14K 'Til Bottom

Nic and I have always wanted to go sky diving so, we went! It's kind of like one of those things where if you over analyze it you are sure to talk yourself out of it. Especially when it comes to deciding whether or not to jump out of a plane at 14,000 feet.

A group of friends from work put together a jump on Friday morning. We were all virgin jumpers which made it a perfect opportunity for us to go. We hit Dillingham air field up at the North Shore about 8 am that morning. By 8:30 we were climbing an altitude of 14,000 feet with some random dude strapped to the back of us that is supposed to prevent us from not becoming scrabbled eggs once we hit bottom. I guess there is no much to debrief you on. You either live, or you don't.

After we reached 14,000 feet we inched our way to the edge of the plane. Then...JUMP! It was about 72 seconds of free fall with no chute. Probably the greatest 72 second rush I have ever had. It was amazing and something that I can't even describe. After 72 seconds the chute opened and we sailed down for about 6 min. I remember my instructor saying to me after the parachute opened, "We lived!." I thought, "Oh, good."

Home Sweet Home Chapter II

Let me begin by apologizing for leaving you hanging for so long with chapter II to my PDX visit. Taking any type of vacation always means the week following is endless hours of catch up and organization. Plus, I wanted to make sure everyone got a chance to see my dad master "the dance."
Thursday night was reserved for HT (Hawthorne Theatre). I told Nic that when we were home I wanted to see a show in our old sanctuary. It just so happened to be the Supersucker's which is one of Noodle's favorite bands. Well, we didn't quite make it to the show but we did however make sure we had a quick photo shoot in the green room. (sorry Eddie we drank your booze and ate your hummus).The next morning we headed off to Cannon Beach for a weekend of "I do's", dancing, drinking and fun. Weddings never get old, especially when you get have your family and best friends under one roof. I wish Deb would get married more often. Also, I wish Trevor would have gotten the large beer.

Something tells me the next family wedding might be for Larry and Jerry.








Or maybe Nic and Trevor....








Or maybe Tray and Shan...

Home Sweet Home Chapter I

Nic and I went back to PDX for 5 days for his sister's wedding. It was my first trip back since I have moved to the island. I was excited to go and plug back into my old life, which I miss dearly. We took the red eye out of HNL Tuesday night and landed in PDX about 7am the next morning. From that moment on it was the Amazing Race to see how many friends and events we could pack into the next 5 days which is why I am going to have to break this post down by chapters.

On Wednesday afternoon I made a visit to my old work. It was great to see the faces that I used to spend 70% of days with. I also payed a visit to Shannon's new fancy office which just so happens to be about 5 blocks from my old work. (That would have been dangerous.) After making my downtown rounds I kid napped Henry for a sleepover and doggy date.

Okay, here's where it gets good. On Wednesday we had family dinner and my parents threw me a belated birthday party. For those of you who have ever joined us for family dinner you know that we aren't talking casseroles and grace. We're talking a guaranteed hangover the next day. At one point Phyl and I decided to master a circus move that we planned on performing at Deb's wedding:

Nic and Dad decided to compose a song for the wedding:



And I think I captured the world's best Yahtzee dance:

Another Year Older

Turning 30 was not hard but turning 31, well, let's just say I'm officially starting to feel the wonderful changes that getting older brings you. My boobs are growing down instead of out, each day I feel like I have to ad 10 more minutes to my workout, and now I have to moisturize every night before I go to bed otherwise I wake up looking like dried fruit. Aside from all this though it did not prevent me from having a great birthday.

We turned the heat up in Honolulu Thursday night. Nic has a standing gig at Indigo every Thursday night where he sings and dj's in their green room. We rallied together a bunch of our friends who all met us there. Nic sang well but what he was spinning for the night was off the hook. We had the whole bar dancing until close. It was so fun. The bar staff there takes VERY good care of us so needless to say we put down a few cocktails. My favorite martini they have is a Saketini which is Sake and Vodka shaken with ginger and cucumber. I think I had so many of them that I was speaking Japanese by the end of the night.