Making the mags again....

BUT THIS TIME IT WASN'T ME!

MATT was in this Sunday's At Home Magazine!

(and this wasn't the picture shown- my scanner is on the fritz)

It was really strange though. A friend called in the morning to tell Matt he was in the newspaper. "Oh no- did they post bench warrants again" (we were both thinking- hehe)

Fortunately that wasn't the case- some of his concrete work was featured in the At Home Magazine insert (a monthly publication you can find in the last Sunday West Hawaii Today newspaper of every month).

So we rushed down to the neares newsstand to check out which house it was.

We were really surprised to see that none of the houses were houses he had worked on. But we did see the picture that was attributed to Matt- it was his work but it was not at the home they being discussed in the article... it was just randomly popped in there, near a home with similar concrete work. We weren't sure what to make of it.

We don't know if the people at the magazine were trying to let the community know that "By the way Matt Bolton does work like this too- see" or if they needed another photo to fill space and happened to have this one... in any case, we just hope that the guy who did the work on the home the article was writing about doesn't get offended at the plug for Matt right beside his own work.

I think Matt enjoyed seeing his work in print though- it is sort of a surreal experience that can't help but be a little bit of a thrill.

New Year's Day

On New Year's Eve we went down to Makalawena to camp with some friends.

That night we ate some fresh caught Opaka'paka that Matt fished out of the sea the day before, Ian's delicious Teriaki Chicken, Alena's bartending concoctions, and fresh local organic salads start from our lovely box (picked up on the way down there).

We brough some sparklers for the boys but Matt's buddies had huge boxes of firework madness and the inner pyros were let loose.

The following day was gorgeous!

Matt caught lots of waves in the monsterous surf.

Mommy caught up on some reading in gnarly tree over the swampy little pond by our campsite.

Christian tried out Daddy's surfboard and built lots of sand creations (castles, "snow" men, etc.) and found a very interesting tree to climb.

Journey was the waterbaby- coudn't get him out of the ocean.

Poor Makaio, wasn't feeling very well and didn't want to get wet or play. He had a tummy ache so we took him home instead of staying an extra night as intended....

Or actually Matt took us home and he went back out to camp another night. We had New Year's Day dinner with Tutu, Papa, Grandpa, & Uncle Rory. Tutu showed us her herd of elephants carved so small that they fit inside a tiny seed and have to be viewed through a magnifying glass even to see them.

Polulu

We decided to go for a trip to Hawi this last weekend and hike into Polulu Valley to play on the blacksand beach. It was a very steep trail but the boys did really well. The waves were crashing and the clouds were moving along over our heads in the rush of a wind we couldn't feel down below. Journey was very excited about the mushroom he found under a rock.
Once we reached the valley floor there were campsites with some big swings that someone had built and left behind. We want to return to camp there sometime. It reminded me alot of Waipio (six valleys away).
Of course, as soon as our feet hit the sand, the batteries in my digital camera went dead :(.
We found an abandoned driftwood "castle" to play in and lots of gorgeous red cinder lava stones. Someone had been building many rock towers of balancing rocks all over the beach. We wrote messages in the sand and raced from one end of the beach to another... Christian always winning.
We ate the lunch I packed: turkey/salami sandwhiches, waters, and red vines. Journey dropped two vines in the sand and was very upset about that. We decided it was time to go when the clouds became dark on the water and we could see the wall of rain approaching. We raced it up to the top of the valley where our car was parked. Feeling little spits of rain, we made it to the car just before it reached us, pounding down hard on the car like someone turned a faucet on just over our heads. The rain continued all the way back to Kona.

Christmas 2008

This year we have adopted a new family tradition...

Every Christmas we will each receive a special ornament that commemorates the year.

I heard that doing this is sometimes hard for the little kids (finding an ornament that illustrates the year for them) and it was a little difficult- not thinking of something but actually finding that thing you thought of!

I actually ended up make-shift making some of my own.

Like Matthew's... he got his fishing boat this year. So I wanted to get him something that would remind him of that. I ended up hooking up a lure as an ornament. His boat is called Kahele which means "Journey" in Hawaiian but I think "The Mistress" would have been more appropriate.

For Christian, who learned how to read this year (and who is totally obsessed with Santa Claus), I found a little Christmas book about Santa.

For Makaio, I really wanted to get him an ornament with a big yellow school bus on it, since this was the year he got to ride "the big bus" with Christian: the thrill of his short life so far. But I couldn't even find a school bus matchbox car or anything close. He also got his first baseball bat and glove this year. All the boys did actually. So he got a little baseball player.

So here is also Journey's baseball player. I thought I would be getting him a surfer ornament because he was so close to standing up all by himself surfing- but not quite. Maybe next year.




And for me, this was the year I put on my first Art Exhibition. I did it at Divine Goods, so I was going to buy myself an ornament from that store to remember it- but as it turns out, I didn't have to. Dear Kathleen gave one to me.

It was a really great year. Looking forward to another one, come 2009!

Here is a picture of the boys with their new baseball gear... they are really excited about their new baseball stuff. Thanks Nana & Grandpa Skip, Nanna & Grandpa Ron!