planes

Today Rob, Christian, and Papa had a boys' afternoon out. They went to see the movie, "Planes." Naturally.

I was very curious to know how Christian would do sitting through his very first movie at the theater, or if he would sit through it AT ALL. A few hours later I received this text from Rob: Movie was really good! CRM did great, watched the whole movie. Ate a bunch of popcorn, drank papa's fanta.

Well, there you go. Christian's first trip to the movie was a huge success.*

I'd also like to add that right now Christian has his big plastic Dusty Crophopper toy in a headlock, while sleeping. 

*Notice the t-shirt change. Papa's Fanta. 

our day in LA

It.was.AWESOME!

We spent the day in LA with friends celebrating the first birthday of their daughter, Kira. It was just so perfect, and it did actually make me miss living here, and obviously, our friends here. I will just say that the group of friends we saw today have a very special place in our hearts. We met (and reconnected with) them at a time in our lives when God knew we needed them. We were in this holding pattern (pun intended) in our lives, and I was very antsy to leave Los Angeles and move on with life ... and then we met them (and reconnected with another couple we had met several months prior). They reminded us that we were exactly where we needed to be. Not through words, or actions necessarily, but mostly just by being the amazing, awesome people that they are. They are an important part of our testimony as husband and wife to how great our God is, through all that we have been through.

So we most definitely wanted to be a part of Kira's Winter ONEderland birthday celebration!

Today we started our morning out with free hotel breakfast. First let me say, Christian loves everything about what is happening right now. I don't know how much he fully grasps, but he knows he's having a good time, and that Mama and Dada are excited. The hotel has a glass elevator that looks into the courtyard, need I say more? Christian is just taking it all in. He loves running around the hotel room, looking out our window at all the trucks and busses going down the street, and obviously, riding the elevator. Endless entertainment. 

Yes, that's him wielding the remote control. OF COURSE, I wiped it down and sanitized it as best I could. Because gross. 

After breakfast and other morning shenanigans, Duke picked us up and we headed to the birthday girl's house. New toys! New toys! New toys! And a tent from Ikea that we HAVE TO HAVE. Around noon we went to the park - the event of the birthday party. There was a playscape, swings, LOTS of kiddos, a hot chocolate bar, and yummy food... Christian had his first taste of a "brownie bite." I'm not sure exactly what he was thinking, but something along the lines of WHY HAVE THEY BEEN HOLDING OUT ON ME? It was just a phenomenal afternoon catching up with friends, hearing about their new adventures, and meeting new babies! 

Christian totally pooped out ...at the party. 

And then woke up screaming about 30 minutes later with a leaking diaper. We hoofed it back to Duke and Liisa's house and threw his clothes in the dryer while he played with all of Kira's toys. Everyone returned the house shortly thereafter and relaxed until heading back out to visit their community's own Winter Wonderland. There was fake snow (which we figured out to be soap...?), a green screen photo op, dancing, food trucks, coffee, and lots more kiddos. 

{the dads}

{the moms. ps - Kira & her glasses kill me!}

{baby loves}

And yeah... that about sums up the rest of the evening. 

Wow. We had so much fun and will definitely be planning more trips to the west coast. And I do really wish we could have seen more friends, but our time was so limited here. But like I said, we'll definitely be back and we won't wait an entire year next time! 

happy fall!

Today is November 1st, and I can say, it officially feels like Fall here in Hawaii. How is that possible you may ask? I don't know, to be honest. There is a chill in the air (that I'm sure will be gone by noon), and it smells like Fall. You know that smell?? We get it here too! It felt wonderful to snuggle up under the covers, and I just wanted to lay in bed all morning. Christian obviously didn't feel the same way. When I got up I immediately had to put on a sweatshirt and socks. Ok, so maybe living in Hawaii makes you soft. I was cold. But I just checked the temp outside... AccuWeather.com says it's 78 degrees. I call shenanigans. It was definitely colder this morning. Maybe 72. Oh, and we're roasting pumpkin seeds at this very moment.

Anyway, we have spent the past week carving pumpkins and getting ready for Halloween.

And here are the finished products.

Carving the Hawaiian Islands was a bit harder than I originally expected. On my first try (the other side of the pumpkin) I totally messed it up. The islands were in a straight line... and there was just no way I was going to set it out. Rob told me afterward that he was glad I fixed it. Well thanks. :) But seriously, it was pretty bad. 

Last night was the Annual Pirl Halloween Bash, and since we live in their house... we were invited. :)

Rob and I decided to be "punk rockers" and Christian was our pet monkey. The cutest darn pet monkey I've ever seen!!!

I would say that the picture above, the one that's all a blur, but you can clearly tell Christian is having THE TIME OF HIS LIFE, pretty much sums up our Halloween evening. Christian had a ball. He is such a social butterfly. He danced, ran around giggling, followed the big kids, and of course loved on Daisy (the Beagle) as much as possible. He also stayed up way past his bedtime. It got to the point that I think he was running in circles, knowing if he stopped, he'd crash and fall asleep immediately. Delirium.

And for the first time in my life/his life, Christian expressed sheer terror... at our landlord dressed as a clown. Yep, he is my child. I hate clowns... and now I'm pretty sure Christian does too. Forever. Creepy things.

BUT... now that Halloween is over... it's time to start decorating for Christmas!!! 

fifty shades of i don't think so...

Everyone, and I mean everyone, is talking about this series of books. Um... well. Maybe I'm a prude or something, but I have like negative zero interest in reading it. So, when someone posts on Facebook or talks about the book "Fifty Shades of Grey," I can't help but think of this SNL skit, and then laugh. And cringe.


Saturday Night Live - Fifty Shades of Grey by BigBlueBruiser

year of the dragon

Tomorrow is the start of the Chinese New Year  - the Year of the Dragon. To celebrate, we walked to Chinatown to check out the festivities yesterday. It happened to be the last day of a month long series of celebrations, so it was a bit scaled down compared to when we went last year. Last year several street blocks were closed and vendors were shoulder to shoulder. There were still a lot of people, food, and vendors, but it was mostly all kept within the Chinatown Cultural Plaza.

Christian was completely enthralled with everything going on around him. Flags in the wind, lion dancing, beating drums, firecrackers. It was total stimulation overload. But it was a fantastic afternoon with friends and family! It really reminds me that this is what life is all about. Surrounding yourself with the people you love and care about. Of course we had to complete the evening with Chinese takeout for dinner from a tiny little place we've walked by a hundred times. It was delicious! Yes, I said delicious. No really, best orange chicken I've ever had. And what evening isn't completely without a game of Hawaiian Rummy?

Finnair Flashmob

I nominate my bestie Billy to head up the first ever Alaska Airlines flight attendant flashmob!

Addiction

Rob has never jumped on the Facebook bandwagon, and a lot of times, I wish I hadn't either. He accurately describes it as a "time suck." It's so true though! I easily get so sucked into reading the "news feed," clicking through pictures, refreshing to make sure I haven't missed anything new, but when I really think about it... there are very few people I'm actually real-life friends with on there. Most of them are acquaintances (last time we talked was in 6th grade...uh...) and most of them are hidden from my newsfeed, because I just don't care what they have to say. (Last time I checked, I had about 40 people hidden). But I feel bad for just outright un-friending them. And then I think, do people really care what I have to say? Probably not.

But regardless, it's like an addiction... and as silly as it sounds, I'm actually a little worried about how I'm going to do this. One of my best friends jumped off the Facebook bandwagon and at first I thought, "what the hell?" And then begged him to come back! But in reality, I was envious! "I wish I could just quit Facebook..." Well, I am. For one week. Just one little teeny tiny week. And then I'll reevaluate.

Distant Relatives

This show could NOT have been any more awesome. Everything was right. The venue, the opening band, the weather, the fact that it was in Hawaii, the energy. Everything.

The venue: Kaka'ako Beach Park Amphitheater. It's all lawn seating and the city views are spectacular. Turn around and there's the ocean.

The opening act: A very popular local Hawaiian band called The Green. They have lots of music all over the radio here - island reggae. They got the energy up and it's safe to say that most locals know their music well.

The weather: Ummmmm... well... yeah. It was 80 degrees at sunset. We did get a little sprinkle, from the one cloud in the whole sky. But it only lasted about 10 minutes. Other than that, the sky was clear and it probably cooled down to low 70s. (It's really common for it to rain here while the sun is shining - or the rest of the sky is clear - hence, RAINBOWS!)

The energy: Hip hop and reggae. Nas performed a lot of his old stuff. "If I Ruled the World," anyone? And Damian also performed a lot of songs from his "Welcome to Jamrock" album, which I LOVE. And another personal favorite, which is actually one of Bob's songs, "One Cup of Coffee." And of course, they performed many of the songs they did together on their "Distant Relatives" album. Most people were up on their feet dancing and others just chillin' on the lawn. I'd say we were a mix of both. It was fun to get up and dance around, but my pregnant self needed to sit down some too. And you HAVE to love the two women on backup vocals and dancing their ASSES off. Damian says, "You want to see energy...??!!" And points to them dancing with every ounce of soul in their body. Energy, indeed. Oh, and the guy who danced around the stage waving a huge Rasta flag the ENTIRE concert. He must have great arms.

If I didn't have to work tomorrow morning, I'd fly to Maui just to see them perform tonight. Honestly.

And just a little trivia, in case you didn't know; Damian is Bob's youngest son. And he has dreads to the floor. Yes, the FLOOR.

One Love.

Movie Marathon Saturday

Yep. Today I did absolutely NOTHING. Well, except watch movies that is! Between all the "lovey" movies on TV (for Valentine's day, I guess?) and free streaming movies on Netflix, I was all set for a relaxing day of doing nada. Ok, I take that back, I did do a few loads of laundry between movies, bought Rob's Valentine's day present (funny enough, we were going to get each other the same thing... good thing we figured it out!) and managed to eat a whole can of Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls. McFatty deliciousness!

I guess technically my movie marathon Saturday started last night with "You Again." Totally cheesy and cute. I love Sarah Marshall... Veronica Mars... Gossip Girl... damn, what is her name??? KRISTEN BELL!

Today I started with "Stop-Loss" - nothing like an emotional war movie at 10 in the morning. After that I vowed it would be nothing but cheese for the rest of the day.

Therefore, I watched "StarStruck" - a Disney movie, and it was total cheese. It was about a girl who accidentally meets a big singer who strongly resembles Justin Bieber while on family vacation in LA. Of course he falls for her because she's "normal" and he sings to her and stuff and she's totally unimpressed. (On a side note: I LOVE when movies are filmed in and take place in LA. But I get it. I know the "general" population doesn't know when you leave Malibu, you don't turn on Vista Del Mar and end up in Playa Del Rey. But I do because I lived in Playa Del Rey, just off Vista Del Mar, and I know that Malibu is probably a solid 45 minute drive away WITHOUT traffic... or that the Hollywood sign is not visible 30 feet behind you on a cliff on the beach. It's not even CLOSE to the beach. I digress.)

Before I started watching that though, I tried to watch "High School Musical." I made it less than 15 minutes before I couldn't take it anymore. So after "StarStruck," I tried AGAIN, and fell asleep. When I woke up "The Notebook" was on, so I caught the end of it. Mix in a few bits of "Pride & Prejudice" rounded out with "The Breakup," I'd say my lazy Saturday was a success! 

Shows We're Into

Lately I find myself LOVING a TV show that I used to hate. Well, not hate, but I thought it was dumb and just wouldn't watch it. A non-issue really. Anyway, I don't know if it's because I live in their general prime filming location (sort of...) or that it's just a really interesting show, but I can't get enough of it! And I say sort of because we do NOT live where they are hunting most of these bail jumpers. PS - My favorite is Leland, all the way on the right.

And my latest guilty pleasure is Storage Wars - I happened to catch it because it came on right after Dog. Told the husband about it, watched it, and yep, we're into it. The premise is they're opening up storage units from people that haven't paid, abandoned them? I don't know... but either way, their forgotten stuff is going up for auction. There's the same set of core people that run various antiques/thrift type shops that bid on the stuff inside. The catch is they're not allowed to actually go inside the unit until AFTER they win the bid. So it's kind of a crapshoot for them and it is pretty interesting to eventually see what's inside! 

There's Riff-Raff in the Riff-Raff Room!

There's Riff-Raff in the Riff-Raff Room! - The Ellen DeGeneres Show

So, here's my 5 seconds of fame...I'm in the purple dress. I do think they showed us with the final product as well, because my aunt made mention of it this morning. What's funny about that man is that I saw him back there and was thinking, "he looks a little out of place...umm..." But when you live in LA, anything goes, so it really wouldn't have surprised me if they told us he was the head designer for Levi jeans. Ha!

Update:

Here's a screenshot from the show! There's me and Leah!

I went to Ellen!

Ok, so my friend Leah invited me to go to The Ellen Show with her... I was so stoked because it's damn near impossible to get tickets to see Ellen! Well, we had standby tickets, so I never actually got into the audience, BUT I think what ended up happening was MUCH better. We were waiting out in the hallway and were approached by two people working on/with Ellen's show. They asked if we'd like to model/get fitted for jeans. Hmm... think about it think about it think about it... YES!

So they bring us to the back as everyone else waiting to go in the backstage/holding room (?) throw us daggers with their eyes. No worries, they came back their too. They had the whole back room set-up with Levis EVERYTHING. We got fitted for jeans, got filmed being measured, tried on a few pairs, got to keep TWO pairs, and then went back to the platform to show (while being filmed) the "finished product." Since I wore a dress, they gave me an Ellen tank top... and THEN gave me another super cute Levis' top. The gal leading us through made it sound like we'll be on the show tomorrow... now, we didn't actually walk out there and model the jeans (there were actual models that did that... they're all so skinny... sigh...) but we were filmed in our new jeans! So I guess I'll see tomorrow if I made the cut!

And oh, we still got to watch the show, just on jumbo TVs... I could see in the actual area where they were filming a little bit, it was just up the stairs. But seriously, I got to watch the show and (kinda) participate. It was a lot of fun! And bonus: once they were finished taping, we got to leave because we had all our stuff! But the audience (200+ people) had to stay behind and get fitted for their jeans. And I'm not sure where they were going to do that, because it was 108 degrees outside.

In all seriousness, it was really generous for them to give away SO much stuff! I left with two new tops and two new pairs of jeans! Rock on!

eat pray love

For a while there, it seemed like this was the only book passengers were reading. Usually a good sign when you're looking for something new to read! However, when I asked how it was, I always got the "eh..." response, so I just let this one go.

But tonight my husband and I had an impromptu date night - chicken wings and a movie! He let me pick the movie and "Eat Pray Love" was the winner. I really liked the movie, although it just reinforces the "me" mentality. It's all about me, me, me - we're all so darn narcissistic. "I'm unhappy in my marriage, let's get divorced, I need to find myself... wah wah wah." Don't get me wrong, I'm all about soul searching and finding the purpose of your life, and I'm *trying* to do that myself, but whatever. I liked the movie, and it basically sums up what I already knew: I really want to go to Indonesia and Italy, and not so much India. It is what it is. 

Yeah, so what?

I wanna see this...!



Cher is so FIERCE!

Everything's Amazing & Nobody's Happy

"Here's the story... of a lovely lady..."

In case you were wondering, that is Barry Williams, aka Greg Brady, and he is a regular. He is ridiculously nice!! Only charged me .15 cents for this photo! (He kids!) I want to set him up with my Mom. Seriously. Mom - YOU HAVE TO MOVE TO CALIFORNIA FIRST! :)

(Don't mind the horrible picture of myself. I'm not sure why I thought "hat hair" would be a good look.)

That water is cold, you know...

So I was watching "Weeds" today and was kinda stoked to see this chick (extra) in the background walking to the beach with her surfboard. I totally have one just like it! Well, by just I mean, the same "brand"- blue. I bought it in Santa Barbara a few years ago when I wanted to go to a shorter board. I mainly ride my 9' longboard, named Stella, that I bought in Florida and will never get rid of. I love it and I love to longboard. I also used to have a 7'8" that I liked, but ultimately sold. As for Rob, different story, I honestly don't even know how many he has now. I do know that two boards are currently in four pieces. Ouch. But anyway, my "blue" is 6'6" and red. Oh, just one other question... where the HELL is her wetsuit???