The Beach House:  Moana Surfrider

Waikiki Sunset

Diamond Head Hike

Zek and Daddy stopping for water

Sam and Beto still on the way up

Sue, me, Mom, and Hanna - we made it to the top!

Mom and Geni in the tunnel

The view - gorgeous!

The view of the lighthouse

Perfect sign for Zek to stand under

The Fab Five

The dark tunnel

Beto climbing the spiral staircase

Cynthia stuck in the tree!

Our 3 babies

The 7 cousins

The oldest cousin - Hanna

Dave climbing the tree

Geni girl

After the hike we headed over to Mac 24/7 for some pancakes - We've never seen such HUGE pancakes and wow... were they yummy!!

We actually bought the kids their own pancakes not knowing that all 5 of us could have shared just one!

Our "Stay-cation"!!

This summer we decided to stay on island and spend our money having fun with our family visiting from California!  It's a lot cheaper than buying 5 tickets!  Oscar's sister Cynthia, brother Beto and Beto's girlfriend, Samantha stayed with us for over 2 weeks.  This time overlapped with my brother David, his wife Sue, and their 4 kids, Hanna, Jonny, Ruth, and Abbie also visiting and staying with my parents.  Then Cynthia stayed an extra 2 weeks to help out with the kids while I had training for work.  The month actually went by very fast and we miss everyone so much!  Back to reality!!  This is the only picture I could find that had all of us (minus my dad) when we hiked up Diamond Head!

My Birthday...another year older...

For my birthday this year I decided that I wanted to go to an Indian restaurant with the family.  I love trying new things (especially food!) so we walked to Maharani and then over to Bubbies for Mochi Icecream!  It was a wonderful night.  Thanks to my wonderful husband and my parents I also got the BendTec!  Green Smoothies every morning!!!

Starting Again - Yea!

 It has been over a year since I've written a post here at our Adventures!  Reason... uh, I don't really have one.  Maybe because of Facebook, I've felt like I've connected with long lost friends and have been keeping up with family and friends that way.  But...then I think about what the blog means to me and it makes me sad that I didn't keep it up and feel like I lost a year of my memories.  I know some of you read the blog and look at the pics that I post, but mostly I do it for my own selfish reasons of remembering my life.  Anybody that knows me knows that I have a terrible memory and the blog not only allows me to post pictures of my memories but my thoughts and feelings as well!

The great thing about our blog is that I started it about 3.5 years ago when we moved our family to Hawaii.  So, now when I go back I see our life from the new beginning.  It was a great way to let our family and friends back in CA see what we are doing and how big the kids are getting.  Here are just some things that took place at the beginning of this blog...

I was pregnant with Zek.  He was born at Queens and in June of this year he will be 3!

Genesis was only 18 months old and still in diapers!  She barely had any hair!

Ki was 3 years old and totally in his zone - a place full of trees to climb, bugs to play with, and warm oceans to swim in.

Well, here is a trip down memory lane from when we first started the blog.  As far as the year that was forgotten - it won't be for long - I'll try to make it up little by little!

New Kayak

Zek's Board Ride

Geni Singing!

The 3 little Pigs

Tantalus Part 1

Always Hard to say Good-Bye!

On the last night that Mom and Dad were here, we took them out to Shorebird Restaurant. It's a very nice restaurant right on the beach where you actually bbq your own meat. Your raw meat comes on a plate and you go over to the big bbq where you talk around the grill - different atmosphere and fun for a change. As you can see from the pictures, the kids were out by the end of the night and we had to carry all three of them home (walking - good thing we don't live too far). The kids had such a good time with Grandpa and Grandma and miss them already. We love you guys!

Christmas Cookies

........................................Before the race......................................

...........................................After...............................................

HONOLULU MARATHON!!!

The main reason for my parents' visit this time was the marathon. Ever since I ran cross country in highschool, my dad (who was also my trainer) and I always said we would do a marathon together someday. Don't ask me why we didn't do it when we were both in our prime but at least we can say that we did it and finished still standing! Eventhough my dad has run many, this was Oscar and mine's first marathon and it was very exciting! Oscar's pace is much faster than mine and he did awesome with a finishing time of 4:25. That's really good for not training as much as they say we should. My dad stayed the whole race with me and we finished together holding hands (running and cheering) past the finish line. We did it in 5:45. This is a memory I'll never forget and I'm so grateful that I have my dad to do this with. Running has always been something we have had in common (among many things) but this special bond is really unlike any other. I thank God for my dad!


Oscar's running buddies at work also ran the marathon and it was great to have a group of friends all there at the finish line, encouraging and sharing in the experience together. It was the first of many marathons for the group. Sign us all up for next year!



Mile 6 - Mom brought the kids down at 6:00 am to see us run through Waikiki - so far, feeling great!



Getting ready to pass the finish line! Very happy and still running :)


Us - after the race! Very happy we are done and actually not feeling too bad!


The group - Dennis (kneeling down), Ivan, Ed, Mike, Oscar, Daddy, and me. A few others are not in the picture but congrats to EVERYONE!!