Waage's in Hawaii...Round 2

My sister and brother (brother-in-law but I don't believe in the word "in-laws")came for one last weekend of debauchery before Nic and I move home. They came for a visit back in January but were strapped to two kids both under the age of 3 wich kept us from letting it all go.



We hit the ground running the minute we picked them up from the airport and headed to one of our sacred beaches on the North Shore. Nic made us a pitcher of mojitos while Trevor quickly began applying his 100 proof sunblock. (This is the same guy that got a sunburn on his arm last time he was here while driving in the car with the windows rolled up).


It was so good to hang out with them and show them our underground scene here. Definitely made some memories that will last us a life time. I will the pictures fill in the rest of the weekend.

Oh, and I am pretty sure we should take THIS on tour..

Life's 4'x4'x6' Box.

It has been exactly two months since my last posting. Does anyone even read this anymore? In two months A LOT has happened. But before I begin let me acknowledge that today is also Nic and I's 1 year anniversary! This is definitely a banner year for us with all of life's changes, obstacles and journeys. Through everything I still have the biggest crush on my husband. God I love him.

Okay,I am no longer going to skirt around this topic. As most of you know we are moving back to Portland. There. I said it. Much like the move to Hawaii it was a bitter sweet decision. Rather than listing all of the reasons of why we have decided to move back I am going to save my words on what I am looking forward to in our next chapter...blond bobby pins. I will no longer have to have them imported. Also, I can't wait to built my roots as team Yannariello (or as Shannon would say Yannapiealyonarelmouoeno). I am ready.

When we moved to Hawaii we fit all of our possessions into a 20' container and shipped it here. Now, our life's possessions fit into a 4'x4'x6' box. I feel like we barely have an identity anymore. I will say that half of that box is filled with my burlesque costumes and shoes. There are just some things a girl can't let go of. One of the things I am excited about is to start our collection of life's treasures but to do it together. Whether it be memories, furniture or recipes to success I am looking forward to building this collection with him.

Mainland vs. Island

Although living on an island in the middle of the Pacific is super exotic, there are many things, simple things, that this place is lacking or just doesn't have because it is an island and I truly miss.Here are a few (not in order of importance):

- Neighborhoods
- Mexican food
- Cafes , even just coffee stands
- Outdoor seating at restaurants (why Hawaii doesn't have outdoor seating is their restaurants is beyond me. Hello???)
- Billboards (there is literally no advertising here)
- White people
- Not even a good, but just a decent pizza parlor
- Pubs or good dive bars (we have none)
- Trains
- Bridges
- Recycling (this one is really annoying)
- Self check-out stands
- Trader Joe's (it's funny to me that the clerks at Trader Joe's are forced to wear Aloha shirts but there isn't even a Trader Joe's in Hawaii. I don't get it).

I guess I can't fault this place too much because we really are in the middle of nowhere. Sometimes I like to look on the map and remind myself how far away from home I really am.


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Koko Head

There are no shortage of places to hike here in Hawaii. When Nic and I first arrived here we spotted this trail on a crater that literally went strait up. We zoomed in and noticed that there were actually people hiking it. The first thing that came out of Nic's mouth was "OH, HELL NO!". I secretly thought to myself that I want to challenge this some day.

Well, I did. Nic has been in Portland taking care of a little business and I figured it would be the perfect opportunity to take on Koko Head. I heard a lot of people do it, and a lot of them do it multiple times per week so I thought what's the big deal. It can't be that hard. Plus, I have been running a lot of stairs so I should be totally conditioned for this. Umm, no. It was brutal. I even witnessed a grown man crying on the trail.



The trail is literally made up of an old railroad track that goes straight up the crater that was used back in the day for something important. Now, it acts as your only lifeline between you and death. There literally is one section of the trail that is just a bridge made out of this track and you have to tip toe your way across in effort not to fall off. You're tired, dizzy and weak and now you have to tightrope walk this bridge? Sounds safe. Not to mention that there is a shooting range below so the entire time you hear gun fire going off. I remember thinking at one point "Please, shoot me. Please shoot me."

Wet n' Wild

Forgive us visitors for we have sinned. On Thursday Nic and I decided to hit the water park that we have been tempted to go to since we moved here. I feared it would be nothing but a bunch of dirty diapers and screaming kids but boy was I wrong. It was AWESOME! So awesome that we got a season pass to it. We wish we would have discovered this sooner so we could have brought our guests here.














Also, we played it smart and tail gated it before we went with some Crown & Coke.














Sorry kid, maybe next year you can ride on the big kid rides and tail gate with us.

Cougar Cruise 2010

So last month my mom and her best friend, Barbie, called me up rather intoxicated threatening that the two of them were going to come to Hawaii to visit. I went along with it over phone thinking that by time their Crown Royal had worn off they would get cold feet. Well guess what...the Crown Royal never wore off and the two of them came to visit us for a week! The four of us had a blast and Nic looked like a pimp with his two cougars and puma.

We tried to keep the agenda simple as they wanted to just learn about our life here. Well...as you know Nic and I have major A.D.D. so keeping anything SIMPLE is foreign to us. Our week ended up being full of fun events, play and laughter. I have learned too that it is always nice to have your mom(s) visit. Somehow the dishes and laundry magically get done and you know you will never go without a meal.



p.s. Uncle Greg, your wife is a horrible bowler.

Honeymooners

Yet again another leap of absence from blogging which usually means more time spent at the office than I like. I have been taking on some design projects outside of my daily grind in the showroom which have been super fun, but I find myself now working at least 6-7 days a week. My tan is suffering severely and my workouts have resulted into a 10 min. jump roping session. In the midst of all of it Mark and Deb (Nic's sister and newly awesome husband) were here visiting us for the past couple weeks. In the few short hours I had to spend with them we had a blast! One of the beauties about people visiting you is that you really get time do know one another, even if it is just over making scrambled eggs together in the morning before work.

Our favorite day together was spend in Kailua which is our favorite town in Oahu. We started off boogie boarding at the beach.







And then we realized we needed a Coor's light while boogie boarding. Just about the time we cracked the can, a large "sneaker wave" attacked us and we lost our beer.



I had to peel off for a 2 o'clock meeting but that didn't keep us from partying later on. We wrapped up the evening back in Kailua at our favorite dive bar "The Palace" where is was fist discovered on Tracy and Trevor's visit. Conveniently they were singing Karaoke that night and so Nic of course did a few numbers. The crowd at the bar loved his singing so much that they continued to buy us another round if Nic would stay and keep singing. I finally got up there and did a number and then after that they made me pay for my drink.