tis the season for surf contests

The Eddie happens only every few years, the last time it was held was in 2004. The time before that, and when we had seen it last, was in 2002. The waves have to be consistently over 25 ft for the whole day with good conditions because it is run in a single day, so it is special when it happens. In 2002 it was crowded, but not too crazy. This year was insane. I knew our beloved north shore has been under siege as of late, but I didn't know it would be like it was. People slept in their cars on the side of the road around Waimea Bay the night before because there was a chance it would be on...but we didn't know the degree of insanity until we had gotten there.
I thought it'd be on Tuesday, so we planned for it Monday night. Lunch packed, bags packed and alarm set. We got up at 5:30 and arrived at the bay before light. Sadly, we had to still park about 2 miles away- cars were already parking along side the road and people were walking.
Crazy, yes. But there's an anxious feeling in the air and everyone's in a good mood. Turtle was right: when the surf is good, nobody works.


Driving past Haleiwa. We realize we're not the only ones going to watch.


The trek. Tristan knew it was a special day.

We finally got to the bay and were greeted with this:

A bit later the commentators on the beach announced that the Eddie is on and we could hear everyone cheer.


Found a nice spot at the end of the beach with shade the whole day.


Tristan was so excited he started tearing off his pjs.

Views from the beach.



The madness. Bathroom wait: men's- 15 min, women's-30+ min.

Kelly pulling into the shorebreak.

Tristan trying to sneak away at the end of the day


I don't know if we'll go again for a while, especially since they have it live on the internet now.
But it is such an experience.


The Pipe Masters:
I wait for this contest all year, it is so sweet to watch. Huge gaping barrels close to the beach. So much fun. And all my heroes are in it.



Kelly pulling in. (gift idea: I need a sweet zoom lens)

Tristan kickin it in the Volcom house bushes.

Dane is great.

Great Dane.

Mama and T enjoying the show.

Tristan was pretty fired up by the end of the day. This what happened when we pulled him away from the beach.

One of my favorite things about winter/ Christmas time is the surf. both enjoying it and watching stuff like this. So glad my little family enjoys it too.

jon swift

Jon Swift (aka Shawn Little) came to play in Kaimuki a couple of weekends ago. This was one of those moments in my life where I wish I could have lived it all over again, exactly the way it was. It was held in a loft of a home called the "ward rafters". The woman who lives there has turned her upstairs unit into a concert venue, seating about 50 people. The room was so intimate, you felt so close to the performers, as though they were playing to YOU only. To add to the coziness of the room, we were having a thunder and lightening storm outside while they were playing. Jon threw a violinist into the mix, which melted us even more and put us all into a trance as we listened to his music. ahhhhh it was so wonderful.

Some of you may recognize the shaggy boy as Rob Machado. He's been touring with Jon to help promote his new surf film "The Drifter".

Listen to one of our favorite songs below "Run River". Beware, the video is SUPER cheesy but it's all I could really find. (It's kind of funny). Grab a tissue and Enjoy.

a blue and green thanksgiving

No altering photos here folks, these are for real. The real colors of the Big Island. This year we spent Thanksgiving with Christian's parents in Waimea. We brought the Garner family with us to join in on the fun. Great food, great scenery, visits with friends and family, it was a nice weekend.

Our friend Paul brought his zoom lens and took some shots of Christian in the water. The waves were a lot smaller than they appear. I believe the bigger swell hit the Big Island just as we were leaving.

Pololu Valley. There's actually a story behind this Valley. Long story made very short, Christian got stuck while climbing up the cliff (see second below picture, that's the cliff!), and a helicopter had to rescue him soon after he was found. He almost gave his poor mom a heart attack. Everyone thought that he was washed away at sea.

Check out that wall of rain coming in. We left just in time.

Crazy spider! The macro lens is tricky, you have to either have a tripod or be super still to get a nice clear shot. I wasn't that steady for this one.

Waipio Valley. Another black sand beach.

Checking out the black sand.

Our blue eyed baby boy.

The face.

Our attempt at a family photo.

The cute Garner family.

Sometimes we like to hang Tristan out the window while we're driving. It gives him a break from being tied down in his car seat. He loves it.

Akaka Falls

Our last day there, we headed down to the beach for a picnic (can't remember the beach name), and wandered around the tide pools. T was dying to get in the water, so we gave him a little dip.

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Special thanks to JLynn for the marvelous Thanksgiving meal. My fav? the twice baked sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes with cream cheese in them, ambrosia salad, and of course...german chocolate cake.

my quasi

* arkotec

* go here for a free giveaway!

9 months

Our sweet boy is now 9 months old. My whole world has turned up-side-down! So many new things, it's all happening so fast. I love how curious he is about the world. Everything around him is so new to him. He can pick up a piece of grass and examine it for 15 minutes. And those little fingers of his! I love watching him try and grab things as he struggles with his coordination. He's our little champ. He's now starting to dance! My favorite. His dad drops a beat and he bounces up and down and smiles. I love it. He has such a personality now. So happy.

I always wonder what's on that boys mind.

He is almost confident enough to stand on his own!

He gets into everything!!

My day consists of me following him around the house, as he finds new things to get into.

He's a climber! This is a new thing as of the past two weeks. He has figured out how to pull his knee up and push himself higher. He can do stairs now!

His cute little snaggle teeth on the bottom.

He has become quite comfortable sitting in the "cheer stance".

He LOVES being pushed around the house in the laundry basket.

Learning his puzzles. I love watching those little fingers pick up the pegs. He's getting better at it.

Surprisingly, he can sit through a whole book (depending on the night).

I wish he could stay this age forever. Happy 9 months T!

all too familiar

Last night we watched an episode of King of Queen's on DVD. In this episode, Carrie just found out she was pregnant, and is daydreaming while at work about what life will be like with a baby. I was laughing so hard when I watched this scene because it reminded me so much of Tristan in his walker. ha! It feels good to laugh out loud once in awhile.

learning the ropes

"Now son, once you have made it into the lineup, sit up and straddle your board."

"Make sure you pick the right wave. A wave that has not broken."

"Sunscreen is essential son. The Hawaiian sun can burn your skin."

"Make sure you leave your belongings in a safe place. Or your mom can watch them. She does that for me all the time."

"See those kooks over there? That's what you don't want to do."

"You ready to get out there for the season son?"

something to be happy about

Hallelujah! He's falling asleep on his own! I've been told that it takes 3 nights to train them to fall asleep on their own at night and I thought they were all crazy. I just knew that it would be different for Tristan because he's umm...a special boy. I knew I would be nursing the boy to sleep until he was 8 years old. We started the training process a few nights ago. Night 1 - he cried for 1 hr and 15 minutes. Night 2 - he cried for 30 minutes. Night 3 - he cried for 15 minutes. Night 4 - he cried for 1 minute. And last night, Night 5 - I laid him down and he rolled over to his side, and watched me walk away while I closed the door. (He did look a little sad while I was leaving). But there were NO tears. NO crying! It took awhile to decide to start training him because it's just too sad to hear him screaming in his room for so long. Then when we would go in and check on him, he would look so thrashed. He stands up the whole time and is sweaty and so exhausted, but wouldn't give up. I hope that this keeps up. I may be speaking too soon. I never thought this day would come! We now need to work on his naps.

recycle your wardrobe

About once a year I go through my closet and clean out clothes that I don't wear anymore, but sometimes it's hard to let go of a few pieces because they are still in good condish, I'm just over it, or it's outdated. How great would it be if we could reinvent our old clothes to look the way we want? If I were only good at sewing, I would have so much fun with that. I need to take more sewing classes! The fabric of our old clothes could definitely be reused. I stumbled across this book that gives you tips on how to recycle your clothes. She also has a website, where you can send her your old clothes and she can alter it for you. Pretty cool. This book may be a good Christmas present for all of you sewers out there.

influenza a

T must have caught something while we were in California. We were around a lot of people and he was held by many. I hate seeing him sick. You just don't know how bad he is feeling or what hurts. It started with a runny nose. We went in for his standard Doctors appointment and doc said that he had a little cold, and to monitor it. It then turned into a 102.6 fever and doc said we should come back in. This was a rough half day at the doctors for both of us. He wanted Tristan to run some tests, so he sent us all over the hospital.

First of all, Tristan hates being poked at, even with the stethoscope, which is pain free, he is screaming. Or when they take his temperature in his ear, it's all over. So I knew that these tests would not be so fun. We started with needles in his arm to take his blood. Two needles, 3 vials to fill. 2 people to hold him down, plus the nurse taking his blood. Of course, this is so hard to watch as he screams and squirms. Then off to get his urine tested. Which isn't that hard, they just had to put a bag on him, and we come back later when he's shee sheed. The hardest part of all was watching him get his lungs x-rayed. They had to put him in a cylinder clear tube, with his arms up in the air. He was stuck so he couldn't move, screaming of course. Heart wrenching.

So anyways, after all the testing was over, we found out that he has Influenza A, which is in the same family as Swine. I'm starting to become a big fan of his doctor, he called us 3 times that day to give us the results, or to check up on baby T. But what I didn't like was how a couple of his phone calls scared me. He was urgently telling me to go to the pharmacy right away and get him on the meds he's calling in. Then later that night he called and he was telling me about Swine Flu and how there are many babies who do not survive this flu, how it's associated with death, yada yada yada. Scary for me right?

We didn't get much sleep for the next couple of nights as T was struggling to get comfortable. The amazing part was the good spirit Tristan was in through all of this, aside from all the testing at the hospital. He still remained active and happy (for most of the part, he did have some bad nights). A couple of days into the flu, he started vomiting, a lot. Then his fever came back. We were back at the doctors (by their request, I'm not just a crazy mom that brings him in whenever any little thing happens), and they didn't show too much concern, just that this is all part of the flu and to wait it out. He's almost 100% better, with just a little stuffy nose still. I'm not a fan of having a sick kid. I probably got 3-4 hours of sleep every night, and all of the doctors appointments are not fun. But we are so glad to see our little Tristan getting better.

Poor baby boy was put into the bath during one of his high fevers.

A cheerful Tristan gets into his pajamas. This was actually one of his bad nights.

Drinking lots of fluids.

Not throw up on his face, just a rice cracker. So serious though.

Playing with his cords as usual. No rest, all play.