A whole year! *Part 2*

I know that everyone is posting something to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the attack at the World Trade Center (as well as the Pentagon and the site of the crash in that Pennsylvania field), so I will say a few words. The event itself still gets me upset, and I wanted to do something to help remember the victims, so I volunteered for the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers 5k this morning, which honors the bravery of Mr Siller, a NY Firefighter who ran (in full gear) from the Brooklyn Tunnel to the world trade center to help out his fellow brothers and sisters at ground zero. He had to run from the tunnel because the traffic was at a standstill and he was originally on his way home from his overnight shift when the call came in about the planes hitting the towers. Mr Siller perished on 9/11, as did many of his brothers and sisters in the department. This race is celebrated all over the country, benefitting families of our servicemen and women and firefighters/police/EMT's, and I thought it was fitting to volunteer for such an amazing cause! I had a wonderful time taking pictures and cheering people on!! I will have more on that event tomorrow!

Now, without further ado.....
*This post is continued from yesterday*

Ahh, where did I leave off?? Oh yes, I remember! I finished up the major photographed events up until the end of August, and I was going to add random pictures of things we have done throughout our first year here.

The pictures from the first few days of September can be found in my recent posts! :)


Lets see.....Kevin had never went snorkeling before we arrived here and I was excited to show him how fun it was! Unfortunately, the first snorkel gear that we bought was defective, so our first first trip out snorkeling ended in an epic fail (This was at Hanauma Bay). Thankfully, we ended up purchasing some really great equipment later, and now he really loves snorkeling!

Not the best pic, but it was his first time! :)

Being the rock climbing enthusiast that he is, Kevin quickly made some friends in the jeeping world, and soon after we got here, we went rock climbing in the mountains!

Here's Betty Jeep at a place called Peacock Flats

We also made a vow to be more outdoorsy, since Hawaiis climate allows us to be outside year round! We made another trip up to Peacock Flats--not to rock climb, but to camp!!

The views were amazing!

Here are some more awesome things we have done!
Right after we arrived here, we made it a point to visit Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona Memorial

 We sampled some more beaches!

Sunset Beach--the North Shore

Bellows beach, near Waimanalo state park

 We visited Dole Plantation, which is right up the road from where we live!

Goofing off in the giant maze

No trip to Dole Plantation would be complete without Dole Whip, a yummy pineapple ice cream treat!

 We (well I) grab some delicious shave ice (a local favorite here!) every time we go up to the north shore!

The best place on the whole island to get shave ice!!!

We visited a real Buddhist temple

We have also gone on several hiking adventures!!

This was our most recent hiking adventure up the Diamond Head crater!

 While here, I have developed an unhealthy obsession with taking photos of the local flowers!

 Yeah, those were just a few. I have a flower picture taking problem. Kevin will agree lol

We have also eaten at the famous Haleiwa (North Shore) Shrimp Trucks! They have delicious food, by the way!!

We (well I, again lol) have sampled some of the popular local mix drinks :)

Mai Tais and College football--can it get any better??

Speaking of college football, another big adjustment for us was getting used to the fact that college football comes on as early as 6am here!!! Eep!!
So those are just a few of the little adventures we have gotten into since arriving on island. We are hoping to do alot more here this coming year :)

Tomorrow, I will be posting pictures from the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers 5K that we did today. I took a ton of pictures, and I have to go through them all! Kevin did great though!! He did the run in 30 minutes, which is great for his first time out jogging since the surgery. Way to go, love!!!
I will also be heading back to the gym tomorrow morning (to work off all of the calories I consumed this weekend--I'm not proud of the amount of little debbie snack cakes I ate). See yall tomorrow!!!

A whole year! *Part1*

*Because I have so many pictures I want to share, I will be breaking this post up into two parts, one today and one tomorrow!*

Yesterday marked one full year that we have been in the land of aloha! It has flown by, and so much has happened since we stepped off the plane. I decided to share our first year here in a few pictures, starting from day one :)

Goodbye, Virginia!!

Goofing off on the plane

I'm still mad this came out blurry. This is what we saw after we got off the plane

The nerd that I am, I snapped the first picture I could when we got outside

Goofing off in the hotel pool on our first full day here

The very first view we got of Hawaiian waters :)

Our first Waikiki sunset...beautiful!

Our next big adventure was getting a house to live in!!! We moved in almost exactly a month after we arrived here



I'm still in love with our house :)

 I also celebrated my 30th birthday here in Hawaii. Kevin took me to a luau!!!                                         

{a picture of a picture lol }

We took in our first Pro Surfing contest!

We also celebrated our first Thanksgiving and first Christmas not only in Hawaii, but as a married couple!

"Hank" the turkey...he was goooooooood!

Mele Kalikimaka from the Buzuleciu's!!

the babies being good and napping under the tree :)

 That brings us to 2011-- we started the year off right by exploring new beaches.....

Lanikai Beach is still my favorite beach on the island so far

 We even managed to make it to a football game!

We have gone on several dates, but here is a special date we went on for Valentines day....

In May, Kevins mom and his aunt came to visit!! Sadly, Kevin was still in the hospital, but he managed to get out of there and spend a full day with them before they had to leave...

In June, Kevin and I celebrated one year of marriage! For our anniversary, he got us a hotel room in Waikiki, and we had a lovely dinner at Top of Waikiki resteraunt!

The view from our room!

Right before dinner :)

The {rotating} resteraunt we ate at!

The beautiful gift Kevin got me.... I wear it all day every day :)

The gift I got him-- on the back of the watch it says " Kevin--The best husband in the world! Love, Jenn"

We also went to our first marriage retreat in July, which was super fun! Plus, Kevin suprised me with my Nikon D90 camera!!!

At the beginning of August (August 6th, to be exact), we added a new member to our family, Zeus!! He will be ten weeks old tomorrow, but here he is at 5 and a half weeks old!!

He has been a wonderful addition to our family!

Speaking of family, throughout our time here so far, we have continued to try to have a baby. In the past year we have both had numerous tests, and have even done an IUI, which was unsuccessful. We are hopeful that we will be able to add a human baby to our family soon, though!!! :)

At the end of August, I participated in my first 5K!

Oh yeah, Team Buzuleciu rocked it!!

I have many other pictures of other random things we have done over the past year that I want to share with you guys, so stay tuned for tomorrows post!!

I have to get up early (like 3am) for the 5K that I am volunteering for tomorrow, so I have to end todays post here :)

Come on back tomorrow for some more reminiscin', and photos from tomorrows event as well! :)

Labor Day pictures and re-cap

Sorry I have been MIA for a couple of days. I just haven't been in the mood to blog lately. And I have been REALLY lazy when it comes to editing photos. I have been spending alot of time on the house, at the gym, running errands, and spending quality time with Kevin in the evenings this week as well, so I really haven't been on the computer much! My week is going pretty well so far! I have made it to the gym 4 times already (Monday it was closed) this week :) I'm determined to keep toning up and get stronger! The stronger and lighter I am, the easier it will be if and when we get pregnant! Anyway, on to the pictures! I think I am only posting a couple tonight, but I should be able to post more this weekend! We tried our hand at Stand Up Paddleboarding, and I'm proud to admit we did great our first time out!!

*Let me preface this by explaining what Stand Up Surfing (Paddleboarding) is. Stand Up Paddleboarding has become a really popular new sport here in Hawaii. I swiped this explanation off of Wikipedia*:

Stand up paddle surfing (SUP), or in the Hawaiian language Hoe he'e nalu, is an emerging global sport with a Hawaiian heritage. The sport is an ancient form of surfing, and reemerged as a way for surfing instructors to manage their large groups of students, as standing on the board gave them a higher viewpoint. This increased visibility of what was going on around them such as incoming swell. The popularity of the modern sport of SUP has its origin in the Hawaiian Islands. In the early 1960s, the Beach Boys of Waikiki would stand on their long boards, and paddle out with outrigger paddles to take pictures of the tourists learning to surf. This is where the term "Beach Boy Surfing", another name for Stand Up Paddle Surfing, originates.The sport benefits athletes with a strong 'core' workout. SUP'ing is popular at warm coastal climates and resorts, and is gaining in popularity as celebrities are sampling the sport, and cross-over athletes are training with SUP.

It's not as easy as it looks!! You have to have good balance and a strong core (thanks, Zumba, step, and kickboxing class!!) to stay up on the board, while paddling through the water. Its hard to turn too. Just saying.

Kevin was actually REALLY good at SUP'ing!

Yeah, I didnt fall off ONCE! I had so much fun!!

Kevin showing off his balancing skills and making love to the camera LOL

Puffer fish!!

Yes, Kevin is grabbing his junk in this picture. He's really proud of it too.

All of us after a super fun day out at the sandbar!! I'm proud to report ZERO sunburns this time around!!

We had so much fun, and can't wait to go out there when Kevins dad, brother, and sister in law get here!!! We just know they are going to LOVE it! We had a wonderful Labor Day with awesome friends, and it just doesn't get any better than that!
Before I go, I want to share this picture with you guys! It's my 3 favorite guys in the whole world :)

{I have NO idea what Zeus was looking at....he's ADD}

Arent they handsome?!?!?!

Tomorrow, I have step class in the morning, and I may make it to zumba in the afternoon! All of my housework for the week is pretty much done, so I will should have some time to continue editing pictures from Labor Day and putting them up on here or facebook!
Good night everybody!!!

Happy Labor Day!

Kevin and I had a really fun, adventurous Labor Day! After Kevin got his hair cut this morning and I washed the S.S. Sebring, we loaded up the car with our snorkel gear, the cooler, and the cameras and headed down to the marine corps base to meet up with our friends for an afternoon of boating fun! We had a wonderful time just hanging out, chatting, snorkeling, and we even tried stand up paddleboarding, a really popular new sport here! I'm proud to say I didn't fall off! I'm proud of my balancing skills and my stronger core, which made it relatively easy for me! Kevin did a great job too, and didn't fall off his first time up either! I have some great pictures from today, but I will post them tomorrow, as I'm blogging from my phone on the way home :) All in all, it was a fabulous afternoon with some wonderful friends, and the best part is that none of us got sunburned this time! We were slathering on sunscreen like every hour though hehe
The rest of my evening belongs to Kevin, so I will have more for you guys tomorrow! We hope everyone had a great and safe Labor Day weekend!!
How was your Labor Day? Did you get outside and BBQ? Or go boating?

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Our weekend so far!

This weekend is a 4 day weekend for Kevin due to Labor Day, so he has Friday through Monday off. On Friday, we went to the gym (I did step class and he just worked out), then we went out and bought a new blender! Our old one was literally gasping its last breaths, so the purchase couldn't have come at a better time! After wandering through several stores, we ultimately decided on the KitchenAid blender in Onyx Black (the same color as the mixer!). So far, I really love it!! We are big on smoothies, so this is the perfect little addition to our kitchen gadgets! On Saturday, I went to zumba class in the morning, and hung out at home the rest of the day (I even napped (!!!) in the afternoon!).
Ahh, so that brings us to today. This morning, Kevin and I got up and went to church! the church we went to was really awesome! I really liked the band, Kevin not so much. He is used to a traditional church experience with hymn singing and pews, etc. This church had a band, and you kind of get the feeling of being at a rock concert :) Kevin wasnt too big on the loud music (I reminded him that the music probably wasn't as loud as we thought, we are just getting old) and I absolutely LOVE a good christian band who can rock out, but we both LOVED the pastor and his sermon today! *I* had a lovely time, but we may keep looking around until we find a church that we are both really comfortable at! I really liked the church today, but I want Kevin to be completely happy as well :)
After church, we had lunch with our friends Joe and Sarah, who attend the same church. Once lunch was over, we went shopping for a large floatie that we are taking with us on our trip out to the sandbar tomorrow! We had success at Lowe's. We are going out on the boat again with Annie, her mister, Joe, and Sarah to the same place we went on July 4th. Although this time, I vow to NOT get sunburnt!! I will be bringing both cameras, so there are sure to be a ton of great pictures coming! For now, I'm pretty sleepy--dang old age!!

Goodnight, friends!! :)

It's September!!!!

Can you believe it?!?!?! We have been on island 357 days--next week will mark an entire year that we have been living in the land of Aloha! The year has gone by really fast, and yet I still feel like we haven't really done a whole lot on island. The last few months have been spent focusing on Kevins recovery, but now that we know he isn't deploying (for now, anyway, he will probably join his unit later), we are going to make it a point to explore some more of the island and get involved with our community. The sad thing is that we don't love Hawaii as much as we thought we would. We are actually trying to get out of here a little bit early :(
I certainly wouldn't have said that a year ago!! I mean, Hawaii is beautiful, and you can't beat the weather, but Kevin and I just don't feel at home here, if you know what I mean. We are going to try and enjoy it as much as possible before we have to once again PCS, though.
Today was a pretty energetic day! I got up early to sign up for the Joint Spouses Conference (I will be attending 5 workshops--Photography, Cupcake making, Hula, Chocolate making (!!!), and Quick Asian cooking!--> Kevin DOES love his chinese food, after all!!), went to zumba class, got the commissary shopping done (and spent 45 bucks less than I did last payday!), and got rid of our old couch this afternoon!! The rest of the afternoon has been spent researching blenders--which led to kitchen gadget window shopping--and watching reruns of Futurama :)
Kevin came home and went to sleep shortly after. Kind of bummed me out, but whatever, he has a 4 day weekend :D
Tomorrow, I'm going to step class, then Kevin and I are *supposed* to be going shopping. Whatever happens, I am getting him up and out of the house to exercise at some point!!!
I hope everyone has a safe and wonderful Labor Day weekend!!