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.

We made it to Hawaii!!

Yes, we're finally here in beautiful Hawaii! We got here at the end of May and are enjoying all the new scenery, environment, culture...everything. I had a bit of a slow start enjoying my time here, but it's getting better and better all the time. It's not that I wasn't loving the ocean and the views and stuff...I think it was just hard knowing how far away I was from anyone I knew and not knowing how to get around very well, especially on the crazy buses. Nate's loved it here since day 1. I also took a little longer getting used to the humidity and things.
Nate's working at the John A. Burns School of Medicine doing research on fertility type stuff and is really liking his work and the people he works with. The hardest part of his job (i think) is that his boss is Japanese and then the other 2 people in his lab are Chinese and Japanese. The can speak english....but are still pretty hard to understand. He's excited because he was officially asked to continue working in the fall which will qualify him for a tuition waiver which is what we were hoping for! Yeah Nate!! He's also taking a Kaplan course to help him study for the MCAT which he'll take....sometime. He goes to work 2-2.5 hours early everyday to study so he can still have his evenings free to spend with Zak and me...isn't that sweet?? We're so proud of him for getting the job in the fall and for all the hard work he does! We're also really excited for his kaplan course to be done!...at least i am!
Zak and I spend our days doing....whatever we want! =) We were living in Waikiki the first month we were here so the beach was just a couple blocks away. Zak is still a little hesitant with the ocean (because of the waves) and started off hating the sand (which he has since gotten used to). We'd go to the beach or just go walk around Waikiki checking things out, go swimming, go to the park, go to the store, go meet Nate for lunch, etc. Some of Zak's favorite things to do here are CHASE BIRDS, check out all the police cars/ambulances/fire trucks, and swim (in the hot tub). He's the only kid at the beach that would rather chase the birds than swim. We hear SOOO many sirens here and every time we have to run out to the lanai (balcony) and see if we can see where it's coming from and he laughs his head off. He's picking up a lot more words and has a big new fake laugh he does and also is 'swimming' really well. He'll let us plug his nose and put him under water, he jumps off the edge to us...we can't take our eyes off him b/c he'll jump if we're not looking too, and tries to swim under water.
Some of our adventures here have been hanging out at Waikiki Beach, taking a drive around the whole island to check it out, going to Waimanalo (sp?) Beach, going to the Pan-Pacific Festival, going to King Kamehameha Parade, going to Pearl Harbor and visiting the USS Arizona Memorial, Ala Moana Shopping Center (HUGE), snorkeling, boogie boarding. We've seen crazy Japanese drummers, Hawaiian dancers, awesome fish and birds and flowers..
Ok, I'll end this it's getting super long

sorry, I don't know why the captions to my slide show are so freaking huge!

So much to do...so little time!!

Sorry to all for being so horrible about keeping our blog very updated. So much has been going on with us I don't even know where to begin. Guess I'll just jump into the big stuff. SOOOO, Nate graduated from BYU-Idaho in December after doing an internship that fall at C of I in Caldwell, Idaho doing research. We were living with my parents during his internship and were kind of just winging it as to what we'd be doing next. After being in limbo for a couple months, Nate has been accepted to the University of Hawaii's Masters program in reproductive physiology. He was also offered a job to work in a lab there doing research, so he'll be paid to do that and also receive a tuition waiver since he'll be working for the school. I'm so proud of him and all the hard work he's done to get here! We feel so lucky to have the opportunity to do this...and live in Hawaii! =) I, on the other hand, have been accepted into Nail Technology School. haha Ok, so they take anyone who pays. But it's been fun and I'm hoping to be able to do it out of our home at some point to be able to help us make money, but also stay home with Zak. We'll see what happens and if I can cut it.
Zak is pretty much just a little boy now, not even a baby at all. Which apparently has been the case for awhile. But he is SOOO much fun! He loves playing 'Ring Around the Rosies' especially the falling down part, he loves cars, balls, throwing (everything...can be scary)..and animals. He can do the noise for anything that growls, cockadoodledooooo, he says 'hot', paco, Mmmmm (when he's going to eat), I think those are his newest, I'm pretty sure I've posted about his others. He's also acquired quite the sweet tooth. He just points to the cupboard until someone finally gives him a chocolate chip or something. I've definitely had to start regulating a little more. Going outside is also getting a little crazy..he wants to be outside all day everyday. He'll have a runny nose and a cough and it's 40 degrees and he won't come inside until I just have to make him. But he loves sliding and just exploring outside.
Hmmmmm, I don't think anything else too major is going on right now. We feel really blessed right now in our lives and are so thankful to be accepted into a program and progressing a little more to our ultimate goal of being able to be 'settled'.

Zak loves Gameshows

So, for some reason our son loves the show Family Feud. He loves the clapping and the lights and the noises. He just can't leave the clapping. Maybe he'll be an entertainer one day.... hmm... here's a little video of him watching his show