Last part of Day 2 in Mauii; the BBQ

The evening off the second day we headed over to where Scott and B were renting and had a nice little BBQ. Naturally we were giving the married to be couple a bit of space, they had a bit on the go with their wedding coming up the next day. Sadly this resulted in pretty short time to hang out with them!
Scotty was manning the BBQ as he loves to do. I always remember the great barbecues we had at his place back in Vancouver, so this was a good thing.
Until he tried to put Ken on the grill...

We had a good feed and good laugh. Following is a video (rather anti-climactic) of Ken running around, just showing how mobile the little guy already was by this time.

More driving around with Scotty and Benita

As we headed out to a place that I have totally forgotten the name of in Maui (one negative byproduct of taking such a long layoff from blogging). We stopped where we could see the humpback whales passing by. As usual with a picture, you lose the effect that we had a pretty good vantage to see these guys in the beautiful ocean.
Benita was so excited by it that she made an attempt to hold Ken, who didn't seem to mind at all!
Ken was quite interested in the statues at the (largely out of business) shopping center that we went to in the place that I forgot the name of.
We were hungry so we stopped at Bubba Gump`s. Who knew that they would make a franchise based on Forrest Gump? Anyway the food was good if not a little heavy and American feeling (you will know what that means after living out here for a few years). The margaritas were big and delicious.
Finally there was this old house on the boardwalk area- I think it was either a museum, original settler or Japanese name- can't remember which one (sorry!).

Iao Needle

The same night we arrived in Maui, the betrothed to be couple were holding a get together in their condo (we were staying in the same complex) which we were happy to attend after the long time time travelling to get there. Sadly I hadn't brought my camera. The next day Scott and Benita took us around to some cool spots they had found. Ken was happy as long as he had a bagel in his hand.
Or if mommy was carrying him, which at this point she wasn't.
Benita did a great job planning some potential destinations and showing us around!
And Scott was cool enough to drive us around and it was fantastic that they made it out for the wedding too and catch up with them.
Iao Needle was quite beautiful, and looked like something out of Jurassic park or Indiana Jones.
It was a nice start to touring around.

Pictures from March- Travellin`

Before Ken started to become absorbed by trains, he has been on the train a few times. One day in early March the family hopped onto the local- akaden. Then we hopped onto a shinkansen (where I left my wallet, but long story short, after the trip recovered) to Centrair- the Nagoya Airport.
We hopped onto one plane bound for Honolulu where we had to transfer planes. Ken was great, he slept the whole flight.
And he pretty much slept the waiting period between planes...
-nothing was waking him up actually.
Until we finally arrived at our destination, Maui. The purpose? Our friend Carrie`s wedding! Most have seen the pictures, but I will put up my favorites over the next few posts all the same.

More miscellaneous pictures from February

Definitely was in need of some pictures with Ken and Canucks good on. Too bad the season ended the way it did. Something to build on? But we say that every year dont we?
Still early goings of his bipedal fortitude, but he was doing a good job back in mid-February at Misono park.
I brought Ken to my students home one day while Ritsuko had to work and I was off for most of the day. They have a daughter, Toa (pictured above with Shigeki, the dad) that is 6 months older than Ken. Even though it was Valentine`s Day, no sparks were flying on that day. Maybe they are still young, next time...
And here is Ken with Toa's mom, Miki. Enjoying a laugh together.

An early walking video

While he is checking out the store security scanner quite closely in this video, nonetheless, it is earliest documentation of his walking.

A celebrity even in Hamakita- February 2nd, 2009

Hamakita is kind of the country side of Japan. Don't get me wrong, I have seen ever more country-like areas around here, but we don`t often find celebrities out here. Well, a newer mall opened here in the last month last year and as a promotion, I think they dropped some money to get one to our neck of the woods.
And there he is. His name is Jero (given Japanese trouble with the letter R- I thought they were talking about J-Lo in the media sometimes) and he sings traditional Japanese Enka music- dressed like a rapper. I wanted to dislike him, but he was actually a pretty good singer and seems like a good guy. So it was kinda fun to see. Sadly, Ken fell asleep when he started singing.
Afterwards we walked around the mall- and the store staff volunteered to take a pic of us all. Yep, little guy was getting more and more mobile every day!

Beginging the catchup sprint! Jan 3/09

Hi there! Remember me? Well, lets try this again! At least I cant claim there isn't enough material to blog about. I have about 7 months of catching up. Back on January 3rd, as the winter holiday waned, we followed a seeming tradition of going to Ritsy`s mom`s place to eat Sukiyaki. Ritsy and Ken were in good spirits. Seems Ken is usually happy when juice is in his hand. At this point, he still wasn't communicating so much verbally, but his charm was coming out. Not sure where that crown came from. Setsuko and Yo-chan were also there (you may recall their wedding back in November?). Yo-chan was a bit distracted though as Setsuko had put a bit of a dent in their car on that day. I was unaware of this situation at the time so thought he was acting strangely. At least he was happy enough to take the above picture!