Since the Laie temple is being renovated, we took a trip to the Kona temple with our ward. We wanted to take advantage of the opportunity so we woke up at 3:30am to catch the first flight out of Oahu at 5am. We had a wonderful time and miss having a temple close to home.
We had fun celebrating, our nephew's 2nd birthday. So, why the butter container hat? The story I heard is that he took out the empty container and started wearing it on his head. He loved wearing it, so what better hat than the butter container for his birthday hat. We love spending time with Kahiapo and seeing him grow.
This summer I was lucky to go with Des, Simi, Lydia, and Kayla to Sea Life Park. I haven't been to the park in a long, long time. There were a lot of new features and cool things to see. I think I had just as much fun as the kids.
This was my second year participating in the Great Aloha Run. It was more of a "Great Aloha Walk" this year. I'm glad I had Kumen as a walking partner. We did jog for a little bit, but then his knee got sore and my toe and knee got sore so we ended up walking at the end. I guess we should have prepared a little more, but we made it:)
This year James cooked some yummy food for Valentine's day. Prime rib steaks, mashed potatos, and crab.
Those of you who know James well, knows that he loves flashlights. Every so often he'll take out all his flashlights, line them up, and explain the difference between each one. He actually looks forward to hurricanes and blackouts when he can put his lights to use. I'm just glad that we'll be able to see in the dark if an emergency occurs:)
Each New Years, with the Japanese side of our family, we get together and pound mochi rice to make mochi. It's supposed to bring us good luck this year...we shall see. It is actually a little harder than it looks. Pounding the rice with the perfect amount of pressure can be difficult at times.
Celebrating my birthday was so much fun this year because everyone, including Shem & Tere, was home.
**didn't even try fitting 29 candles on the cake**
The whole Miyamoto family decided to go bowling. Now that the children are a little older, it's more fun to watch them bowl with us.
Me & Elika. 
Dad Miyamoto & Kumen scored the highest points. James and I tied... right James?
I couldn't stop laughing while reviewing our attempts to take a simple family Christmas picture. 
When I saw the picture below, I just died laughing. I was leaning towards James thinking that he would be leaning towards me as welll, but we ended up leaning the same way so we got a "leaning" picture.
This was probably the best picture we took... Merry Christmas everyone!!!
We always look forward to watching the Waipio Christmas parade at Mom & Dad Miyamoto's house.
We were lucky to have Mom Tanabe over for her birthday. To celebrate, we had some of her favorite food. James cooked one ono 6lb. prime rib roast, we had crab legs w/melted butter, of course poke and poi, garlic-butter shrimp, salad, and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies on top of yummy ice cream. 
We are very grateful for mom in our lives and all that she does for us. We love it when she comes to visit us. She is a woman of great faith and we are so thankful for her example. Thank you mom for everything you have taught and continue to teach us. We love you so much. We hope you had a wonderful birthday and many more to come.
The Tanabe Family
Grandma Teshima gave all of us matching pajamas for Christms. I love pajamas. We had fun taking pictures in our pajamas. Thank you Grandma.
Christmas on Maui was relaxing, fun, and filled with da Hawaiian grinds as usual.
We had many, many beautiful beach days. James fished and played with all the cousins. I relaxed and took lots of pictures and videos.
I began finding myself thinking, "Wow this rice tastes really good" when eating at places other than our own home. Their rice was soft, fluffy, sticky, and just wonderful.
I got used to our little 3 cup rice cooker and didn't realize that it didn't cook very good rice . The rice would go bad in a day if we didn't eat it all. We finally invested in a Tiger rice cooker. It cooks very good rice.
We celebrated our 3rd anniversary on August 20. Everyone still thinks of us as newly-weds when we say 3 years, but it seems like we've been married for a long time. It has been a wonderful 3 years with many changes. We still enjoy playing games, watching movies, and going to the temple together. We're still excited to see each other everyday after work.
