The Pings: Jon, Jenny, Elton, Rafa and Charlotte

Today, Jonathan, Rafa, Elton and I decided to hike the Maunawili Falls Trail.

It was a beautiful hike with five river crossings each way.  Elton was a super dog and had no problems crossing the river.  He definitely retained some of his Portland in him and loved playing in the mud.

Rafa loved the mud too.  We probably washed half the forest off of them when we got home!  Here’s a picture of our very, very muddy puppy at the end of the hike!

Rafa was a trooper but he was really scared of the river.  He doesn’t like water as much as Elton, so Jonathan had to carry him across.

It was a three mile hike, which is a lot for a puppy.  Rafa did a great job, tho, and only slowed down at the end.  Here’s a picture of Rafa taking a well deserved break!

Rafi checking out Jonathan’s grub…

Aunty Helen getting tangled by Rafi, Elton and Mahena…

Mahena chased Rafa around all day (”Puppy, puppy, puppy, puppy…”) and got stuck under the bench…

Happy Fourth of July!  We had a BBQ at Julie’s house.   Jonathan always gets a little nervous around the “fireworks” holidays (primarily New Years and the 4th of July).   The kids love playing with fireworks, and Jonathan’s afraid that something or someone will eventually catch on fire.

Unfortunately, his fears were right on, and Julie’s little plant mound was set ablaze….  The grass was dry, and the fire grew pretty quickly…

Grant running with the garden hose to put it out…

A little excitement for the night, but no harm done.  We did, however, enjoy the real fireworks show at Maunalua Bay.

When we first moved in, our garage was a disaster.  We had boxes and junk piled high, and no organization.  We had boxes from Oregon that were unpacked, boxes that were partially unpacked for finding a few crucial kitchen gadets, and boxes full of other boxes that we wanted save.

December 2007- The all junk stage.  Can’t really tell what’s truly junk, or whats non-junk!

After moving in, I assembled a set of shelves from Costco.  They’re pretty big, but we still had a ton of stuff all over the ground.

February 2008- The junk and non-junk on a nice shelves stage.

So I finally got back to Costco and bought a new set of shelves, and built up on our existing units.  It took me all day, but after a ton of huffing and puffing, we now have shelving units that extend up to the ceiling.

June 2009-  The junk is now physically removed from the non-junk.

Woo hoo for having space for the non junk on the shelves!

The shelves look great– we finally have a place to put everything.    I’m still looking for a large tool bin for our mishmosh of tools and home improvement equipment (the really big ones with wheels and multiple drawers– If anyone wanted to buy us a present!) and nice hooks to hang our fishing and gardening stuff.  I like the pegboard idea from Martha Stewart Living, but we still have a ton of stuff we need to sort though.

July 1, 2009-  The junk has migrated to the floor and exploded.

We can only hope that goodwill will take our old photo albums, Jonathnas old printers, and no one gets injured walking through this disaster zone.

Check out our Goodwill donation pile.  I spent a good part of the evening weeding through my old med school books and pictures from college and Jonathan still needs to sort through all of his electronics and gadgets.  Jonathan actually found a couple of good computer recycling places for our old computers:  http://catii.com/comp4kids.html Trust me, it looks like a mess, but it’s progress.  Hopefully, we’ll have enough room to be able to park our cars in the garage!

More pictures from the birthday party this weekend.

Jarrin and the birthday boy, Bradin.  The party was at Ice Palace, the one and only ice skating rink in the state.

Getting ready to go back on the ice!

Jarrin zipping by on his skates.  I couldn’t get a good photo of him because he was going so fast!

Mom and I took Jarrin to Ice Palace for his friend Bradin’s Birthday party.  Jarrin’s a pretty good ice skater for a kid from Hawaii. 

…So no puppy treats (or buttercream) for them!

Elton weighs a whopping 30 pounds (that’s 12 more than breed standard!!!), and Rafa weighs 16 pounds!  Ooomph, I think we equate food with love, but from now on, no overfeeding the pups!

Happy Father’s Day, Dad Sato and Dad Ping!

We had Father’s Day dinner at our house.  Jonathan and Crystal enjoying a drink outside.  Check out the Hello Kitty beer coozy.  We think it’s pretty classy.

As a pre-dinner activity, we decided to decorate cupcakes…

Jarrin decided to eat his cupcake as soon as he finished decorating them!

Jalvin finished decorating the fastest…

And as always, Janell took her time and made the most beautiful designs on her cupcakes…

Grant manned the grill. I love the apron and hat.  It makes him look so professional.

After dinner, we competed in a watermelon eating contest.  Jonathan put in a valiant effort, but Janell won by 2 seeds.

Check out the dessert spread… so, so much food.

They had a photo booth at the Dog Walk, so I took a photo with the boys!   I think they look very dashing with their red leis.

http://www.hui-ilio.org/

http://web.me.com/mws9/Monica_Schwartz_Photography/MSP_HKDW09.html