Year of the Rooster

Aloha!
I don't know where to begin with the crazy busy last few months we've had so I'll just dive right in...
With Christmas being both of our busiest time of year work wise, we made it a point this year to look at Christmas lights and get into the holiday spirit. Although, I will admit Christmas is still strange being celebrated when it's warm out- especially at church with the doors open during the service in the middle of December. We try every year to attend the Honolulu City Lights. It's a large outdoor lights display where the highlight of the display is shaka Santa and Auntie Claus. Different organizations from around Honolulu decorate their own Christmas trees which are displayed together for the public to enjoy. There is always a Leonard's malasada truck as well. Nothing better than a warm malasada while walking around enjoying the Christmas lights in 75 degree weather! Yep, we're going to miss this memory when we move back to Wisconsin.

Over New Years Mark's dad, Jeff and step mom, Cheryl visited Hawaii! This year we met them on Maui for a few days where they spent a week before visiting us on Oahu. We stayed at an awesome time share resort with a ocean and mountain view room. While we didn't make it to midnight this year (I think I was falling asleep on the couch at 10pm, lol) we had fun grilling out steaks and veggies before hand which was delicious! This was also about the time that we found out that we were having a baby BOY! We had a ton of fun sharing the big news with our family. We wanted to make a big presentation out of it but at the end of the day we were so excited to tell that we blurted it out to everyone without doing anything special, which we loved! :) While dad and Cheryl were here Mark took them to Snappers (the Wisconsin/Packer bar) and watched a Packer playoff win with them, which I heard was awesome! It's always so fun to have a tradition where family comes to visit us each year because we get to show them new things we've found on Oahu and get to discover new things and travel to other islands with them as well! It's always sad to see family leave after the vacation has ended, but we always feel thankful that we are able to make these crazy awesome memories with our family because our dream of living in Hawaii.

Chinese New Year (kung hei fat choi) was celebrated on January 28, 2017- year of the rooster. It's always fun around the islands to celebrate and see the traditional feeding of the lions! Lions are seen to be a sign of good luck and often during new year celebrations they are incorporated in the celebrating. This year we saw a bunch of events in Waikiki including a kung fu demonstration.

Here are a few more pictures from other fun things we've been up to the past few months!

Love, Mark, Jen, Caesar, Cleo and Baby C!

Viva 9th island!

Aloha!
Crazy to believe that we are in the final month of 2016! Sorry for the lack of blog entries lately we've had some pretty crazy news arrive in the past few months! Yep- we've having a baby! Whoohoo! We're really excited to at least for some part of baby's life to have him or her be able to enjoy living in Hawaii.

The past few months have been a blast and we finished the summer and fall off with a bang with a trip to Las Vegas to see Yellowcard in October! Oh Vegas! It had been to long since we were last in Vegas (April didn't count because we only had twelve hours as a layover) so it felt good to be back! We met some family there and had an awesome long weekend! One of our favorite things to do in Vegas is visit the Bellagio gardens. Bellagio is beautiful anyway but when you add in the beauty and scent of the flowers it seems magical. It was currently decorated for fall and it was memorizing walking through during the day and when it was illuminated at night as well! If you've never been, almost the entire garden is filled with fresh flower displays from floor to ceiling decorated depending what season it is! You tend to take it for granted after awhile forgetting that they are fresh flowers. We love Vegas because no matter how frequently you visit there always seems to be new hotels, shopping or attractions to check out.

One of the main reasons we made this trip to Vegas is because Mark and my favorite band for our entire relationship has been Yellowcard. Towards the end of the summer we found out that they are breaking up at the end of their final world tour. Honolulu at the time wasn't on their final tour so we decided we had to make the trip and what better excuse to go to Vegas! It just so happened the day after the Vegas show they announced a show in Honolulu, which is awesome! The show itself was so great- they played such a variety of songs; old, new, rarely played etc.

In September, we attended a UH- rainbow warrior game at Aloha stadium. This was only our second game, but just as fun as the first game we attended last season. After the game we went to a bowling alley to participate in a charity fundraiser for kids that Mark's work sponsored. It was a blast!

This past fall the TV show Hawaii 5-0 got renewed for another season. We went to the premiere the first year we lived here, which they do on the beach. But didn't go last year, and didn't plan to go this year until I found out that Darius Rucker was doing a free mini concert before the live screening of the first episode. Mark and I took a uber to Waikiki and got decent views of the stage. It was pretty awesome so see a live concert on the beach- plus it was free! 

Here's some random pictures from the last few months...

Next time on our blog we will show all the fun Christmas celebrations going on in Hawaii the month of December. Merry Christmas!

Love,

Mark, Jen, and baby C!