that work?
- Well you sign up for this promotion and if you fly a round trip flight with united before March 1st 2009 then we will re-activate the miles that you lost.
- So how much does it cost to sign up for the promotion?
- $199.
Grrrrr.....

There was one other option but I don't remember what it was.... something equally, if not more ridiculous than Option #1.

Also, when you get married among all the other things you need to remember to change your name on, don't forget your mileage plus account. Because when you sign up for that flight challenge promotion, the person named on the ticket, has to match the name on the account for it to work.

Oh bother!

I did it. I signed up for that ridiculous promotion, flew a round trip flight on United, sent in all the documentation for my name change. And now I'm waiting on the miles to be re-activated. Once they are we can go ahead and book our flights from here to LA so we can make our already booked flight from LA to panama in JULY!

Of course I wish that my miles had not expired but in the long run, it worked out pretty nicely. We would have to pay $600 at LEAST to get to LA so instead I spent that much to go visit Mahina and Mitch and the girls... plus.... we'll get our flight to LA on our miles and we'll break even if not better and I had a wonderful trip to visit Albuquerque (not my favorite place... but some of my favorite people!)

Oh United.... how you frustrate me but i'm happy to be able to fly your friendly skies!

2009-02-12T11:19:00.000-08:00

"MALIA, ITS YOUR BIRTHDAY, AND NO ONE TURNS 26 BETTER THAN YOU!!"

Happpppppppyyyyyy Birthday Malia!

SO MALIA AND I WERE THE SAME AGE FOR 5 GLORIOUS DAYS BUT ILL HAVE TO WAIT ANOTHER YEAR TO CATCH UP AGAIN. MALIA IS GROWING SO MUCH IN HERE PHOTOGRAPHY AND ITS REALLY FUN TO HEAR PEOPLE COMPLEMENT HER WORK ESPECIALLY OTHER PROFESSIONAL PHOTO TAKERS. IM HER BIGGEST FAN.

CHECK OUT THIS BIKE!!!!!!

ISNT THIS AN AWSOME CRUISER?? I LOVE THE GREEN AND WITE TIRES...TO BAD WE DONT OWN THIS BIKE...I JUST FOUND THE IMAGE ON GOOLGE IMAGES... BUT MAN YOU CAN IMAGINE HOW NICE A BIKE LIKE THIS WOULD BE RIGHT? RIGHT? TRUST ME, I KNOW FROM EXPERIENCE IF YOU NO WHAT I MEAN.
BUT WE ARE GOING TO GO SHOPPING FOR BEACH CRUISERS THIS WEEK AND FIND THE PERFECT ONE FOR MALIA...
HAPPY BIRTH DAY MY LOVE

IF YOU LOVE MALIA LEAVE A COMMENT...

Surprise!!!

2009-02-11T11:21:00.000-08:00

As you already know from reading my blog, I was able to visit my Sister Mahina in New Mexico! What you may not have known is that it was a total surprise to her! She had no idea! I had called Mitch the week before asking if it would be okay for me to come and visit... he said yes and then I asked if he could not tell Mahina about it and he said Of course!

Our family is pretty big on surprises. If its an option to keep it a secret, we always do! The baby was due on February 8th but I was hoping she would come early because I had booked my flight to be there on the 27th and leave the 8th. The morning of my flight I got a call from my mom saying that Mahina had given birth! She couldn't have had better timing! I would get to see her as a one day old baby (i've never seen or held a baby that new)!

I had a layover in LA and while I was walking off my first plane, my phone started to ring. 5 minutes earlier or later the phone would have been off and she might have been suspicious. I looked and saw it was Mahina. I should have just let it go to voicemail but I picked it up.... silly me. I was walking through the terminal to my next gate trying to sound enthusiastic while not actually listening to anything she was saying... you see I was preoccupied with listening to my background noise making sure she wouldn't here any announcements over the loud speaker giving away my location. Anytime there would be an announcment I would start coughing to cover it up. Apparently while I wasn't listening to her she asked where I was, but I didn't answer the question... I was probably thinking so hard to find an excuse of where I was that I didn't even notice that she asked!

After a while, I said I had to go because I was ready to check out at costco but I'd call her later that night. She bought it. I felt so bad and hoped she wasn't sad that she had just told her sister she had a baby and her sister had totally blown her off and wasn't listening to a thing she was saying on the phone... I felt better knowing that it was for a good cause and that she would be so happy to see me that any sad feelings would melt away as soon as she saw me standing there in real life!

Mitch and the girls picked me up at the Airport. They were surprised to see me too. Mitch had told them they had to stop somewhere before going to see Mommie and their new baby sister. 1/2 way there Nani said "we're going to the airport!" Mitch assured her that they weren't. A few miles down the road Nani said "Hey that sign says airport!" guess you can't pull a fast one on them anymore once they can read! So then she thought they were picking up Tutu Lady (my mom). Surprise its Auntie Malia!

They were so good about not saying anything when Mahina called and when they went into her room without me. I decided I would wait outside for a few minutes and then come in by myself. I knocked on the door and heard "come in" I walked in with suitcase in tow and said "I caught the first flight out as soon as I heard!"

And this was her reaction:

Mitch had gotten the camera out to "take pictures of the baby" but really this is what he was waiting for! What do you think... did she have any idea from our conversation on the phone earlier that I was coming to visit? I think not.

Lookin' Good!

2009-02-10T09:00:00.000-08:00

I could hear the hair dryer blowing loud and clear from down the hall. I knew the girls had just taken a bath so I figured Mahina was drying their hair so it wouldn't dry funny. As I got closer, this is what I heard Mahina say:

"Man, Pink Bear is lookin' good!"

And then as I reached the open door this is what I saw:

And this:

What a good mom you are to your girls Mahina! Way to humor them and help style Pink Bear's hair... or fur, I guess.

Packing

2009-02-09T16:35:00.002-08:00

I walked into the room I was sleeping in and the girls were making a fort with all the blankets from the bed... later that day I went in to get something out of my suitcase, opened it up and saw this:

if you can't see... there are a bunch of little stuffed animals packed in there... and no, I didn't bring them from home. I thought it was pretty funny so I ran and got my camera to take a wuick picture of it!

Dear Airport Bathroom designers....

2009-02-08T08:36:00.000-08:00

I would like to make a suggestion. With all the Airlines doing this new thing of charging for any checked baggage, many people like myself are probably packing a little lighter and into a carry on item. When you have a little rollie suitcase and I do mean Little, it's still hard to take it into the tiny stalls with you! My suggestion would be to make the stalls either a little wider or a little deeper. You choose. I know I could go into the big stall and have plenty of room... but I wouldn't want someone who really needed it to come in and have to wait (I'm just nice like that=).

Sincerely,

One of your valued customers

(My suitcase isn't quite this cute in color and design...
but it is pretty cute because it is pretty miniture)

On a sidenote... there was a lady checking in in front of me whose luggage was 9 lbs over weight and she had to pay $125 extra for that! Can you say ridiculous?! It would have only been $40 if she had taken the 9 lbs out and checked an additional bag. She didn't have one and the check in lady suggested she go buy one upstairs where they sell suitcases. She paid the $125. Sad... but true.

*Thank you Free Internet Airport for allowing me to blog while I wait for my flight to leave! I have a 1 hour layover in Denver and then 2 Hours at LAX... hopefully those airports are just as giving with the free internet!

We're the Same age!!!!

2009-02-07T09:40:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday HUBBY!!!! I'm so sorry I'm not at home to celebrate with you... can you ever forgive me? I LOVE YOU! I hope you get to surf on your Birthday and you get an epic BIRTHDAY BARREL!!!

I'm coming home soon!!! And Cannot wait to see you!!! I'd come right now like you asked and bring the baby except I don't think I have what she needs... oh yeah and I don't think her parents would be ok with that... I'll see you soon! You're the best ever!

This picture kind of looks like you're sad and miss me (really you're just looking out at the brown water and sad that you can't go surf) but its one of the only pictures I have on the computer here...

Out of the mouths of babes... or 5 year olds

2009-02-05T22:17:00.000-08:00

"... and please bless uncle Stuart that he won't be lonely..."

said by Lala in her prayer at dinner tonight. I thought it was so cute and that Stuart would get a kick out of it!

Stuart I miss you and love you! And I hope that you won't be lonely too!

This is who I've been snuggling up to for the last week and a half! I just love the smell of this baby! And her soft little head is irresistible!

#13: Blog for 31 days consecutively. Check!

2009-01-31T19:01:00.000-08:00

I have completed number 13 of my 101 in 1001 List! Blog for 31 days consecutively. I had tried this last year and failed about 1/2 way through... Maybe this being the New Year helped. If you've missed out on some of my posts over this month feel free to go back and check them out! Also quite a few of them have been posts on my Photography blog so go on over there to see and leave a comment! Thanks for those of you who have been with me, I appreciate your comments!

And because I don't want to leave you without a photo, here's a shot of a fruit stand in China town I took... pretty cool looking fruit don't you think?

UH vs. UH

2009-01-26T09:00:00.000-08:00

The alumni game was fun! It was great to see some of my old teammates, I don't usually see. We had a fun time getting back in the pool and playing some polo. We didn't have all that many of us there so we enlisted the help of some guys who play polo... (one is an alumni's other half, another a volunteer coach for UH and a couple other friends of those guys.) Thank goodness we had their help! We wouldn't have lasted the 1st quarter without their help! We were up until the 4th quarter, then I think the refs decided not to be so easy on us.

Today's UH water polo team is full of HUGE girls with lots of experience! Many are international players from places like Canada, New Zealand, and Holland. While I was playing I couldn't find any weak links that I wanted to guard and maybe look good! It looks like they will have a great season! I wish them the best of luck this year!

GO BOWS!!!

The little things make me happy...

2009-01-24T09:00:00.000-08:00

The other day I was looking at my live traffic feed from my PhotoBlog and noticed there were so many different flags showing! I get excited when I see these little things! And even the American flags are from random places like Maine, Florida and North Carolina!

Now if I could only get all these people to comment that would be AWESOME!!!

UH vs. UH

2009-01-23T09:00:00.000-08:00

Alumni game tomorrow! Uh oh... I'm quite a bit out of shape and haven't touched a water polo ball since summertime! Good thing I carbo loaded tonight with my pasta... think that'll do the trick? I'm hoping so... I'm also hoping that there will be a lot of us so we can sub in and out every 30 seconds or so. Wish me luck and hope that I don't sink to the bottom of the pool!

Sorry no photo... I had a shoot today so those will be up sometime next week and I have another one tomorrow so there is stuff to look forward to... I'm super excited about it!

Go Bows!!! (the old lady Bows)

Fragile

2009-01-21T16:29:00.001-08:00

Bubblegum Showers!

2009-01-20T16:00:00.000-08:00

Stuart and I went on a date tonight... we were trying to get into Kaneohe after he got off work in time for the Benjamin Buttons movie. We didn't quite make it so we decided to see Bedtime Stories instead. We weren't disappointed! It was a great movie that made us laugh and smile! My absolute favorite part of the movie was here!

This picture doesn't do it justice, in the movie there is a close up that I absolutely loved! I wish that could have been me... or at least I could be there or recreate this type of scene! It was perfect! So much color... and the green truck couldn't be better! There were so many fun things about this movie! And we love his best friend! And want to keep seeing him in more movies!

Anyways... if you get a chance go watch the movie! Its really fun!

*Image credit goes to Google Images =)

Just for a laugh...

2009-01-19T15:09:00.000-08:00

My Mom emailed this to me last week and I thought it was absolutely HILARIOUS!!! So I had to share! With all of you!

(Here's the reply the teacher received the following day)
Dear Mrs. Jones,
I wish to clarify that I am not now, nor have I ever been, an exotic dancer.
I work at Home Depot and I told my daughter how hectic it was last week before the blizzard hit. I told her we sold out every single shovel we had, and then I found one more in the back room, and that several people were fighting over who would get it. Her picture doesn't show me dancing around a pole. It's supposed to depict me selling the last snow shovel we had at Home Depot.
From now on I will remember to check her homework more thoroughly before she turns it in.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Smith

We miss the Meyers!

2009-01-18T14:22:00.000-08:00

Remember our friends... Brett, Karen and Scotty? We do and we wish they still lived within yelling distance. Our neighbors probably got sick of Stuart yelling "Brett" from our doorway. Well we did get to see them for a VERY Short time while we were visiting California. And Scotty has grown quite a bit since last year when we saw him!

We were excited that he still remembered us because we weren't sure if he would. He's gotten so big, his hair has grown in, and he actually wears clothes (oh the good old days when he was always walkin around in his diaper)! He's a handsome little man now!

Oh who could resist those eyes??? Karen, I think he would get anything he wanted if looked up at me like that! Pretty soon you two are gonna have another cute little Meyer Monkey! Can't wait to see the little guy! We love you guys and miss you tons!

Anuenue

2009-01-16T09:00:00.000-08:00

Last week we had such a fun session out at V-Land... everyone who was out we knew except for 2 other guys so it was super mellow and fun! At one point out on the horizon we could see the Biggest brightest Rainbow I had EVER seen! It was awesome! I was sad that I didn't get a photo of it to show you.

A couple days later I went with my camera instead of a board (I thought is was going to be too big for me... it wasn't) There was a nice rainbow that I got but the one from the day before was a million times better and blew this one out of the water... but I might as well share this one with you anyway.

More Scotty

2009-01-15T09:00:00.001-08:00

As promised... here are some more shots from the day we had at the park. Erika had asked me if I would be able to take some photos of Scotty while I was in town so here they are! And what a cutie!

And wow! Look at those eyes! All of them!

Tried & True... Twice! But best to keep your phone dry!

2009-01-14T09:00:00.001-08:00

So baking our phone was good and saved us from being phoneless for too long however, there were some issues that we had to deal with, so it wasn't back to normal... just working.

- after the (2) water incidents we had trouble getting it to charge without holding the charging chord just right.

- Sometimes we could hear the person on the other end... sometimes we couldn't.

- We had to put it on speaker phone and then it was really loud for everyone else to hear.

- Then even the speaker phone was kinda quiet.

- I figured the best way to talk to someone was to put it on speaker phone and then hold it upside down. The sound was coming out where you talk into... so I just help the phone so I was talking into the listening side and listening through the speaking into side. I thought that was pretty funny and was almost ready to just keep it like that... the hard to charge part was the deal breaker... that just frustrates me.

So here's the old phone with our new replacement! We really like it already. There are a few things we'll miss i'm sure. But this phone came with a bluetooth thing built in. It just pops out of the back!

I know the picture is blurry but I didn't feel like taking another shot and re-uploading it and all that jazz so this is what you get. I never would have just bought a blue tooth but since it came with the phone I tried it out and its kinda cool.

For Erika...

2009-01-12T21:43:00.000-08:00

I know you've been patiently waiting... and there will be more to come I promise, I'm still working on some! But hopefully this will hold you over until then!

I know it's late....

2009-01-11T13:32:00.000-08:00

...and not very exciting, but here's a quick New Years Card.

I had an idea for our New Years card that we never got around to doing (very sad) but I think we'll save it for next year! I hope everyone out there in internet Land is having a wonderful new year!!! We're enjoying life in Paradise together... as always!

Tried & True... Twice!

2009-01-10T18:39:00.000-08:00

If your phone ever gets soaked and stops working, have no fear... all is not lost! A couple days ago, we left our phone on the kitchen counter next to the sink... a stream of water often runs across the counter from the sink so after finding our phone in a puddle on the counter we thought it was time for us to get a new phone. We opened it up dried off what we could and decided to let it sit over night to dry out. The next day I remembered that if you let it sit in rice over night, the rice will suck the moisture out so I filled up a bowl with rice and buried the phone in it. That day I talked to Kawika and he said you can actually bake your phone in the oven and it will work again. I was skeptical but was willing to give it a try.

I threw that bad boy in our toaster over and baked it for 20 minutes at 200 degrees. Voila! It works again! Who woulda thought?!

This morning I went out for a quick photo shoot and left Stuart sleeping soundly. When i returned home, he told me there was another mishap with our phone... apparently, there was an early morning phone call that stuart didn't want to take (sorry Kawika) so Stuart picked up the phone, pushed the silence button, and put back on top of the dresser... as soon as Stuart let go of the phone, he realized that he was holding it right above his cup of water. Thats right... phone + cup of water = a phone that doesn't work. I laughed at him, took the phone, opened it up and stuck it and the battery back in the toaster oven for another 20 minutes! Now I'm not saying I want this to be a Bi-weekly occurance, but it is nice to know that it will work even twice in one week!

The Girffith Park Observatory

2009-01-09T09:00:00.000-08:00

Like I promised...

So we took a nice drive out to the Observatory in 2 vans. Our van had Evan, the Ferkins, Stuart and I in it and the other van had Michal's Family and Mom in it. Michal's van had to run to costco first so we got split up and drove through the park ahead of them. We found our way up to the observatory but were driving in a line of cars up to the little parking lot at the top. There were so many people going up there that we had decided that we probably wouldn't get a spot and would just go home. as luck would have it, a car right in front of us pulled out so we grabbed the spot and walked a little way up the rest of the hill.

We were playing on the lawn out front for a while waiting for the rest of our group. Then I started to play Photographer. We actually never even went inside and the above picture is the only one of the actual observatory.

I made Stuart be my model... then actually let him take some shots of me... there haven't been any of those lately!

*On a side note... I never have pictures of me so I didn't notice how many freckles I have until I was editing these photos! .... I have a ton of freckles!

Isaac, Flint and Alli.

Evan got this shot of Stuart and I! The sunset was beautiful!

Here Stuart was playing with the camera.

Here's the view of the Hollywood Sign from where we were. pretty cool. I'd never been that close to it.

Here's Evan with his cool camera! and cool where's waldo Sweater!

Like I said... a beautiful sunset! Look at that sky!!!

Unfortunately the other van was turned away and never made it up the hill. I never made it inside to see what the observatory was all about... I was just having too much fun taking photos... the light was beautiful up there! However... I was freezing! My fingers were all frozen and I couldn't just keep em in my pockets cuz I wanted to shoot! It was a different experience shooting in the cold for me!

Flint, Alli and Isaac

2009-01-08T15:24:00.000-08:00

A beautiful day in California found us up at The Griffith Park Observatory in LA. We had beautiful blue skies but boy was it FREEZING! More to come about our time up at the observatory later but for now here are some shots of the Ferkins.

What's Christmas Dinner without....

2009-01-07T10:00:00.000-08:00

SPAM MUSUBI???

That's right... we had spam musubi as a part of our Christmas dinner and it was delicious as always! Mom and Dad were going to be gone for Christmas so we decided to have a Christmas Dinner on the Sunday before. Dad made and amazing Exotic Mushroom Soup and we made Spam Musubi to add to the Dinner table... We couldn't have anything resembling Thanksgiving on the table due to an unfortunate Day after Thanksgiving Stomach Flu incident in one part of our family (I didn't mind that... I don't like turkey anyway!)

Yes, it was a beautiful Christmas Dinner... very low key and YUMMY YUMMY YUMMY!!!!

Happy Birthday Andie!

2009-01-05T07:00:00.000-08:00

Andie I wish you the very best in this New
Year and your New Age! It was so good
to spend the day with you! Thanks
for finding me that cool brick
wall/alley I was looking for!
I'm glad we got a couple
good shots before the
sun left us in the
dark!
I Love you!
Happy Birthday!

~Malia

The Kids!

2009-01-04T10:00:00.000-08:00

We were so happy that Michal, Jared and the kids were able to come down while we were visiting! The last time we saw them was almost 2 1/2 years ago at our wedding and since then they added Bronwen to the family! On a beautiful sunny (and cold) day, the boys got together with some old friends at the park to play a little football. I went with Michal and the kids down to the park so I could get some shots of them! They are such adorable kids!

Kimball:

Henry:

Ian:

Bronwen:

We had fun...
unfortunately, we never walked
over to see the guys playing football,
so I didn't get any pictures of Stuart
and his old friends that he rarely sees.
Oops!

100 MPH... 26 stories high... head-over-heels thrills... flying through flames...

2009-01-03T09:30:00.000-08:00

I'm There!!!

Gavan took me to Six Flags Magic Mountain while I was visiting and we had a blast! I think we did it perfectly... we got up early and made the drive to get there just before the gates opened so we would be one of the first people in the park!

When you walk in, there are all these park photographers who rush at you to take your picture, I felt like we had made it past all of them but spoke too soon, just as I said it, one came running up to us so we stopped and smiled for her... then she said "Okay one more and this time how about a kiss" uhh.... "No, we're brother and sister" Sheepishly she says "oh ok, then a peace sign"

So we make it inside the park and run to Viper first, we run through the "line" all the way to where you board all lanes were open so we decided to wait one run to get in the front car.... 7 loops later and we're on to the next ride feeling good!

This is when we found Tatsu... if you get a chance to go to 6 Flags... this is a must ride!

You climb into the seat, pull the harness down over your shoulders, lock that in place and then the ride operators come and strap your feet down... when everyone is in and ready, seats rotate forward so you are face down to the ground! Like this:

Its such a smooth and enjoyable ride with lots of twists and turns and stomach dropping plunges! After Tatsu we ran over to Superman. It looked like it was closed because there was no one around, and the tunnel that the line would go through was dark we walked through the whole thing and hopped right in the car... no one else riding! 10 seconds later we were on to our next ride!

So we ran through the park and never had to wait more than 5 minutes for anything! It was crazy! Then we went to X2

This is like the most extreme Roller Coaster they have so this one we had to wait 45 minutes for but they had these TV's playing xtreme sports clips and all those wipeout clips (Not my Favorite thing to watch) I like watching the xtreme sports when they make it... I hate watching those painful spills. Anyways... this ride is complete with a little soundtrack playing in your ears, more than vertical drops, and flying through flame throwers! As we made the climb in the begining Icould feel how cold the air was getting with the wind picking up... but you could seriously feel the heat when we went through the fire!

So we made it onto every ride we wanted to and went back to a couple for seconds... by that time we were hungry so headed out to the car to eat the lunches we packed and make the drive home. We were out of the park by 2 o'clock having had enough fun! Plus you don't wanna go back on those kinds of rides after eating lunch.

Thanks Gavan for such a fun day!

*Image Credit goes to Google Images

The Girls....

2009-01-02T09:00:00.000-08:00

While I was in California, I had the chance to get together with Andie and Camille! It was soo great to get together even if it was only for a few short hours.... These days it seems like we have an annual Christmas break lunch together! Last year we had one with the boys too (our husbands)... but this year it was just us girls! Now that I think about it we seem to have started a tradition of having lunch at a taco place... Last year it was Baja Fresh and this time it was Wahoos!

(Photo Stolen from Andie's blog)

Its always fun to get together with Andie and Camille because even though I live in Hawaii and only get to see them once a year (if that) it's like we can just pick up where we left off 7 1/2 years ago when we were in high school together (has it really been that long???). Where does the time go?? I kinda think we feel the same... and I think we pretty much look the same.... (besides camille's little baby bump!)

(So is this one... hope you don't mind!)

So... we had a wonderful lunch and then I wanted to do a mini photo shoot of these girls at the park just for kicks.

I Love you Girlies!!! It was great to get together and have more laughs like old times! You're beautiful inside and out and I am so grateful for the lifelong friendship that we have!!! I look forward to our next Christmas Lunch! Maybe next time you guys can make it out here... I know a lovely little place for lunch! And don't forget about our girls retreat out here in Hawaii! Love you lots! Happy New Year to all!!!!!

Playing Catch Up...

2009-01-01T07:00:00.000-08:00

Ok so I feel a little overwhelmed about posting from the last 2 weeks in California... I decided I will start slowly and play catch up for a little while... I also figured that the last 2 weeks should have given me some good stuff to blog about and I will spread it out in little posts... Remember my 101 in 1001 list? Well #13 was to blog for 31 days consecutively.... I'm thinking that with New Years and all, what better time than to start now? So for the month of January, there should be a post everday either here or on my PhotoBlog.

I wish you all a Wonderful New Year!!!
All the best to you in 2009!

Home Sweet Home!

2008-12-31T13:37:00.000-08:00

We're still alive and well... just got home from a 2 week visit to California. No time or no internet access (not from my computer anyway) stopped me from blogging. We had lots of fun visiting with friends and family and loved the time we had there, but are sure glad to be home in our messy apartment! Lots of updates and photos to come!

This is a photo of a fern that I took outside of my parents house... I couldn't leave you without a photo could I???

This kid...

2008-12-10T22:31:00.000-08:00

Makes My Heart Melt!

Happy December!!!

2008-12-02T13:46:00.000-08:00

Can you believe it's December already?! I can't! I looked at the calender yesterday and saw it was December 1st and thought wow. Then I looked at the temp (80 degrees) and thought, I love my life! Its good to be able to wear shorts and a t-shirt in the middle of winter and not be thought of as crazy. It's good to go surf either "trunkin it" or with just a wetsuit top on. I love it out here! Last night Stuart and I went out for an evening surf and it was B.E.A.U.T.I.F.U.L!!!!! At first there was a crowd but after a short time all but one other surfer went in. The sun had set behind the mountain making the clouds a bright orange that reflected off of the perfectly glassy water. It was nothing short of amazing! No Camera so no picture unfortunately... but you can imagine right?

Now I just need to prepare myself for our little visit to california... I already know I'm gonna freeze. I'm dreading getting in the ocean there... but I will just so I can surf with my Big Bros!

So here's a picture from Thanksgiving day! Stuart and I took one board out and the camera. This is me surfing V-Land. I was catching the little insiders so you can't seein this picture that there are about 35 other people out. But as you can see.... its a beautiful sunny day in the winter!

Testing 1-2-3

2008-11-28T13:34:00.000-08:00

...Gone surfing

2008-11-27T10:23:00.000-08:00

Im thankful for my best friend...
happy thanksgiving...
and were so grateful for the divine creation of the ocean, for our chance to glide in its energy. The ocean is a place where awkward bodies can be graceful like a soaring bird or a leaping gazelle (Dorian Paskowitz, surfer/author). what a magnificent gift from heavenly father.
(you can tell Ive been writing a research paper cause I site every thing...coming soon, our blogs Bibliography)

The Light tent

2008-11-26T08:30:00.000-08:00

Andie asked to see what the light tent looked like. Stuart took the picture of me shooting an object inside of the light tent. He took it with the camera that I put above the picture of me shooting.

I had a lot of fun with this thing!

Our Web Cam

2008-11-25T01:06:00.000-08:00

Stuart had to go to the library tonight to work on a paper so I was at home on the computer checking blogs and playing settlers or ticket to ride online when I decided I was wasting time. I decided this would be a perfect time to work on my photography school. I watched the little instructional DVD on the light tent that I got when Signing up and decided to give it a try! I thought it would be fun to photograph our web cam cuz its pretty cool lookin... so next time you talk to us on Skype you'll know this is what we are looking into:

This light tent thing is pretty awesome! I took some more pics of items from around the house. Check em out on my my PhotoBlog!!!

Brrr...

2008-11-24T20:07:00.000-08:00

The Weather has been pretty funky lately. There's been wind, rain, sunshine, cold weather where I had to wear a sweatshirt and long pants (weird), more wind, and more rain... I think every year it does get cold like this but I must always block it out of my mind because every year when it gets cold, I think to myself "This is weird, does it usually get this cold here?"

And the answer is yes, it does. Today there wasn't any rain but the wind was blowing like crazy! I tried to go surf this afternoon but when I got there, I opened the door and the wind almost tore it right off... and then I saw a big huge trash can being blown down the road and thought, "there's no way i'm surfing in this!" oh well, maybe tomorrow.

*Sorry Boring post I know.... Maybe i'll have a good one tomorrow. cross your fingers!

I did it!!!

2008-11-21T20:20:00.000-08:00

I passed the State of Hawaii's Substitute Teaching test!

The last 3 weeks I was in a class learning how to be a Sub. Teacher and studying to pass the test. And I did it! Last night those of us in the class showed up ready to take the test. Just a few minutes into it, the Power goes out! Perfect timing, I know... So what do we do? everyone whips out their cell phones to use as light to finish the test. I have to say these people were pretty resourceful and it did work... it was just a little irritating having to shine it on the question then the answer sheet and having to press a button every time the light went dim. But its over and done with!

And my score was a whopping 99%

Hooray for me.

Tagged... again =)

2008-11-20T17:09:00.000-08:00

RULES
1. Post rules on your Blog
2. Answer the six "8" items
3. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving them a comment

8 FAVORITE SHOWS
1. Prison Break
2. The Office
3. Just started watching "Life" anyone heard of it?
4. Heard 24 is a good one so maybe we'll catch up on that... not anytime soon though.
*Sorry we don't have a TV so these are all DVD's that we watch(ed)

8 THINGS I DID YESTERDAY
1. woke up ... wished I hadn't.
2. ate lots of Honey Dew Melon
3. Edited a Shoot I did last week
4. Posted the shoot on my PhotoBlog
5. Studied for my Test that I take tonight in Class
6. Went to Class
7. Watched an episode of Life on our computer
8. Wanted to curl up in bed and sleep all day!

8 THINGS I LOOK FORWARD TO
1. Going to California for Christmas and seeing family (not looking forward to Mahina not being there)
2. Stuart Graduating!
3. Fiji
4. When MJ Photography is an actual business that I do all the time.
5. Owning a home
6. Eating really good food while visiting at home
7. Getting our underwater camera back from being repaired (the 3rd time)
8. moving to Pocatello... hopefully eventually!...

8 FAVORITE RESTAURANTS
1. In-n-Out
2. Hukilau Cafe
3. Ola
4. Hau'ula Korean BBQ
5. Thai Eats
6. Sunflower Market Cafe (Mahina you guys have to go there)
7. Sushi Places
8. Macaroni Grill

8 THINGS ON MY WISH LIST
1. Nikon 50mm 1.4 lens
2. a Beach Cruiser
3. A tri pod
4. Honey Girl Suit
5. To find the strings we bought for my guitar so we can re-string it
6. A clean House
7. To get Barrelled
8. People to come visit us!

8 PEOPLE TO TAG
Sorry Not going to tag 8 people... I don't know if there are 8 people who check this blog and haven't already been tagged with this same one. So if you like... do it. If not that's cool too!

*P.S. #8 on "things I look forward to" isn't really mine... it was there from Kristen's List when she tagged me... just wanted to see if you were paying attention.

This old car

2008-11-19T01:40:00.000-08:00

Here is a link to a David Wilcox song that made me think of our red, 8 passenger Dodge van that drove the entire Johnson clan all over the United States, countless trips to Idaho up dusty gravel roads to the "Johnson flat" and countless other journeys (many which I wasn't even on earth yet to tag along). Though it was just a car it really was a mobile extension of our house on Via Del Palma. I still remember the shapes of different stains and burns in the maroon upholstery. I remember coming home from football practice in 4th grade, must have been fall of 1993. Finding out that we had sold the van. I think we all felt as though we had lost a dear dear member of the family. its not the car itself that's special, its the lives and memories that grew within the steel. Ill always remember the cars of my childhood.

Thanks for the Help!!!

2008-11-18T14:00:00.000-08:00

I'm just testing out my newly learned feature!

Help...

2008-11-17T22:53:00.000-08:00

Does anyone know if and how you can write a post and save/schedule it to go up at a certain time? I know that if you just do a draft of a post, and start another post later but publish it before the first one, when you publish the first post it will be below the one you published before and has the date of when you started the draft. I don't really like that and think if I do that people will miss it. Any pointers? Your help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

And since I think posts with images are much more enjoyable, here's one from a while back at Waimea.

New Posts

2008-11-17T14:02:00.000-08:00

Going up on MJ Photography! There have already been a few from the Free Photo Shoots that I've shot over the last week. And more to come!

Meet Matt

2008-11-10T17:03:00.000-08:00

Meet our new friend Matt. He was wandering through TVA with his travel pack and carrying his guitar. Stuart just happened to be playing his as we were walking out so there was an immediate connection between the "fellow musicians". They started talking and Stuart immediately asked if he was looking for a place to stay and invited him to stay with us that night. We parted ways having exchanged numbers and promised to call when we were back home.

Matt came back that night and they had a little jam session. When it was time to sleep we got the couch cushions out... Not the best accommodations but hopefully better than his sleeping on the beach the night before. In the short time that he was here Matt made so many new friends and wants to move out here. We hope that he's able to work that out.

Today we said good bye (hopefully not for long) as Matt left for the airport. Here he is with all his gear leaving looking just like he did the day we met!

We couldn't let him go before we took some pictures together and of course I made him do a little 10 minute photo shoot. We had him sit down and just jam for a sec. You can see those on my PhotoBlog.

PS did you notice how tall he is? He makes Stuart who is not short look little... haha! He's 6 ft. 7 in... I asked.

Tag I'm it

2008-11-08T23:15:00.000-08:00

Dan Tagged me a while back... sorry its taken me so long, but here it goes.

Basic rules....List 3 joys, 3 fears, 3 current obsessions/collections, 3 surprising facts, and then tag 5 other people. Leave a comment for the people you tag so they know they have been tagged.

3 joys:
1. Stuart: He is the biggest joy and love of my life... not a big surprise to anyone i'm sure.
2. Photography: it makes me happy. And it's something that i'll be able to continue to grow in... for a very very long time!
3. Memory Foam Mattress Topper: Its true... it brings joy to my life and really good nights sleep. I absolutely love our bed... we got one of those mattress toppers from costco almost a year ago for christmas (Thanks Mom (J)) and it is heaven.
4. The Ocean. Love it.

3 Fears:
1. Watching kids jumping into pools... It seems like they jump straight up and right next to the edge of the pool... i get really nervous... I've also seen a kid jump in backwards but barely jumped back so his chin hit the edge... I rest my case, I'm not crazy.
2. Murky water and then something touches my leg... Most times its my own leash but it still freaks me out....
2 1/2. Blue Bubbles: They hurt like no other. Some of them aren't bad but the one that made me cry for an hour straight and made my whole are hurt for 2 days... yeah I'd say I fear them.
3. I fear that when we have kids they won't like me. Kids love Stuart so I'm grateful for that, but I fear that not only will they like him better but that they will just plain not like me. Am I being unreasonable? Maybe.

3 Current obsessions/collections.
1. Photography yes its a joyful obsession. I love learning about it and trying to capture things in ways out of the ordinary. I hope this obsession will never go away!
2. Smoothies: They are wonderful! Lately we've been making them in the morning and adding some go lean crunch to it kind of like an acai bowl (I've never actually had a real acai bowl) but its like an imitation one.
3. EBay: This obsession is over. I promised Stuart that it was! In my defense, I got REALLY good deals. And the last 2 suits I got (I got 3 suits total) are really good suits plus they were 1/6 of their normal price and I used the money that I won in some contests from work that I designated for my new suit fund. Anyways.... obsession over.

3 Surprising facts.
1. I used to be fearless
2. I'm a pack rat (but trying to get over that) ... that doesn't surprise you? haha oh well.
3. I really want to go sky diving... and we almost did a couple months ago. That's probably not surprising either though....

K I now tag: Andie, Mahina (yes that means I am forcing you back into the blogging world) Crystal, Karen, and Jen Kane.

Stuart

2008-11-06T17:46:00.000-08:00

Last week we were surfing V-land and this is what Stuart's face looked like later that day....
(actually, This was taken today but you get what I mean)

Here's a close up of his stitches:

That I took out for him today.

I'm hooked!

2008-10-31T18:32:00.000-07:00

I Love:

ebay

So the other day I was bored and on the computer and decided to check out ebay. I had set up an account and made a paypal account some months ago when I was looking to buy something but never ended up using it. So I found a cute suit that was super cheap and thought i'd make a bid of $4... and what do you know.... I won! I got the suit in the mail a couple days ago and it was so exciting!

A few days ago I found a wetsuit top and I made a bid but someone outbid me. I decided how much I could spend on it and made a few more bids until i was the highest bidder... there were still a few days left so I wasn't really expecting to win this one. But today at 2:49 pm the auction ended and I was the WINNER!!! For 1/2 the regular price! This is what i'll be expecting in the mail hopefully next week!

Every winter it gets a little bit chilly in the water and somedays I'll be out surfing with goosebumps and chattering teeth... Once it really gets cold I always think... "I should get a wet suit top" but its already towards the end of the cold winter season so I figure its too late and it would be a waste. But thanks to ebay I will have this sweet jacket to keep me nice and toasty this season!

So yeah... I love ebay. I'm not much of a shopper so I think this worries Stuart a little bit. But not to worry... I just find good deals on stuff that i sorta "need". Plus I hear you go through phases with ebay. I have been wanting to try and sell something on here but don't know what.

SURFED THE BEST WAVE OF MY LIFE TODAY.....

2008-10-28T00:26:00.000-07:00

Plain and simple...

A Phone Conversation...

2008-10-25T21:45:00.000-07:00

Me: Hi!!!

Mahina: Hi how are you?

Me: Good how are you?

Mahina: Good.... I was just calling to tell you that the baby (Kawena) has a cracker in between her toes and is eating it...

Pause waiting for that statement to register in my brain.....

Me: what? really?!?!

Mahina: uh huh

Me: Baaahhhahahahaha!!!

Mahina: We asked her where she learned that and she said Malia

Me: She actually said Malia??

Mahina: Well she said "Lia"

Me: Hahaha!!! That's awesome!!!

Mahina: Yeah so mitch wanted me to call and tell you thanks and that we were thinking about you.

Me: What a great influence I am!

Mahina: I know.

Blah Blah Blah.... Good Bye Dialogue.....

Needless to say I was cracking up about that one.... but just to clarify, I DO NOT eat crackers from between my toes! Don't you wish I was around your kids teaching them all sorts of goodness like that?!?!

Background Story:

When I was in Oregon, at some point while I was there (maybe a couple of times) I was holding Kawena and if she dropped her blanket or a stuffed animal or something, I would grab it with my toes and bring it up to my hand so I wouldn't have to bend down to get it. Kawena being the extremely bright and impressionable young thing apparently picked up that little skill... I saw her pick up her blanket with her toes once while I was still there. I was so proud! I guess I forgot to tell her that we shouldn't pick up our food that way!

Free Photo Shoot!!!

2008-10-23T18:07:00.000-07:00

Check out my PhotoBlog for details...

Raise your Hand if...

2008-10-13T21:10:00.000-07:00

ITS YOUR BIRTHDAY!!!!

I thought so! Happy birthday Baby girl!

You're getting so big!

And growing ups so fast....

Pretty soon those shoes will actually fit your cute little feet!

Kawena we love you!!! Hope you had a fun day of traveling on your Birthday!

Could it be....

2008-10-11T16:01:00.000-07:00

we have another birthday?!?

Today its my spunky little firecracker of a niece Lala!!!

Lala... Happy Birthday! I had so much fun with you while I was visiting in Oregon! I hope you had fun too! What a perfect time to move.... a new state for a new age!

I love you!!! Happy Birthday!

Birthday Girl!!!

2008-10-08T13:25:00.000-07:00

Today is my mom's Birthday! I just wanted to wish her a very Happy Birthday! I hope that you didn't have to work too hard today... and if you had to go to work, I hope there was cake and balloons there for you!

Wishin you were here to celebrate! I would take you out snorkeling! Remember how beautiful it was that morning we went out at Sharks Cove?! That was so much fun!

I Love You Mom! Thanks for being so Wonderful!!!