cruise part I

my mimi and daddad (what we call my grandparents on my mom’s side) took our entire family on our first cruise to mexico for their 50th anniversary 9 years ago. since then, we have grown quite fond of these floating resorts.  they are a perfect vacation for our whole family because we can all do our own thing if we want during the day but we always have dinner together, go to the shows together, and explore the port cities together.
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there were 17 of us in our party and after we set sail on sunday afternoon, the eating extravaganza began.  let me just say, i am stilllll full.  we were at sea for 4 of the 7 days and on those days we layed out by the pool, read, ate, relaxed, people watched, and enjoyed being lazy.  every night after the 3-course dinners (or 5 course if you are like us and order 2 appetizers and 2 desserts) there was soo much to do.  each night was a different combo of the following: the karaoke lounge (our songs of choice included the classics — britney spears “baby one more time” and spice girls “wannabe”), the song/dance/musical show in the big theater, the comedy show, the piano bar, and the dance club.  followed by a trip to the lido deck where 24/7 pizza and ice cream was available.

[glad i didn’t have to use one of these]

[first day on board]

[cute tiki man drink cups]

[holaaa scottee]

[yummy tiramisu]

[casino]

[all of the girl cousins on formal night]

[my beautiful mimi]

[stormy night in puerto vallarta]

[cousins]

[one night we got wild and played scattegories. woo hoo!]

[scottee’s martini tasting that was sickly sweet but the glasses were pretty]

[love love love my fam]

saturday in california.

i flew into LAX last Saturday morning after a red eye from Hawaii (and a 4-hour delay at the Kona airport) and landed around the same time my older sister and brother-in-law got in from Austin, Texas!

Kimberlee + Me = bestfriendssistersloverstwopeasinapod since birth — so as you can imagine I was so excited to see them because I haven’t seen them since Christmas!  Our parents picked us up and we went out to breakfast after flying on the 405 since nooo oneeee was on it because all of that carmageddon hype.

after breakfast, one of my BFFs sarah and I went over to heather’s house and met precious baby logan for the first time!  reis might have some competition because this little guy has stolen my heart.  he is seriously one of the cutest babies i have ever seen in my life and just seeing one of my best friends as a new mommy was such a sweet experience.

after staring and oooing and aahhhing over logiebear for a few hours (and having heather describe the whole birthing process to me in FULL detail), my family went over to my grandma and grandpa’s house for a lasagna dinner (thanks grams!).  my brother drove up for the weekend from san diego to see all of us since he couldn’t come on the cruise because of his summer internship.  perfect saturday spent with family and friends!  next post up: cruise-ing to mexico parte uno!

back to reality.


i made it back safe and sound last night to hawaii after an amazing vacation with my family!  it was soooo much fun.  seriously one of the best.

highlights:
– spending time with my family who i don’t get to see enough! (my sis Kim and bro-in-law Blake flew in from Texas and a bunch of our cousins flew down from Oregon!)
– being away from technology for an entire 7 days and not at the mercy of my beloved iphone/email
– having NO concept of time whatsoever (going to bed at 3 AM and waking up at 10:30 AM) and the week feeling like it was a month long but also feeling like it went by too fast if that makes sense
– laying out on the beaches in mexico and reading a good book (havent read a fiction book in like 10 years and im officially addicted to reading again — thank youuu sarah!)
– eating really good (and waaayy too much) food — i kinda think cruises are the reason for obesity in America
– learning how to use my new camera by taking tons of pics and capturing every moment in a photo or on video (cannot wait to edit a little video ASAP)
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i’m going to recap this week in a few posts starting tomorrow because i took a gazillion pictures and have so many i want to share!  but right now i have to get to that thing called work.  back to reality.

cruising to mexico.

today we are off on a cruise to mexico for the week and i am so excited!  on the agenda for the week: spending lots of time with my family, eating lots of amazing food, sipping pina coladas poolside, exploring Mexico, getting tan, and of course being regulars at the karaoke lounge every night.

see ya in a week with lots and lots of pictures and recaps.

p.s. i got my camera today and i am kind of obsessed times 17 with my new toy.  i had it shipped to my parent’s house because everything takes longer to get to that little island i live on and it was super duper important to have for this trip!  it takes phenommmmmenal photos and fyi i took 147 pictures just in the past 8 hours (most likely 73 of those are because i finally got to meet logan!!  he is so little and adorable and perfect and i could seriously stare at him for hours.  pictures to come later!)

jet-setting.

HNL >> KONA >> LAX (yippppeeeee!)

tonight immediately after work i am off to the airport!  first stop: kona, second stop: LA.  i’m going on a really fun vacation on sunday for the week with my entire family and i can’t wait!!
work, please go by fast.  thanks.

garage sale finds.

the closest thing hawaii has to a flea market is the swap meet (10 tourist t-shirts for $5, anyone?) which is far from comparable to any of the flea markets in LA or SF.  so to find fun pieces for my new place, i am going to resort to garage sales, good will, and craigslist.  they take plenty of digging/searching/browsing (and seeing things for their POTENTIAL) and require lots of time – but i think it’s a really fun process.  the pieces you get have way more charm than brand spanking new pieces, and its a heck of a lot nicer on the ol’ wallet.  my current place was fully furnished when i moved in two years ago so i am starting from absolute scratch.  that is a lot of furniture we’re talking about: a bed, dining room table, coffee table, couches, entertainment center, a dresser, chairs, etc…so i actually have no other choice than to go the cheaper route.  and speaking of steal deals, this weekend when i went garage saling, i got some pretty sweet finds.  a huge wood-framed mirror for $5 and a cute/chic/nice desk for $5.
convo between me and garage sale man:
me: (looking at this desk that a bunch of his crap for sale was sitting on) hey, is this desk for sale?
him: um, sure.
me: how much?
him: $10
me: whoah! (in total shock because i was expecting him to say like, $50 or something)
him: what – $5?
me: SOLD!
i got a bargain and i didn’t even try!  that, my friends, is how you do it.