pecha kucha night

Some of you may or may not know this about Christian, but he is incredibly talented. When he's not working at his architecture firm, he's moonlighting as a designer. There's not much designing going on at his firm right now because most of the work is just restoration projects, so Christian's creative outlet is through Arkotec; his underground t-shirt design company and Products for People line (homemade goods).

Christian signed up to present at this past Friday's Pecha Kucha Night; it's an event that happens every few months where designers can meet, network, and share their work with the public. 20 slides/20 seconds each slide. On top of that, he decided to be a part of the hifi fashion incubator, and display his stuff at Ala Moana Center for 10 days. Pecha Kucha was held at hifi's space at Ala Moana on the opening night so it was the perfect opportunity to introduce the public to Arkotec.

I wanted to post about this because I am so proud of my Christian. He did an awesome job presenting; he's a natural when it comes to talking about one of his passions.

Christian had some fans shouting for him from the audience. :)

Some highlights from his presentation;

But his number one fan was waiting for him off-stage. He's so proud of his daddy.

the contest is on

"The contest is on." That's a statement Shandra has come to know well over the years. It means one of the world tour contests has started somewhere in the world and it's gonna be streaming live on the internet. It means that I'll be posted up watching it, night or day, potentially for long periods of time. Meals enjoyed at the computer, alarm set at random times during the night to catch a heat. About the only reason I wouldn't be watching is if I had the chance to be surfing myself, and it would have to be worth it to miss a contest.

We don't watch the Super Bowl or even the commercials during it. We don't watch the World Cup or Final Four or any playoffs. We don't even really pay attention to the Olympics. No American Idol either. In our home, surfing is all there is.

The first contest of 2011 just finished yesterday and I'm just so happy that another season has started. To celebrate, here are some photos from last December's Pipeline Masters we went to:




Tristan dogging while uncle Gavin looks on. He didn't feel very well after we got to the beach but was a champion. Didn't complain at all and even took a nap for a while in a makeshift tent.




Always an honor to see Kelly surf in person.

Dane Reynolds:








Dane recently posted a video with some contest footage on his site and I spotted myself in the crowd. Here's the same wave as above:






After the contest we went to a little spot I know and Gavin and I went out for a surf while our loving wives chatted on the beach. Young Ice T was still feeling bad and slept some more...hate seeing him like that.


Fun

two

This sweet boy turned two last month. It makes me so sad that he's not my little baby anymore. I know that I'm pregs and extra sensitive right now, but I had a really sad moment last week thinking about how fast he's growing up and that our world will be changing so soon with this new baby. It was just another reminder to enjoy every moment with this boy. Before we know it, he will be a teenager and may not even like us. That will be sad.

Tristan is probably one of the happiest little boys that I know. It's not hard to make him smile or laugh. I love that he is so high on life. A ball full of energy. He is very social and becomes instant BFs with anyone. We just adore him and love watching him grow and become his own person.

For his birthday this year we decided to take him to Chuck E Cheese for the first time. He invited a few friends and they all had a blast. If we were there any longer, it may have given his mom and dad a seizure with all of the flashing lights and craziness, but the kids loved it. When it was finally time to leave, Tristan cried hysterically for 20 minutes on the way home, and then finally fell asleep. My plan to wear him out worked, which is extremely hard to do. After naps we opened presents, went swimming at the beach, had burgers at Teddy's and then ice cream at Bubbies. Fun-filled day.

Chuck E is kind of creepy to me, but T was pretty stoked on him. This is Tristan trying to give a shaka. We're still working with him.

The little ones waiting patiently for me to light his candles.

He practiced blowing out candles for weeks. Nailed it!

The aftermath.

Two year old stats:

• 5th percentile for height and weight. 50% for head. :)
• He insists on having hot foods for lunch, no cold sandwiches for him. He loves tomatoes right now, his all time fave.
• He still thinks he's Buzz Lightyear. He makes his dad (even his very pregnant mom) pick him up and fly him around the house or down the stairs to the car, as he puts his fists out in front of him and scrunches his face, or else...
• He will climb anything. No matter how high, no matter how danger. He'll do it.
• He dances on command. Even if he's throwing a tantrum, we say "go dance", and there he goes.
• Favorite movies; any Toy Story and now Megamind

couples baby shower

I was SO glad that Christian came out to CA with me on this trip. Not only to help me on the flights with Tristan, or to take turns putting that insomniac boy down for bed, but to join me in my baby shower that my family put on for me. They turned it into a couples shower and all of the guys got to come! I'm sure that all of the boys were just as thrilled as Christian was that they got to attend a baby shower. (ha). They were all great sports and we really had such a good time. It was great seeing everyone. I swear, we have the coolest friends. And Christian did know more than half of the couples in the room, so he was not an outcast.

I have very limited pictures from the evening. I didn't even get pictures of everyone that attended. Or the food, which was amazing! Catered by our favorite CA joint, Pick Up Stix. (Chinese Cuisine). I was probably too busy eating it to think about taking pictures of it. Here are a few shots that were captured that night;

This picture makes me laugh. Poor Christian, getting smashed by his chubby wife, as we try to squeeze into the same chair. After we had dinner and visited downstairs, the herd was moved up into the bonus room to play a game and open presents. Funny story: As we walked into the bonus room, we were shocked to see how many presents there were sitting there waiting for us to open. Being a first time shower attendee, Christian was also shocked when he found out that we had to open these presents in front of everyone. I had to explain to him that that's what we do at showers; ooohhh and awww over the cute baby stuff. He was so confused.

Left: Shellee and Nick. Right: Emily and Ben.

Left: Anthony and Steph. Right: Lori and Haws.

Left: Vauri and Jay. Right: Will and Jenn.

Left: Seth and Kim. Right: Whit and Jim/Shawna and Gavin.

Front: Kelly and Jason. Back: Sara and Dave.

Left: Kelly and Dave. Right: Rob and Adrienne.

Tristan waits patiently for presents to start opening. When he realized that mom and dad were taking too long to open the presents, he sort of snapped and decided to take matters in his own hands by destroying all of the unopened presents- pulling tissue out and throwing it everywhere and mixing up the cards. It was funny to watch but hard to keep track of the presents.

Girls clothes are so much fun. And it looks as though Christian caught on quick to the "oooohhhing".

Game time. Each couple had to pair up with another couple to write a story about Christian and I. They were instructed to include all of the words at the top of the page in their story.

Here we are reading the stories out loud. Hilarious! The things people came up with. It was a lot of fun.

Thanks fam for the fun shower!