Saturday, November 12, 2011

Drumroll Please...

I have been waiting on our wedding photos to arrive from Bolivia so I could post those babies and THEN share some honeymoon pictures...chronological order. Sounds good, right?

However, since our "fb wedding album" has seemingly be viewed by ALL of my blog audience and then some, I figured I'd jump right to the honeymoon!
**Probably at some point I'll pick my favorite wedding pics and post my own collage of that great day. But until then...enjoy our photographer's choices......I know we have:).

So.
Hawaii.
It was awesome.
It was beautiful.
It was romantic.
And, yes, it was filled with typical "megan" luck!

Some flight complications....some rental car problems....some getting-lost-on-the-way-to-the- airport-and-having-to-ask-for-directions-from-people-who-only-use-the-NUMBER OF-STOPLIGHTS-when-giving-directions problems....

Dang....I guess we're a package deal. Me and my traveling luck, we come together.
Poor Esteban.

However, Esteban brought some of his own bad luck into the marriage as well...

Snorkeling turns into protect-your-body-from-the-jagged-reefs.....boogie boarding turns into sea urchin attack..

Esteban reaped the benefits of that one.
Poor guy..thankfully he's the stronger of the 2 of us so we didn't have to spend 1/2 of our time in the hospital as we probably would have had to do it I were the one that had both heels filled with sea urchin spines!

Honestly, it was this on-going process of first being poisoned...then being slightly crippled...then pulling out the spines one by one until September 15th, when the LAST spine was removed! Thank you Lord both heels are looking normal again:)!

So all of that to say, we're basically even.

And now it's picture time....
Kaui....soo beautiful.
We loved just enjoying the great outdoors on this island.

"Looking Hawaiin" in our Hawaiian shirts!


No underwater camera at this point...but we wanted proof that we were actually SWIMMING with a sea turtle close enough to touch!!! I felt like I was Nemo lost in Australia!

Kayaking! River...hear us ROAR!
Yeah....these pictures are pretty priceless when you hear the story of that day!

Long story short....we started off the trip like this...feeling like Kayak CHAMPS ready to cream all of the "older" couples on the river! About 5 mins. after these pictures were taken we started questioning our kayaking ability due to the HORDES of petty tourists that seemed to have NEVER kayaked before PASSING us with such ease while we were zig-zagging our way into the bushes and boat path! Needless to say, after the first trip of complete humiliation, we were informed by a kind gentleman that our kayak was backwards! After our waterfall hike, we were finally able to regain some of our pride and therefore post these pictures with a bit more confidence than we thought we would!

Some "treats" in Hawaii were.......our FREE upgrade because were honeymooners!

....a YUMMY meal right on the water.
As always, I think Esteban ordered better than I did. That's one reason why I married him...he's got good taste!
And then.... MAUI.
Also pretty but definitely more of the "tourist trap" idea.
So we enjoyed that part too:)!
Of course...a luau! (We intentionally dressed for the occasion:)!!)Our 2nd car upgrade of the trip...better than the first!

That's right...Volvo C70.

One day we were CRAZY ambitious and woke up WAY TOO EARLY and drove to the Haleakala Crater to see the sun rise...
...with EVERYBODY and their cousin!
Then took the road to Hana.....

If you're unfamiliar with this road...this IS IT! Crazy windy but right on the water and simply GORGEOUS!


We were EXHAUSTED by the end. But it was definitely our favorite day!

To end this random collection of our honeymoon, we want to leave you with some favorites of our trip!
No caption necessary...

We just LOVED the sunsets....

and fresh seafood..

Choco fell in love with "Sharkie"....


....and I fell in love with Maui potato chips and onion dip!

Thank you Gramie for this wonderful gift!

It was all so surreal, we felt like we were in newly weds...
Oh wait....we were!



Good-bye Hawaii...until next time!

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Loved and Missed

As my Aunt and Dad said, Heaven has a new member!

My Nana passed away this week.
Sad and happy at the same time.


She was truly one-of-a-kind!

One special memory I have of her is when I was working in Charlotte, some of my friends and I spent our Spring Break in Arizona. My grandparents were living in Tuscon at the time so I decided to go visit them for a day.My Nana, Grandpa and I had lunch together and then just sat on their porch and they shared story after story. I loved hearing about how my Nana and Grandpa met, what life was like during the war and more.

Nana,
Thanks for your genuine love for me and for your joy!
You were loved and now you will be missed.
Thankfully I know that I get to see you again in Heaven!

Love,
Megan