Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Finally .. back from Hawaii and settled in.  It has been an amazing month and we are all excited for 2014 and the opportunities that await us.
We spent Christmas in Hawaii this year and I must say that it was totally worth it. Toshi got to spend Christmas with my parents but most importantly we ate like KINGS!!! Dawn and I must of had 3-5 lunch meals of just poke, poi, and beer.  It was sooooo good and the best part about vacation is that you don't feel guilty for eating and/or drinking all day everyday.

The first thing I wanted to do was spend time with my family and extended family as well. I'm sure Dawn wanted to do the same since we don't really know when we can see them. Visiting Hawaii is sometimes tough because even though you are free doesn't mean they are. So if any of our family members were home and we could visit we certainly did so.

Well, here is us waiting to leave LA and Dawn had planned out Toshi's feeding perfectly yet Hawaiian Air decided to throw a wrench in it. Our flight was suppose to leave at 830AM but it was delayed by half an hour. Toshi's feeding was at 830AM so we had to hold out for a little bit until we could at least get him on the plane.

 Once we boarded the plane, roughly around 9ish, Toshi couldn't hold out much longer. Right after this shot he got a bit cranky haha.

When visiting our families ... I'm not sure why... but I sometimes forget my camera!!! :'( so to say the least I couldn't capture everyone.  This isn't in any particular order but Dawn and I wanted to say thank you for letting us come over and visit on such short notice. 

Here's a compilation of our awesome family in Hawaii:

The Wongs ....

Mr. Wong, Toshi, and Ma.

The Lum/Wong family and Toshi:

Ron and his family with Toshi:

Sheri, Mike, and Rylee with Toshi:

Tasha and Aaron with their individual pics of Toshi:

 While we had dinner at Uncle Ted's house we managed to get all the kids to sit in one spot for a cousin's photo: Abigayle, Aureanna, Toshi, AJ, Jacob, and Rachel.

Wendy and Nobu were super generous and let us borrow essential items for Toshi while we were in Hawaii. They let us borrow a pack n' play, bath tub, and bumbo.  It was a total life saver for the both of us in terms of bringing things from LA and also rigging up some ghetto fabulous ways to do the everyday things with Toshi (sleeping, bathing, and eating).

Here is Saedee and Toshi:

It was a bit tough seeing my Grandpa since he has dialysis every other day and the days he's not there he is in an adult care home. So, we decided to surprise grandpa at the adult care home and he was soooo shocked to see us. He had the biggest smile on his face (I was shocked to see a smile that BIG on my grandpa's face) ... I really wish I took a photo of that moment.  The good thing is that he didn't stop smiling until we had to go. So it was truly a special visit for all of us. Anyways, here's a couple of good pics that came out from this amazing and awesome visit. 

We asked Grandpa if he wanted to hold Toshi and take a photo with him and he was all for it. I was so happy to see him happy!!

Here's a short video clip of my grandpa and Toshi interacting. I love the part when both of them smile at each other: 

We visited grandpa on our last day in Hawaii, December 25th, and we managed to take a photo while Toshi was in a good mood.

We also got a good shot of my parents and their dog Hoku in front of the Christmas tree. It turned out to be a really good photo! I got some GREAT photography skills hahaha.

Besides family visits we also had time to eat at some of our favorite spots: Koa Pancake House, Waiola Shave Ice, Sugoi's, Leonard's Malasadas, Side Street Inn Cafe, Foodland (for their poke), and Ono Seafood (for their very, very good poke ... waaaay better than Foodland).  

We went to Waiola's right before lunch ... around 1030AM or so. It was weird to see no body there but it was good for us. 

I ordered an Azuki bean with ice cream topped with Guava and Lilikoi.

Dawn ordered Li Hing Mui and Lilikoi with Ice cream. 

A friend of mine, Jason, told me to hit up "Ono Seafood" in Kapahulu for some poke. The quality, as he told me, was way better but it comes at a price. Sure enough, as we got there, there were only TWO designated stalls for the place (super small shop ... mom and pop place with 3-4 ladies in the back making poke and packing it as the orders came in), and the Ahi poke was $18/lb and Tako poke was $14/lb.  This was at least 50-60% more than Foodland in terms of cost BUT the quality of the fish was extremely good. So I would highly recommend this spot or for you to give it a try and compare for yourself. I would definitely go again but to pay $18/lb for every visit and we usually eat this 4-5 times per trip ... I'll most likely go once maybe twice.

There are a lot of restaurants up here in LA that try to make a Loco Moco. The only place I would want to go for a Loco Moco in LA is Gardena Bowl but the Loco Moco at "Koa Pancake House" is very, very good. In fact I got it twice with fried rice haha. They have a very good menu and pretty much everything they serve is bomb!

Poke variety from Foodland .. cheap and fast.

We decided to try something different instead of Mitsuken.  My friend Jason suggested Sugoi's over in Dillingham area and mentioned spicy garlic chicken. Of course, anything spicy is a winner for me and that's exactly what I got haha. Sadly I did not dominate and eat this entire plate in one sitting. I had some left overs for dinner.

With all this good food we had to do some kind of cardio or exercise. I got Dawn to play/practice some bball with me a few times and we also did some walking in my parent's neighborhood.

On Mariner's ridge there is a great look out point to see Koko head:

We also walked around Honolulu City lights during the day time and looked at all the displays. It was a great way to get into the Christmas spirit.

We took Toshi to the beach one day and he LOVED it. He did not complain one bit and it was probably because the weather was hot and humid. 

So first we had to feed him at the beach:

And Toshi went in butt nekked haha

My friends and I had a small get together and my buddy Todd always puts together a BBQ.  Great food and great company is all I could ask for.

While we were in Hawaii, being that it was pretty humid, Toshi had some really stink feet. I mean ... if I take my socks off and try to smell my feet ... his was pretty up there. Then again he doesn't know that:

Toshi had a ton of presents on Christmas day.  Here are some of the presents he got:

A HUGE stuffed animal from my buddy Todd haha. 

Uncle Miles and Auntie Aya made us custom stockings. Here's Toshi's stocking:

Here's a present that Toshi got from Grandma and Grandpa:

 And here's Toshi opening up a present .. or at least trying to haha.

Here are some candid shots we were able to take of Toshi and during parts of our trip:

Dawn took this pic of a nice rainbow on the way to see Grandpa on Christmas day:

Toshi's stinky feet :P

Looks like someone else wanted to take a nap instead!!! hahaha .. busted!

 Grandma interacting with Toshi and playing some music for him on her iPad.

While we were in Hawaii we had Kekoa at "Fit Dog". He really likes it there but man ... he was sooooo stink when we picked him up. He literally smelled like a bum. So I gave him a nice hot bath and he was pretty exhausted. We sure missed him though and I'm glad we are all together again.  

And before we forget Toshi is now 6 months old. Here's the stud posing for his 6 month old picture :)

We totally forgot that Toshi had presents in LA ... he also had A LOT of presents which we are really grateful for. Toshi has lots of new clothes and awesome toys!!! :D

I hope everyone had a great Christmas!!! We sure had a great time spending with the ones that mean a lot to us ... family and friends. We love you all and we can't thank you enough for the generosity in gifts for our Toshi.