Week 1 - Santa Baby

We're cheating a bit and using this picture from 1/3 (Saturday) as our picture for Week 1 since we don't have much else going on this week to take a picture of. So here is our favorite picture from Week 1 of 2009.

We always celebrate Kendra's family xmas after the New Year because of her brother's schedules. This year we had a special visit from Santa!



1.3.09 - 1.10.09

Welcome 2009!!

We cannot believe that 2009 is here already! Life never seemed to rush by too quickly for us until 2008... that entire year is a blur! We obviously had a wonderful 2008 with our wedding and honeymoon, but also spending time with family and friends, and most importantly enjoying our newlywed life together. We're very grateful for everything 2008 brought us and hope that we'll be as blessed in 2009.

To wrap up 2008 we had a great time ringing in the New Year with our friends Ember & Kris, Kathleen & Dave, Stacy, and our new friend Andy. We enjoyed lasagna for dinner, chocolate fondue for dessert, and lots of games throughout the evening! Catch Phrase was probably our favorite, but watching everyone play American Idol and Dancing With The Stars on Wii provided some hilarious memories and great video! Favorite moments of the night include:
~ Question: "What Does Santa Say?" Answer: "Arggggggg"
~ Question: "Men have this but women don't".... (clue: He counted down to 2009)
~ Stacy & Ember's rendition of Livin' On a Prayer
~ Kris Raising the Roof
~ Dave's fishing skills

Our resolution for this year is to cherish every day together and make the most of 2009. Because of this we have a project we want to accomplish for 2009. A few years back I tried to take a picture every day of the year, but somedays there just wasn't anything exciting to take a picture of. I've been wanting to try this project again, so we're going to try it this year with a twist... We're going to take at least one photo a week and pick our favorite picture to represent that week of our life. We're also going to try and keep this blog updated weekly along with the photos.

So to start it off, here is our first picture of 2009. This was our New Year's kiss on January 1st, 2009.


1.1.09

Last Day in Paradise

Today we packed up and said goodbye to Maui. We started the morning off by laying on the beach for a bit, then went back to our condo and started packing up. We have a later flight today so we decided to drive up to Lahaina and have lunch there before heading to the airport. We love the town of Lahaina--very quaint. We stumbled upon Blue Lagoon off Front Street and decided to eat there. Afterwards we did some shopping and enjoyed the scenery.



After walking around Lahaina for a bit, we eventually headed back and checked into the airport to sadly await the arrival of our plane. However we were very blessed with a few more amazing rainbows that will forever be grained in our memories!

Rainbow over our plane after arriving:


Rainbow over our plane at the gate:


Double-rainbows as I looked out from my seat!


And I just HAVE to point out where I'm sitting in comparison to Dean on our flight home. We weren't booked next to each other, however we were only supposed to be one row apart so we could communicate if needed. Well lucky Dean gets offered to trade seats into the exit row b/c a young boy was originally booked there. So while he's stretching out his legs in the exit row, his wife of 5 days is cramped next to a total stranger. Next time, first class all the way... :-)

Snorkeling

Today we went on a snorkeling cruise to Molokini and Turtle Town. It was quite an experience! We were both thrilled to see sea turtles up close!

Haleakala Crater

Today we woke up at 3am to drive to the Haleakala Crater to watch the sunrise. It took about 30 minutes to get there and then another hour to ascend the 10,000 feet to the top of the crater, but it was well worth it... it was an amazing experience!! You're high above the clouds at that elevation.

Dinner at "Home"

After our long drive yesterday we decided to enjoy the reason we came to Hawaii--to relax on the beach! We spent the majority of the day laying on the beach across from our condo and eventually by the pool. :-)


In evening we enjoyed a very romantic dinner on our lanai. This proved to be a great idea based off the gorgeous sunset we had as a backdrop:


Today was probably the most popular wedding day of the year, 8/8/08. Of course Kendra took a picture to commerate it.

It's the Journey... Not the Destination

Today we drove the 'Road to Hana'. It's a drive that took us about 4 hours down the northeast coast of Maui from where we're staying (Kihei) down to town of Hana (plus three hours back). We know most people probably think we wasted a day in paradise driving, but this was one of the most incredible experiences! The drive includes over 600 curves, 54 bridges, and beauty beyond what you can imagine! We purchased a special CD to play during the drive that suggests places to stop and gives history on what we're seeing. We highly recommend this to anyone making this drive. We packed a cooler with snacks and water, wore our swim suits under our clothes, brought towels and a change of clothes all in preparation for this long, but beautiful drive.

Kendra's friend Jackie told us that we had to eat at Mama's Fish House while on Maui, and ironically we stumbled upon it on our way to Hana. So on the way back we decided to stop for dinner. The food was delicious and we lucked out being there at the right time for another beautiful sunset.