It's (Gonna Be) A Girl!

Ryan rushed work on Friday to make it to our ultrasound where we found out it's a girl! YAY! Due date is May 6th (according to my records), or May 12th (acc. to her measurements)...what do doctor's know? So, now that we know "for sure" I can start taking out our baby girl paraphernalia. Keira had 4 baby showers in Hawaii, so I can't wait to play dress up again...it's been almost 3 years since we had Keira.

Her name will be Kalei, after my mom. Ryan even got on the phone with my mom and asked her himself if he could name the baby after her. Her whole name will be Kalei`opanaewa Johnson. Panaewa is a forest on the Big Island of Hawaii, where my mom's mother is from. My mom was given that name when she was born. My Grandma Fancey had asked her friend to give my mom a special Hawaiian name. Her friend had a dream of Panaewa forest and knew that my mom should be named after it. My mom always told my little sister and I that her name was a special name that had to be gifted to another baby by my mom only, or that child could become sick or die (no joke, Hawaiian rules, brah). Kalei means "beloved, or child." I will credit Ryan for picking a good name source this time.

Baby Girl's cyberworld cameo:

Hawaii

One month ago today we took our trip to Hawaii to visit family and friends and here I am just now telling you about it. We had a great time, ate some ono (delish) food, Keira & Kainoa loved the beach, and were sad to leave. But it will be there for our next trip, right?

Highlights:
♥Seeing our friends, the Apanas, get sealed in the Laie LDS Temple. Ryan and I got to know Shelsea & Clayton before we left Hawaii a couple of years ago. Clayton got baptized, and they have been working towards going to the temple to seal their family together since. Seeing friends get sealed in the temple with their two young children is definitely a special experience, and I have to say that was probably the highlight of our trip. Don't ask me why I forgot my camera that day.

♥Shark Cage--I thought I'd never do it, but Ryan convinced me to take a boat 2 miles out of North Shore and jump into a cage to "swim" with some sharks. We swam with them for about 30 minutes. About 15-20 Galapagos sharks, ranging from 5-12 feet long. The guys (Hawaii Shark Encounter) said that they've fallen in the water before while feeding them, but that the sharks aren't aggressive, which put my mind and stomach at ease. I've seen sharks at aquariums before, but something more intriguing about being in the same water as them, able to reach out and touch one if I wanted to...and believe me, I wanted to. Their tiger-like eyes were the most intriguing thing, and watching their graceful movement up close was worth the scare.

♥I'm sorry, but food is always going to be on my highlights list of anything. You just can't find some of my favorite dishes prepared the way I like them but in Hawaii. Without going into much detail, at the top of our list were strangely all soups:

Phô--(pronounced fuh) Vietnamese soup--beef broth, beef, rice noodles, onions, with fresh basil, bean sprouts, lemon, and usually some hot sauce. Ryan likes phô from Ba Le, a kind of Vietnamese/French Indonesian chain. But my favorite phô is at Fort Street Cafe, right by Hawaii Pacific University, where I STARTED getting my Masters in Teaching English as a Second Language (before I met Ryan).

Tom Ka--a Thai soup. It has to be from Phuket Thai in Mililani Town Ctr. My favorite is vegetable, but you can get chicken or shrimp. The broth is coconut milk, with ginger, bamboo shoots, mushrooms, peppers, green onions. Ryan knows, if I'm ever on my deathbed to have some Fedex'd to me.

Kim chee ji gae--Kim chee soup--preferably from my favorite Korean place, So Gong Dong, at McCully Shopping Center on Kapiolani Blvd. It's a hot (have you had kim chee before?) soup, beef broth based (I think), with onions, Chinese cabbage, kim chee and other veggies, with noodles. Ry and I used to be the only non-Koreans eating there when we'd go for a late night dinner at their previous location, but not anymore.

There are many more, I mean, I haven't even gotten into Hawaiian food, but that's for another post.

♥Last but not least, I had a nice stroll sneezing down memory lane while going through old dusty boxes of mine that my father has so kindly been storing for years. He is moving to West Jordan next summer, so it was high time I cleared out his townhouse. Amongst my dozens of journals, high school and college papers and books, even elementary school stuff, I found the engagement pictures Ryan and I took in Makaha in 2005. That was before I decided, "To heck with the announcements and cake and reception," and we had a cozy little luncheon at Turtle Bay Resort after we were sealed in the temple. My sister took these photos for us...they make me happy.

Hawaiian Host

I try to keep my blog topics "light"--you know, sewing, kids, the fun and not-so-fun day to day, but sometimes I feel like writing something a little more meaningful. Ryan and I are taking the kiddies home to Hawaii next week to visit family. It's been over 2 years since we left Hawaii to move to Utah, so, a much-needed trip. Our visit will be about 10 days long, and filled with visits to family and friends we haven't seen, eating food we really miss, our favorite beaches, of course, and then I'm sure it will all be over in a blink.

I expect this trip home will be really different than those I've taken when I was a student here in Utah, or even when we were kids in California and took a couple trips back to Hawaii. I think mostly because I've changed a lot since I've been here: I have done most of my "raising kids" so far here, the past 2 years, the bulk of our marriage has been spent here (we've only been married 3.5 years), and I think also I've just become more, hmmm, aware of people and--let's not say cynical--about the world...in a good way...uhh, I'm less naive now than when I left Hawaii 2 years ago. (There, that's a positive way of putting it!)

Growing up for 7 years in California, going to college in Utah, and travels in between, I've had lots of opportunities to share with people what little bit of Hawaii I could. I've danced hula, shared cultural insights, lists of the best beaches/hotels/islands, shown photos, shared Hawaiian music with people, food, etc., when others were interested. I always kind of felt like I was sharing a plastic version of Hawaii when people asked me to. Deep down inside, I've always had a difficult time discussing the Hawaii they would visit and leave behind...and had little opportunity (listening ear) to describe the real Hawaii, other than the generic answer to the question, "Why did you leave Hawaii?"

"Oh, because, it's so expensive and crowded."
There's so much more to Hawaii than most people know, even more deep and beautiful than the touristy one. Here's something to get you started:



So, after watching that, do you feel differently about Hawaii? Please leave a comment and let me know your feelings.

My Grandpa Killarney

I've been wanting to share my feelings about my grandfather, my mother's father. His name was Killarney Opiopio. He was cool...Grandpa was born and raised in Hana, a remote town on the island of Maui, but moved to Oahu to attend Kamehameha School for boys (that's his senior photo up there), and after that settled on Oahu. After he graduated, he went on a sort of expedition for the U.S. Departments of Commerce & Interior to colonize remote islands 1800 miles south of the Hawaiian Islands, living off of the land, scarce food and water supplies, building their own dwellings...kind of like Survivor on TV, only real. Read about the expeditions here. (If you Google his name, other sites come up.)

A little while later, he and my grandmother, Fancey Bell from Waimea, Big Island Hawaii, married and raised their 4 kids in Honolulu, two of which were hanai (adopted) children from relatives. He was taught by the LDS (Mormon) missionaries and baptized into the LDS church when my mom was 8 years old, along with my mom and mom's sister, Lokelani (Grandma Fancey was already a member). Most of his life he worked for the Hawaii Board of Water Supply in Honolulu. He was a hard worker. He and my grandma spent their later years serving and working in the Laie, Hawaii LDS Temple. He passed away in 1977, about 3 months before I was born. This is a photo of the road to Hana. My mom now lives there and teaches at the Hana school (there is one school K-12). I've never been there. My husband, Ryan, went there once by himself on the 2-hour windy (as in zig-zag, not breezy) road to Hana in a Cadillac rental. A gallon of milk at the only grocery store there costs $9.99! I called them myself when I didn't believe my mom.

My grandma Fancey, my mother, my aunt, anyone who knew him, always had positive things to say about him. When I was 18 yo, I went to a funeral for someone from his side of the family (Emmsley or Loo?) and two of his cousins approached me after the funeral and we talked. They told me that I reminded them both of "Killarney" by the way I looked and something about me. I thought that was cool!!

My Kainoa

My Kainoa is 9 months old today. Yay!! Happy B-Day!! I wrote an entry on Keira's name, so here's something about Kainoa's. His full name is:

Kainoa`opu`uhonua Ryan Johnson.

I picked his name before he was born, when Keira was 2 months old. (My 2 kiddies are 19 months apart.) We call him "Kaikai" for short. His dad actually picked his name (like he picked Keira's after Keira Knightley--still not totally cool with it yet!) Ryan always liked the combination of Noah Ryan for a boy's name. Of course, our son needs a Hawaiian name, so I suggested Kainoa Ryan to him. There is a song I grew up with called "Kainoa" by Marlene Sai (I grew up with the Bruddah Iz version), my cousin's boyfriend's name in high school was Kainoa, then later in college, I met one of my good friends, Kainoa (a girl).

Here is a breakdown of his Hawaiian name:

kai = water
noa = free/liberated
o = of
pu`uhonua = place of refuge

His name particularly refers to a place on the Kona side of the Big Island called Pu`uhonua `o Honaunau, a.k.a. City of Refuge. On two of my visits to this place, once when I was like 15 and again when I was 21, I remember standing at the mouth of the little cove on the side of the structure, staring at the water looking for turtles. Hawaiian green sea turtles frequent there (to lay their eggs?) There is a peaceful feeling there.

After I had Keira, I was looking at a Big Island calendar and saw a photo of the City of Refuge and a distinct feeling came over me that my next baby should have that name, Pu`uhonua. It was one of those feelings you'll never question. So, that is his name.

Pu`uhilina`i

Keira Nalei`opu`uhilina`i Sui Sin Fa Johnson is our Baby's full name.

When I was pregnant, I couldn't decide on a Hawaiian name, or an English name. We wanted her middle name to be Nalei, sort of after my mom's, which is Kalei. I liked Olivia for a first name, Ryan hated it. She would have been "Olivia Nalei Johnson" which sounded too much like Olivia Newton John (which ISN'T a bad thing, but...). I also liked Kaatje (kaa-tia), but that seemed too complicated for people. All along, Ryan wanted Keira, after Keira Knightley from Pirates of the Carribbean: I told Ryan, what if the actress goes porn star, then what, our daughter will be named after her--how nice. He just liked it because it was different, and Keira Knightly is pretty, which is probably why I didn't like it.

Lots of Hawaiian names were suggested, but they all just didn't fit her. She was a lively baby in my tummy, always moving, and I could tell she had lots of personality, so she needed a special Hawaiian name. Come time when she came on Jan 27, 2006, her due date, I still didn't have a name. My mom flew in from Hana, Maui that morning to be with us in the hospital:

We went home the 2nd day, and still no name came. The first morning at home, my mom told me about a mountain called Pu`uhilina`i that she and her students at Hana Elementary do a Hawaiian chant to in the morning. The story about Pu`uhilina`i is that years ago, it diverted lava from running into Hana Town and saved the town. Pu`u means hill. Hilina`i means "faith" or "to rely on, trust in." Nalei describes the children my mom teaches and people in Hana, where my grandfather's from.

Pu`uhilina`i