Fun at Honolulu Zoo!

These are the last pictures taken of the good 'ol days when I still had normal arms/hand. Later that even is when that fateful burning pot happened.






Zak loved these fish at the Keiki(child) area of the zoo!

Haunuma Bay for Snorkeling!

A few weekends ago we went with some friends to Haunuma Bay for snorkeling. We saw lots of cool fish. Nate even saw an eel. It was kind of a hike down to get there but was a beautiful view on the way down. It was a lot of fun. Zak was plum tuckered out on the drive home. I think he was out before we even got the car on! =)

Burns, Blisters, Bandages, Embarrassment!

So Thursday, August, 13th, 2009 was a bad...bad night. It all started out innocently enough with a plan to cook hamburgers on the grill and deep fry some french fries for dinner. Well, I waited for Nate to get home from work and then sent him down to the grill to cook the burgers. We live on the 12th (top) floor of our complex and the bbq/recreation area is down on the 1st floor. So Nate took Zak outside with him so he could run around while Nate grilled and I stayed up planning on frying us up some french fries. Mind you, we hardly ever have french fries and even more rarely do we fry them. We always bake. But, I'd been craving fries so I wanted to treat myself and fry them. I did work fast food all through high school so I knew exactly how to go about doing it...or so I thought. Well, I was warming up some crisco (another new thing for me...I always use just oil) and just as I went to check on it to make sure it was all melted and put the fries in...the whole pan of crisco burst into flames. It was the biggest kitchen fire I'd seen. For the life of me, I could not think what to do. I knew water was not for grease fires but I could not think of one alternate method to put a fire out. Our microwave is above the stove so I picked up the pan to move it because I didn't want it ruining the microwave or catching our cabinets on fire. So I set it on the floor because it's tile and try calling Nate a few times to ask him how to put out the fire. In the meantime, the fire is getting more ferocious and Nate's not realizing his phone is vibrating. So I start panicking even more and decide to just fill the bathtub up with water and drop the whole pan in the bathtub. Even though I knew you weren't supposed to us water with a grease fire, I didn't know why...and I figure if the whole this was just totally submerged it could only be a good thing. So as I'm walking my flaming pan to the bathroom...the motion of walking with the pan out in front of me or something makes the fire shoot up my arms. I drop the pan and run out of the apartment not knowing if our apartment is on fire or what. Luckily it wasn't. Although I did suffer some 2nd degree burns and our apartment will now need to be re-carpeted..all is well here at the Hogg home. I go to the doctor daily to get my bandages changed and my wounds cleaned so I'm just getting better and better. My wonderful husband stayed home Friday and Monday from work and is doing SO much to help. He's now going to work, has to do dishes (my right hand can't get wet and i'm right handed), bathes Zak, changes most diapers, has been making meals, etc. I can't get my arms wet at all, so I have to bathe keeping my arms out of the water while Nate washes my hair, etc. He's been working like crazy to make things easier on me. Thanks for everything Nate! You're the best husband ever!

Misc. pictures

Pearl Harbor a couple months ago

Nates first blog!

Hello everyone that reads our blog. I am very happy to have the priviledge of making our blog post. We are happy here in Hawaii. We have officially moved to our new and hopefully permenant residence for Hawaii. We enjoy the swimming pool, work out rooms and BBQ patio area. We like the new quiet neighborhood that we live in (except for the freeway). We live 3 blocks from the church, the grocery store, and the local park, which is pretty nice. So everthing for everyday living is close, however we did purchase a car. It is a '99 Nissan Altima. It has a little less than 60,000 miles on it. Sweet ride.

We also got a calling in our ward being primary workers. The class we are assigned to at the moment is the Valiant 11-12 year olds. They are a great group of kids.
This past while I found out that I recieved my Graduate Assistantship which will pay for my school tuition and plus living cost....which makes living in Honolulu affordable. Without it we would probably be shacking up with our parents again in the Fall. Which wouldn't be all that bad, but unfortunately doesn't get us any closer to being real life grown-ups.

Z-man...he is the coolest little boy ever! He is trying to talk more, but unfortunately his efforts end in a language called Babel; which only mom and dad can understand 50% of the time, well actually mom understands 90% of it. We took him to Target this week and we bought him a new corvette car that was $5 and plays the NASCAR electric guitar intro. Another sweet ride.

We also went and scoped out the Premiere Outlet Malls here in Hawaii. Having a car turned about to be more expensive than I had anticipated. Lol. Amber got a few items, a dress, some sandles and a pair of white shorts. Zak got a couple of things also. The outlet malls are really awesome here, and cheap.