The girls have been having lots of fun in the sun! Between playing in the backyard to the beach to the pool at GG Kiyoko’s there are very few moments when the bathing suits aren’t on and the water isn’t flowing.
The Slip N' Slide we bought a couple years ago is still a big hit with the girls!
Katie, Maile and Emily posing post slide. (Lauren was inside napping...)
Maile loves playing in the sand at the beach...
... Lauren not so much - notice how her feet aren't touching the ground? Yeah, she doesn't like how the sand feels...
Maile and Uncle Steve doing some pool gymnastics...
A big jump for Maile GIrl - can't tell you how awesome this was to see - it wasn't so long ago that she was afraid to do something like this - swim lessons are paying off big time!
Christmas with Christine’s family is a multi-day affair (and this was even before my Hanukkah-influenced “8 Crazy Nights” came into the picture ;). Christmas Eve is spent at Aunty Cindy’s house where Santa comes to visit and Grandma Gail coordinates a bunch of family games. Christmas Day is a big luncheon with the families of Christine’s grandmother and her 9 siblings (that adds up to A LOT of cousins!) And then on the 26th we return to Kauai and open up all the presents under Grandma and Papa’s tree.
The girls are ready to rock Christmas...
Waiting for Santa - as we'll soon see, not sure Maile fully understood what they were looking for - she was just following her cousins...
WHAT THE ...!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Santa, I've got my eyes on you. No fast moves!
This is the best smile you are going to get out of me. (Dad note: Maile did great this year - she was nervous, but no tears!)
For me?!? So I make nice with Santa, take a few pictures, and I get a present? Now, I understand!
On Christmas Day, with the girls all dressed up, we decided to take some pictures…
Christmas Day family picture with Uncle Steve, Katie and Emily (Aunty Nao isn't arriving until the 29th)
Grandma Gail and Papa Cal with the girls
On the 26th, we headed home to Kauai to a mountain of presents waiting under the tree for all the girls. They had a blast opening everything!
I wonder what this one is...
SO AWESOME! I got a real doctor's kit!
One of Maile’s favorite presents is the doctor’s kit that Grandma Gail and Grandpa Cal got her. Mommy and I have had oh, about a dozen check ups each in the past couple of days. 2012 is going to be a super healthy year for us with Dr. Maile keeping tabs on us.
Hi, I'm Maile - as my older cousin I look forward to doing whatever you tell me to do...
On Thursday, we headed to Oahu to celebrate the Christmas holiday with the extended Morisato clan (Grandma Gail’s side of the family). Christine’s brother Steve and his family met us on Oahu. They traveled in all the way from Japan! Since they live so far away this was the first time Maile met her cousins, Katie (age 3.5) and Emily (age 21 months). We’ve been very excited about getting all the girls together in one place. Two things you’ll learn from the pictures:
1. Grandma Gail made sure we didn’t lose track of the girls by making sure they were pretty much always wearing the exact same outfits (just different sizes).
2. It is REALLY hard to get 3 girls under the age of 4 to sit still for a picture and face the same direction all at once. (Forget about smiling!) We did our best, but generally went with a 2 out of 3 ain’t bad approach.
My cousins sure are giggly...
More silliness with the cousins...
For their part, Katie and Emily were fascinated by Baby Maile. They kept staring at her and “petting” her – kind of like their new pet.
Maile was great with the cousins. Although she did need a little help keeping up:
(Click here for Petting Maile video.)
(Click here for Keeping Up with the Cousins video.)
