The Honeymoon

Rather than going on an extravagant trip, Jeff and I wanted to maximize our time with the family in town then have a little R&R before returning to work.

Our honeymoon started with a four day stay in Kailua. The Hansen Family treated us to a vacation rental in the sweet town of Kailua so we could all be together. There was also a swimming pool at the house!! We took different adventures during the day - we went to the Polynesian Cultural Center, watched a surfing contest, had some shave ice (Audrey had lellow, Evie had rainbow) and also spent some time at the local Kailua beach. We were even able to meet Aunty Mary and Mike for a yummy Thai lunch.

My favorite moments were tucking in my sweet nieces to bed and getting to participate in the nighttime ritual of talking about "the best things in the day" with Eva. The three of us also had a lot of fun covering Uncle Jeff's feet with sand!

Thank you Katy and Bryce for such a special time together!

After Kailua Jeff and I flew back to the Big Island and spent three nights at the Hilton Waikaloa- our home away from home! (we wish). We revisited the special spot that Jeff proposed and ate at all our favorite restaurants. It was a relaxing and indulgent time to enjoy each other, talk about the wedding and prepare for the transition back to real life.

Happy Birthday Eva!

Happy Birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy
birthday dear Eva, happy birthday to you!!

Congratulations on turning 5!! WOW! We are wishing you lots of chocolate ghosts, light brights, princesses and Dora type adventures on your special day.


We love you SOOOOOO much!!

xoxo Auntie Em & Uncle Jeff

The Day After

I'm trying to finish up the wedding posts...I suppose I've procrastinated to linger in this amazing time in my life. One thing I've forgotten to post about is the day after the wedding.

We started with meeting most of our out of town relatives for Brunch at the Rainbow Lanai room. It was a pretty tasty time, but the fun part was the amount of time we stayed just chatting with folks before they prepared for their flights.

I was doing okay with the first couple good-byes, but when it came to my BFF Laurie and her son Russel, I just lost it. It meant so much for her and her family to come out to Hawaii. This was her first trip since I've lived here and it tore my heart out that I couldn't spend more time with her. I have almost a whole file drawer full of the letters we've exchanged through the long history of our friendship. I hope you got to spend time with her at the wedding - she was the bridesmaid with the cute one-year-old who was wearing a tie t-shirt.

After brunch Jeff and I lingered in our Hilton room, then headed to Makakilo to open gifts with Jeff and his family, as well as some Carlsons and the Hansons! I was so happy that some of my family were able to get to know Jeff's side of the family a bit more. It was very Malate style - TONS of food, lots of welcoming...The aunties had decorated the house with all the left over flowers and garlands from the wedding. It was pretty festive.

Audrey and Eva invented a fun game with the money box that Katie made us. They used it as a house to put "chocolate ghosts" in (a silly game that originates from Halloween fun Evie and Auntie had a while ago). Yup, they were quite the goofy girls that night.

I was, to say the least, OVERWHELMED, by the generosity of the wedding gifts and envelopes. I think I was in shock by the end of the night. Thank goodness for Auntie Wilma keeping us organized and on task!

It was a super fun night. Sigh, the glory days...

Happy New Year!

Rain or shine (and this year it was close to a monsoon), Jeff loves his fireworks.

"Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each
new year find you a better man."

Benjamin Franklin

Happy New Year!!

Wishing you joy, health and lots of new adventures in 2009!

Malate Christmas Part 2

This was my first Christmas with the Malate's AS a Malate! Jeff and I both had to work the day after Christmas so we were unable to see fly to Oahu to see his family on Christmas. Our adventure began trying to fly out on Friday night in the middle of a monsoonish rain storm. We got drenched just running from the car to the airline ticket counter. We waited in line for 45 minutes to then learn (of course when we were at the ticket counter) that all the power was out on Oahu and no flights could land. So, we went home and did the whole thing once again the next morning...our suitcases still pretty damp.

We started the day at the infamous Anna Miller's. While Jeff hemmed and hawed at Best Buy contemplating the purchase of his next electronic toy, I did some quick shopping with my friend Katie (I love Forever 21 and I don't care if I'm 33!). Then we headed to Makakilo for a Christmas dinner with the family. Check out the spread.

Agnes even picked up some veggie dishes just for me!

The grandmas (ages 96 and 109) even joined us. They were eager to start eating...and ate a full plate of food!

We opened gifts and laughed as Mamang (age 96) consistently indicated she would like a photo of herself with EACH gift. I love her.


Nanang (Mrs. Malate) was of course thrilled with her red sweater set and did a little dance for us in the living room.

It's fun to start new traditions!

Our first Merry Married Christmas!

We are thinking of all our family and friends on this special day. It's been fun to talk about what kind of traditions that we want to carry on. We made my dad's squash soup, my grandmother's walnut bars, drove around looking at Christmas lights and are going to watch a movie today. Jeff loved his gifts from the in-laws. My mom gave him three bobble head Star Wars figurines and my sister sent him his new favoritest t-shirt ever (see below). Tomorrow night we are heading to Oahu for the Malate Christmas brunch! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Such a Perfect Day

Our super fab photographer put together a slideshow of our rehearsal dinner. Watching it reminds me of how happy I felt when I walked onto the rooftop and saw so many people I love. Truly such a beautiful day.

Just click on this link. Enjoy!