Michael, Katie and Maika Onkes

Fall in Wyoming

2010-10-24T14:19:00.001-07:00

I guess I never posted these pictures. Probably because I haven't checked or updated my blog for months. Now that summer is here (kind of) my goal is to keep our blog updated. So here are a few pictures of Mike from the Fall (2010).

2010-08-29T18:51:00.000-07:00

This post is a little late, but I wanted to get it on before I made another blog. We visited Kauai just before we left the islands for good. It was only for a weekend but we had a lot of fun and saw a lot of scenery in just a few days. We stayed at the Kauai Beach Resort, its just a little outside Lihue. We drove around a lot and just checked out the island. It was gorgeous there to say the least, we loved it. We also hiked a few miles of the Napali Coast (just 4 miles in), which was quite a feat with Maika on Mike's back the whole way. People loved seeing her on the trail. An Asian man even called Mike "superman" for carrying her that far.

The next few pictures are of the 4 miles of the Napali that we hiked. We started about 8 am and didn't get back to the car until 6 pm. It was a really long day, but completely worth it. Mike carried Maika the whole way in that backpack and she never cried until the last 10 minutes of the hike.

Here's the three of us at Waimea Canyon. It was really windy up there and a little chilly for Hawaii.

We stopped at this beach out last day there and played in the water. It kind of reminded me a little of Waikiki here.

2010-08-11T20:41:00.001-07:00

We just celebrated Michaels 26th Birthday and are counting down the days until we have to leave Hawaii. We're excited to move on with out lives, but we are really going to miss it here. Hawaii is an incredible place and we have so many good memories, and are really hoping that we can have place here someday. But as for now we are going to enjoy and soak it all up until we leave. We try to make it to the beach everyday if we can, its a good thing we all love to go.Here's Michael and Maika on his birthday with the balloon she got him.

The next few pictures are at the beach near Pipeline. It was such a beautiful day and not many people were on the beach. We dug a little hole for Maika it sit in and everytime the water came up on the beach, it would fill up her little pool. She also enjoyed the sand and ate handfuls at a time. How do you stop babies from eating stuff like that?

2010-08-11T20:25:00.001-07:00

I can't believe my last posting was in April! Wow...the time really flies. Our summer (7 weeks) at home was awesome. We had a blast playing and working and spending time with family. A year is too long to go without seeing your family. We're so glad that everyone got the meet little Maika. Isn't she the coolest little thing ever! I think so. I can't find our pictures from Lake Mead, so I don't have them on yet, but here's a few pics of what he did this summer. Mike and Maika on her first four-wheeler ride. And, yes, a beanie was necessary for the weather in June in Wyoming. She squealed the whole time, so I guess she liked it.

This wasn't Maika's first time on a boat, but one Saturday Mike, Maika and me all went to Palisades for the afternoon. The water was still pretty chilly, but Mike and I took turns jumping in. I even went wakeboarding that day (but I wore a wetsuit, I'm such a wimp).

We camped for a few days over the 4th of July at Palisades. We spent a lot of time fishing and swatting mosquitos, but it was really fun.

This was really cool. Here we are with some of our good friends from Hawaii, Billy, Sarah, and Clara Buckley and David and Elisa Robbins. The Robbins came and stayed with us for a few days in Wyoming and Buckley's happened to be at family reunion and Bear Lake.

Graduation

2010-04-13T01:16:00.000-07:00

Congrats to Michael this past weekend for graduating, kind of. He's not actually done with all of his classes until September, but since they only hold graduation ceremonies twice a year at BYU-Hawaii, Mike got to "walk" in graduation and receive an empty diploma. It was still really cool to see him be in graduate. Maika, Erica and I made it through about 1/2 hour of the whole ceremony, and spent of the rest of the time walking around outside until is was over. Here's a short clip of Mike getting his diploma. Sorry about the image and sound, but we just recorded it on Mike's digital camera.

Maika (and me) were much happier at home after graduation than during the ceremony, but I'm still glad that we went. Yes, this is a happy face compared to what her face looked like earlier.

This is Mike with one of his favorite professors, CaryWasden.

These are some of Mike's buddies, Remy and Garrett.

2010-04-04T14:04:00.000-07:00

This is the first blog in a long time that I haven't started out with a picture of Maika, but I thought this one was really funny. I had just finished telling Michael how he needed to clean up after himself because I was sick of doing it. So he me made himself some microwave popcorn, then sat on the couch by me. I looked over at the kitchen, like I usually do after Mike finishes making himself something, to see what I was going to end up cleaning up. Count how may things things were left open after he finished making one bag of Pop Secret, not to mention what was left out on the counter. But what he lacks in cleanliness, he makes up in being a dad. He can always keep Maika happy and is always coming up with new ways to make her comfortable. You can't see it very well in the picture, but there was a long stream of spit running down Mike's arm.
This picture is for my mom and dad. Does this look familiar? I've been catching her sucking her two fingers a few times. I'm hoping that this is just a phase because she lacks the coordination to put anything else in her mouth.

another month already

2010-03-28T23:33:00.000-07:00

Trying to get a picture of Maika smiling is so hard. I've been tryin to master it for the last few weeks. Everytime I pull the camera out, she stops smiling and just stares at it. For this picture, we held the camera down and when started to smile, SNAP, we took it. And that's all we got, but it's so cute isn't it? I'm not sure what's going on with her hair though. Mike created this 'invention' (its two pillows surrounding Maika) "now she can sit like a big girl" he says.

Yeah, she is well fed and she knows it.

This was just before we left for church (two hours late, but better late than never). We didn't actually make it to church with the bow, headband or tights. She hates things on her head and the tights were one layer to many. It was cute while it lasted.

Maika 6 weeks old

2010-02-28T20:08:00.000-08:00

I think that I've taken more pictures in the last six weeks than I have taken in my whole life. Mike sure is glad that he got me that camera for Christmas two years ago (he has been giving me a hard time about it since he bought it for me because I never used it). Maika is growing like crazy and we're having a ton of fun with her. I think she gets cuter everyday, but that might just be me.
I really like this one

I don't know what I did on my camera to make this picture look blue, but that isn't the important part. That thing that Maika is wrapped to me in is called a Moby wrap. I've wanted on for a while, then a read about it one someone else's blog, and decided I had to get one. This was another great purchase and we got a killer deal on it. Yes!

This is the first time we put the Moby on, its just a little loose.

I got it a little tighter this time. Maika looks much more secure and she loved being held like this.

More pictures (have you seen enough yet?)

2010-02-21T23:12:00.001-08:00

So I just found some more pictures on a different camera, so I thought I would post these too. I take a lot of pictures. Look at them if you want to (I think you should).Never mind the spit up on her shoulder.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think she might be related to the Onkes'.

I can't get enough of these "if just finished eating and now I'm going to sleep" pictures. They're so cute.

We finally got some pictures with her eyes open.

I don't know why, but I can totally see Matt in this picture (I'm so sorry Maika!)

2010-02-21T22:33:00.000-08:00

I finally got to use a computer that I could download some pictures onto. Here are some more recent pictures of Maika. Its crazy how fast she is growing and changing, we can't believe it. I can't wait for you all to see her.

This was Maika's first "real" bath. Mike covered her up so we wouldn't be exploiting her on the internet. Good job Mike.

Maika loves to be held by dad, if you couldn't tell.

Maika and Mike taking a nap. I'm glad somebody is getting sleep around here, but I wish it was me in that picture with Maika.

This is one of the best inventions EVER.

Maika at one month old.

We finally made to church today, but we only lasted for the first two hours. It was weird to see Maika in something other than a onesie.

Happy Birthday Maika Lyn Onkes!!

2010-01-20T21:57:00.000-08:00

Here she is...

Merry Christmas

2009-12-29T22:53:00.000-08:00

This was my first non-white Christmas. It was weird, but we still had fun. Its just not the same if there is no snow, and especially if there is no family around. We had Christmas Eve dinner with our friends the Buckleys. It was really nice to have good friends around for the holidays.

Christmas morning, we woke up pretty early, around 7:30 so Mike could talk to Mitch who was calling from India. We both talked to our families for a while, then we opened our presents. We had a really good Christmas. Thanks for the presents everyone. Here's a few pics of our morning.

This another picture of our tree (and half of out apartment, literally), but with all of our presents this time. We made quite a haul!

Mike really liked who this present was from (it was from me). It had a picture of a whale on it (representing me of course), a beluga to be exact.

I look really gross in this picture, but it was the only we took of me. Mike wrapped a brown paper bag with wrapping paper and he was really proud if it. So look at bag, not at me.

Christmas Tree

2009-12-04T20:00:00.001-08:00

We had been debating about whether or not we were going to get a Christmas tree this year. But after walking through the Christmas isles in Walmart, we decided we had to get one. We might as well make the best of our Christmas in Hawaii. I know that sounds funny, but it just doesn't feel like Christmas if there is no snow. So we turned on some Christmas music and had the tree up and put together, lights and ornaments on, and it only took about 15 minutes. But it definately got us more into the holiday spirit. It was well worth the $20 we spent on it.

Here it is, all six feet of it, lights and all.

Me with the tree (And about 33 weeks pregnant)

Michael was really happy to have it up, if you couldn't tell.

Thanksgiving

2009-12-04T19:47:00.000-08:00

We had a really good Thanksgiving this year, even though we weren't at home with our families. We had a few friends over (this is our 2nd Thanksgiving with the Robins and the Buckleys). Surprisingly, we fit everyone in our tiny apartment. The food was great. I was really impressed with what everyone brought. We feel really grateful to have the friends that we have here, they are almost like family.

Starting at the left of the fan (good thing I got the fan in picture) are Dallyn and Brackyn Mesarch, David and Elissa Robins, Jen and Jared Johnson, Billy, Sarah, and baby Clara Buckley, and Michael. I'm behind the fan taking the picture.

Sarah, Clara, and Michael (I'm not sure why Mike is in this picture, and not Billy, but it is cute).

2009-11-15T23:13:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I thought I had posted some pictures a few weeks ago, but if looks like it was actually a month or more that I put anything on here, so sorry about that. Not much has changed, just school for Mike and work for me. We started birthing classes a few weeks ago, now I'm kind of wishing we never had. They freak both of us out. My belly has gotten significantly larger since the last picture I have on here. Take a look...
There it is. Me at 31 weeks pregnant and Mike, well, I'm not really sure what he is doing. I guess he's trying to look pregnant too?...I told him that everyone is just going to think that he's getting chubby. I'll try to get something more exciting on my next posting besides belly pictures.

Baby's first picture

2009-09-26T13:51:00.000-07:00

We had another ultrasound this week, but this time they printed off pictures. It was so cool to see the baby again. I could sit there all day and watch her move around. Mike thinks that she looks really cute. I'll have to admit, I think she's cute too, even if we can only see her skeleton. I didn't realize that babies have sleep cycles before they are born, so I'm pretty sure she's sleeping in this picture (it looks like she is anyway). Sorry, this isn't really clear, but I will send the real ones in the mail.

Heres a couple more belly pictures. I'm exactly 24 weeks now and still growing. Show these to Devan, he'll think they're funny.

Maui

2009-09-20T00:51:00.000-07:00

With only a few days notice, some of our good friend, David and Elissa Robbins, invited us on 5 day trip to Maui. Luckily, we could both get work off to go on the trip (I used all of my 3 personal days). But we are soooo glad we went. We love Maui! We want to move there now. Its a lot like Oahu, I guess, but with a lot more open land and very few people. They even have a cowboy community. They call it the "uplands". There are even rodeos there. I didn't know about any of this until the day we left, so we didn't actually get to see it. Here are a few pics of the place.

This is a black sand beach we stopped at on our trek on the "Road to Hana". Hana is a really, really small town pretty much out in the middle of nowhere. The only cool thing about it really is the road. It was pretty intense in the some places. It's only 30 miles long, but the speed limit in 10 mph (no kidding). It super narrow and windy, and has a lot of one lane bridges, so you have to yield at every bridge to let and whoever was there first have the right of way.

These are some pics that we took just from the road. In the top picture we were stopped for about 30 minutes while the guard rail was being fixed (I swear the kid fixing it was only 14 years old). The cars were lines up for about a mile on both sides. The second picture of the waterfall was just as we crossed a bridge on the "Road to Hana". But there were about 15 other waterfall just like this off the road. It was really cool.

These next few pictures are of the place that we stayed at. There was this amazing spa that we used almost everyday that we were there. This place was incredible and we were seriously the only people that used that whole week. Check this place out.

These pictures are just of the pool and the bathroom (I know its funny they I took pictures of the bathrooms, and then I posted them on my blog, but they were really nice. Mike is eating pineapple on a skewer that they brought to us as we lounged by the pool.

These next few pictures are of Honolua (I think that's how its spelled). It was really pretty and looked like really fun snorkeling/diving/surfing. The bay in the first few pictures was really calm, and just a little way down the road was an awesome surf spot. We got some pictures of the locals surfing there.

Labor Day Fun

2009-09-08T22:44:00.000-07:00

We didn't have any really big plans for the Labor Day weekend, but it ended up being pretty fun. Besides lounging at the beach like we usually do, we went to our ward's Mini Olympics/Barbeque. It was really fun. We played some games like the water ballon toss, pass the egg on the spoon (I'd never heard of that one, but it was really hard), three-legged race, and husking a coconut (its Hawaii). Mike actually was our teams designated coconut husker (he/she couldn't be polynesian). He did a really good job too. It ended with a tug-of-war and lots of food. I'm pretty sure everyone there had a good time. They really know how to throw a party here.

Mike is in the heat of the competition being coached by our polynesian ward members on how to husk a coconut. He said his hands were really sore after he finished.

The final event of the day was the tug-of-war, which our team won (of course). I just watched and cheered. Mike's hands were much more sore after this.

21 Weeks (its a girl!)

2009-09-07T02:45:00.000-07:00

It's been a month since a last posted anything about my pregnancy, so here's an update. We found out a few weeks ago that we're having girl. We weren't sure if we were going to find out or not, but at the last minute we really wanted to know. We don't have many names picked out, but there's a few month to decide. I still haven't felt the baby move, at least I don't think I have, but from what I hear, that's pretty normal. Hopefully I will soon. I hit up Macy's this weekend and got a few onesies that I thought were too cute to pass up. Sarah sent me some really cute stuff too. It's all really exciting, but overwhelming too, and the baby isn't even here yet!!! Here's a picture of my "beer belly" (that's what Mike calls it, but it is pretty funny looking). When I laugh, but belly button pokes in and out. I'm going to have to tape that think down.

Mike's Hike on West Oahu

2009-09-07T02:25:00.000-07:00

Mike went on a hike a few weeks ago, but I'm just now posting it. He said it was pretty cool. I wasn't there, it sounded a little extreme for me. He hiked on a mountain range in west Oahu, but it was too foggy for them to get to the top. Maybe some time he'll make it to the top.

Happy Anniversary, baby

2009-08-26T00:15:00.000-07:00

We just had our 3rd anniversary. It was in the middle of week, but we still celebrated. We went to Waimea beach for a little while, but we left kind of late. It was a little cloudy and not really that warm. We jumped in the water, sat on the beach, and decided to leave about 45 minutes after we got there and headed to Honolulu. We decided to splurge a little, I just got my rebate for my cell phone, so we used that to eat at P.F. Changs, one of our favorite restaraunts. We went there for Valentine's Day too. The food was delicious, as always. We both forgot our cameras in the car, so the waitress took a picture for us with Mike's cell phone. That's why the picture is so dark and you can't really tell who we are or where we were at. It was pretty simple and not really exciting, but we're not complaining. Doing something together was the best part. Happy Anniversary Mike. I love you!

17 Weeks

2009-08-09T13:19:00.000-07:00

So I told everyone at home that we keep them posted on the pregnancy. We had a doctor's appointment about a week ago and heard the heartbeat. It was the best sound I've heard in 4 months, about 160 beats per minute. In two more weeks we will have our first real ultrasound and can find out if its a girl or boy. We still don't know if we want to or not, but we'll let you know what we decide. We are really excited. Here is a picture of my belly at 17 weeks.

The Shark at Sunset Beach

2009-08-09T12:09:00.000-07:00

Yesteday was our first real encounter with a shark. In four years in Hawaii, this is first one I've seen that I'm sure of. We saw it coming in and out of the shallow water for few minutes before we were sure of what it was. Then Mike and some guys jumped in with snorkels to see it. Meanwhile, others on the beach realized what was going on. There was screaming and kids being pulled out of the water and hundreds of beach-goers running up and down the beach yelling at everyone to get out of the water. Mike was still following the shark in the water, until it abruptly turned towards him. Mike's a pretty fast swimmer when he needs to be, but definately no match for a shark. He did get a good look at it. Just guessing, he thought it could have been a 5-6 foot reef shark. The lifeguards went out on stand-up paddleboards and chased the shark outside the reef, then everyone got back in the water. It was pretty exciting and a first for us to see Hawaii's famous preditor. I hope it's not the last. This picture is about half of the curious beach-goers trying to get a look at the shark.

Happy Birthday Michael!

2009-08-07T21:30:00.000-07:00

Happy 25th Birthday Michael! It wasn't really all that eventful, but we still had fun. We had a few friends over, a little balloon tying, and some German Chocolate cake (at Mike's request). Mike and I will be the same age for a few months and he can now officially rent a car and not pay the additional $25 fee for renting under the age of 25 (yes!).

Here's a few more pictures of those who attended the killer party.

These are a few of our friends, on the bottom the Robins and the Mesarchs, on the top the Robins little bro, Mike, me, the Johnsons and little bro.

Mike and me (and the hat the I tied for him).