Outigger Canoe Club

Spent New Year's day hanging out at the Outrigger Canoe Club. Sherry and Robert were kind enough to grant us passes to their private club. We thoroughly enjoyed it. Here's a view from the water outside the club, looking back at Diamond Head and the club.

The kids at the start of the day, or is it the start of the race. Nate has been trying so hard to keep up and today was no different. Although he came back a few minutes later to tell us his raft was feeling squishy. Turns out it lost some air and we needed to blow it up further.
Here's Nate showing everyone how to surf.
Nate and Chloe sharing a surfboard and flashing the Shaka Brother or hang loose.
Mike put on the inner tube, but not the pink one this time. He was showing us all how to do the Tahitian dance we learned the night before at Germaine's Luau.
Nate and Chloe trying to fight for balance control on the board. Nate had an easier time dropping to his butt on the board, but Chloe was clearly the leader at rocking the board.
Nate loves riding the waves in his tube. When asked, this week he says he prefers Hawaii over the snow. Quite a change from a week ago when he preferred the snow and never wanted to leave.

Diggin in the sand.
The cocktails were great, company even better. Love traveling with the Cottle's.
Shayne playing it cool on the beach, had to have is iPod on the whole time. At least he took off that purple sweatshirt he insisted on wearing. Teenager's, get your's while they still know everything.
Nate did really well at keeping his hat on today. Only took it off for a little while, even chased after it in the water when it came off.
The perfect end to a perfect day. The girls feel this is where they should be in 30 years, on the beach, Cocktail in hand and watching the sunset. I guess Mike and I will have to go golfing since they don't picture us in this scenario.

Golf in Hawaii

Golf from Ko 'Olau, where we played on Thursday. Behind us is a view of Kaneohe.

Downhill par 3
Long par 4, with Pali lookout on the upper right.


Lot's of forced carries on this course, makes shot selection really important. Also note the close proximity of the jungle to the edge of the rough. Hit a ball in there it's a lateral hazard, you ain't finding your ball.

Went to golf today at Ko 'Olina. They had a special where they will pick you up from your Waikiki and drop you off. We booked it, but were a bit surprised when we were picked up in a Limo. The limo driver was really nice and friendly. Ko 'Olina is located on the other side of the island, west side. It was right next to the Paradise Cove Luau, which is the Luau we went to with HP a few years back. I like it much better than Germaine's that we went to this year. They are building a Disneyland resort right near Ko 'Olina, it's scheduled to open in Nov 2011. It's also where all the NFL pro bowl players would stay, when the Pro Bowl was being held in Hawaii. Overall it was a very nice course, wide open. In a lot of ways I liked it better than Ko 'Olau, but it felt more manicured and professional.



Nice little par 3 here, great views, not so great scores.

Santa's Secret Adventure

As I mentioned in an earlier post, many of these are going to come out of order. These photos are from our visit to Santa's Secret Adventure with Nene, Dani and Claudia. Above, we're waiting for our turn with Santa.

Nate leading Claudia on a tour of the Santa's Secret Adventure grounds. We were about to head home and Nate was so cute helping Claudia.

Nate getting one of his many included Pony rides. It was great that there was no lines, the kids were able to do what they wanted, when they wanted.

Nate was more into horses this time. The first time he rode the one at the Pumpkin patch he was quickly bored, but we couldn't get Claudia off.
Here we all are on one of the carriage rides.
Nate having a great time, he was all smiles.

Don't they look cute together. Only problem was Nate wanted to lean on the bear behind him and kept knocking it over.
This would have been a really great photo, but Nate decided he had to do his Incredible Hulk pose.
The people were great. Santa made a list and wrote down what all the kids wanted. For Nate it was a remote control airplane, blue. It was nice, they didn't rush us and we were able to take as long as we wanted for photos and stuff. Then they even posted teh photos up on the web for us to download for free.
It may be hard to see, but the elf had Vulcan ears. Another great Xmas for our family. Can't wait to do it a gain next year.

Back in Hawaii

Ready, set go!!! We made it to Hawaii with the Cottle's. Nate is trying his best to keep up with Shayne and Chloe. Poor little guy, having so much fun but is so tired.

As usual, we are hanging out in front of the Pink Palace.

Waves weren't too big, for most, but were more than Nate could really handle.

Hi everyone!!!
Nate now says he likes Hawaii better than the snow.

Good day or bad day?

Ski Lessons

Had a great time up in Heavenly the last few days. Nate loved the snow. Told us he wanted to stay there forever. He was really sad when we finally came home. Two days of lessons. Mid-way through the first day they moved him up a levelas he was better than most of the beginners. Although by the end of the second day he was still having trouble paying attention. He just wants to go up the big hill.


It snowed overnight and left our car buried. Nate thought it was great. Loved seeing the icicles and throwing snowballs.

Patiently waiting...

Following the instructor at ski school. Parents aren't allowed as they are too much of a distraction. We did sneak in a few photos at lunch time.

Ready, Aim, Fire!!! Snowball's away.

Still doesn't quite know how to make a proper snow ball, they disintegrate after tehy leave his hand. Sort of like a shotgun burst.



Mom and dad had fun too. It was cold and breezy most of the time. Our first day, most of the lifts were closed, which limited the different runs we could do. The second day we were able to ski the whole mountain. Maria got tired around 2:30 and went to the Gondola to pick p Nate at 3:45. In the 90 minutes from 2:30 to 4:00 before the lifts closed, I was able to get in 9 runs. No lift lines, fresh powder, it was a great time. Can't wait to bring Nate back again.

Driving Range

So I haven't posted in awhile, again. Have a backlog of things I want to post, wanted to keep it in chronological order. However, now I'm not sure when I'll get to his Birthday and Turkey day things. Therefore I'm going to post a few things now, then we can try and circle back to those other moments later.

Had some time to kill, trying to keep Nate out of the house and out of Maria's way. Decided to take him to the driving range.
While Nate was not the only kid at the course, in fact I was surprised at how many there were, he did get a lot of looks and smiles or laughs seeing him carrying the clubs. Of course this only lasted about halfway, before he was too tired and asked me to carry for him.



We'll need to work on that form, he's a little too far bent over here.
The ball's a bit forward in his stance.

At least his follow through isn't too bad, assuming he finishes standing up, which he didn't a number of times.

School Photos

These are the photos we got from Nate's Pre-school. Not a big fan of the first one, but love the next two. The one below looks like he is a model. He always has loved the camera.



More entries to come, I know it's been almost a month since my last entry, but been busy. As usual, things seem quite, a flurry of activity then quiet again. We just got through Birthday party, Turkey Day and our first Xmas event of the season, so look for a few more interesting coming this week.