Surf's Up

The surf was pumping this weekend, with wave faces upwards of twenty feet. We (along with seemingly every other visitor and resident of O'ahu) headed up to the North Shore. Ava especially had a blast. Though it was much cooler than we expected--in the sixties and drizzly, to say nothing of the sea spray--she was so excited to be out and about. Here's a pic of her and Dad together:

Day Late, Dollar Short

There's nothing quite like the feeling of finding out today that two of your favorite artists were in town for a concert yesterday. Oh well. I'm sure they come to O'ahu often...

Quite Possibly My Favorite Thing Ever

Yesterday night, I was in the kitchen doing my thing, and Ava was playing across the room. When I looked over at her, she smiled me and sighed happily. She then proceeded to crawl across the room toward me, and beg to be picked up.

There are times when I feel like the worst mom ever, but in that moment, I felt like a queen. Oh, to be loved by Ava.

Pastels!

Wish Lists

This post is for family only, or for those who might consider buying gifts for us this Christmas (no doubt a much smaller group).

First, a request: please update your Amazon wish lists if you have them. We tend to let Amazon ship many of our gifts for us each year, so we will look at your wish lists. We cannot be held responsible if we buy you something and you say "Thanks" while your face says "Oh...I wanted that last year." Also, if you have a large number of items (say, 89) on your list, please use the "priority" option to rank at least a few of them higher.

Second, since many of you will ask anyway: we've created an gift idea list for Ava. We humbly request that you keep in mind that we will be moving into a much smaller place come January -- a complete baby gym (for example) might not fit so well.

And finally, for convenience but not inducement, our wish lists are here and here.

We can't wait to see all of you! We'll be on our way in 20 days now...

Thanksgiving

Being rather slothful, I find it much easier to link to a description of our Thanksgiving gathering than to write about it myself. And Annie does a better job than would I.

God has given us so much to be thankful for, including great friends.

P.S. I won the Apples to Apples game, but not wanting the prize (coffee) I deferred. It took a while for Trey to finally win the coffee.

Boo Boos

Thank you for that word from our sponsor. Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

These have been an exciting but painful few weeks at the Popp household. Ava has been exploring the outer limits of her mobility. She sits up all by herself and can pretty much get hold of anything she wants. She especially enjoys tipping over the trash can and tumbling over to any electronic gadget that is within her grasp. Today she put my calculator in French.

With this increase in mobility has come an increase in bumps and bruises. She rolls off the bed (only once!). She trips over her feet a little trying to get in a sitting position and lands on her cheek. She dives out of the Bumbo and face plants into the floor. She falls forward at the beach and gets a face full of sand (requiring a pretty thorough eye wash and an off-hours call to the pediatrician). It has been a hard month her. And for me.

A lot of times, I forget that she is still learning. That she can very easily fall. I feel pretty terrible when it happens. Sometimes I'm sitting right there and I can't get to her in time. You probably think I'm a terrible parent. I'm learning that falling comes with learning. I try to prevent it, and I comfort her when it happens.

It's a hard process, but she has emerged on the other side of it able to do this:

Views

I had the great honor today of standing atop the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Waikiki. The building is within one story of topping off and is already the tallest in the area. Below is the result of stitching together a few photos (click on the picture for a larger version).

To give you some idea why I won't see this view after construction is complete: the penthouse unit on the ocean side of the building was sold for more than twenty times the full structural design fee. As a lowly structural designer, I took home about ten percent of the design fee. This means that I would have to design about 200 buildings of this magnitude before earning enough to buy this penthouse unit. Fortunately, units in another of my projects cost a little less.

Over the Ocean and Through the Woods

Some of you have been asking for our Christmas itinerary, and I figure that this is a good place to share it. Take a deep breath...here goes:

Wednesday, December 17th - depart Honolulu 6:50 pm
Thursday, December 18th - arrive Dallas 6:05 am
depart Dallas 8:10 am
arrive St. Louis 9:45 am
One day in Missouri

Friday, December 19th - depart St. Louis 9:15 am
arrive Chicago 10:30 am
Two days in Chicago

Sunday, December 21st - depart Chicago 4:45 pm
arrive Dallas 7:30 pm
Eight days in Dallas

Monday, December 29th - depart Dallas 2:10 pm
arrive St. Louis 3:50 pm
Eight days in Missouri

Tuesday, January 6th - depart St. Louis 7:30 am
arrive Dallas 9:30 am
depart Dallas 12:50 pm
arrive Honolulu 5:20 pm

If you're counting, that's seven flights. But plenty of rest time in between.

Ava says December is just around the corner...

It's Getting Winter, Yeah?

For those of you mainlanders who think we don't have seasons here in Hawaii, welcome to winter: