Where In The World Is Mateo?

Friday morning the 3 of us started our first official family vacation. We boarded a plane in rainy Portland, Oregon and 6 hours later landed in sunny Honolulu, Hawaii. Although Mateo has been on a plane countless times and has even flown cross country to New York when he was just 4 months old I couldn't help but be nervous about how this flight was going to turn out. Praise God Mateo was very well behaved. He took 2 long naps and ate and played in between. Towards the end of the flight he even ended up on the other side of the plane playing with some nice friendly strangers giving mama and papa a few minutes to relax. As soon as we landed we took a shuttle to pick up our rental car. As we were standing in line Grandpa, Grandma, and Uncle Phil got off the very next shuttle. They all fought to be the first to hold Little Pop. After leaving the airport we pretty much relaxed the rest of the day. We stopped by the Ala Moana Mall to eat plate lunches before checking into our hotel. At night we walked the main strip in Honolulu and enjoyed the street fair celebrating the end of Aloha week. We visited a few shops with one being 88 Tees.

This is Mateo chilling at the entrance...



Saturday morning all of us woke up at around 5am. I guess we were still not adjusted and still on Cali/Portland time. So, we lounged around, ate Huli Huli chicken from the night before, and eventually got ready to start our day. The first thing on our list of things to do was to visit the blow hole along the east coast of Oahu. The day was absolutely gorgeous with bright blue skies and deep blue water to feast our eyes upon.



The wind picked up and Mateo could barely keep his eyes open. His facial expressions were pretty hilarious.



After the short road trip to the east coast we met up with cousin Caleb and went to Waikiki Beach.

The boys played in both the water...



And the sand...





Sunday, September 23, 2007, was The Wedding Day. But, before all of the wedding fun we hit the beach yet again. This time we stayed closer to our hotel at the other end of Waikiki and enjoyed the view of Diamond Head from afar.





After playing at the beach Little Pop took a 3 hour nap. Boy, was he tired!

Then, at 4 o'clock in the afternoon Miss Audree Faith Ramil became Mrs. Eric Kai Simmons. The wedding was a beautiful simple Hawaiian style wedding. Papa especially appreciated the "Hawaiian style" aspect because to him that's a green light to wearing shorts and flip flops.

Here are some family pics...







Enjoying the Honolulu skyline from the reception site...



Monday morning Papa took us to the local skate park. Don't ask me how he does it but where ever we go he always seems to find one.

Little Pop took notes while Papa showed off his tricks...



After being a patient boy he even got in a little skate time too. Here are my pops riding the quarter pipe.



Then, we had some last minute fun at Waikiki before heading off to Maui...



To be continued....