tropical g family christmas

since our last post, the entire G family has arrived in maui. my parents, sisters and all of their husbands are all here and we are living as one happy family in the penthouse of the kamaole beach royale. it is a beautiful space with a huge rooftop balcony overlooking the ocean.
we have been seriously active here, with every day containing snorkelling and boogieboarding and walks on the beach. we have a longboard, but havent been surfing yet, as all the surfable waves have been huge and crowded with people who know what they're doing.


my dad is typically a pretty cautious guy, but give him a boogie board and he is out there getting pounded by the waves, even when the signs say, "caution! dangerous shore break."

i love this picture; my sister carlynne, arising from a tumble, taking a breath and not aware that she is about to be destroyed by 2 back to back waves taller than her.



yesterday we went snorkelling and rented an underwater camera.
we took a few pictures of fish, but mostly took pictures of eachother underwater. everyone knows what tropical fish look like.






a few nights ago we had our family christmas. my mom cooked up her classic christmas dinner and ty opened his first christmas present.

kylie put the entire dinner in the magic bullet and fed it to ty. it was a hit.

my sister julie is a great photographer and took some fantastic pics of ty on the beach. you can see more of her pictures on her blog.

this is tyrn immediately after he had been swamped by a wave but before he started to cry. pure surprise.

did i mention our balcony has a hottub? ty and i have enjoyed boozing it up while discussing fiscal policy and renal physiology with dan.

finally i have to make everyone aware that krups espresso machines can spontaneously explode, covering the entire kitchen in coffee grounds, burning your forehead and making you swear in front of your mother.

welcome to maui

i think i see hawaii mommy!

yep, definitely hawaii.

do we have to wait 30 minutes before swimming daddy?

with a relative paucity of randomized controlled trials on the subject of postprandial oceanic intestinal spasms causing accidental aqueous asphyxiation, i say go for it son!

ok dad!

ty loves the beach!

Fairweather Bloggers

We have been fairweather bloggers as of late, I was thinking about why tonight and while I can come up with many reasons - busy moving, putting our house together and many guests and visitors, I think the main reason is that Ty is becoming SO MUCH fun!! Both Marc and I are enjoying him so much right now, he is crawling and laughing and clapping and waving and both Marc and I are completely enthralled with him!

My dad came for a visit a little while ago and Ty really enjoyed his time with Grandpa. We enjoyed going for walks and my dad bought Ty a toy that he loves!




I made baby food with my friend Launa, her little guy is 10 days younger than Ty, he is pulling himself up to stand on furniture. Here is Ty trying to learn the basics.
Ty really likes blueberries. So does his chin.


And for some very strange reason that is only contained in his baby brain, he has started squinting his eyes and screeching.


We haven't posted pictures of our house yet, it is still a work in progress but here you can see our kitchen/living room area. We had a grambelkwaak dinner the other night (that is a combination of our last names, so fun!) and there were 10 people here for dinner. I love having a bigger room for hosting!



We are headed to Hawaii next week, whoo hoo!! We will think of you all while we are laying on the beach in the sunshine. ;)

valley to sea to sky

last week on a sunny wednesday i drove up the newly improved sea to sky highway to squamish to have our subaru's suspension serviced and also to do some biking.


it was a beautiful day and i pedaled from the shop through the woods and out to alice lake, up a hill and down a trail called "hidden squirrel, flying monkey"; it sent this monkey flying more than once.
it was so fun i went back and did a second loop down "midlife crisis", impervious to the irony as i am only 32... even though the purpose of the trip was to work on my sports car.

i made it home in time to go for a walk with kylie, ty and niko at sunset. kylie used to fret about me being on the highway all day, but not anymore now that lowell has introduced our family to mobile me. kylie can just press a few buttons on her phone and locate me on google maps at any time.

the next day i was wondering where kylie was in the process of picking up her dad, so i checked. here she is parked in the handicapped spot right in front of the airport doors. crazy eh?

we are catching up in our lives, but still way behind in our posting. i know that the citizens have been agitating for pictures of our new house, but that is still a ways off. we are not done renos yet and we still have yet to chronicle kylie's dad's visit. however our bedroom is mostly together, so i will put up a picture of that to get the ball rolling.

november sunshine

there is sunshine in chilliwack and we are finally feeling settled and a bit more peaceful in our new place. currently we have no kitchen sink and our backsplash and fireplace are ugly, but otherwise our house is fully functional. niko has been getting gypped in his walks recently so yesterday kylie and ty and i had a picnic on a beach by the fraser.
there were lots of dead salmon scattered about, but niko didnt roll in ANY of them. good boy.

this morning after my night shift i took niko mountain biking for the first time in months. replacing biking, my recent hobbies have included renovating, unpacking boxes and yardcare.

today was a gorgeously sunny day and the moist earth and newly fallen leaves made for great (albeit slightly unpredictable) riding.

on the way home i had a bizarre craving for mcdonalds fries and stopped in (covered in mud) just after school let out. it was an interesting cultural experience, akin to spying on a junior high cafeteria i suppose, but feeling like i was in a different country observing a foreign people (none of THEM were covered in mud).

finally, watching the sun set on the valley from our new deck was spectacular. we are really digging this new house, and the view from our kitchen and living room is one of the best parts.