Worship Event at Kakaako Park

This past Wednesday was our church all-worship night under the stars in the outdoor ampitheatre at Kakaako Park. This is hands-down one of my favorite things the church does. I love anything that is outdoors at night, movies, hikes, and worship nights. Plus I have fond memories of Kakaako. We used to go there in high school with cardboard boxes and go sleddin' da hawaiian way. I have a lot of pictures of Ui's two cuties but i've kept asking her if i could practice taking pictures of her kids. Koko, more of a ham, was ready. Actually, Uncle Clinton and I both told her way back on Wednesday that she had to get ready because I was going to be taking pictures of her on Wednesday. She responded by instantly striking a "one hand on the hip, head tilt, big teethy smile." Okay, Koko, not now. Wait til wednesday. So Clinton and I kept telling her that she couldn't smile until Wednesday or her mouth would get tired out. She looked all serious and you could tell she was concentrating and she pressed her lips together in a straight line. It lasted 3 seconds before she started giggling again. But, as you can see from the pictures, she got a fresh supply of smiles. That girl can find a camera anywhere...she would be sliding down the hill and she could sense when a camera was on her...full eye contact and big smile.

Ha'o was a little more camera shy...actually, I just got the "not now, I want to slide" look a lot but at the end, he totally gave me the poses. Awesome. The vertical pictures look pixelly...I don't know why but sometimes it does that when I enter them into my blog. They're not on my original flickr site, it's from a back site...but they're still cute.

Storyboard-Rolling at three months

If you see some familiar characters, here's the back-story. My sister has five girls. She had two at a real young age, waited fourteen years and had a third girl. You'll see plenty pictures of her on my blog. When she turned nine months old, my sister found out she was having twin girls. And, thus, really...this is where I get tons of practice shooting babies at all different ages. Three months is a great age. They're learning to laugh and smile, they make great eye contact and they are still pretty stationary.

Here's a storyboard of Chayne's rolling...Cheyenne hasn't learned how yet(probably because she insists on being carried every waking minute). Chayne is real smart...she tucks her knees under her butt until she's off-balance and then her body just naturally rolls over. I watched her do it three times.

Twins at Three Months

Can you tell them apart? They obviously look different when placed side-by-side but I can see how it may be difficult in individual pictures. Cheyenne is in pictures #2 and #4 and Chayne is in pictures #3 and #5. You don't need fancy studio lighting, you just have to take advantage of the natural light that we are blessed with every day. These are taken in my niece, Darilyn's, room. I choose it because it's on the side of the house facing the Waipahu sun. I They both like to smile. Chayne will laugh out loud. Both of them like to look at you and talk (garbling intently). My sister does not raise shy girls ever. (just a few more pics to come in the future days)

Six Month Milestones

Olympics are jacking up my sleep schedule. I get home late and then I just have to watch the Olympics we recorded on our TiVo. Even with fast-forwarding, I've been staying up to three in the morning. Whenever I watch the Olympics, I always get inspired. As I get older, my options of realistically making it to the Olympics get more limited. I remember when the Utah Olympics had that sport where you slid a "thingee" on the ice to try to make it onto a target...that may be my best chance if that ever returns to the Olympics. I like to sweep. I'm going to have to start training, I wonder if Ice Palace will let me bring in my own broom.

Last night, we had this HUGE flying cockroach in our living room. If only I had thought to videotape the shenanigans that followed. Scott tells me to get the RAID as he starts to roll up the newspaper. Why? I ask as I watch his fist clench his 5" long newspaper tube. "To back me up, Keao." Hmmm, I wonder if this was in our wedding vows. I really should have paid more attention. I grab the Raid and I watch as Scott takes the first try. This huge "moth-like" creature is flying figure eights in our living room and Scott is trying to swat it...crippled by his fear of roaches...as he cringes and ducks as he futilely swings his short little newspaper tube. He's nowhere near the roach. But he seems to be creating updrafts that the roach is now cruising in. It landed on the wall and Scott ran and swatted the wall, but he flinches at the last moment and hits the wall a full two feet below the roach. Then, I jump in the mix with the RAID trying to spray it as it flies erratically around our heads, thus creating a mist of pesticide around our heads. It was a good five minutes of Scott frantically swatting at air with his eyes closed and me trying to spray an almost empty RAID can before we managed to decimate that sucker. Oh, I hate flying roaches.

Hey, little HB turned six months old. Although, you can probably figure out her real name from the pictures. She's so cute. She sits perfectly and I think six months of picture-taking has trained her well. Liz was trying to feed her but everytime she heard the shutter clicking, she instantly looked at the camera. That-a-girl!!! Her blue eyes are more gray by now, so stunning.

Hey, tomorrow is Hoops Jam if anyone wants to help out.

A cute little 2 year old fairy playing under our mango tree

I have to catch up...last week Friday, Scott and I watched Ali. Her dad called us the night before and he was in a bind. Of course, we'll watch her!!! We adore her. She calls us "Uncle Scott" and "Auntie Mama." Pua taught her to call me Auntie Mama and her pronounciation has gotten so much better since the days of calling "Unkle Sock."

The only downfall was they brought her at some unforgiveable early hours...it was like 7:30 or something. Sheesh. Actually, she looked tired too but her parents dashed any hope that she might take a nap. She's so adorable, she just talks non-stop. And she spent most of the day in our car. We had to give Jasen a ride to Waipahu and we were a little worried because we remembered how much she hates her carseat. I sat in the back with a DVD player and like 5 kiddie movies. She was so well-behaved but the movies didn't really keep up with her rapidly shifting attention. She would watch 10 minutes of a movie and then ask for another movie. And she hadn't eaten breakfast because all we had was rice and iced tea...oh, and japanese hard candy. Actually, I did kind of feed her 3 chocolate chip cookies cause I felt bad that she must be hungry. So we told her that we would stop at McDonalds. Oh, that made her day. It also made the 35 minute drive to Waipahu very long as she kept looking out the window at H-3 and asking for "donohds?" And she kept up the questioning the whole drive back.

And then we had to drive out to Temple Valley and I offered to drive this time and give Scott a break. I put Ali in the car, climb in...and to my surprise, Scott jumps in the back with Ali and leaves me sitting alone in the front. Humph!!! I see where I rank.

Then, we let her play in the backyard with Charlie and made her a little pool out of Scott's diving bin. I think she had fun. So much fun, that when her babysitter showed up to pick her up, Ali started crying and clinging to us. Oh, it broke my heart. I was this close to calling in sick so she could stay at our house all day. Oh, how we love her.

Here she is with fairy wings in our back yard. What a little angel!!!

Reef and Ryder turn one (Part 2 of 2)

One final look of some highlights from my photo session with the adorable twin boys "Reef" and "Ryder" at Ko Olina. Their real names are only half as cute as thir nicknames, and Scott and I received their ocean themed invitations which really fit their nicknames. I brought my niece's surfboard which just happened to match their boardshorts. On a funny note, though, as I brought the surfboard out, I asked their mom "How do they do with sand?" She responded "I don't know, they've never been on sand before...(pause)....they'll probably just try to eat it." I guess they're still growing into their nicknames. But they did love the surfboard, clambering around and staring at the sand on their feet.

Next stop: a REAL WAVE!!!

Reef and Ryder at Ko Olina

On Thursday afternoon, Scott accompanied me to Ko Olina Lagoon Beach to take pictures of Reef and Ryder (their nicknames...in case you were wondering). They were so adorable and so well-behaved. We just got there and we knelt down to put our stuff down and they crawled towards us and climbed into our laps. Ope, from that moment on, they had us wrapped around their fingers. We especially love babies who love us.

Their one year birthday party is coming up and they showed off their skills. They both walk really well, although Ryder preferred to use all four limbs sometimes. They were Mobile with a capital M. Reef would be munching on some twigs he found in the manicured grass and Ryder is halfway to the shoreline. They have these adorable shirts that certainly helped in figuring out which was which. Here's a sneak preview of some of the pictures:

How did I get them to sit still? There are banana puff cereal piles in the grass in front of them. Don't laugh...it worked. More to come soon, I promise.

Natasha and Aaron's Destination Wedding

Natasha and Aaron Wedding

The wedding arch that the wedding planner created just for the couple.

The bride chose not to go with these bridesmaids leis but they were gorgeous.

The bride shielded by the wedding favors, something that came in handy when a sprinkle
started during the ceremony.

Destination weddings are tricky but you really have to trust your wedding planner. Although the bridesmaids were beautiful, I wish the bride had chosen to wear the beautiful orchid leis the planner had bought for them. It would have matched beautifully.

They really were an incredible cute couple.