drummer boy

One of his favorite pastimes right now.

christmas 2009

This year, we headed over to California to spend Christmas with my family. From the airport we drove straight to the cabin. There was snow! Now it felt like Christmas. Tristan has never worn so many layers in his life, so he was a little confused at first, but he adjusted and was a great sport hanging out in the cold with us. It was so great to be able to be with my family on Christmas this year. I'm realizing now that we didn't take the camera out that much this trip, so we don't have that many pictures.

Swing time!

Bubba.

His first time touching the snow/ice.

Back in Orange County, we were busy! Whenever I come to California, I try to be as productive as I possibly can. It's difficult with the time difference, because CA is 2 hours ahead of us, so my mornings are usually wasted. Also, baby T doesn't sleep well on vacations, which means I'm not getting much sleep. I was fighting a cold this whole trip and thankfully I beat it!

Visiting with Steph and Baby Benjamin, a little dreamboat.

While having lunch with our friends, Kelly and Jason, Tristan enjoyed his first slide experience.

We headed down to Oceanside to meet up with Christian's family. Most of them were in town for the holidays, staying at Whitney and Jim's (cute) house. Court and Todd drove out from Utah and C's parents flew in from HI. It was great to see all of them! The picture above is at the Natural History Museum in Balboa Park. I love Balboa Park and wish that we took more advantage of that place while we lived there.

New Years was spent in Newport Beach at our friends (Laura and Joshua's) house, with my siblings and several other good friends. It was a pajama party! That saved us the trouble of having to find cute New Years outfits.

Sister love.

Clawson clan with our spouses.

Brookie's wedding! Go to Jenn's photo blog to see more pictures of the handsome couple. She did a great job!

Does anyone else want to kiss those lips as badly as I do?

Addison toasting the couple yet again. Her toasts were very sweet and sincere. Just a highlight, "we're glad we're a family, and glad about Mando and Brookie, and we're glad about the candles and we don't get burned, and Christmas is over and we cleaned up the decorations and we take the Christmas tree down, and the reindeers are gone."

Tristan became musically inspired and performed "Can you feel the love tonight?" on the piano.

Note to self, don't ONLY take pictures of your little one. You'll miss out on a lot of other cute faces. I'm sad about the lack of photos. We hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas and enjoy your new year!

10 months

Tristan touched snow for the first time while in California. While we're on 'firsts', he also wore shoes out for the first time too! Our little monkey boy has become civilized. He was also very confused about all of the extra layers of clothing.

The beach has become more fun for both of us. He loves loves loves the beach. He can keep himself busy in the sand and water for hours. At both surf contests last month, he was content for 9 hours while we watched. That's our boy!

He loves to explore and examine every little thing.

He attended his first birthday party.

We started his library collection well before he was born, which now includes many classics and many Gyo Fujikawa books. Part of his 'night night' routine is reading a book before bed. He loves his books.

Those eyes of his know how to work his mom. One cute glance like that and he gets anything he wants. He knows what he's doing.

A few other developments: He points his finger at everything and everyone. He wakes up about 3 times a night now and is up for the day and ready to play at about 6 am. Lovely. He loves to hear himself scream really loud, especially at the store or even in museums! He has become more attached to his dad. I'm not the only one that can put him to sleep at night now, woo hoo! He is still difficult to be babysat and he doesn't nap.

I guess most of these were set-backs and not developments. :) Happy 10 months T!

Congratulations to Brooke and Armando!

What a beautiful couple. Brooke was a stunning bride, as expected. The ceremony was so sweet and intimate. There were many happy tears. Congratulations Brooke and Armando! We love you guys! More pictures to come.

tis the season for surf contests

The Eddie happens only every few years, the last time it was held was in 2004. The time before that, and when we had seen it last, was in 2002. The waves have to be consistently over 25 ft for the whole day with good conditions because it is run in a single day, so it is special when it happens. In 2002 it was crowded, but not too crazy. This year was insane. I knew our beloved north shore has been under siege as of late, but I didn't know it would be like it was. People slept in their cars on the side of the road around Waimea Bay the night before because there was a chance it would be on...but we didn't know the degree of insanity until we had gotten there.
I thought it'd be on Tuesday, so we planned for it Monday night. Lunch packed, bags packed and alarm set. We got up at 5:30 and arrived at the bay before light. Sadly, we had to still park about 2 miles away- cars were already parking along side the road and people were walking.
Crazy, yes. But there's an anxious feeling in the air and everyone's in a good mood. Turtle was right: when the surf is good, nobody works.


Driving past Haleiwa. We realize we're not the only ones going to watch.


The trek. Tristan knew it was a special day.

We finally got to the bay and were greeted with this:

A bit later the commentators on the beach announced that the Eddie is on and we could hear everyone cheer.


Found a nice spot at the end of the beach with shade the whole day.


Tristan was so excited he started tearing off his pjs.

Views from the beach.



The madness. Bathroom wait: men's- 15 min, women's-30+ min.

Kelly pulling into the shorebreak.

Tristan trying to sneak away at the end of the day


I don't know if we'll go again for a while, especially since they have it live on the internet now.
But it is such an experience.


The Pipe Masters:
I wait for this contest all year, it is so sweet to watch. Huge gaping barrels close to the beach. So much fun. And all my heroes are in it.



Kelly pulling in. (gift idea: I need a sweet zoom lens)

Tristan kickin it in the Volcom house bushes.

Dane is great.

Great Dane.

Mama and T enjoying the show.

Tristan was pretty fired up by the end of the day. This what happened when we pulled him away from the beach.

One of my favorite things about winter/ Christmas time is the surf. both enjoying it and watching stuff like this. So glad my little family enjoys it too.

jon swift

Jon Swift (aka Shawn Little) came to play in Kaimuki a couple of weekends ago. This was one of those moments in my life where I wish I could have lived it all over again, exactly the way it was. It was held in a loft of a home called the "ward rafters". The woman who lives there has turned her upstairs unit into a concert venue, seating about 50 people. The room was so intimate, you felt so close to the performers, as though they were playing to YOU only. To add to the coziness of the room, we were having a thunder and lightening storm outside while they were playing. Jon threw a violinist into the mix, which melted us even more and put us all into a trance as we listened to his music. ahhhhh it was so wonderful.

Some of you may recognize the shaggy boy as Rob Machado. He's been touring with Jon to help promote his new surf film "The Drifter".

Listen to one of our favorite songs below "Run River". Beware, the video is SUPER cheesy but it's all I could really find. (It's kind of funny). Grab a tissue and Enjoy.