I realized tonight that in all the craziness of the holidays and new year, I never posted the family pictures we had done while we were on Hawaii! Christine found a great photographer to take some photos of us at the Manoa Valley Park on Oahu – we love how they came out.
(The photographer was Dave Miyamoto & Company Photography. If you find yourself on Oahu looking to take some family photos, highly recommended.)
Below are some of our favorites, you can find the full set here.
The full family, Maile at 4.5, Lauren at 1
Maile Girl - my favorite smile of hers in the batch...
Lauren on the move!
I love this picture of Christine and Maile...
Of course, we took a jumping one 🙂
And a running one too...
This is Christine and my favorite picture in the batch - love these two!
No pictures for this one, but a funny story…
At dinner the other night Maile was giving us some trouble about eating some of her food – mushrooms specifically.
Mommy said to her that she was surprised that she wasn’t eating because when she was a baby she was such a good eater and ate everything, including mushrooms.
Maile kept complaining and Christine and I kept trying different things to get her to eat.
Finally, Maile looked at us all sad and said something about wishing she was a baby. “I wish I was a baby so I would just eat the food you gave me.”
Christine launched into a whole thing about all the things that a baby can’t do (babies don’t get to eat cookies, watch shows, etc.) and asked Maile if she really wanted to be a baby.
Maile started to get more upset on the verge of tears and repeated the wishing she was a baby line. “I wish I was a baby so I would just eat the food you gave me.” The second time she said it, I realized what she was actually saying: she was saying she wished she was a baby so that she liked the food we were so desperately trying to get her to eat! She was trying to make us happy and just didn’t know what to do since she REALLY didn’t like the mushrooms.
(Heart melts)
by Papa K on December 27, 2013
On Wednesday, we made the move from Oahu to Kauai for the rest of our vacation. Great Grandma lives on Kauai so we went over to visit her yesterday – she has a pool too! While Maile Girl, Katie and Emily went swimming, Lauren had some quality catch up time with Great Grandma…
It's kind of hard to get a 1 year old and a great grandma to both look at the camera at the same time...
See what I mean!
For her part, Maile is getting braver and braver in the water. Here she is swimming across the whole pool…
… and then she even ditched her floaties (although she was much more particular about how far away she was willing to let Mommy stand…)
(Click here for the first video.)
(Click here for the second video.)
by Papa K on December 26, 2013
Per tradition, we spent Christmas Eve with Grandma Gail’s side of the family on Oahu. We had a great time with all the uncles, aunties and, especially, cousins – but the best part was definitely the visit from Santa Claus. Yep, the big guy took some time out of his rounds to visit with Maile, Lauren and the rest of the kids.
For Maile, it was a big year – our fear of Santa has finally gone away and we were just plain excited – Maile even made a card for him. Christine was sitting with her when Santa arrived and she said Maile’s heart was beating a mile a minute.
I didn’t capture it in the video, but Maile Girl was absolutely floored when she opened her present and it was the Barbie she had asked for in her letter. “He got my letter! He got my letter!” she was screaming and giggling all over. Big time win for Santa.
As for Lauren, unfortunately, Santa got a little tied up so he didn’t make it until after little Lauren had already crashed out. For posterity’s sake we made sure she got a photo op with him and she later stirred to play with her new toy that he brought her. We’re giving her a “no tears on her first visit with Santa” nod anyways.
Maile Girl and Santa - not a tear or fear in site!
Did you get my letter?
Lauren meets Santa (sort of)
Maile Girl showing Lauren how her new toy works...
Thank you Santa! I'll try to stay awake to meet you next year!
(Click here for the first video.)
(Click here for the second video.)
On Sunday, Mommy and I went on a special date to go see the Nutcracker at the San Francisco Ballet! I was so excited all week – every day I counted the days and it got closer and closer. When I woke up on Sunday morning, Mommy helped me pick out a special dressy to wear – I decided on the purple one I wore at Auntie’s wedding – it felt like it would well at the ballet.
BTW – Guess who was at the Nutcracker!!!
Apparently, a couple Sundays before Christmas, Santa hangs out at the ballet!
Okay, back to the show. It was amazing. I was a little scared at some parts, but Mommy was there. My most favorite part was the Waltz of the Flowers. It was magical.
Every year for Christmas I get a new ornament for our tree (it's a tradition Mommy started when she was a girl). This year I got three dancing fairies at the Nutcracker so I can always remember!
Do you think one day I might be able to be in the Nutcracker? I think so – I’ll keep working at this…
Thank you Mommy for such a wonderful adventure!
(Dad note: Special thanks to neighbor Bill for getting us the tickets!)
(Click here for the video.)
Lauren Girl here! On Sunday afternoon, Mommy, Daddy, Maile, Grandma and Papa took me to get my first Christmas tree! I was pretty overwhelmed by all the trees, so Maile took the lead on picking out the tree – I think she picked a really nice one.
My very first Christmas tree picked out my big sister Maile
Guess what? I wasn’t the only one getting a Christmas tree for the first time. It was Papa’s first time too!
Papa was excited too!
This is pretty cool – Papa had a fun idea to get a picture of me getting a bird’s eye view of the trees.
Lauren's bird eye view (11 months)
And it’s almost the same picture that Maile and Daddy took the first time she went to get a tree!
Maile's bird-eye view (5 months)
On Friday, Mommy, Daddy and Papa Mike took me on a safari! Do you know what a safari is? It’s basically a zoo without any fences! At first I was a little nervous and thought maybe the animals would eat me, but they were really nice. The guide told me that if we are nice to animals they will be nice to us … usually anyways. That makes sense to me.
The safari was super cool. I liked the pink flamingos and the giraffes the best. I took LOTS of pictures.
Papa Mike and I ready to get our safari on!
What's that Daddy we should look behind us?
Woah.
Look how close we got! So cool!
I took pictures.
Lots and lots of pictures...
Say cheese!
(Dad note: The safari was pretty cool. I’d say Maile was a little too young – she was great, but it was a long day – ~3 hours. The guides were super knowledgeable, we learned a lot!)
by Papa K on November 21, 2013
The first picture of Maile in our apartment on July 13, 2009
Tonight is our last night at our Francisco Street apartment. Tomorrow we move to another apartment about a mile away.
We were in this apartment for 4.5 years and I think it is safe to say they were the most eventful of Christine and my lives. We moved in the May before Maile was born – so that’s 4.5 years of Maile’s life and almost a year with Lauren. Those of you who follow this blog know how many memories were made here. Plenty of laughter, a fair amount of tears and lots and lots of love.
We couldn’t have asked for a better setup to start our lives as a true family. Certainly not the biggest apartment, but big enough and a great location that supported us in getting out and exploring this great city that we call home. We were surrounded by amazing neighbors that watched our girls begin their lives and provided us with support and friendship through it all – truly the best “neighbor” setup I’ve had since I was a very little boy on Dennison Street in Swampscott, MA.
The boxes are (mostly) packed, our girls are asleep and I’m here writing one last blog post from my tiny desk tucked away in the corner of the living room – a good way to see this place out 🙂
by Papa K on November 17, 2013
Last week we had a bout with a mean little 24 hour bug that took our family down one-by-one.
Lauren was the first casualty.
Lauren was patient zero in our house on this one... poor little girl.
Then she got all better and handed off to Mommy.
We were thrilled when Lauren got better so quickly ... until Mommy got knocked out.
Then Maile Girl got it. Poor Maile Girl – first time throwing up and she was NOT a fan. In the morning after getting sick she told Mommy “It was a bad night of my life.”
And then at the end after watching my girls go down, I got it. What a way to go – just absolute foreboding knowing it was going to hit me and nothing I could do about it.
At least it was only 24 hours – in the grand scheme, not too bad at all – but a “bad week of our lives” for sure 🙂
(Click here for the video.)
by Papa K on November 12, 2013
On Sunday, Mommy and Maile made marshmellows from scratch! – making them was fun, BUT eating the leftovers was definitely more fun.
What a mess!
(Dad note: The finished product came out really yummy … but those who know me well, know that this sort of mess is kind of my nightmare 😉
(Click here for the video.)
