Hauoli La Hanau Noe!

Happy Birthday Little Booger!!!!

Don't ever change!!!

Mitch's Sushi on Our 20th!

Well yesterday was La and my 20th Wedding Anniversary!!!  To celebrate, we all went out for a special dinner - sushi at Mitch's.  This was such a treat and we all left extremely satisfied.

I'll let the pictures do the talking.

Hamachi kama (grilled Hamachi collar)

Lobster Van Van

This was outstanding sushi.  That's not saying our normal haunt isn't great - we just wanted to make this evening special and different.  Happy 20th La and may we have 200 more!!!

Funny Picture

How did Noe get so tall????

Family Multi-sport Saturday

I brought La and the kids out to Hickam Flats to go fishing, shelling, observing and snorkeling. Mission accomplished!!!

All Together Now!!!

Finally!

Noe Tying Flies

Busy busy busy!!! Noe having fun tying up a few flies for Lake Newport aquatic friends... we'll see if they work. She likes using bead chain for "eyeballs".

DC Strolling

We took a stroll to see the LBJ Memorial and the drainage between the Pentagon and the Duck Pond. Pink granite from the Hill Country of Texas. Lots of crystals in the matrix. We also saw some cool aquatic creatures... check the next couple of posts

Release the Kraken!!! And Release the Hello Kitty Cooking Spoon Holder!!!!

It's a common occurrence to fear the Kraken - why who would want to die a watery death of impalement by spiked squid suckers followed by being ripped apart by an aquatic parrot beak??? But the real fear factor should be in avoiding the magnetic attraction of the Hello Kitty Plate transformed into a skull sucking Stove Top Cooking Spoon Holder... Oh the humanity!!!!!! Seriously - this is more evidence we thoroughly enjoyed painting ceramics again this weekend!!! We actually spent 3.5 hours painting - don't knock it until you try it (and plan well - if you are going to make awe-inspiring pirate paraphernalia, make sure you know how to spell "Kraken" and what the color of "Hello Kitty" eyes are (brown))!

More Fun

Proof that the 3.5 hours in the truck was worth it!

Noe's 8th Birthday

Happy Birthday Noe!!! We took her to the paint your ceramics place and P.F. Chang's per her request. We had tons of fun painting. I made two new ramen bowls in the Hawaiian Cowrie theme. La made a new cooking spoon holder. And Noe made a new monster piggy bank and soup/crackers bowl. Marlon was patient and drew creatively all over the blank spots on the table. What an awesome day!

Ready for the Christmas Season

Marlon and Noe spent the better part of today working on their self proclaimed "Christmas Marine" art project. It combines several of the aquatic life forms they enjoy with the elements of the Holiday Season. Here's Marlon's versionAnd here is Noe's (she spent the entire time looking over at what her brother was doing so she could faithfully replicate it - although according to the guide on the back of their work, she ended up with more discernible objects that needed numbering so the casual observer could identify all the items in the picture. I love these two kiddoroosters!

Kung Fu Fighting

Head Bands from Lolo!!! Salamatpo!

Steps 1 -3

I bribed Noe to go for a spin on the longboard (SUP). I had to pay $2 to get her to come out and ride.

She did show a degree of flexibility in riding - three different ways of tandem windsurfing

Noserider - Piggyback -Uppie (our name for shoulder ride)

10 years from now I wonder if Marlon and Noe will be playing on their own with the boards (La and I aren't pushing them to do/not do these water activities or land based team sports). For now, I got my $2 worth!!!

Brunch on Deer Island and a Barreling Left

We packed a lunch and drove to Biloxi for an expedition to Deer Island.

The pic of my okole shows the oil boom to the left of the board - the oil hasn't hit yet, but there is alot of activity going on with working boats, staged booms and hordes of workers mobilized (Canal Dr south of I-10 has three huge makeshift rallying points where Tyvex clad workers drive in to make the donuts).

Not the cleanest water, but the kids enjoyed practicing their new swimming skills.

Tons of fish out there - mostly mullet, but big ones. Marlon saw a huge blue crab (couldn't catch that one without a net - he would have easily won).

We ate the turkey-avocado sandwiches, strawberries and other fruit then I saw it -

It's been months, but I can just as easily recognize perfection like time hasn't passed at all. The wave train started to rise as the water shallowed and WHAM! Clear as day - screaming left barrels driving through - lined up for yards!!!

Too bad I'm not 6" tall - read that again - 6" not 6'.

When immersing yourself in solar energy manifesting itself as waves or wind for as long as I have been - perfection (no matter how small) is perfection and must be admired. It felt wonderful watching a great wave break again.

We headed back across the Biloxi Channel and Marlon wanted to try SUPing himself instead of just being a sitdown passenger. He got it within a few minutes! We couldn't pull Noe out of the water - she was "swimming".

The thing that has happened here for us in Gulfport is our kids now feel very comfortable in the water. For that alone, I am grateful - they will take that confidence no matter where we go next and it will be with them for their lifetime. Cali (North of San Diego) would not give that confidence freely - cold water, large waves and strong currents demand respect. You can say the coast is the set of training wheels they needed for a water based lifestyle -

Now if we can just be lucky enough to not get hit by the oil...