Happy Memorial Day!

I just thought I would check in briefly to let everyone know we are still alive! I've decided though if I can't blog about Hawaii, then there is really nothing to blog about! LOL Just kidding!

My next post will be my 100th blog so I am coming up with something witty, and cute and funny, so this post is just filler. It's post 99 and it's just really not that exciting! I don't even have any pictures! So, here is the filler:

We had a very restful holiday weekend which was really nice! We didn't do much Saturday and Sunday (well, Lance worked, so that means I didn't do much!). On Monday we had a BBQ at my parents house then headed to a HORRIBLE Angel game after that. We lost 17-3. Pathetic. We left early which normally never happens. But how much salt in our wounds could we take? We waived our white flags and headed home.

Thank you to all of our men and women serving in our military. You guys rock!
Love,
Suzanne

Honeymoon Finale

Update: We were just at the beach that was named top in the nation!!! AWESOME!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap_travel/20090522/ap_tr_ge/travel_brief_best_beaches

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It seems like all the TV shows are having their finale's last week and this week (yeah Shaun Johnson!!!) so it only seems fitting that we have our own finale!

Saturday was the last full day on the island for us. We didn't do a whole lot on Saturday, we did do a lot more driving. It was so nice and relaxing!

We did end up driving to Waimea to go to Jo Jo's Shaved ice. It's supposedly the best on the island. We had some other shaved ice earlier in the week that was no where near Jo Jo's. So maybe they are the best!!

After Jo Jo's we decided to head over to the Kaua'i coffee farm. Lance was in heaven there.

Notice the little shot glass in his hand. He was doing coffee shots. They had this whole station set up outside so you could taste all the different coffees. He would have stayed all day if I would have let him!

I even did two shots of coffee myself! hahahaha

For dinner that night we were going back and forth on what we should do for dinner. We decided on sushi, started looking through magazines to see where the best sushi places were. We found a place we decided to take a chance on and headed over. This place was the coolest place ever. I'm so bummed we found it on our last night there because if we would have found it earlier, we would have gone back more than once that's for sure! This place has a conveyer belt that goes around all the tables with all different kinds of sushi flying by you. You just grab the plate of sushi you want and you eat it. It's so much fun.

At first we just watched all the sushi go by trying to decide what we wanted. It didn't' take us too long though. As you can see below, we were stuffed!

Now, before you think we are total piggies, most of these plates only had 1 piece of sushi on it. Sheish! hahahaha

Well, this concludes our honeymoon. We had a wonderful time. Aunt Kathy and Uncle Don we can't thank you enough for letting us stay in your condo! It was absolutely and totally awesome!! And we want to go back. Today. Right this second!

Oh, and for those of you who are wondering how Murphy is doing, she's doing great. She didn't even hide from us when we got home. We aren't calling her Murphy right now though, we are calling her Shadow. She will not leave us alone! If one of us is home, she is stuck to us. Our first night home she slept on my head. Yup, she missed us. And we missed her!

Love,
Suzanne

Honeymoon, almost done I swear....

On Friday of our honeymoon week we finally made it to Scotty's. We ate at Scotty's for the first time when we visited Kaua'i in 2007. They have the best BBQ food on the island! And a killer view.

This was the view from our table. I heart Kaua'i!

After eating at Scotty's we headed over to see some waterfalls and the river that I kayaked when I was here in 1999.

When we were heading back to the condo we stopped at Spouting Horn. When we were there in 2007 Lance kept calling it spitting horn because it was pretty duddy! This time however it was spouting off a storm. The picture doesn't really do it justice, but I took some video of it, so I'll try and upload that later.

That night we went to Tidepools for dinner. Tidepools is very special to us because that's were we got engaged December 30, 2007. We had this great hut with nobody but the family around us and it was just perfect. Perfect for a proposal. When I called to make reservations I knew we couldn't ask for the hut since it was just the two of us this time, so I didn't bother saying anything. When they took us to our table, look where they sat us.

Our table for two was only a few feet away from our hut! And to make things even cooler, the same waiter we had back in 2007 was still there and he was our waiter this time too. How crazy! And he remembered us! He took a picture of us in front of our hut, and he gave us a free desert. This guy rocks!

Tidepools is awesome. It will always be such a special place to us. If you're ever in Kaua'i and you want to taste some of the best food ever, go to Tidepools!

I'll be finishing up our honeymoon tomorrow! See you then!

Love,

Suzanne

Coming Home

We don't want to leave.......we really don't. We would stay longer if we could......but we just can't. We have to come home because it looks as though this one here is having a melt down without us.She has been in the capable hands of Wendy, Rachel and Cat while we were gone, but she just won't be content until Mom and Dad are home. She's done everything from throwing up, hiding for 45 minutes and biting her care taker. Oh the life of a parent of a kitty. I thought we taught her better than that! I hope our human kids don't act that way when we leave them with our 3 favorite baby sitters (yes, I'm talking about you, Wendy, Cat and Rachel!!!!)

This will be my last post until sometime on Monday. We are pretty much flying all day on Sunday. I still have a few more honeymoon posts saved for next week.

We are coming home our little Murphy. We can't wait to give you big kisses......if you come out of the closet. I'm sure you won't be mad at us for too long........maybe! hahaha

Love,
Suzanne

Beautiful Sights

**I posted two posts back to back, so make sure you check out the post from yesterday!*

We are heading into the tail end of our honeymoon so I'm going to do today's blog about Wednesday and Thursday of our trip. We didn't go to the pool on Wednesday (shocking I know!!!) we decided to relax around the condo in the morning and then head over to the Marriott to eat at Dukes for lunch. Dukes has a GREAT view! I could just sit here all day and soak up sun.

After eating at Dukes we headed back over to Poipu to the Hyatt to get massages. Oh.My.Goodness! The Hyatt has one of the best spas I have ever been to! If anyone ever comes to Kaua'i, going to the Hyatt spa is a must! I can't believe I've been here 2 other times and haven't been to this spa. I really wanted to spend all day there! This next picture is when you enter the Hyatt! Beautiful!

We made dinner at the condo Wednesday night but we did go to Keoki's for some Hula Pie! We love Hula Pie!!!

On Thursday we decided to go rent some snorkel gear at Snorkel Bob's and go snorkeling. Dorks!

Look Mon (aka Mom *inside joke*) we took your camera into the water and it worked great! Even better is that it still works after taking it into the water!! ;-)

So, remember that fried skin I was talking about the other day? Well, here it is. Now, let me just state that I put A LOT of sun tan lotion on before getting into the water. And this was not my first day in the sun.

I only spent 30 minutes in the ocean snorkeling. 30 stinking minutes did this. The back of my legs are burned too. So, the lesson I learned was, next time I go snorkeling, I need to wear a shirt! hahaha It's actually not that bad of a burn, unfortunately, I've had worse! It probably would have been worse if I would have spent longer in the water!

After snorkeling we went over to the Poipu Beach Broiler for some happy hour! Luckily no pictures from happy hour. They have $2.50 beers though! That's the place to be!! After happy hour we headed back to the condo to look for some sea turtles!

We saw a bunch of sea turtles!

Well that concludes Wednesday and Thursday! Hope you all our enjoying the honeymoon blogging!

Love,
Suzanne

Oh trade winds where are you???

Has anybody felt our trade winds? Because I'd really like them back! It seems like every other day or so we lose the trade winds and things get HOT here. The sun just burns your skin in like 30 seconds. It really doesn't matter how much sun screen you put on. Don't worry, there will be pictures coming in a few blogs or so of fried skin! I know you all can't wait! hahahaha

Ok, lets see where we are on our vacation. I think I just blogged about Monday, so now we are onto Tuesday. We had breakfast on our patio again then headed off to the pool. I finally have a picture of the pool to show! This is the view from our patio.

After spending a few hours at the pool we decided to head up to Waimea Canyon. It was 86 degrees and hot at sea level and cloudy and 65 degrees on our way up the canyon. Since I've seen it before I know that it has some of the most beautiful breath taking views. Unfortunately, the pictures we took, were of clouds and fog.

We didn't stop at all on the way up because I really just wanted to make it to the top. When Lance and I did the drive in 2007 we weren't able to go all the way to the top because of gas issues aka not having enough gas to continue on! When we got to the top, this is what we saw.

On our way down the mountain we were hoping to get some better pictures when the fog cleared. But, they really weren't as good as we know they could have been if we didn't have the clouds.

We went to Keoki's for dinner that night. But I don't have any pictures from dinner. Take my word for it, it was super yummy!!!!!!

Love,
Suzanne

Another Day in Paradise

The great thing about this vacation so far is that we have nothing planned! If any of you have ever gone on vacation with my family you know that every second of your vacation is planned. EVERY SECOND! Sure, you get to do a lot and see a lot, but you literally go home thinking, I need a vacation from my vacation. I'm not saying I'm not guilty of that too. When I traveled to Europe with my friends, everything was planned. Same with when Lance and I went to New Zealand. But this honeymoon was going to be different. For the last year and a half I have been working my full time job, and then serving every Saturday and Sunday. And during that year and a half happened to do a few other things like plan our wedding and help plan Tracy's. You know, those minor details. So you better believe I was going to make this vacation all about relaxing. And relaxing we have done.

Monday after we got up and had breakfast on our patio looking out at our view we decided to hit the pool. I thought I had a picture of the pool, but I guess I don't. I'll have to take one tomorrow and post it.

After soaking up the sun at the pool, we put the top down on the jeep and headed out for some driving.

I learned very quickly in that jeep that I must pin my bangs back if we were going to have the top down. I didn't have them back when we headed from the airport to the hotel and I was about to scream. Good thing it was a short trip! This time however we were going to be gone for a few hours so I made myself look like Cat and off we went.

To get to different parts of the island, we have to drive through the tunnel of trees, which is so cool! I guess a hurricane in the 90's destroyed this tunnel. But it has grown back and it is really fun to drive through!

Once we were on the main highway, we decided to head over to Princeville. When we were almost there we decided to stop at the lighthouse. This is my third trip to Kaua'i and I have never been.

Now, where we are standing above was the free part of viewing the lighthouse. To get closer, you had to pay $5 a person. Rip off. It's definitely one of those things that we will only do once. You can't even go up or down in the lighthouse. You can only walk into the base of it. They do have some really nice views from out there, but I don't think it was $10 worth!

After leaving the lighthouse we continued onto Princeville then onto Hanalei. We saw some awesome caves. Check out the kid on the bottom left hand side. It will give you some perspective as to how big this cave was!

We also saw one of my favorite churches! I love the look of this church. This is actually where I wanted to get married, but I knew all 160 of our guests would not be able to make it. So we opted for local. But in 25 years, when we renew our vows, we are doing it here! =)

After Hanalei we went to check out some waterfalls on the way back to our condo. This is another stop I've never made in previous visits. And hey, they didn't charge us to check them out!

Well that's all we did on Monday. I think we did enough don't you! =)

Love,

Suzanne

Blooper Video

Yeah I finally got a video to upload!!!!! I tried last night to upload our speeches, but it wasn't working. This video is just a funny party foul from the wedding reception. Leave it to Bindi! This video is so funny to me; but maybe not to everyone else. This may be one of those videos where you just had to be there?!?! Or, maybe you'll laugh out loud too!!

Love,
Suzanne

Honeymoon in Kaua'i

After leaving Oahu on Sunday we headed over to Kaua'i to start our honeymoon! Lance and I were engaged in Kaua'i so to be back for our honeymoon just ties it all together. My Aunt Kathy and Uncle Don gave us their condo in Kaua'i as a present for our wedding and we are so thankful for it! It's so beautiful here.

When we were here December 2007 the island was packed. It was Lance's first time here and my second time. It was so annoying how everywhere we went there was always a wait, or everything was booked, or the traffic was horrible. And, it rained practically the entire week! We had a mustang convertible that time and we got caught in a bunch of horrible down pours. Not this time. Early May is the time to visit Kaua'i that's for sure! We have been able to walk into any restaurant and not wait at all. Traffic has also been great. Oh, and the sun. The sun has been shining everyday! And it's been hot, but the good tropical hot!



This is the view from our condo.

Is this not the coolest view ever! I happen to think it is! After dropping off our things at the condo we headed to Costco to buy some stuff for the week. It's great to have a condo here because then we can make some meals instead of having to eat out everyday. After Costco we headed over to Big Save to pick up some stuff that we didn't need in Costco size! We keep calling Big Save 'Big Spend', because you sure aren't saving anything by shopping there. But it's near the condo so what are you going to do?!?!?!

That's really all we did on Sunday. Set up the condo, sit on our patio and just relax. Nothing too exciting. Oh, and as I'm blogging, the picture above is my view. That's what I look out and see. So if my blogs haven't been making sense, and there are misspelled words and bad grammar, it's because I'm not paying attention! I mean really, look at my view! Who can pay attention to anything else!! hahahaha

Talk to you all tomorrow!
Love,
Suzanne

The Reception

After Tracy and Jesse's beautiful wedding ceremony, all the guests headed over to another tower at the Hilton Hawaiian Village for the reception. The reception was going to be on the 25th floor and check out this view! The picture just doesn't do it justice! It was absolutely breath taking! It's almost a shame the reception was at 5pm because the guests only had an hour or so to enjoy it before it got dark. Nobody needed to look out at the view all night though, there was too much other stuff to do!

Next the wedding party entered, and then Tracy and Jesse had their first dance.

The speeches came next. Now, I public speak for a living so getting up in front of people is normally not an issue. But oh my goodness I was so nervous! My friend Wendy said she had never seen me so nervous to get up and speak in front of people! hahaha I only messed up once and I was in the home stretch, I'm so mad I messed up! I just got confused when I got to my final page and I thought it was the wrong page. Wendy video taped our speeches for us, so I will see if I can upload them to my blog.

After our speeches Tracy's dad came up and wanted to say a few words. I think Tracy was holding her breath the entire time! hahaha He was on his best behavior though and said some really nice things to Tracy and Jesse and all the guests!

Tracy hired a cake lady here on the island to make individual cakes for all the guests. She also had a small cake made for her and Jesse to cut as well. And he didn't shove cake in her face! Yeah Jesse!!! He gave the motion like he was going to and I kept thinking, she's going to kill him! hahaha

Tracy and Jesse were also able to have first dances with his mom and her dad. I guess though, neither Tracy or Jesse told their mom and dad that they would be dancing! hahaha They all did great though on last minute notice! Tracy's dad was trying to get her to do a waltz type move. She looked horrified since she didn't know what to do.....hhhmmm sounds awfully familiar to my dance with my father!



Now here are some random pictures from the night.

Well, that's all I'm going to post from the wedding. Of course we have a ton more pictures, so I'll have to have Lance put them on Flickr for everyone to check out! Tomorrow I will update with some Kaua'i pictures and stories. I've been blogging the last couple of days so make sure you read the posts below this one!

Love,
Suzanne

Tracy and Jesse's Wedding

After the rehearsal dinner on Friday night, Jared, Bindi, Tracy, Jesse, Lance and myself went back to Jared and Bindi's hotel room to devise a plan of how we wanted Saturday to go. Tracy didn't have a wedding planner, and she didn't need one, Bindi and I are going to go into the wedding planning business together! hahaha

We created a timeline and then hit the sack. We had a busy day ahead of us.

The next day, Tracy, Desiree and myself headed to the salon to get our hair and makeup done.

Here is the final product of the hair and makeup.

I loved the way our hair and makeup turned out. I seriously wish I could get my hair to look like this everyday! And when I win the lottery, I'm going to make that happen!! hahaha

After leaving the hair salon we headed over to Jared and Bindi's room to get ready. Jared and Bindi had the biggest room (even bigger than the bride and groom go figure! hahaha) with the most spectacular view! They were on floor 29 of 31. We were high!

Look at this calm bride, with her dorky bestman behind her!! Lance brought us pizza because I HAD to make sure she ate something! At 2 when I asked her when was the last time she had food and she said, "oh, well I had some breakfast this morning" I sent out the S.O.S. and Lance was there to save the day!

After getting Tracy in her dress we were off to the chapel since she was about to get married! Here we all are walking down the isle.

That's it for now. We had a long day lounging by the pool and then driving around Kaua'i in our topless jeep!!! AAAHHH the life! All that sun has made us nice and tan, but tired too! Tomorrow I will conclude with the reception!

Love,

Suzanne

Aloha

Hello everyone! We are in Kaua'i tonight after a very fun filled few days in Oahu for Tracy and Jesse's wedding. Sorry I haven't been able to update lately. When we finished our wedding, Tracy and I dove right into completing all the details for her wedding. I wanted to blog when we arrived in Oahu last Thursday, but Tracy and I were doing wedding stuff Thursday, Friday, then the wedding on Saturday. It was such a beautiful wedding! Tracy did a great job! Here are some pics from the wedding and reception.
Here we are on Friday for the rehearsal. It was so crazy to be standing there getting ready for the rehearsal and thinking, wow, ours was only 2 weeks ago!! This rehearsal was much less stressful though! At least for me. I don't know if I could say the same for Tracy! hahaha
Jared and I walking down the isle. We were both pros! He just got married on November 28th and I got married April 25th. The funny thing is Tracy and Jesse got engaged before both Jared and Bindi and myself and Lance. We all got things rolling unlike Tracy and Jesse who seemed were engaged for an eternity! ;-)

Lino and Desiree were the flower girl and ring bearer. They did awesome! During the rehearsal they were walking slightly fast down the isle, but during the ceremony they did great! It could be because every adult there kept telling them to slow down! Those poor kids probably wanted to crawl down the isle just so they wouldn't get in trouble for going too fast!


And here is the bride and her adorable father. He took pictures all the way down the isle. Don't worry we made sure he didn't have his camera on him for the actual ceremony!

And here is the bride and groom. The lighting in this chapel was horrible for taking pictures. As you can see there are windows everywhere which made it extremely difficult to get a good picture! Bindi was using Jared's million dollar camera and lens to shoot photos with and she had a difficult time. So Lance didn't stand a chance getting very good pics using our little digital camera. But you still get the idea!

Here is the ever so beautiful and handsome wedding party.

After the rehearsal everyone headed down the street to Cheeseburger Waikiki. Tracy and Jesse ended up getting us gifts for being their bestman and maid of honor. It was very nice of them and they got us great gifts! Tracy and Jesse got me a beautiful flower necklace that went so well with my dress for the wedding. It was the most perfect gift ever because I forgot to bring a necklace with me.

They got Jared a portfolio for all his pictures since I guess right now he has them in a binder. Thanks guys, I love my necklace and I know Jared loves his photo stuff!!!

Well that concludes Friday on Oahu. I'll post the wedding pictures tomorrow. I could post them tonight, but I want to drive my sister Cat crazy for just awhile longer since I know she really wants to see them! hahahaha Check back often I'll be a blogging fool for the next week since all I'm required to do this week is sit on the beach and drink some Malibu and pineapple!!!

Love,
Suzanne

We tied the knot!

A few days ago I started posting a recap of the few days before the wedding on the wedding blog. You can view that blog by clicking here. I will blog there during our honeymoon so check it out often! Just to keep you all on your feet, I might also post some blogs and pictures here too! hahahaha My life will be so much easier when I just have one blog! ;-)

Hopefully this weekend I will be able to post some wedding pics on the other blog. My new husband got the flu (hopefully not the swine flu! ;-) ) 2 days after we said I do. He's been sick ever since and I know we are both ready for him to start feeling better. I think he's just testing me to make sure I'll be a good wife. Hope I passed! hahahaha Thank goodness Lance wasn't sick during the wedding. This flu bug knocked him out for 3 solid days. He would have barely been able to stand up there to say "I do." And he never would have made it through the reception. Wouldn't that have just sucked! 

So, even though our first week of marriage has been filled with that sickness part we spoke about in our vows, I figure it's better to be sick now. After the wedding, but yet before our honeymoon! And you better believe I am SO ready for our honeymoon. Hawaii can't come soon enough!! We leave Thursday!!! YIPPEE!!!!!!!!

Love,

Suzanne