Kelly Slater wins 10th world title!

Pele's Chair

...is just one of the names that this place is called. (don't ask me what the other ones are, I can't remember :). We finally took our little boy back with us to this special place. We left early to get the best conditions and met our friends, the Wards, there. We were expecting possible crowds because it was a holiday, but we had the place to ourselves for a while!

Tristan found his stick and began exploring the beach. We first settled here on the beach, but then were quickly reminded that small sand tornadoes come through this cove and wipe everyone out, so we had to move. It's the weirdest thing! And unfortunate, because that beach is perfect for little ones.

Christian doing his thing.

Dan doing his thing.

We spent the rest of the day floating in the water. This floater was perfect for Tristan. We couldn't touch the ground and there were several rocks under us, and T loved it. (Christian was having an interesting hair day. See below picture also.) (Christian just added this comment about his hair. I think his hair is great, especially in the picture above, it has a nice under curl. Men would kill to have that look.)

We stayed in for awhile. No complaining from T either. Just some blue lips after awhile so we had to get out.

The sea started to get a little too rough for us, so we made our way to these sand-bottom swimming holes.

Tristan trying to find the biggest rock he can throw.

The Ward family.

Ava is probably one of the cutest and sweetest little girls we know. We just love her!

We look forward to coming back here more often.

P.S. Rest in peace, Andy Irons.

Happy Halloween!

Love, the little Hawaiian Woody.

gorilla vs bear

My good friend Dane told me about Gorilla vs Bear recently. He hooked me up with their Halloween mixtape. I hadn't heard of the site before, I wasn't quite cool enough. Now, it's a different story. Lots of good music from bands you or I have probably not heard of. They have monthly mixtapes that you can download and listen to at your leisure and expand your music mind.

*****
yeah it's Halloween!

now... where's my family?

cool tricks, cool tricks!

Just a quick spotlight on our family star, Tristan. Over the past few months, he has figured out some cool tricks, and since mom and dad like to capture everything on film, we are able to share some of them with you! One of his personal faves right now: standing on dad's hand. This cute grin always goes along with this trick.

It may look as though he has had some professional training in gymnastics or perhaps ballet, based on his form, but I promise that the camera just caught these poses at the right moment.

Here is a video of some of his other cool tricks. Enjoy!

month in review

Here's a quick update on what we've been up to this past month.

We made another trip over to the Big Island. Here's Tristan at Beach 69. I can't make out who that sexy guy is in the background of this picture, but he sure is hot. And later we did make out...

It rained almost the whole weekend we were there, but we enjoyed the cool weather. Tristan was itching to play outside.

We got out the fireworks that were supposed to be used on the 4th, and lit some sparklers. Tristan was a little nervous about them but enjoyed them from a safe distance. "WOOOWW" could be heard for miles.

Went to the always beautiful Waipio with the parents. This horse showed up and hung out for a little while. Tristan loves his animal friends.

Pat the bunny.

Dad went out for a surf and Tristan was as anxious as ever to get out there and join him.
Note: We do feed him, he just loves sucking in all the time. We're trying to teach him it's ok to have a cute little baby belly.

Mama's two boys. It was a great day at the beach, then to Cafe Pesto on our way to the airport. Thanks to Christian's parents for having us!

Tristan received a superman/ batman reversible cape from Nama Clawson. He has a hard time leaving it on, but loves admiring himself in the mirror in it.

We had an impromptu outdoor dinner on a Sunday evening with our friends, the Garners.
Was pretty and peaceful and great to get outside and enjoy the forest.

Tristan learning how to start a fire. His father has much to teach him on the joys of pyrotechnics when the time comes.

Everybody enjoyed an appetizer of freshly picked strawberry guavas while we waited for our tin foil dinners to cook. And why does hamburger, potatoes, onions and carrots cooked over hot coals taste so amazing, anyway? Ponder that one.

Christan got upset when the paparazzi showed up. Yes, stars are just like us and cook tin foil dinners, but he just wanted to spend some quiet time with his family.

Tristan was his usual sassy self. He enjoyed licking the guacamole off the chips.

Our nature boy.

Not sure if it's a cut, or dirty hands or just being sassy.

Trying out his new headphones. A trial run of watching a movie on the portable dvd player. The upcoming flight to California will be much easier if he can be entertained for some of the time with it. We think he liked it.

Tristan decided he's ready to wear his swimming medal.

*And that concludes the highlights of our September.

costco finds

We love Costco passionately. Free lunch of all-you-can-eat samples, stock up on many of our staples and then the occasional discovery of something unexpected & amazing.

Two recent finds we thought were important to share:


You no longer have to be a hippie to drink soy milk! (I do love hippie jokes) We had a shot of this sweet nectar from a sample lady and haven't looked back. As a youngster, I really enjoyed these:

but haven't seen them in years. This new find is similar and takes me back to those good ole days. Even 'lil Tristan opens the fridge now and points at them and says "Dis!"



Next are the chocolate acai balls. These are also pretty great. Since they're made from a magic berry and the chocolate is dark, you can tell yourself they're healthy and go ahead and eat the whole bag.

Thanks Kazuko!

dance machine

T has come up with some pretty groovy dance moves. I'm very impressed! The "power stance"? That's the coolest dance move ever invented! And he figured it out all by himself. He's pretty amazing.

Untitled from Shandra Hastings on Vimeo.

18 months

Our little man turned 18 months yesterday. This age is my favorite so far and I have to admit, he has mellowed out a lot. I am to the point where I don't feel like I was 'blessed' with a crazy, out of control child. He is just a typical toddler, who loves to explore, get into things, make a mess, wake up reeeeaaaally early, avoids sleep when possible, talks my ear off, tantrums, etc. I'm not kidding though, we love this little boy so much. I want him to stay this age forever! For the record, here are some things T has been up to;

• New words: jejews=shoes. aball=ball. abaa=bus. baabaa=bottle.
• We finally have our sleep routine worked out with Tristan, and C and I actually feel like we are back to getting sleep these days. Our sleep routine isn't the best, but it's working. Car seat naps are still the only way to go in the day time. He's an amazing transferrer. Seriously, he is out cold when I carry him up from the car. Bed time is still a little frustrating for us, but at least he's sleeping in his bed. We have to lay with him in his bed until he falls asleep, sometimes for an hour. He wiggles, tosses and turns fooooorrrreeevvvver, until he is finally comfortable and falls asleep. Whatever, it works.
• He says his prayers with us before bed. All we say is, "it's time to say our prayers", and he sits in the middle of his rug and folds his arms. It's really cute. Then he repeats after us (jibbering).
• He's really into cars and pushing them along items in our house. He says "beep beep" as he pushes them. His dad taught him that.
• He does lobster claws with his hands and he honks his nose when I say "honk honk".

Tristan visits with his friend Willa. She's a dog that lives down the street from us. So sweet and loving.

Enjoying some swim time with his dad. He didn't want to get out of the water on this day. It was perfect.

Crazy Tristan, hopping up and down on mama's back. (mistaking her for a beached whale?)

Tristan still loves being swaddled, just like when he was a baby.

Tristan waits patiently for his next job. He loves being hands-on in the kitchen, which is kind of annoying now. Everything just gets messy and crazy. In fact, this batch of cookies didn't turn out so great. He likes to stick the measuring cup in and scoop ingredients out, and put others in. It's hard to control, but he thinks that he's helping so it's cute.

Watching the fireworks in his dad's lap. (notice the premature stache growing).

Tristan takes some time to pick out his halloween costume this year.

our little explorer

We have so much video footage of this little guy, surprising right? He just does so many cute things, we feel like we have to capture EVERYTHING, it's getting out of control. We will probably be video'd out by the time our second child comes around. Sad for them. So the video below is of little T exploring in our yard- slanted yard that is. It has taken a while for him to get comfortable walking around on our sloped hill and stairs, since we live up in the valley and pretty much on a mountain with all of those stairs. He has finally mastered it! We are pretty impressed that he can climb most of the stairs with no hands, and with a bucket over his head! This video is actually a couple months old. And you will see that his mama put him in a really small onesie. Maybe I was trying to get one last use of it because of it's cuteness and little tail in the back? Sorry if it's long and boring for you, it's mostly being posted for grandparents.

Tristan Exploring from Shandra Hastings on Vimeo.

stairway to heaven

On Saturday for my birthday I thought it would be fun to do something different. Christian's mom was in town and offered to take Tristan if we wanted to go play, so we did! (Thank you, thank you!) For many years when Christian and I would drive on the H3 we would try and spot the Ha'iku Stairs, aka Stairway to Heaven, along the side and up the ridge. It freaked us out and always intimidated us. Plus, we always heard that it was closed and there was a guard that hung out at the base, kicking people out. I imagined him there, with a rifle, shooting people that attempted it. So we never went to check it out.

Just a few historical facts about the stairs: It began as a wooden ladder and was installed in 1943 to enable the construction of antenna cables between two valleys. These radio signals could also reach US Navy submarines, even while under the water. At the highest peak of the stairs, it is 2,800 ft. In the 1950's, the wooden stairs were replaced with metal steps and the building at the peak was then used by the US Coast Guard as a navigation system. 3,922 steps! The trail remains closed due to community complaints and neighborhood traffic.

After hearing many successful hiking stories from close friends we thought that we would give it a try! The guard goes on duty at 6:00 am, therefore, we left our house at 4:45 to get started on the trail at 5:30. We beat the guard! And it was still dark.

(A million pictures below. Sorry! I couldn't narrow it down)

The sun rising.

The highway and cars getting smaller and smaller. This is the part of the trail where the sides just dropped off.

We just accomplished a steep ladder climb and turned around to take a picture.

Do we seriously live here? Unreal.

The sunrise reflecting on the mountains.

Secretly wanting to die. Even before we reached half way, Christian and I had to pull off because we felt like throwing up. After the half way point, it got a lot easier.

Wanting to hurl a little.

Chinaman's hat in the distance.

We reached one of the bunkers. Very cool and old.

Our friend Jen met up with us about half way. She's pretty hardcore and caught up with us.

I believe that this was an old pulley used to bring up equipment. I love old, rusty ruins.

Breathtaking. It looks like a painting.

This is where our final destination was. Almost there!

After a couple of hours, we finally made it to heaven! It was freezing up there, but amazing! We were so high up!

My cute and curious husband couldn't stop there and wondered if the trail continued.

and there he goes.

Next time we will be prepared to continue on that ridge. He found a well worn trail that looks like it is used pretty frequently. Where does it go? We've only heard myths and legends...

Just hanging out in heaven, with steep cliffs on both sides of us.

It only took about an hour to head back down. It destroyed my knee a little but over all, we did just fine. No other injuries. Or bugs! It was a perfect day, with perfect weather.

Opps, we must have missed this sign when we came in, it was too dark. We did get a chance to walk past the 'scary guard with a rifle' on our way back to the car. He was actually really chill and was asking hikers if they wanted their pictures taken. Funny. No sniper rifle.

We are a little sore but so glad that we did it and will will be ready to go again soon. Anyone want to join us?