Welcoming 2010

We have been living in Waipahu, Hawaii for almost a year now. Every night fireworks go off in our neighborhood. I am not talking black cat or even bottle rocket type fireworks, but the house rattling, car alarm setting off, sounds like a gunshot, up in the air, 4th of July type fireworks. People refer to them as “The Waipahu Fireworks”. Elementary school kids sing songs about them. Well we had heard a lot about the New Years fireworks but nothing could have prepared us for what we experienced.

I got home around 7pm on the 31st. Driving into our neighborhood I saw people everywhere in their driveways, setting off every kind of firework you could imagine. There wasn’t a millisecond that went by that a firework was not going off. These non-stop fireworks went from 7pm till 1am! At midnight it was like a never ending finale. People were on their roofs watching. Our usual view of Honolulu was completely blocked by smoke and we could barely see past the house tops in front of us. It was crazy. And no its not legal, its just accepted as a fact of life here. Lilo, surprisingly, was not bothered by it at all, which is so silly considering the next day we figured out that she is afraid of the dust pan, goofy dog.

The Eddie

Well its surfing season here in Hawaii. I have never watching surfing in my life or paid any attention to surfing what-so-ever. I had always seen the pictures though of surfers in a huge wave and all you can think is “wow”. Well since we moved to Hawaii I was determined to see it with my own eyes. Well the Vans Triple Crown surfing competition started and I kept on eye on it to see about going. Unfortunately the surf wasn’t very good and when it was decent enough to ride, it always seemed to be a weekday. Well two of the three Triple Crown competitions were over and I had yet to see any surfing myself. I was starting to worry that I would miss it all, but then… News reporters started to predict huge surf, enough to post pone the Triple Crown. Then I heard about the Eddie Aikau Big Wave Surf Competition. It is a competition is in honor of Eddie Aikau who was a surfer and lifeguard in the 60s who went out to rescue someone and never came back. (If you ever see a bumper sticker that says “Eddie would go”, that’s what it is referring to). This competition is only held when the waves are over 20 feet. The last time the Eddie had been held was in 2004. So here I was, with a once in a lifetime opportunity presented to me, so what did I do? I ditched work and went of course! Stephen couldn’t so I had to go by myself. I had to park 3 miles away from the beach where it was held. It was awesome! There were 30-50 ft waves. They were far away so it’s not like it looks in the pictures, its more like watching little stick figures in the distance. All the same, it was awesome. I got to see Greg Long, the winner, score a 100 points on a wave that he rode all the way to the beach. Here are some pictures of what I saw. What I wouldn’t give to have had a telephoto lens!

December in Hawaii

Well its December 5th and 80 something degrees outside, what to do? Go to Waikiki of course! We are still not quite used to it being warm all the time here, not that I am complaining, its just a little weird. We went to Waikiki to see if they had decorated. There wasn’t much and it sure still didn’t feel like Christmas time. Let me show you…

Photo Shoot

So our friends just had an adorable baby girl named Claira. They wanted some baby announcement pictures and they had seen some of my old photography photos and asked me to do them. I was very flattered but a little nervous because I had never done baby pictures before. Well here’s how they turned out…

Labor Day Weekend

Well for Labor Day weekend, Stephen's family all came to visit. It was a crazy weekend but we had lots of fun. They stayed at the Hale Koa so we spent time relaxing there. We also went to sharks cove, north shore and pearl harbor. Here are a few of my favorite pictures.

Jazz for Jesus

We have been attending a Presbyterian church called Trinity Church since we moved to Hawaii. We have a great group of Christian friends that we met there and have Bible study with on Sunday nights. We like the church and the pastor but the worship music is lacking a bit. The songs that are done are usually overplayed worship songs from the 90s that lack much depth. Stephen decided about a month or so ago to join the worship band to see if he could influence the quality of the music. Since he volunteered, he has played the drums, bongos and the sax. I didn’t even know he could play the drums! The last two Sunday’s he has done the special music with a guy in our church who has written the songs and Stephen just “jams” to it. Here are the 3 videos I was able to get from my cell phone of the song he did last week. You can’t really see him (I was sitting in the very back because I was on call that week) and you’ll need to turn the volume up all the way to hear him too. But he sounded great and I am so proud of him! (I call it "Jazz for Jesus" because that is what the woman sitting behind me in churh said when Stephen was playing :o)

Polo

Well I have discovered that the awesome game of polo is in existence in Oahu. There is a great field right along the beach. We decided to get some friends from church together and go to the last game of the season. We drove out there with the two dogs in the back of the truck and parked on the edge of the field just a few yards from the beach. It is certainly interesting experience. There are some people there who are in fancy dresses and big hats and then there are people BBQing out of the back of their truck with shirt off and beer in hand. If you have never watched polo I would highly suggest it. There is nothing like watching horses gallop down a 300 yard field with riders with croquet like sticks hitting a soft ball size ball. Unfortunately I gave Stephen the task of taking pictures during the game in which we ended up with not a single picture of the actual game. Silly boy :o) Here are some of the pictures we did get. Mostly of the dogs playing on the beach at half time. Lilo loves to fetch her ball in the water. Willow is still not too sure about the water but loves to play the sand (you'll see what I mean when you see the last picture).