Maunawili Falls

Matt and I went for a refreshing (a.k.a. early) hike up to Maunawili Falls yesterday before church. We brought along little Emma who was a real trooper, although of course she had to be carried over all of the stream crossings. Matt was very patient with me going slower than usual with the extra 20 pounds I'm carrying around these days (baby is 4 pounds). Especially up the sections with stairs cut into the trail - I felt like the tortoise trying to hike with the hare. I'm blessed to have a sensitive and understanding husband with seemingly endless patience!

7 Months Pregnant

Matt and I had some fun this weekend taking some 7 months pregnant shots. I know many women (and men) think I'm crazy, but I really do love being pregnant! I just find it so amazing that our child is growing inside of me. I think I also can relax and enjoy my new body more because I know its temporary, and a few months from now pregnancy will just be a happy memory.

And of course, the proud father-to-be is on top of the world...

No Ka Oi SufferFests

This weekend, I (Matt) spent a few hours learning a little video editing. Here is my first hack job project....enjoy!

General Sillyness

A few of Lesley's eighth grade boys follow us to our car some days after school and beg to try to push the car out of the stall for us. It is absolutely hilarious. Unfortunately, the parking lot slopes uphill just a bit, so after about four feet, they usually get stuck. The second picture is a video, so hit the play button to get a 16 second piece of the action.

Lesley's parents bought us this carseat for the baby (8 weeks to go and counting!) and I thought it would be funny to put this stuffed duck toy in the carseat to try it out. Emma immediately jumped in the carseat and wouldn't let me strap the duck in! I think she might already be struggling with baby adjustment issues...

MAC Dinner

Every year, HBA's Mainland Advisory Council (MAC) visits Hawaii for a week. The MAC members are supporters of HBA and they spend the week visiting the campus to see what their generous donations have funded. To cap off the week, HBA hosts a big banquet and showcase to thank the members for their support. It features a fabulous buffet at the Hilton complete with entertainment from some of our most talented kids.

Luckily for us, they invite all of the faculty to attend the event, and we spent the evening chatting with other teachers at our table. It came up last night that all of the teachers seated at our table had actually taught Matt when he was a student at HBA! Mr. Herder, Mrs. Ustare, and Mr. and Mrs. Hayashi. Now we all work together - weird and very cool. We had a wonderful time reflecting on the vision of HBA and enjoying some ono grinds!

The program featured performances by the Soldiers of Light, the various choirs, and HBA's student hula halau. These lovely Middle School Choir girls are all eighth graders that I teach. Mr. Hom and I comparing our bellies - I win!

Haleakala Adventure

This past weekend, I (Matt) went over to Maui and spent some time running trails in Poli Poli State Park, as well as jumping into a short biathlon on the west side of the island. Here are a few pics from my last day where I rode up Haleakala. There were many useful signs along the way, as you can see below. I especially liked the one that reminded me to drive slow. As if being at 9,000 ft. and 5 hrs. into a long ride isn't enough to slow you down!

Sophomore Camp

Matt and I had the priviledge of attending Hawaii Baptist Academy's Sophomore Camp this past weekend as counselors. The camp is held at Pu'u Kahea in Waianae, a site owned by the Hawaii Pacific Baptist Convention. There are several cabins for the students to stay in, as well as a big plantation house for group meetings. The camps are God-focused, and the kids hear several large group messages as well as spending time in "family groups" of 8 to 10 same-gender kids. The camps are always a time of great refreshing. We both know the students, as Matt currently teaches the sophomores US History, while I taught the same kids Algebra 2 last year as freshmen. This camp had a lot of meaningful moments which I can't share because I don't want to spoil it for any of my 8th graders who may be reading this!We played a game called "Aunt Mary" which is sort of like Sharks and Minnows, but the "it" person has to whack you with a pantyhose leg filled with flour. It adds a great element to the game, plus it's easy to prove who has been tagged because there is a telltale white spot on their clothing. Here Matt playfully cowers as two sophomore boys finish whacking him with their flour-filled stockings.We did a team-building exercise called a "group sit" where all the students stand in a tight circle, then turn 90 degrees and sit on each others' laps. Here Matt (in the light gray shirt towards the left) helps supervise the set-up. There was a lot of falling! The girls in the picture below nailed it, though. The beach is only two blocks from the camp, so on Friday afternoon we took about half the kids down to jump in the water. Matt played frisbee with a couple of the boys for a while. Here he makes a spectacular catch!

Valentine's Day

Matt is on Maui today, having his last big male hurrah before the baby comes along. He's planning some crazy athletic feats including riding his bike UP Haleakala (10,000 feet) and going for some extreme long distance runs. This is the last chance he'll have to travel off-island before baby is born in just over two months, so he's getting it out of his system now. :o) He took advantage of the three day weekend to travel outer-island, so we celebrated Valentine's Day on Wednesday. He took me out to Assagio's, the best Italian food on the island (and possibly the world - try it!).

30 Weeks Pregnant

This picture was taken last weekend at Matt's parents house to mark our official entry into the last quarter of pregnancy. Lesley is still feeling great, thanks in large part to Matt being an amazing and sensitive husband. He is so thoughtful about offering to help carry things, wash dishes, and rubs lots of lotions on my belly. He even makes me breakfast every morning so I can stay in bed a few extra minutes! Men like him are one in a million.
A big purchase this week was this glider rocker. I told Matt early in our relationship that I wasn't giving birth to any children until we owned a glider rocker. So here it is, with two and a half months to go until baby makes his debut. We both love it, but Emma is still a little unnerved by the fact that it's so unstable. Here she's about to pounce on a rawhide bone she dropped on the cushion.Just for fun, here's a silly picture our little Bat-Dog. She's got a rawhide bone in her mouth for chewing on. She carries it around the apartment and it looks like she's smoking a giant cigar. We love lying around the apartment and playing with her. She is endlessly patient with our silly antics.

Punahou Carnival

The Zipper is the craziest ride at Punahou Carnival...not just because it whips you around in free-rotating wire cages at breakneck speeds, but because the ride was already an antique 11 years ago when I was still at Punahou. The fact that your rusty cage could fly off the ride at any moment just adds to the excitement. But alas, I couldn't ride any rides this year due to being pregnant. Matt, being the sensitive husband that he is, chose not to ride any rides either in an act of solidarity. We still managed to enjoy ourselves, though. Our $20 carnival budget was instead spent on ono grinds such as teriburgers, corn on the cob, gyros, icees, portuguese bean soup, and of course, the famous Punahou Carnival malasadas. I made up for missing the Zipper this year by enjoying not one, but TWO malasadas. I am, after all, eating for two, and I wouldn't want to deprive baby of the calories he needs. :o)

We ran into a couple of people we knew, including Mr. Georgi and the big surprise of the afternoon, a giant Blake Gammel. Don't get this guy mad, he could just step on you and be done. He's the same old fun guy, though, and we enjoyed briefly catching up with him and meeting his girlfriend, Allie, who graduated from Punahou with Blake back in 2001.

It will be interesting to see if carnival breaks records this year. When meteorologists know Punahou carnival is approaching, they always predict rain for the weekend. This year was a big surprise as we enjoyed the first dry carnival in years. Couple that with the bad economy, and it will be interesting to see how the profits work out.