Photo session

One of our friends from church is an amazing artist. He's talented in numerous areas, but has recently been spending some time with photography and has got an amazing eye for perfect shots. After repeated comments from me about how much I love his pictures of any and everything, he mentioned that he might want to take pictures of the boys for practice. I simply told him..."whenever and wherever, you just let me know." Well, while he was on spring break, he and his family came by so he could "practice" on the kids. These are just a few of my favorites.

My mom had the last two printed onto canvas for my mother's day gift, and they now hang on our wall. I absolutely LOVE them. Thank you G.O. for the amazing pictures! I don't think you need any practice, but my kids are always available. ;)

Zoo trip

Toward the end of April, on one of Daddy's days off, we decided to pay a visit to the Honolulu Zoo. It's been a while since we've been there, so we figured...why not? We called up our good friends, the Tuiteles, who decided to join us. It was ridiculously hot (probably should have gone earlier), but fun none the less.

Among other things, we saw...

the elephants (and not just their behinds),

the Sumatran Tiger,

the Orangutans (mid nap),
the giraffes and zebras,
and a very tired rhino.
After that, most attempts at seeing animals were unsuccessful as they were all napping or hiding from the heat. Luckily, the kids were easily entertained.

Kupa'a...was content as always just sitting in his stroller,
or being with mommy.
Ola...hung out with the baby elepani,
climbed up a giraffe,
made friends with the guy at the African Savanna,
had a snack,
and became an animal himself.

Luckily, we had a little bit of luck at the kid's petting zoo area.

Checking out the koi from the center of the koi pond,
and playing with the goats. Maybe we'll have better luck next time.

PMRF Family Day

It's been ages since I've posted anything on our blog. And while there are so many other pictures I desperately need to put up, current events win out. This past weekend we took a quick trip to Kauai to spend some time with my family. It was nice to relax and unwind and let my parents spoil the kids, but we were also lucky that our military base, PMRF, happened to be having their family day. So we took the boys down and let Ola run wild. Here are just a few of the "machines" he got to explore.

Cruising with the Federal Fire guys...

not even as big as the fed fire truck tire. LOL!
Hanging out on one of the navy boats.

Flipping switches in the mini chopper (smart kid hit the right switch and turned the power on)... scary moment for mom.

Testing out the black hawk...

Thankfully, the black hawk pilots unhooked their battery (no chance of turning on this one).

Co-piloting the army transport plane.

And preparing for a jump with the marines. ;)

It's not that often that our little man gets a chance to roam around on such important machinery, and he definitely had a blast. Who knows, maybe one day one of these shots will be the real deal.