The food I was most excited to give Ke'alohi was poi. Poi comes from the kalo plant (we saw it with Auntie Nalani at her office) and is a staple Hawaiian dish. Poi is one of the oldest foods and dates back to when the Hawaiians first settled on the islands. It was special to know that this food that I was giving her was a food all Hawaiian moms gave their babies growing up.Just look at my little poi baby! … [Read more...]
Two of my favorite things in Kailua are Cinnamon's Restaurant and Lanikai Beach. Naturally, as true Hawaiians, we stuffed our faces at Cinnamon's and then headed to the beach. Hahaha. We met up with our friends Bridget, Ely and Ilikea at Cinnamon's and ate to our heart's content. I have been somewhat skeptical about one of their menu items for a while now because it seemed too sweet and dessert-like for brunch. … [Read more...]
Anyone who really knows me, knows that not only am I proud to be from Hawaii, but I am extremely proud to have gone to Kamehameha Schools. My high school is something I hold very dear to me because I had such a great experience there and I don't believe that I would have had the life I have now without it. To give you a little background on my high school, it was started by a woman called Bernice Pauahi Bishop. She was the last … [Read more...]
To celebrate Ke'alohi's baptism, we hosted a lunch at Mui Kwai Chop Suey, my family and Grandparent's favorite Chinese restaurant. Even though Ke'alohi was exhausted from her very eventful morning, she got a second wind (and second outfit from her Godmother) and rallied awesomely for lunch. We had two big tables for family and friends to eat great food, talk story and celebrate our little girl. It was a great chance for some of … [Read more...]
We have been waiting to baptize Ke'alohi for some time now because we really wanted to do it in Hawaii. There were a few reasons to do it back home: The most important reason to us was to have it done at my grandparent's church. St. John Vianney Catholic Church meant so much to my grandparents who were loyal parishioners for over 35 years. The last two times I was in that church were for my grandma and grandpa's … [Read more...]
Right after our Christmas party, we headed straight to the Honolulu Airport to pick up my brother. We were so excited from him to come in because he has not gotten to meet Ke'alohi yet in person. We have been able to Skype with Kai a few times, but with him being at the Naval Academy, getting leave to meet his niece is not a top priority for the U.S. Military. Not cool, right? Anyways, it was so nice for him to finally meet … [Read more...]
While we were at the beach house we took the opportunity to initiate Ke'alohi (she's on the left) into the "Local Babies" club by having her rock a diaper as her swimsuit. You might think that we did this because we didn't have a swimsuit; nope, we did it because every baby in Hawaii does it at one point in their childhood. We decided to do it today since some of the little kids had their Santa diapers on. I'm not going to lie, … [Read more...]
