more halloween

Here are more pics as promised from Halloween. :)

The yummy spread.... (hee hee - ever notice how many food pictures i have?)

Marc's amazing jack-o-lanterns (can you even CALL them jack-o-lanterns?)...

 

And then birthday candles! :) 

Halloween!

Here are some pics from Halloween!

Uncle Jerry toned it down from last year's Cher to Danny Zucko (and Aunty Val's Sandy)

The Magic Carpet & Jasmine...Princess Presto and Super Why!

And can you guess what Becki and Josh were? hee hee...

And here, just so everyone can see the artistic ability of the Miyamoto family, are Maya, Michele and Uncle Mel (who made the costumes!)

birthdays

birthdays are different now...and i guess i first thought it was because i was getting older...but what i realize is that they're just different because they're without mom...and this year they're without cec...course as a trade a get dad...not that he dresses up or decorates cupcakes with me.... ;)

there are just those days, or minutes, or passing moments that hit that are still just so hard...and it's amazing how one small, insignificant day, like your birthday, can make you miss someone so much.

PC out the window!

all those Politically Correct concerns in Seattle?! "Fall Festival", "Winter Party"... NOPE! Not in Hawaii!!!! Bring out the jack-o-lanterns! The ghost decorations! The streamers and my Frankenstein earrings! YAY for Halloween!!! Who cares about religious concerns and people who don't celebrate Halloween! Why? Cause EVERYONE does in Hawaii! It's a whole school Halloween Parade!!! And for the Holidays?! We actually sing CHRISTMAS CAROLS at our assembly!!!! WOO HOOO for Hallmark and Holiday celebrations!!!! :D :D :D

foggy vog or voggy fog?

cold gray gloom is preferable to sulferish dank vog. 

Oktoberfest Stinson Style

YAY for the Stinson's who hosted an AWESOME Oktoberfest last night! So it's no secret that one of the things completely unattainable in Hawaii that Rye misses is good beer...and look what the Stinson's brought back from their trip to Seattle!

Oh wait, you might not be able to see the label. It's Fat Tire!!! Rye's favorite beer!!!

Real Bratwurst and Batwurst (sp?) boiled in beer then grilled...mmmm...with Becki's cabbage, sauerkraut & scalloped potatoes it was the PERFECT!!!

Here was the other great part of the evening...beer tasting! These are the different beers we went through

And of course, Uncle Ryan having a great time with Marley and Macie. :) 

local girl

officially reinstated myself as a hawaii girl, buying a cute Manuhealii top today and then stopping for lunch at St. Louis Drive In to pick up a bento...course i'm listening to Chicken Fried my new favorite country song as i write this....so maybe not too local yet. ;)

mmmm...spam, mochiko chicken, teri beef and egg...all over furikake rice with with an ume. yummy heart attack!

ups and downs of marriage

after helping papa use the bathroom at 2am last night and granny helped tuck him back in, he closed his eyes and said, "boy am i thankful for such a good wife"....awweeee....SOOOO sweet!!! so sweet i won't mention the last time papa yelled at granny and she whacked him like a little boy on the hand. hee hee hee....or the multiple times i've been there that papa is reading something and she takes the article right out of his hands to show me or read it herself...hee hee hee...they're really quite cute together, although she'd never admit it.

tender hearted post 2

mom might be gone, but there are times when you can still feel her comfort, like when she lets you cry sitting with her at nuuanu mortuary...

light hearted post 1

there is no real beer in hawaii.

 - not at whole foods

 - not at the liquor store

 - not at the beer specialty store

 - not that this matters to me  

     (just the happiness of my husband, who is learning to live with Kona Brewery)

more posts

i've decided to blog more again, and get back to that, 'insight into my mind' bit. not an 'update on my life' post...but insight posts.

belated seattle posts

Just some belated seattle pics from last week...

One of my favorite hole in the wall (literally coffee shops), KAPOW. That will be closing due to the development sprawl.

And what would a trip to Seattle be without a stop at Archie McPhees?!!

Steve had never been before. He was in heaven. :)

growing families, growing hearts

one of the hard things about being so far away is missing the growing families...well, actually just the growing little kiddies, especially maya, sacha and aine...so for those of you who'd like updates...here are pics after dinner Wed. night:

Note Sacha's fashionable no pants outfit, and bundled up ontop. ;)

weather?!

i was really in the mood for gray, cloudy, drizzly weather! (which fortunately i did get the first two days) but here's what it looks like right now outside of Cec's window (this is the not as nice view angle of the balcony, but i wanted to get in the pretty red tree) ;)

Tuesday cont'd...

And moving on the same day from Cec's school...I spent the afternoon with mine. It was SO wonderful to see the kids. The chaotic rush of hugs and screams actually brought tears to my eyes (which I apologized for later as it was in the middle of lunch)...and i can't even begin to explain how it felt to be able to walk into the building and still be comfortable with my old staff and friends.



after the school day was over a bunch of us sat for drinks at my favorite local cafe/bar to catch up...and this was the fall foliage i caught along the way. SO Seattle....SO pretty...and there was the PERFECT nip in the air. (unfortunately it wasn't cloudy/rainy OR gray on Tuesday...looking out Cec's balcony, it's nice and blue as I write this as well. DRAT!) ;)

Cec's class

got to meet Cec's class a couple days ago, and while we thought it best not to post pictures of her children (who have QUITE the amount of character this year), here's her 1st grade classroom. really nicely set up. i'd want to be in Ms. Yang's class too!

boutique shopping

:) what do i love about seattle?! (oh yeah, aside for being with my sister)

BOUTIQUE SHOPPING!!!!!!

Here's one of my favorites - Lucca's in Old Ballard
























I was also really pleased to find that one of my old favorites Horshoe in Fremont moved next just three doors down from Lucca's!
























And then the day was made perfect with an afternoon, dinner and Princess Monopoly with Monica and Maya (who is now adding, subtracting, playing the piano and writing...a lot changes in 3 months)

a mistake

i'm beginning to think it was a mistake to visit seattle. god i love it here, and walking from cec's school early this morning, under the fall foliage, through the mist, the cold and the gray clouds...before i even saw monica, maya and shopped at my favorite boutiques, i realized how much i've missed it here.

YAY SEATTLE!!!

Having a good time. :)



Fremont Fair...

Really yummy ice-cream

U-Village, a haircut from my favorite (well ONLY) hairdresser, and dinner from Metropolitan Market all in one day.

Check Cec's blog for more details. :)

First Dinner

There's nothing like a hot bubbling pot of Soon-du-bu (hot tofu soup) after a 5 hour plane ride (well that and strawberry sochu, spicy fried chicken, chop chae, seafood pancake, dolsut bimbimbap, beef bolgugi, kalbi-tang). Oh...and good company too! ;)





It's nice being back in Seattle!

Century Ride

So...a little more detail about the Century Ride on Sunday.

We got there EARLY in the morning. Dad dropped us off at about 5:30am...and got in place at the staging area (the parking lot between the Shell and the zoo...boy Cec, you would have LOVED the smell). Went to 'Group C' which were the hundreds of people who rode 6-7 mph and prefered to 'look around and enjoy the scenery', as the description in the registration said. (we were really in between Group B 13-17mph riders and Group C, but we figured we'd just pass people as we went and prefered to not be pressured, which is indeed what happened)

Here's Rye in the staging area. At this is point we looked around and realized that 75% of the people around us were from Japan!!! And LOTS of Japanese families and people who DIDN'T look like they had trained...

So after a lot of fan fare, speaking (over 50% was in Japanese)...

They released us in sets by speed...and at about 6:30 we were off!! Funny, it was so crowded though, we didn't get ON our bikes till after the start point!

The first part of the ride was from Kapiolani park up to Diamond Head, and I'll admit I was concerned with the incline. But with so many families, Japanese tourist and Japanese elderly (well not THAT old, but in their 70s), Rye and I easily got up the hill and past people, where upon we came up to the really nice look out and had a great laugh, because not a quarter mile into the ride all the Japanese riders had gotten off their bikes and were taking pictures of each other, the view, the angle of diamond head...(see them in the background?) Hee hee...it was pretty funny.

Okay, didn't want to write a novel, so will just post a couple more pics of the ride.

Here's Rye coming up to Hawaii Kai drive.

After a restroom break (we strayed off the route to Rye's folks' place) we stopped at the turn around point a little after Sandy beach...(this is Rye coming up to it)...and then headed back towards town.

This was a pretty funny but disconcerting sight. This CUTE little Japanese boy was pushing along on his tiny little bike. He looked like he was 5!! Only, there were NO adults around?! We had no idea who he was with, but he seemed to be doing just fine.

And here's the last mile. That's Diamond Head in the background for those of you who aren't local, it's what the back of it looks like. :) This is where I seriously started to die. And you can't tell, but it's at LEAST a 5% incline there, which after 24 miles and no training seriously feels like a mountain. ;) How that little boy ever made it is beyond me. (wonder if he did?)

At anyrate, we had a GREAT time. We were a lot less sore then we thought we'd be, and I can't wait to get back on my bike and start riding again!!! (if only i had a fan attached to my bike...biking in Hawaii is HOT) :) :D