Kae, Yuri and Kengo Come to Visit

A couple of days after all the girls left, three friends from Japan came to visit. Unfortunately, I didn't get many pictures but here are a couple.

It was Kengo's birthday while they were here, so we had a little party for him at our house.

JoJo & Sarah and Lindsay & Candace Come to Visit

JoJo and Sarah arrived from Bend, Oregon on January 19th to visit for a few days. One day later, Lindsay and Candace arrived from Canada to visit us as well. We definitely had a very full house and of course, lots of fun!

First time surfing for JoJo and Sarah...















We didn't have enough room in our car for everybody, so Bryon borrowed a 15-passenger van from work to use for the weekend. Nice ride!















Lindsay and Candace eating breakfast on our deck...















Out for lunch in Haleiwa...















Sarah and JoJo both got tatoos while they were here...



















And Bryon and I got haircuts from Sarah...

Christy's Birthday

Bryon and friends surprised me with a party on my birthday!

Surprise!!



















BBQ dinner















Some 'Dance Dance Revolution'







































Birthday cake from Cold Stone















And we ended off the evening with some wild games of Spoons.

Thanks for a great party!

Camping

We spent this past weekend camping with a group of friends from church at Malaekahana State Park. It was definitely much much better than our previous experience camping here in Hawaii! Camp fires, falling asleep to the sound of waves, volleyball, ultimate frisbee, swimming, body boarding, watching kite-surfers and surfers, good talks...

"Party at Ko'olau"

The church that we go to recently moved. They had outgrown their church building in Honolulu, and decided to buy a whole golf course over on the Windward side, near our home in Kaneohe. They use the building for church, and lease out the golf course as well as the catering business and restaurant.
To celebrate the move, they had a big party on Saturday, open to anyone in the community.


They hauled in 12 tons of snow for the kids to have snow ball fights with. Bryon was pretty excited!



















And, Bryon got to try out some demo clubs, as well as get some tips from golf pros.

Big Waves on the North Shore

We went up to the North Shore to see some surfers on the big waves at Pipeline. Apparently, Kelly Slater was out there.

UH vs. UBC

Bryon won tickets on the radio to go see the University of Hawaii play UBC in men's volleyball. We were two of the few UBC fans in the crowd, but we won 3-0!

Huge stadium, but not too many fans.

New Years on Maui

We spent the New Year's weekend on Maui, where we stayed at an organic farm, ate organic food and and met some very interesting people, including the deputy chief of the Canadian Green Party - Adriane Carr - who was staying at the farm as well. It was definitely an interesting experience!

6:30 a.m....just missed our flight, and are now flying stand-by on the next one. Oh, and that Starbucks that Bryon is holding, had a hairball in the bottom. Yummy.




















Market in Lahaina















We stopped for a hike on our way down the road to Hana.















And we stopped at a beautiful black sand beach near Hana for a swim.















Caves carved out on the sides of the beach...















Our hosts preparing dinner - sweet potato leaf salad, breadfruit with coconut milk, avocado and fresh tapioca.















Our hut.















One of the falls at the "7 Sacred Pools" park...each pool drops into the next one, eventually dropping into the ocean. It was beautiful.



















Flipping off the cliff.




















Red sand beach in Hana.



















Learning how to make a Ti leaf lei.



















On our last day on Maui, we went to Wailea and Kihei by bus. In our dirty, back-packing state, we didn't really fit in too well at the mall, but it was fun.

Christmas

Christmas Day was relaxed and fun....stockings, more presents(got a little head start on that on Christmas Eve) and a fabulous breakfast in the morning, surfing in the afternoon and dinner with friends in the evening.





















Bryon and Loki (one of the dogs where we were house-sitting), with a case for our new Ipod.



















Surfing at Makaha



















Christmas Dinner at Mark and Ari's















For Christmas dinner we had seafood....salmon, shrimp and crab.

Christmas in Iowa Party

Our friends, Ari and Mark, are from Iowa so they decided to put on their air-conditioner full-blast and throw a "Christmas in Iowa" party. We were all supposed to show up in winter-wear/tacky Christmas wear if we had it. It was a fun night with good friends, White Elephant gift exchange, cookie decorating contest, and cold air.

Taylor, Bryon and Will. Anyone recognize Bryon's outfit??
















Ari and Christy



















Bryon was the proud winner of this ARMY sweatshirt that he stole from Eunice



















And I was very excited to get the mini-crockpot















Taylor was the cookie-decorating winner with his bacon and eggs. Bryon came in a close second though.

Getting Ready for Christmas

In some ways it was strange to spend Christmas in a tropical climate, but we still got into the Christmas spirit in various ways. Here are some of our pre-Christmas activities...


Decorating our tiny tree...




















Bryon's company had a big Christmas party at Ko'olina Resort (think "Blue Crush"), and Bryon won a gift certificate for Macy's, so we had a post-party shopping trip and bought some new art work for our house.
















Skating at Oahu's only ice rink...



















Bryon entered the ice-limbo competition,and as you can see, due to the size of his competitors he really had no chance of winning.
















And this is the end of it...nice form though, isn't it?!

Momoko and Akiko

Friends from Japan, Momoko and Akiko, came to Honolulu to run the marathon in December, and we got to hang out with them for an evening at the Cheesecake Factory in Waikiki.