Check this out

Soul Surf Media interviewed Nate as part of their stand up paddle surfing videos that are coming out. Here's the clip:

The Stand Up Project Trailer1 from Soul Surf Media on Vimeo.

Can you tell Nate loves this sport?

Camping!

I finally have the time to blog about our highlight of the summer-- a wonderful, spur of the moment camping trip!!! I found a place to camp at 10:00 am on Friday July 10th. I quickly got everything I thought we needed and we arrived at 3:00. The place was awesome. It is a botanical garden at the base of Kaneohe's steep plant-covered cliffs. The place is called "Ho'omaluhia" and means "place of peace". It was appropriately named, too. Hopefully the pictures give some sort of an idea how lush and peaceful it was there. This was our view from our tent. There is something very telling about that stop sign in the picture....

Hardly anyone was there (despite the garden workers' assurity that the place was packed --were we in the same campground?). Although this is the rainy part of the island, it only rained when we had finished dinner and it was time to get in the tent anyway, and during the night, but stopped right before we got out.

Here we are collecting firewood. Elysse was a happy to help her daddy.

After making a rush trip to the grocery store before we were locked in for the night, we settled down to a cookout of hotdogs and marshmallows. Of course.

The next morning there was free catch-and-release fishing. Ivy was the fisherwoman of the day, catching 5 fish against our 0. Well, not true. I caught one, but I felt so bad catching it that I quickly got the hook out and released it to its freedom. I felt more guilt than accomplishment.

Kezia took the situation personally and sat a ways off sulking yet confident that she'll catch a fish at this special spot....

It didn't help that once Kezia gave up and left, Ivy went over there and caught another fish!

Elysse just said "forget it" to the whole "sit and wait" idea and tried stabbing the fish instead. Any sign that her daddy is a spear fisherman?

On the way back from fishing we found a grove of banyan trees that the girls swang on. Actually, I was hoping it would cheer Kezia up from her miserable defeat to her little sister. It worked.

Then we got bombarded by dozens of hungry ducks eager to taste our left over fish bait.

We had such a great time, we were just regretful that we didn't make the plans necessary to stay longer. It's an appropriate time to blog about this because we were hoping to return this long weekend. But we're at home instead because we would have been #71 on the wait list. Hmm, no thanks.

A very happy birthday

Well, besides the new number I have acquired, my birthday was fantastic. There were many kind people who called to wish me a happy day.

Nate surprised me with a surprise party Sunday night (well, the surprise may have been leaked once or twice). We had a nice dinner at Kay's house, then people kept coming...and coming...and coming to share cake and ice cream with us.

But it wasn't just any ordinary cake. Nate and the girls had whipped up an amazing ice-cream cake, with berries, cake, neopolitan ice cream, chocolate wafers, and ghiradelli chocolate. You had to taste this to believe it. It was out of this world.


And the people who came were so nice. Some of them I didn't know very well. I wonder if they came for me or because they heard "cake and ice cream"!! But it was so thoughtful of Nate to do that for me.

Then on my birthday the girls piled gifts on my lap that they were busy putting together during the weekend. Most of them were their own toys. How sweet.

Nate and I headed down to Waikiki that night to go to Outback Steakhouse (a man whom we had taught had given us a gift certificate), walk around Waikiki, sleep on Kay's boat under the stars and the fresh air, and surf in the morning. It was a great birthday with many thoughtful people.... and check out the ultimate birthday gift below!!!

Best Birthday Gift EVER

It turned out to be the best birthday I can remember. And I didn't even know until it was already over.

Let's start Saturday afternoon. My friend Jacquelin and a girl from church, Kelli, came to our house and insisted they take our laundry to take home. I had commented to my friend on Friday that I am way too overwhelmed. Although unexpected, she took that as a call to action and her service was a great gift.

Nate and I went to Waikiki the night of my birthday. We went to Outback Steakhouse because a man we had taught gave us a gift certificate. Over dinner, Nate told me that Jacquelin and Kelli had asked that they would be allowed to come over while we were gone to clean our house.

How did they know that for a long time I've thought, "all I want for my birthday is help cleaning my house"?

Life has been so overwhelming that ... well, do I really need to explain? Taking care of 3 girls, including a demanding baby, running a business, and the house and errands with a husband that works 17 hour days, well, there's just not a lot of time left for the nitty-gritty.

When Nate told me I was speechless. And when we returned home the next day, it was like an episode of "Extreme House Makeover" when the homeowners return home. Not only had they completely cleaned our home -- from polishing the appliances

to washing the curtains, to wiping down and organizing our shelves
but they had also completely rearranged our furniture! And it looked great! Kezia's comment was that it looked like a hotel... okay, well, maybe not. But it was spotless, and with the new furniture arrangement, a lot more spacious in the livingroom!



And I'd like to mention that, besides Jacquelyn, the other 3 girls that helped I hardly knew (they're from church, so they're not complete strangers. But for how desperate I was, I think I'd be okay with complete strangers cleaning our house while we were gone, too.) But I do know that Jacquelyn and Kelli are both very busy people.

Allowed to Turn Older

Monday is my birthday. I have not been looking forward to this birthday. I am turning 30! In my mind, that's the gateway to oldness. But I think I can pass that threshold now, thanks to Kezia. The other day she said, "But Mommy, you're still a kid." And I told her that I'm almost 30; I'm not a kid anymore. And she replied, "Mom, 30's still a kid age. You're still a kid!" Okay, so if I can still be deemed a kid by a 5 year old, I guess I'm not that old.

Christine's graduation

Christine is a friend of ours from Taiwan. She was actually our Chinese teacher when we were there. Although she's been going to school at BYUH, we haven't seen her much these last four years. But it was so nice to reconnect with her before she left again to Taiwan. She had a special love for Kezia when she was a baby, and now here they are again, 5 years later!

Our daughters' dreams come true (for a few hours)

Our friend Jaime who has been painting our surf van has brought over her 2 dogs, including a puppy, while she paints. Kezia and Ivy took such good care of them. Can you see the love in their eyes? They want a pet dog soooo bad. But a few hours with two is fun too.

Elysse's got skills!

I caught Nate teaching Elysse new sounds during Kezia's soccer game. Sorry about the background noise. If you listen carefully, it's pretty cute.

And here's her eating with a spoon:

(by the way, poi is a Hawaiian dish that I think has the consistency of thick glue with no taste. But it is a favorite of Nate's and all my babies, despite what Elysse says!)

Bandstand Hula

Sunday June 7th the girls had a hula performance at the bandstand in Waialua. I was a bit nervous for them, since they hadn't had a practice for a few weeks. But they did great! The next week they had another performance for Waialua Association's 70th anniversary. We waited outside in the wind before it was time to go on, so I was so busy fussing with their hair that I didn't even notice that they still had their slippers on when they went on stage!!! (A big no-no)

Kumu (their teacher) noticed and said, "Slippers! Where's mommy?!?" So that led me up to front and center with Elysse to grab the slippers. That wouldn't have been so bad if Elysse wasn't in a shoe obsessive stage where she feels driven to return slippers to their rightful owner. So as the girls are performing, Elysse is squirming and screaming in my arms and reaching out to Kezia with her slippers in her hands. And then somehow she got loose and brought them right to Kezia's feet just as a dance was beginning! As they say here, "Auy we!"

Ivy's funny

The other night, Kezia was having a hard time accepting her consequence for a choice she had made and was trying to convince us that her choice was much better than other choices, like biting someone, etc. Ivy said, "I know a choice that is really bad -- poking people............with swords!" Yes, Ivy, that would constitute as really bad.