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.

The Garden Isle

As an early birthday present Nic surprised me with a trip to Kauai. I have heard many people say that this is the most beautiful island and sure enough, it was breath taking. Every corner you turned around felt like you were looking at a Walgreen's puzzle. Also John I think this is your island as there were chickens everywhere! Beautiful ones. We stayed at a fancy resort called Kauai Beach Resort complete with a breathtaking view of the ocean, 4 pools and oh yes, a water slide. We pretty much had the entire resort to ourselves so we made good use of the amenities.
Our first day was spent doing what we do best...drinking by the pool and rolling the dice. Ironically the only other couple at the pool that day ended being a couple from Gladstone, Or. Go figure. (They were Korean of course). On day two we rented a car and explored the island. I love doing this with Nic and we have a good system down. We always rent a Seabring convertible (b/c it screams sophisticated couple) plug in our ipod, drop the top and off we go exploring. We found so many great nooks and crannies, caves, private beaches and great food. We have decided that Kauai is our new Eaglecrest.

That's Odd

Hawaii might be considered paradise but let me tell you, there are some odd things about it. So many that I think they are worth sharing so I have decided to create a series of posts called "That's Odd." My best friend has a series called Wordless Wednesday and I love it so this will be kind of an offshoot of that, just not at consistent.

My first one is one of my favorites. Tan mannequins.














Bicycle helmets.

Valentine's Surprise

This is a simple post but one worth sharing. Plus, it's about how awesome my husband is and I don't think I express that enough.

We both have never really been one to celebrate Valentine's Day but this year I was feeling extra guilty because I had to work so I went ahead and made us dinner reservations at one of the top Italian restaurants here. (he's a Guido after all). Done. Valentine's Day, check!

During that day I was explaining to someone how I don't think I have ever received flowers from Nic. Not that he doesn't do nice things for me all the time (like cook me every meal) but flowers have never really been his thing with me. To my surprise he picked me up from work with a dozen roses in hand! We had some time to kill before dinner which I figured we would just go grab a drink somewhere before hand. He ended up taking me down to the beach where we watched the sunset together and drank champagne. It was perfect! And if that wasn't enough he then surprised me with an early birthday gift which was two tickets to Kauai! Needless to say my lame attempt at Valentine's which was making dinner reservations looked pathetic.

The Clampets come to Hawaii

Last week my family came to visit. We used to have a small family but of course due to marriages and babies we now have a good size squad. My parents rented a beautiful house in Kailua just yards away from where Obama stayed with his family over the holidays (which is I'm pretty sure why my dad elected to stay at this house). Our week together was simple and we spent most of our time hanging out, playing on the beach, chair bowling and of course...Yahtzee. Being the eco-friendly family that we are we always recycle old score cards and it only seemed appropriate that we would give my mom the scorecard that read "Dickcheese." She won of course.

On Monday we took a family trip to Pearl Harbor to visit the Arizona memorial and the Missouri battleship. Man, I thought I had big guns. It was incredible! It was fun to experience it with my dad as he loves history just about as much as he loves a cold Mirror Pond on the Deschutes River, which is A LOT.

Tracy and Trevor took a night off from parenting and the four of us hit the town where we showed them some of our favorite hangout spots in downtown and Waikiki. We wrapped up the evening at a local bar back in Kailua called "The Palace" where Tray rocked some Meatloaf on the jukebox and we shot a round of pool. (yeah, she loves Meatloaf...weird).

Nic and I also had a blast hanging out with our nephews, Thatcher and Tristan. Tristan is now speaking so well and he cracks me up every day. My new title is Uncle Kim. I must be my size 12 shoe that throws him off, or maybe that I am taller than his dad. As long as he says Kim I'll take it.

The hardest part of course was saying goodbye. I wasn't expecting to cry but I balled like a baby when I had to drop them off at the airport. If there is one thing I have learned by living here is how special our family is to us. If only Portland had more Asians we might consider moving back home.