ZumwaltOhana.com

The Big O-N-E

Congratulations fellow ZumwaltOhana.com-ers on our FIRST YEAR together!  Two days ago was the one year anniversary of our humble ZumwaltOhana.com.  Happy Anniversary!  Can you believe we've been around for a whole year!?!  Since I'm a bit of a stats freak, I thought I'd share some numbers from the past 12 months of our existence with you.  Since our first post on December 26, 2005 and as of right this second:

• ZumwaltOhana.com has grown to roughly 582 megabytes in size
• We've had 22,738 total hits
• 4,370 of our total hits were from different people (computers)
• We've been hit from 16 countries around the world (USA, Canada, Brazil, UK, France, Spain, Romania, Russia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel, Egypt, China, Korea, Japan, and Australia!)
• We've averaged 43 hits a day
• We've averaged 1894 hits a month
• March was our best month (duh!) with 4578 hits
• September was our worst month with 962 hits
• 95% of our hits were made with Microsoft Internet Explorer (Firefox next with 2.4%)
• 89% of our hits were made with Microsoft Windows XP (Microsoft Windows 98 next with 5.7%)
• 60% of our hits were made with 1024x768 resolution (800x600 resolution next with 13.6%)
• There have been 99 posts made (Rats! - just one shy of 100!)
• There have been 562 comments made in response to our posts
• We have had 19 photo albums (17 presently)
• There are 43 videos posted
• There are exactly 1300 pictures in our photo albums
• We had 25 Ohana Poll Questions (remember those?)

Incredible!  Thank you so much for The People's continued support of our little corner of the World Wide Web.  When we started this project, we intended it to serve as simply a record of our lives, but it's obviously turned into so much more.  It has truly been a blessing to have been able to connect and stay in touch with so many friends and family through ZumwaltOhana.com.  We can't wait to see what exciting (and dull!) things happen in the year to come that we get to share with all of you!  As a very special treat, I'm preparing something that may be ready in the next couple weeks in celebration of our first anniversary, so stay tuned!

Mahalo again for your love.

Commence Christmas

December 25 was not too exciting around these parts.  We were careful not to even mention that the rest of the world was celebrating a holiday.  Well, the rest of the world minus the Chinese restaurants, which is where we found ourselves for lunch that day.  Good old New Dragon Wall was good to us--except that they doubled their prices that day since they were the only thing open in Grand Junction!  That afternoon we took a nice long nap since Zak was starting to come down with the same thing Koa has had and we thought that would help (and it did). 

Well, the parents finally arrived after a llloooonnnngggg day of travel.  We met up with them at Grandpa Hunt and Grandma Myrna's house and it was a hallowed reunion and introduction.  This was the first time Koa got to meet his Grandpa Fred (or Stimple, as he prefers to be called) and they seemed to hit it off immediately. 

Christmas day (December 26) proved even more exciting as we all reunited for Christmas lunch which was wonderfully made by Grandma Myrna (Suzy) even though Zak missed his noodles.  I thought this was just a Zak thing, but everyone seemed to know what he was talking about when he mentioned the lack of noodles.  I will continue to be puzzled by Thanksgiving/Christmas no-yolk-noodles, although they claim it stems from the Cherokee in their blood.

After lunch we hurried to clean up so we could take a drive through Colorado National Monument.  We were planning to take a walk up one of the trails, but it got dark before we could get to the end and back, so we settled for nice drive through the park.  Some magnificent pictures of the park are in the Christmas in Colorado photo album.

We then returned to the house for leftovers, dessert, and gift opening!  Much fun and calories were had by all.  Koa is now even more fond of his Grandpa Stimple since he was given a real remote control as his very own (since he's not allowed to play with ours)!  The corruption begins!!  Grandpa Hunt also hooked Koa up with all sorts of cowboy garb including Wrangler jeans, Justin boots, and a genuine full-grain cowhide belt.  Thanks to everyone for their generosity towards all three of us.  Exactly half of our presents for everyone haven't yet arrived, so we were a little disappointed that we had so little to give during the holiday.  But, I guess we'll be able to have a second Christmas whenever the box finally gets here!

Today we all met up at Olive Garden (there isn't one in Hawaii, so whenever we're on the mainland Zak and I try to pay a visit) for lunch.  It was wonderful, especially the salad and bread-sticks.  Then the men-folk and women-folk separated and went their own ways.  The guys went to visit a kind old Navy man who is a Pearl Harbor Attack survivor and then just a couple years later helped capture U-505 and bring it to the United States.  He apparently has quite the war stories (and the medals to prove it)!  We girls (and Koa) went to Mesa Mall to explore and to get in on some of the after Christmas sales.  Then we all rendezvoused a couple hours later at the Zumwalt House to swap stories and warm-up.

In about an hour we'll be heading to church for Wednesday evening services at the Church of Christ of Grand Junction.  We decided to come back to the hotel for a little bit before services (which is where we are now) to let Koa catch a nap before we move back out.  I'm not sure what the schedule says we'll be doing after services, but I believe it will entail more family pictures at the pulpit since Fred and Regina are now here.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

Notice: Christmas Has Been Postponed!

As we sit here waiting for the remainder of Zak's family to arrive from Virginia via San Fransisco (no, that's not a typo) and enjoying our twenty-four hour marathon of "A Christmas Story" we thought we should update The People on the happenings here in Colorful Colorado (is white a color?).  We're also letting the Wee One take a nice long nap to help him get over his runny nose and cough.  In addition to his cold, he's suffering from chapping all around his mouth and on his sucking thumb due to the dry air.  We're applying pineapple chap-stick and coconut oil all over his face and thumb to combat the redness - we figure if it doesn't help, at least he'll smell like home!

When we awoke on Friday we immediately were on the phone with family and friends to figure out just how to get us all in the same city.  After much brainstorming and plenty of phone calls, we finally figured out a way to get Nick out of DIA and on his way to Grand Junction.  Thanks to the Couser family both in Hawaii and Denver, we were able to rescue Nick from both DIA and the Greyhound station which was decided would be his best way out unless we came up with something better.  The Denver Cousers picked him up and gave him a shower and a hot meal at their house and then drove him halfway to Grand Junction where we met up with them and did the trade.  We rendezvoused in Avon, Colorado and then Zak and I brought him the rest of the way to Grand Junction (about a 2 hour drive each way).  It worked out really well and no one had to be on the roads too late and all got back to our respective destinations at a decent hour.  Thank you, Drew and the rest of the Cousers!!

Due to all the changed flights and bad weather we thought it would be a better plan for my parents to drive up and see us instead of sticking to the original plan of driving down to see them after Christmas.  We didn't want to run the risk of getting stranded down in Southwestern Colorado by another fluke snowstorm and miss our flights.  While we were picking up Nick in Avon, we left Koa with Zak's Grandparents at their house which was where my parents then showed up and joined in the fun of caring for the wee one until we returned.  We got back to the house around 7:00 with Nick (and much ado) and shared some yummy holiday snacks thanks to Myrna.  Nick checked into the room next to us at our hotel later that evening where he promptly set up his Wii (which was the only possession he had other than the clothes on his back because his luggage still hadn't arrived).

On Saturday we had an easy, slow morning and hung out with my parents for lunch and dinner, but in between, we had a rodeo at the farm where Grandpa Hunt keeps his horses.  You will see plenty of pictures in the Christmas in Colorado photo album and most of them speak for themselves.  Koa had a ball checking out the chickens, riding the horses and goats, and feeding the donkey.  He didn't seem to mind the cold nearly as much as his mom did, and I thought he was actually going to take his first steps when he was trying to chase those goats!  Ah, there is a little Cundiff in him after all!

That night we got to meet up with one of my many first cousins who just happened to be in town visiting her husband's family.  Tracy, her husband, and two adorable little kids came by the hotel and visited with us for a while.  It was a nice coincidence to be in the same town at the same time.  The ironic thing was that they drove in from Denver the same day Zak and I picked up Nick.  Too bad we didn't know they were coming earlier or they could have just brought him with them!  After my cousins left the hotel, we (my parents, the three of us, and Nick) went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner where Koa tried his first ever BBQ ribs - and loved them! 

Sunday morning we got to worship with the Church of Christ of Grand Junction which is where Zak's family worships.  It was fun to meet all the people who have known Zak's dad, Fred, for most of his life and to meet the girls (now older of course) who "mourn the one who got away."  After services it was imperative that we got our family pictures (sans Fred and Regina) there at the pulpit, so we arranged ourselves in all the possible combinations of family members (everyone, just kids, just grandkids, just grandparents and grandkids, just great-grandparents and great-grandkids, etc.).  We bid my parents Adios before we all went to lunch as they had to get back to the farm and their church family before nightfall.  It was a short visit, but always nice to see them!  I think they had a good time spoiling the boy a little bit.

Last night we had a wonderful Christmas time.  We started out the evening driving through a couple neighborhoods who had gone way overboard in decorating their houses.  We also stopped by the Grand Junction Pipe display of lights which was quite impressive.  Then it was on to Zak's Aunt Rose and Uncle Mike's house.  We had dinner with them and visited for a while and then sang some carols before retiring for the night on Christmas Eve.  Nick got the good news when we arrived at the hotel last night that his luggage had finally arrived, so now he can finally change his clothes!

This morning we awoke to a still incomplete family.  So, we wait as Fred and Regina make their way back...and forth...and back across these United States.  They are now leaving SFO and should arrive at DIA around 2:00 and then finally arrive here tonight around 8 PM.  Then we shall progress forth with Christmas!  We postponed our gift-giving and Christmas meal until tomorrow so that they'll be here for it all.  I hope Jesus doesn't mind us postponing his birthday.  I think He would want Fred and Regina to be here.

Finally, stand by for some new videos that may appear within the next day or two!  Merry Christmas!

Ugh!

Before I begin, consider that we have had it the easiest of all.  We made it into Grand Junction yesterday afternoon, but my brother is now on his third day stuck at DIA, and my parents are still in VA with tickets to fly here on Christmas day!  We were truly blessed (as we all have been in one way or another) to have been able to change airlines, fly into Salt Lake City, and then drive to Grand Junction - but I speak for all of us involved when I say What a hassle!  And like I said earlier, I probably don't have as much room to talk as the rest of my family because we have had it the easiest.

Our flight to Salt Lake City yesterday was 5 hours beginning at 11:20pm, so it was straight through the night.  Unfortunately Koa was the only one who got much sleep!  He was absolutely wonderful leading up to the flight even though it was way past his bed time.  And initially he even slept like a dead man in his car seat on the plane.  But about 30 minutes into the flight he could no longer take sleeping without his bed and started fussing.  Eventually (after trying all sorts of combinations of things!), we set a blanket on the floor and he slept just fine under our seat for the rest of the way.  All told he probably slept, off and on, for about 3/4 of the flight.  Kathy and I however spent all night holding our feet up!

As you can imagine, Salt Lake City Airport was insane because of all the stranded DIA travelers (I guess this is true of every airport right now).  When we had our tickets transfered from United to Delta in Honolulu, they only transfered our tickets coming out here, so we had to go track down the United ticketing booths in SLC and try to get them to transfer our returning flight.  It was a complete mad house with a 4-5 hour wait in line!  But then it occurred to us that maybe we didn't want to change our return flights, that maybe we'd stay the course and fly from Grand Junction to DIA and then on to Honolulu on January 1st.  So we left the melee behind!

Unfortunately, the airplane gods weren't going to let us go that easily.  Because so many people were stranded at SLC, every car at every rental car company at the airport was rented.  We luckily already had reservations so our car was waiting for us, but the kicker is that we have to return it to SLC!  They said it's a $3000 fee to leave the car in Grand Junction!  So how do we drive from SLC to Grand Junction (5 hour drive), then drive back to SLC to drop the car off at the end of our trip, then get back to Grand Junction to get to DIA to get to HNL!?!

What we ended up doing was saying phooey to waiting for 4-5 hours at SLC, got our rental car, and hit the road for the way here.  When we arrived at Grand Junction we just drove straight to Walker Airfield and stood in their line at the United booth (with a whole 2 people!) and got the whole thing straightened out in about 10 minutes.  I absolutely LOVE small airports!  For anyone out there still struggling to get flight arrangements - get online or in the phone book, find a small little airport out in the middle of nowhere but still has major carrier booths, and make your changes there instead of listening to the busy signal on the phone for 3 days straight or waiting at a major airport for hours.

So now we are set to fly back out of SLC on January 1st via Delta and should get to HNL around 4:00pm HST.  Yes, this means we'll have to leave Grand Junction at the crack of dawn to make it to SLC for our 10:30am flight, but as I said at the beginning of this post, we still have it better than most.

Shifting gears a little, our drive from Salt Lake City to Grand Junction wasn't too bad.  Kathy and I needed a pick-me-up and Koa needed to run around for a bit before getting strapped back in the car, so we ate an early and long lunch at Wendy's in Salt Lake City.  Koa got to crawl around on the carpeted floor for a while which was quite fun to watch since we was wearing more clothes at the time than he was ever worn the rest of his life combined!  The rest of the drive to Grand Junction was rather uneventful and we made excellent time (closer to 4 hours than 5!).  Koa napped off and on most of the way and we pulled over at gas stations along the way to stretch our legs and breath in the cool, crisp air (Kathy gripes about the cold, but it let's me know I'm alive!).

Upon our arrival to Grand Junction, we went straight the the airport and then downtown to our hotel where we unpacked, showered, stretched, and then met up with my Grandparents - Hunt and Myrna Zumwalt - for dinner at their house and to introduce them to their first ever great-grandson (a.k.a. Littlest Zumwalt).  As you can imagine, Kathy and I were worn out for not sleeping for days, so we called it a night around  9:30 and came back to our room to crash.

Koa is still under the weather so he coughs and sneezes during the night which wakes him up for a couple of fussy minutes.  Since we're all sleeping in the same room here at the hotel (we brought Koa's famous Pack 'n Play for him to sleep in), that also means he wakes us up during the night!  So, between mid-night coughs and just adjusting to Mountain Standard Time, we had a rather busy night.  Today we plan on sleeping in!

Have Yourself A Merry Little Change Of Plans

We are only 3 hours away from flying out of our nice, warm, Hawaiian Paradise and into the frozen tundra that is Colorado.  For those of you completely in the dark (I mean ignorant, not without power [though I'm sure there are plenty of you folks too!]), Denver is currently in the midst of a blizzard with an estimated 20 inches of snow on the ground!  Denver International Airport was completely shut down earlier today and will be until tomorrow evening at the earliest.  Major highways are also currently shut down.  An article on CNN.com says there are around 3000 people stuck at DIA even as I type.  My brother is one of them!

My whole family is converging into Colorado for Christmas, but right now we're scattered all about the country-side trying to figure a way into the winter wonderland.  When our flight was canceled we changed to another flight leaving 3 days from now, but that was way too late so we kept searching.  Finally, just about an hour ago we managed to switch airlines and are now flying into Salt Lake City with Delta (instead of United) and then driving from the west into Colorado - a much dryer route!  My parents are still in Virginia trying to negotiate their way into Colorful Colorado and like I said earlier, my brother is already at DIA, but stuck for the next day or two.

We'll be posting pictures of our Christmas in Colorado on the website as we go, so stay tuned.  For all the Zumwalts out there still trying to get to Grand Junction, Good Luck! and we'll see you when we see you!

Daddy's Home!!!

...And the world is right again!  Zak's trip to Orlando came and went without any hitches and we are grateful to have him back!  Apparently the trip was mostly a success.  They were going to have to stay an extra day to finish since it was taking longer than they thought, but the guys who came from Hawaii would have had to pay more to change their tickets than the original purchase price, so they let the two of them head home on time.  I guess this is the one instance where one can be thankful for airport rip-offs!

While he was away we chatted via WebCam every day and Koa now thinks he has a grandpa, a grandma and a daddy in the computer.  Poor confused little fellow!  The bad thing for mom is that now I can't even sneak in his room and use the computer when he is asleep because just the tiniest noise from it and he is wide awake!  He is so fascinated by Zak's computer that he has just about worn out the carpet doing laps back and forth between the desk and the doorway.  He gets up close to Zak's laptop and stands on his tip toes to see just as much as he can at the desk, then he crawls across the room, pulls up to stand so he can get the wide angle view of it, then back again....and the cycle continues.  Ah, he IS a Zumwalt.

Another sure sign that he is a Zumwalt is that he has a stubborn streak a mile wide.  I'm sure that is a Zumwalt quality, not a Cundiff one, right?  Even without any words at all, it seems that his theme lately has been, "Only 'cuz I want to, not because you tell me."  We have started working on teaching him to come when he is called (while he is still slow enough for us to catch him) and it has been somewhat amusing, somewhat frustrating to watch him blatantly ignore us.  He can be crawling right to me but the second I say, "Come to Mama." he will turn and head the other way, or crawl right past me.  He has about a 20% success rate right now, but the fact the he does sometimes come when asked the first time, tells us he knows what's expected of him.

We have been using a couple of books and a couple of websites to learn what kinds of things he is capable of so that we are not expecting too much out of him too soon, or waiting too long to train him and then have to re-parent down the road.  The two websites I like the most are "Raising Godly Tomatoes" and "No Greater Joy".  If anyone has any other resources you would recommend for training children, we are always open to new suggestions.  I have a feeling we are going to need all the help we can get.

I read in the book "What's Going on in There" about the development of language concerning deaf children who are immersed in sign language from birth.  Deaf babies babble with their hands in about the same order as hearing children do with their mouths.  Now, I couldn't understand how you could tell if a child was babbling with his hands since baby hands are constantly busy anyway.  Well, this week we figured it out.  Koa learned to clap which seemed to be ground breaking for his sign language.  Now he is able to tap his fingers together to say "more".  Once he was able to do that, he would try all of his signs in succession.  So, I would ask him to say "more" and he would wave and then give me the sign for "all pau" (finished) with one hand, then he would do a few different made up versions of "more" and then touch his chin for "thank you", and back to waving again....and so on.  It was hilarious to watch.  He really is not capable of understanding what most of the signs mean just yet, and he is just now working on the idea of cause and effect, so none of them mean anything to him--the equivalent of babbling.  It is so fascinating how God has made his little brain to develop all of these things in perfect order so that one thing builds on another! 

What a miracle God has given us to watch in real time!  I have always thought the science behind the human body is so fascinating and have wondered how anyone can look closely at how well it all works and still deny the presence of God, but now that I have a child whom I have had the pleasure of witnessing since about six weeks of gestation, there is no way I could come up with any other explanation than a divine, loving God.  It's kind of like by watching Koa I get to know my Father a little bit better every day.

Finally (a little late), Happy Nine Month Birthday Koa!  For those who haven't already noticed, we have added a Baby Zumwalt! @ 9-10 Months photo album and three more videos - Update Thirty Eight, Update Thirty Nine, and Update Forty.  Thanks to the Yagers and their early Christmas package, we had some good subject matter for the latest video!  Thanks Tyler, Becky, Josh, Alec and Sam!!  We love you!

Where Did November Go?

Wow!  I cannot believe that November has come and gone.  It has been such a busy month!  Koa is growing and changing so much I can barely keep up with him.  In the last post I didn't even get to give an update on all of his latest antics.

We'll start at his head and work down.  He now has six teeth.  Four on top, two on bottom.  So, he has a silly, little, toothy smile and he likes to wrinkle up his nose when he giggles.  His methods of communicating are expanding.  He is starting to put a few words together--not very intentionally, yet, but he has said "dad-dy" and of course there's the occasional "ma-ma-ma" when he's really mad about something.  He says, "nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh" when he's hungry now and there are other sounds that appear to be words, but we can't really be sure, so we will stand by for the official first word.  In the mean time, we are trying to teach him a little sign language mostly just to keep things interesting.  He was getting pretty consistent with the sign for "more" while he was eating for a few days, but now he seems to be on strike with that.  He does wave fairly consistently.  He got to wave to Grandma Tutu on the computer yesterday and today he was listening to Auntie Tammy on the speaker phone and every time she would tell him "hi," he would wave to the phone.  It was pretty cute.

He's getting more and more agile as he learns to get around.  He loves to follow us as we walk around Halekohana (he should be thankful that it's so small!).  He has learned to crawl up stairs (as you can see documented in the Baby Zumwalt! @ 8-9 Months photo album) and now he is working on going down stairs.  Today he crawled down a set of three stairs at my client's house head first.  It looked like a miniature version of the wheelbarrow race.  He made it down successfully, but I won't say it was graceful.  Fortunately they are well padded, so it is a good place to learn about gravity.  He's also starting to stand on his own without holding onto anything!  His record is only for about 3 seconds before he realizes what he's doing and sits down, but he seems to have a pretty sharp learning curve so we think it's only a matter of time before he gets comfortable with it.

Concerning other forms of locomotion, we have now replaced his infant car seat with a Sunshine Kids Radian 65 convertible car-seat.  He seems to like it much better.  This one should do the trick until he goes off to college!  His strollers are in the process of being replaced.  The Valco Runabout is being shipped here, and I am still trying to convince Zak that we don't need to get any other stroller, but I think I am losing that battle.  I've never met a man so passionate about a stroller!  I guess he just knows what he likes. 

In order to carry all of this stuff around, we needed a replacement car.  After we got everything settled with the insurance, we all went shopping at the Acura dealership and found basically the same car we had before but in a different color.  So, now we have a black 2002 Acura MDX, instead of the beige one we used to have.  It's nice to be able to give back the cars, strollers, and car seats we've been borrowing, but we sure do feel blessed to have friends who are willing to lend us their possessions.

We had a lot to be thankful for as we spent the Thanksgiving holiday with about 18 friends this year!  We had a potluck style meal at the home of some friends where we ate a whole lot and played several games until we had all totally worn out ourselves and our welcome (around 10 hours all told!).  You will see some of the memories captured in the Thanksgiving 2006 photo album (thanks to Tracie and Todd for all the pictures).  Koa even got to try turkey for the very first time.  He didn't eat a whole lot of it, but he did seem to enjoy his pureed pumpkin! 

Well, December seems to have crept up on us when we weren't looking, and that means Zak is getting ready to go to Orlando from Dec 3-8 for work.  This will be the first of several trips he will be making as a member of a team who tests material to be used in the future at all the naval training facilities around the country.  He was chosen by one of his chiefs to take over when that chief leaves NSTCP.

Not too long after Zak returns we will be getting ready to head to Colorado to celebrate Christmas and the New Year with our families.  Koa will get to meet his Great-Grandparents and his Grandpa Stimple as well as aunties, uncles and cousins for the first time.  I get a little more apprehensive about this trip every time I see the weather report on the news!  B-B-Brrrrrrr!!!

Looks like we're in for another very full month!  I will try to be better about posting more often so we don't have a marathon post at the end of each month!