Favorite Post!

There isn't much to report these days.  We have been happily frolicking at local beaches around Waikiki.  We all woke up extremely early this morning to watch USA vs. Germany (6 am).  We may be jumping on the soccer bandwagon but at least we are dedicated! One of my co-workers, Danae, is here with her family for a week.  She is staying in Kailua but drove into Waikiki and Jaden and I showed her all the touristy spots.  I also picked up a new rental car for the next few days so I'm sure we'll be off exploring.  

Now, for the main event!  Finally, finally, Leah dropped off our wedding photos and video.  Chris and I immediately sat down to watch our day of holy matrimony and laughed the entire time.  Talk about awkward (hi, Amy!).  The pictures, thankfully, turned out much better.  We ended up receiving almost 250 pictures on a disc, and they turned out really well.  Here are a few of the "best" ones  :)  

Aloha!

all in a day's work...

This place is a trip!  On a daily basis I witness something odd, different, or unusual, but today took the cake.  All of these things happened today....

I killed my first cockroach of the summer.  My husband was content to watch me fight for my life.  I thought about leaving his dead, lifeless body (the cockroach, not Chris) there as a warning to all of his little insect friends, but Chris made me flush him.
Jaden got his first surfing injury of the summer.  He's was fine once we administered first aid (ice cream).

We saw a Hawaiian Monk Seal tanning himself on the busiest beach on the island.  These seals are the only native seals to Hawaii and are also on the endangered species list.  They are known to native Hawaiians as ʻIlio-holo-i-ka-uaua', or "dog that runs in rough water"  and they have been adopted as the state mammal.  The second this big guy came on land, the lifeguard put a huge rope around the area and posted signs to not touch, feed, or harass him.  

We also saw Santa spreading holiday cheer down Kalakaua Avenue.  

I wasn't paying attention when I was walking home, and I almost walked right through this little gathering.  Oops!  This was either a Bible study or an AA meeting.  Neither of which I wanted to be a part of!  So I took a picture instead.

I saw a rainbow on our walk home and the boys found a leaf in the shape of a heart and gave it to me.

Chris took this picture today while we were at the beach.  We'll end on this!  Aloha!

Beachin'

We have had a car since Thursday and all we have been doing is zoom, zoom, zooming around the island.  We have been to Costco, Target, and Safeway.  The refrigerator is filled to the max.  I have been to about 5 different Ross stores, Nordstrom Rack, TJ Maxx, and the mall.  We even managed to fit in a quick visit to the urgent care.
On Friday, we headed out to our favorite beach, Sunset Beach, on the North Shore.  Before we arrived though, I wanted to stop at Giovanni's Shrimp Truck.  It is probably one of the most popular food trucks on Oahu.  Giovanni's opened in 1993 using a converted bread truck to sell shrimp.  They have a limited menu, serving shrimp only three different ways.  When we finally found a place to park, we realized there were easily 100 - 200 people there.  This place was very busy, but their food did not disappoint.  It was delicious!  I would post a photo of it, but we ate it too quickly  :)   Another cool thing about Giovanni's is all of their customers are able to write on their food truck.  This truck had thousands of peoples names and signatures.  It was pretty cool.  Apparently, back in 1993, a man by the name of Ed Hernandez signed his name to the shrimp truck after it had already closed.  The next day, although the employees saw his signature, they decided to leave it on the truck.  The following day a few more signatures appeared and that started a twenty plus year tradition that still lives on to this day.  Any guesses where this guy, Ed Hernandez, was from?  TEXAS!!

Saturday morning started out poorly but we managed to salvage the day.  We're good sports like that  :)

Jaden has yet to kick these allergies and it was so bad on Friday that even though we forced went to the beach, the salt water didn't clear him up.  Thankfully, we found an awesome urgent care with no wait on a Saturday morning!  It probably helped that we were the first people in line at 7:59 am.  Someone write that down please, I was early for something!!  The doctor gave us some antibiotics for his sinus infection and informed me that because he weighs 105 pounds, I can give him Claritin-D.  Oh my!  That "D" part in Claritin certainly makes a big difference.  He's like a new human!  It cleared him right up and we haven't had any problems since.  Fingers crossed  xxx  

After the urgent care, we headed to Lanikai Beach.  Chris and I relaxed and swam.  

Jaden had other ideas... 

Obviously we left once this little hussy showed up.  Haha!  I'm just kidding.  They had matching suits.  What's not to love??!

Today (Sunday), was a more eventful day.  The boys decided they would hike Koko Head before we hit the beach.  I offered to drive them there, but I would not be hiking it again.  Been there, done that, I'm good.  I gave Chris specific instructions on what Jaden was allowed to do while hiking down. I kept having horrible visions of the franchise plummeting to his death and then I wouldn't get my ocean front mansion.  Priorities, people!   Do you remember the view down?

They were eager beavers as they started up the mountain!

According to Chris, they made it up the mountain in about 30 minutes.  1,078 steps!  I was impressed! They were all smiles at the very top and even more so at the bottom  :)

Once they were finished, we headed to "Sherwood Forest" a local beach near Waimanalo.  Jaden boogie boarded for awhile but there were jellyfish in the water and he got a few stings.  He wanted to leave the beach until we pulled out a frisbee.  He and Chris got caught up in a very intense game.  How either of them wanted to move after their hike is beyond me!

Tomorrow we have to return our freedom mobile so we've dubbed the day as "Mellow Monday".  I think we'll just hang out at the apartment and chill.  It's hard work going to the beach every day  :)

Also, tomorrow is the day we'll be getting our wedding photos.  I'll post those just as soon as we get them.   Aloha!!

Catching Up

Well, the last 48 hours have been so much fun!  It is also weird to refer to someone as "my husband" but I'm sure we'll all get used to it.  Awhile back, when Chris and I were talking about getting married, we decided that Hawaii would probably be the most perfect place to get hitched.  A few weeks before we left, we started researching wedding companies.  Holy cow, there were a lot!  And so many of the websites we looked through were so extravagant (and ridiculous).  Most companies had packages that you could pick from but some were a little over the top.  For example, for an extra $150, two white doves would be released when you were pronounced husband and wife.  Gross!

We settled on a (husband and wife) company that seemed reasonable and had all of the things we were looking for like, professional photos, a video recording of the ceremony, and someone to marry us.  We're very low key if you couldn't tell!  The day of the ceremony was pretty relaxing since we didn't have to be anywhere until 2:30 pm.  The boys already had their outfits picked out a few weeks ago but I didn't find my dress until the day before.  Talk about clutch!  There was a reason they called me Miss March in college (referring to the NCAA tournament, not a pin-up calendar).

Anyway, I digress...the boys spent the morning doing this....watching wrestling, while I was busy getting ready.  Being a boy is so easy!

We all showed up on time to Waialae Beach (a rarity for me).   It probably helped that we came in the same car and the ring bearer and the best man were the same person!  Leah (our wedding officiant) met us in the parking lot and whisked us away to a private-ish spot on the beach where we would have our ceremony.  Leah and her husband, Michael, are a very nice, older couple.  I wouldn't go so far as to say that they are hippies but they are very earthy people.  On our walk, she pointed out gecko eggs in the grass (she says seeing a gecko on your wedding day is good luck).  The boys went on ahead so I was stuck walked with her.  She made me stop and watch her feed birds as they flew through the air (she had birdseed in her backpack, FYI).  If you know me at all, you probably are picturing what my face looked like during all of this.  

We finally met up with the boys and then I got to meet her husband.  He was a very nice gentleman, yet he was wearing womens black, stretchy, yoga pants.  I also caught a glimpse of his pink/purple striped underwear.  Chris and I were discreetly cracking up!  Only us, right?!

The ceremony went very well and it was nice and sweet.  Jaden only yawned a few times and no, I did not cry.  We took a bunch of pictures afterward and then headed to our wedding dinner at Kobe Japanese Steakhouse.  After dinner, we took the bus home.  Clearly we lead a glamorous life!

We have spent the last two days doing our usual "thing".  Below are some pictures of us, returning to normal!  Tomorrow (Friday) is International Surfing Day!  I'm sure Jaden will be out paddling for hours.  My goal is to get Chris on a surfboard!  I'll post more pictures later.   Aloha!

making friends wherever he goes...

Sneak Peek

The cat is outta the bag!  Chris and I got married today!  I'll write more later and share more "professional" photos.  For now you'll have to be content with the ones that were taken on my camera.  The day went well and we had a lot of fun, but I'm tired, Chris is tired, Jaden is not tired but we made him go to bed anyway.

Aloha!

Trouble in Paradise...

Hi y'all!  Yes, you read the title correctly!  Allow me to explain and try to refrain from slapping me while saying "but you're in Hawaii"!  So, yes, this place is gorgeous and amazing and all of that but it definitely has its challenges.  Jaden is still battling allergies and developed a cold sore on his lip a few days ago.  I thought it was healing quite nicely with forcing putting Abreva on it every 30 seconds.  This morning though he woke up with a huge blister on top of his "healing" cold sore.  Normally it wouldn't be that big of a deal, but we have very important pictures to take tomorrow.  More on that later....  Also, to add insult to injury, Jaden has developed a skin rash around his waistline and cuts on his ankles.  This is a direct reflection between the amount of time he spends in water with his fins on.  However, being the superhero mother that I am, I rushed out to buy him diaper rash cream (it keeps the sand from sticking to his skin) and fin socks to wear while he boogie boards.  I'm crossing my fingers that all of these heroic measures will ensure a speedy recovery.  Oh, and we got Claritin also, which seems to be helping.

Chris and I are doing fine in the health department.  No allergies or skin rashes to report, but we both are sleep deprived!  We are attempting to sleep in a double bed (sshhh, don't tell my parents) but are consistently woken up to the sun rising at 5:45 am or the birds screaming chirping right outside of the window.  We really might need a vacation after we return from our vacation.

Anyway, yesterday was Father's Day.  We spent most of the day just hanging out.  Jaden really, really wanted to go to the beach and so I took him while Chris took a nap.  I had just unpacked all of our stuff, got comfortable, and started reading my book when Jaden limps over to me asked to go home because his rash and feet hurt.  Grrrrr!!!

Today was much better!  We drove to Kailua Beach and did our usual activities.  Jaden had made a brief miraculous recovery and was able to spend most of the time in the water.  One of the reasons I love this beach is because the water is so warm and the ocean floor is so soft.  It was a tad bit windy today and the sand was blowing everywhere but we still had a good time.  Below are some pictures of our day!

Tomorrow is a very exciting day, so stay tuned.  Until then, I hope everyone is having a wonderful start to the summer!

Aloha!

My future husband! 

Allergic to Hawaii

Don't worry, friends, I'm not talking about myself!  I'm allergic to normal things like people crying and expressing my emotions.  Jaden is the one allergic to Hawaii!  Can you even believe it?  He is totally fine in any body of water but as soon as we get close to our apartment, he morphs into a sneezing, sniffling, itchy eye, whiny child.  I guess he isn't used to all the parks full of freshly cut grass and trees that shake their pollen everywhere.  It was so bad on Wednesday that he didn't even want to leave the house.  So we stayed inside.  The.  Whole.  Day.  It was extra annoying because we had the rental car and we were supposed to go hike Koko Head and then hit up Lanikai Beach.  Thankfully he was much better by the next morning.

Yesterday, we headed to "Old Faithful", the beach by the apartment.  This is the beach where boogie boarders rule and surfers are not allowed.  We have probably been here at least 50 times but Jaden absolutely loves it.  We got him fins to wear while he boogie boards so he can catch more waves and there are a ton of kids for him to bond, run, wrestle, and play with.  While he did all of these things, Chris and I relaxed on the beach, tanning ourselves until one of us looks like a tomato and one looks like a Cherokee Indian.  You'll have to decide who is who, but regardless, we were both pretty cranky last night trying to sleep with sunburns.  Here are some pictures of yesterday...

Can you see Jaden in the wave?!

Today was very similar to yesterday, except the boys headed to the beach, while I headed to the mall. We are in a time crunch and we all need outfits for our upcoming nuptials. Thankfully I was able to find outfits for the boys.  They might be the most handsome guys I have ever seen!   Aloha!