Cemetery & Pali Look Out

Sunday, May 30

After going to church, we wanted to do some Sabbath appropriate activities. First we visited the cemetery where Nate's maternal grandparents are buried. I had forgotten that Nate's mother's father's name was Hisashi. Now the "Hisa" part of Johnny's middle name, Masahisa, has even more meaning!

Here's Harrison posing by great-grandma's grave. The "Moto" in his middle name, Masamoto, is after her.

(Don't mind the white haze in all of our pictures. We finally realized the lens was dirty, three days into our trip.)

It was nice to visit the cemetery the day before Memorial Day. Every grave had beautiful tropical flowers on it.

Us and the Colmans

The cousins

Some sweet Father/Son moments

Elizabeth took a quick liking to Auntie Ray Ray on this trip. She had just woken up from a nap and would only be comforted by one person. On the way home we went to Pali Look Out. Nate described it as "this place that's really windy." Until you're in a place that's really windy, you don't realize how fun and entertaining it is. We had lots of laughs and took lots of pictures.

Bellows Beach

Nate reminded me of one very important detail I failed to mention about the plane trip.

Back up nine years to us flying to Hawaii for our honeymoon. A young couple asked us if we minded splitting up so they could sit together, because they were on their honeymoon. Feeling a little sorry for them we explained that we were also on our honeymoon, so no, we didn't want to split up.

On United, they play the "Halfway to Hawaii" game. They tell you how fast you're going, how many miles the trip is and how fast the head wind is and then you're supposed to estimate the exact time (to the second) that you'll be halfway to Hawaii. Well, I was very proud, when my husband won the game! I mean I knew he was kind of a nerd on the inside, but this was impressive! Unfortunately, the prize was a bottle of wine. Since we don't drink, we gave it to the other honeymooners. But I got the real prize of spending eternity with such a brilliant guy.

When they announced the game on this flight I really put the pressure on Nate. I wanted him to be 2 for 2. He was a little nervous that he wouldn't be able to do it again, but my confidence in him was very strong. They had improved the prize, an Israel Wakawakawhateverhisnameis CD (huge Hawaiian guy who sings Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World Medley). More than the CD, I just wanted to know that my man still had it (mathematically). I told him to do the math and then we'd use our 4 entries to make estimates around his answer.

So he did (although I had to remind him how to do long division - I'll tell you what, nothing improves your basic math skills like teaching elementary school for three years!) He came up with two answers. So for my entry I figured out halfway between those two, rounded to a nice palindromic number 12:22:12 PM.

Throughout the flight I kept wondering when they were going to announce the winner. Finally at the end they did, and I'm sure you can guess whose name they called. Yours truly in seat 31D, only off by 20 seconds! I was beyond thrilled. I don't know why I get a little competitive about things like that. I was thinking, "Ya suckas, I'm married to the best numbers guy out of two entire airplanes full of people! And he doesn't even look it!" (Okay, the Asian part, yes. The nerdy part, most definitely not.) I was so proud of Nate, and had to give myself a little credit for helping with the long division and guessing such a visually pleasing and accurate answer. It was a great way to start our trip.

Saturday, May 29

I should mention that we were able to watch Nathaniel, Maya, and Grant each play baseball while we were there. This was great because Harrison had just started his first season of baseball, so he got to see how the game goes. The only picture I got of this part of the trip was one Harrison took at the field.

In the afternoon, Rachael and I went to Costco. You can learn a lot about a place by visiting their Costco -- every macadamia nut creation you can imagine, a way better produce section, many more Asian treats, plus a live band out front.

The men and kids went to Bellows, another beach near their house.

Harrison has LOVED the water since he was a baby!

He takes after his dad. Elizabeth is more of a stay on the sand kind of girl. Takes after me.



When the poor thing finally ventured in to the water, she got stung by a "blue bubble." (Portuguese man-of-war). When we got the call at Costco, I felt so bad for her, but was also kind of glad I wasn't there, because I knew it would take her a while to get over it.
The report was that she did indeed whine/cry about it for three hours.

The happier members of the group!

ALOHA

Last summer, Nate's sister, Rachael and her kids came to visit. We had a great time and decided that we would visit them this summer. Visiting them is much more exciting than visiting us, because they live in Hawaii. So Nate set out on a deal-hunt for cheap tickets. He found United's "Denver Deal of the Decade" and boy, was it. We got our tickets to leave the day after we thought school got out (in typical Michelle fashion -- I was uninformed and school actually ended a week earlier.) We had considered going in August. I'm so glad we went in May (no A.C.)

Nate and I had both been to Hawaii several times. His mom is from there, my family stopped there on our way to or from Japan a few times, and we went on our Honeymoon there almost 9 years ago. This trip was different for me because I saw Hawaii from a local perspective rather than that of a tourist. It was so fun to stay with family -- it definitely added more depth to our trip and made it extra fun for our kids to have cousins to play with. We don't get to see enough of the Colmans, so it was really nice to spend so much time with them. It also saved us a boat load of money, which we're very grateful for.

For posterity's sake, I am going to document our trip day by day. Feel free to stop reading the never-ending Hawaii posts whenever you get bored, jealous, or any mixture of the two :).

Thursday, May 27 -- Ready to go!

Johnny's first plane ride.

All three kids did really well on the 7 1/2 hour plane ride. WAY better than I had imagined.

Friday May 28 - Johnny found his feet the first morning we were there.

Harrison loved the Venus Fly Trap,

which has A LOT of food choices there in the tropics (read -- Michelle didn't love the bugs).

Friday we went to Sherwood Beach (15 minutes from their house). Johnny enjoyed Sherwood, and every other beach we visited on our trip, from this seat.

Elizabeth and Faithy got along quite well (most of the time!)

Cute cousins!

Friday night we went to a graduation party for a girl in their stake. Apparently people go into debt and/or sell their cars to fund these things (true story). There were tons of people there and even more food. The culture is so food oriented. It's my kind of place. Although, if I stayed much longer, I would have needed to invest in a mu mu.

The other cultural difference we noticed at the party was all the cheek kissing. It was nice to feel the warmth and love from everyone. I had to laugh picturing that happening in our ward. I just can't envision getting and/or giving kisses to my bishop, or my friends' husbands.

There were two live bands at the party. They were both great! They did Hawaiianized versions of lots of great songs, including a favorite of mine "Brown Eyed Girl." Here's my brown eyed girl with one of my brown eyed boys at the party.

Stay tuned (or don't) for lots more Hawaii posts.

A 4 Month Birthday Present!

Johnny turned 4 months old today. I should put a picture on here, but we just got back from Hawaii and I have a million other things that need to be done.

Johnny gave me the best present ever for his 4 month birthday -- he slept through the night! Not only through the night, but from 1o:30 PM to 10:15 AM!!! Granted, he's got jet lag and is recovering from a red-eye flight, but still! We were actually nervous and kept checking on him -- plus, the milk just kept on producing, so I was more than ready for him to wake up.

I'm trying not to get my hopes up that he'll continue sleeping through the night. But the fact that I know he's capable of it is a major success! He's been my worst night sleeper, by far, but I kept telling myself that it wouldn't last forever! There's light at the end of the tunnel. Hurray!

Why We Shave Our Kids' Heads

First of all, for the record, Justin Bieber is actually 16. That makes me feel a little bit better. I found that out when I was rewatching his Ellen interview, which should probably make me feel a little bit worse.

Now on to the subject at hand.

Our kids always come out with "male-pattern baldness." They get this from Nate. I wish I had a baby picture of him to scan in. Thankfully, Nate has a nice, thick head of hair now. So if they continue to take after him in the hair department, they'll be lucky. But it's starts out pretty rough. With Harrison, I kept waiting for the front to grow in and catch up with the back. I waited. . .

. . .and waited. . .

. . .and waited. As his hair got longer and longer -- everywhere but the front.

Finally, after his first birthday, Nate convinced me to let him, "trim up the back." I still don't know if this was an accident or if he purposely did a horrible job so that he could just shave the whole thing, but this was his idea of "trimming up the back."

So, we took a few more pictures of our wispy-haired boy,
and then. . .

. . .0ff came the rest.

And we had our first "shorn pup." It took some getting used to and I morned his long wisps, but eventually I realized he looked much better this way. Especially when we got such positive responses from people. Looking back, we regretted waiting as long as we did to give him this new do.

Then along came Elizabeth, who took this look to a whole new level. With darker hair and much more of it, we had a situation on our hands.

I tried to distract from the "mad scientist look" with headbands.

It really didn't help her case when my mom came to visit and it looked like this the first time she saw her on that trip.

Definitely a mix between George Castanza and Kramer.

So my mom and Nate ganged up on me shaved her head. She was only 3 months old. And she was a she. With a shaved head.

Again, it took some getting used to. And it wasn't as well-received by the public as our son's shaved head had been. But honestly, scroll back up to those crazy pictures and you have to admit, it looks better.

I still tried using headbands as a distraction.

This time around, especially since he's a boy and it's totally acceptable for boys to have buzzes, we told ourselves that we would not let it get as out of hand as it did with the first two. Nate's been a little trigger happy though. He's been bugging me to shave it for over a month now. I'll admit, sometimes it did stick up funny in the back.

But sometimes it laid flat and didn't look bad, like last night, in his "before" pictures.

The bald spot in the back is how Nate finally convinced me it was time.

So, we have ourselves another shorn pup.

Again, it is taking me time to readjust. But I'm sure it will look better in the end, now that it has a chance to grow in more evenly.

I just wish I had given in sooner. We're leaving for Hawaii soon, and now he's going to be bald in all the pictures. If we had done it two weeks ago, it would have grown in a little. Nate says he'll just look like all the other Hawaiian babies.

Elizabeth pointed at his head and said, "This is Daddy's fault." Yep. For better or worse, it is definitely Daddy's fault. The problem and the solution.

Got a Fever

There is definitely something wrong with me. Why am I watching Justin Bieber videos on You Tube at 11:15 at night?

I had hardly heard of the this boy before last week. Couldn't have picked him out of a line up. Then he was on Oprah. Harrison was awe struck and a new obsession was born. I could hear him watching it over and over again the next morning and several times a day since. Then he was on Ellen monday and American Idol tonight. Now I'm finding myself becoming a little obsessed.

Baby, baby, baby, ooh really is pretty catchy, he can definitely sing, and he is just so stinkin' cute. I find myself in a bit of a Taylor Lautner situation, except this kid is only 15. So, it's a cross between more of a motherly love/isn't he adorable/how proud would I be if that were my son and jealously of my 13 year old sister, who can crush on him if she wants to (and why wouldn't she want to?) without feeling like a creepy old woman. Seriously, there are so many more heartthrobs now than when I was growing up. Boys way more talented and better looking than all 5 New Kids on the Block combined.

I could live without the wannabe rapper vernacular (I honestly cannot stand when people put on accents like that) and the turrets-like hair flip.

But other than that -- Baby (in the most literal sense of the word), you smile, I smile.