Happy Birthday Makena

Today we celebrated Makena's 5th birthday. We told her she could have a party and invite a few of her friends over. We kind of went with a movie theme based on the Little Mermaid. I printed out some 'movie tickets' with an excel program by bro-in-law sent me. The kids watched The Little Mermaid 3: Ariel's Beginning. Angela made a bunch of popcorn and we put it in those paper popcorn bags for the kids. Angela passed out these fake coins to the kids and they got to 'buy' their popcorn and drinks with those coins. About 3/4th through the movie the kids started to get restless and then went out back to play on the trampoline and with a few hundred of those little colored plastic balls. When I went out back to see how things were going it looked like a tornado had hit. The last guest finally left at 9 (yes 9pm) and now it's clean-up time. The backyard is a complete mess, the kitchen is a mess, the upstairs living room is a mess and the theatre room is full of smashed popcorn and pizza remnants. I'll let Koa, the living vacuum, in to clean up all the food bits on the floor. All in all I think Makena had a fun time.

If anyone wants a copy of the excel program that prints out tickets that can be customized to your liking then let me know and I'll email it.

Bring the pain!

Two posts in one week! I'm going for a record here folks!
So I've been trying to get into my 2-a-days again and I thought, why suffer through this alone? I decided to see if I could get my cousin Spammon to join me. We used to lift together until he moved jobs a couple years ago. He was actually the one that got me lifting again after my mission. So in my pursuit of entering a powerlifting meet sometime early next year (TBD) I have recruited his help in this endeavor. Yesterday was day one with the Spammon. As you can see here we worked the deadlift. I am not in the habit of filming myself lifting but it seems like these days everyone is doing it so why the heck not? This was more of a form check to see if I am actually doing them properly. What I did notice was 1. my deadlift form needs improvement, 2. I have a huge spare tire and 3. I need to get a home gym setup like Spammon's (shown in the video). Here is the video for comedy's sake:

Another One

Well, let's see it's been almost 3 months since my last post so I guess it's about time for me to get on this thing and make another one. While I may try to pretend to be as good a blogger as my cousins and friends let's not lie - I suck. Bad. So this will just be an updater to what has happened in the world of Hagoth. Ok what do I remember the most about the past three months... oh - Christian's cousin pushed him down and he cut his forehead open. A couple hours in the ER and he was all stitched up. Let's not talk about the fact that Angela and I were supposed to be watching The Dark Knight on IMAX in the cushy leather seats with the tickets I had purchased A MONTH IN ADVANCE. Oh well at least the little guy was ok, he's a tough kid, just like his mom. Ok I went on a week long camp with the scouts up in the Uinta's. The 2.5 mile hike with an 80+lb pack on my back kicked the shiz out of me. Yes I am a wimp and have no wind - I lift weights at the gym, I don't run on the treadmill. Ok what else... oh my little sister had a miscarriage at 17 weeks (I think). She had a pretty scary experience and had to be rushed to the hospital by ambulance. She lost a lot of blood and her blood pressure was dangerously low. I'm glad she is ok, but I'm sad for her loss. Anything else... oh I think I gained back all the weight I lost on the weeklong scout camp and then some. Gotta start lifting twice a day again to get this dang weight off... That concludes my quarterly post. I leave you with a picture of Christian Ikaika.

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

After waiting for almot four years, the final installment of the Metal Gear Solid series has finally arrived. I pre-ordered my copy back in April and have been waiting impatiently ever since. I got my friendly Gamestop phone call to let me know that the game was in and went and picked it up yesterday. I have been a huge fan of the Metal Gear series ever since the first one came out on the NES so I was stoked to get home and try this one out.
The game had about an 8 min install which was not bad because it gave me time to read the manual, which has some pretty cool artwork in it. I decided to play the first 10 or 20 minutes upstairs on the LCD tv so I could get a could 1080p experience out of it. After about 20 minutes I took the PS3 downstairs so I could experience the soundtrack (upstairs tv - 1080p no sound system, downstairs tv - 1080i 7.1 sound system). The game still looked great in 1080i so I think I will be playing the majority of the game downstairs. The sound was absolutely amazing. Every little detail has been brought out in the sound. Bullets whizzing by your head or hitting the ground or the wall next to you have very distinct sounds. The explosions had my sub rockin. I knew I had it turned up too loud because Angela was doing some work in the bedroom down the hall and I heard her shut the door.
After having played it for roughly 45 minutes here are my initial thoughts:

Graphics: 10
Sound: 10
Voice Acting: varies but average 8 or 8.5
Fun Factor: 10
Controls: 9

GPS-Snitch

There is a cool program that my cousin Ammon told me about for GPS-enabled blackberry's, it's called Blip. It allows you to post your gps coordinates and see your friends posted coordinates. You can set your blackberry to auto-post at intervals. I have mine set at 15 minutes. When you log into the website on a computer you can see all your history and your friends history. You can either view the points on a google map right there on the website or you can have it imported into google earth.

Right now my brother-in-law is at a King Mack fishing tournament south of New Orleans and, using the program, I was able to see his path out this morning. The orange dots represent each post that his phone made. Pretty cool huh?

Places I like to go to at Holden Beach

Well my weekend trip out to Holden Beach has come and gone. I was able to spend time with my parents and enjoyed the great hospitality of my sister Dore and bro-in-law Shane. Thanks for letting me stay at your place again! The weather over there was HOT. I think there was not a day that was under 90. Hot and humid. You better have your AC in order over there on a hot day or you are in for a miserable time. During my visit I was able to hit the spots that I enjoy visiting while in Holden Beach.


First I was able to check out the local surf shop, Cape Fear Surf Shop and browse the Quiksilver and Billabong decal section. On this trip Angela told me to get some Oakley's as an early Father's Day gift. Mike at Cape Fear was a cool guy and gave me a good price on some polarized Square Wires. Next time I go I'll have to get some pics with Mike and the inside of his shop.




Another one of my favorite spots to visit is Provisions restaurant located just to the right of the Holden Beach Bridge. The restaurant is right on the water and they have a small dock for boats to dock on while they eat. The food is delicious and the best fish on the menu is the grouper. I would recommend either a grilled grouper sandwich or a group-salad sandwich. Conch Fritters on the side are a must. These fried fritters won't be found on any low-fat diet, but they taste amazing. The inside of the restaurant is quaint and the walls are decorated with actual license plates from various states across the country. Should I ever move to Holden Beach I think I may donate one of my Utah plates to be displayed.

Here is a view of the dock from the back of Provisions. The water is the ICW (Intercontinental Waterway). Holden Beach Island sits between it and the Atlantic.

Back to Holden Beach

It looks like it's time for me to make my quarterly post. My dad has finally retired from the USPS after working for 30 years. 30 years is a long time to work for the Post Office and I am happy for him to finally be done. I decided at the last minute to fly out to Holden Beach, NC to see him and be part of his retirement party. 7 hours on planes and 3 hours driving in a car and I'm more than ready for bed tonight. Pictures of the happy retiree and the food and celebration will be forthcoming.

Teh Sick!

The past couple of days have been pretty rough for the Lelepali kids. First Makena and Christian came down with colds that have been getting progressively worse and then yesterday we took Kat in to get seen for an ugly cough and find out she may have RSV. The doctor says that by the time it takes to test for it we will already know from her symptoms so he is going to treat it as if it were RSV. Kat is about 4 weeks old so he wants to have us ccome in every day to get checked. If she starts to get really laborious breathing then he will meet us up at Primary Children's Hospital. That is worse case scenario and we are hoping that it doesn't get that bad.
This brings is to last night. Makena's cold appears to have turned into an ear infection. She was crying all night because of the pain. I felt bad because there was really nothing we could do for her besides telling her we would take her to the doctor in the morning. If that wasn't enough, Christian's cold started to bring his asthma out and he was wheezing like a broken accordian. We gave him his asthma treatment and then he feel asleep. Between Makena's crying, Christian's wheezing and Kat's fussiness and coughing I think we finally got to sleep around 4:00 in the morning. As much as I hate the Instacare, Angela has taken Makena there this morning because it's Sunday. Christian will most likely be making a doctor visit tomorrow along with Kat. Gotta love the cold/flu season!