Hawaii Trip - Oahu

For Christmas and our birthdays this year, my wonderful in laws sent us on a trip to Hawaii. It is their favorite place and we had never been, so they just really wanted us to go. Since we had never been, we knew we wanted to make at least a quick trip to Oahu and go see Pearl Harbor. So we decided to go to Oahu for two days, then over to Maui for five.

We left one morning and were at our hotel in Oahu by around 5 or so. My first impressions of Honolulu - crowded, trafficky, kind of dirty. It is basically a huge city. When we finally got to our hotel, I breathed a sigh of relief. It was beautiful! We stayed at the Royal Hawaiian right on Waikiki.


It is one of the oldest hotels on Waikiki. Just look at these doors. All the doors in the hotel had these old hand carved Hawaiian style doors.


We went to check in and they gave us leis, cold towels and a welcome drink. Then we headed up to our room where I found these waiting for me!

Did I mention we left on Valentine's Day? Jason thought ahead and called the concierge to arrange to have these waiting for me!

That night we went to eat at this Sicilain restaurant, Taormina. I had this delicious seafood pasta that reminded me of a dish I had eaten in Cinque Terre on our trip to Italy. It was divine! After dinner we crashed, knowing we had to get up at like 5 the next morning to make our tour to Pearl Harbor!

The next morning we went to wait for our shuttle to Pearl Harbor. I had called the night before to double check everything, where to wait, which bus we were on, etc. Well, when our bus gets there, they have no record of us. Mind you I have already paid for this excursion and everything. We sit on the bus for a while trying to figure out what the deal is. I call the company I had booked through and while I am sitting there on hold, the driver tells us we have to get off the bus! He says they can't wait anymore and we have to leave. Now readers, if you have never been kicked off a tour bus with a group of people staring at you, I will just let you know. IT IS HUMILIATING! The second I stepped off the bus, the company I was on hold for picked up and I just started crying in to the phone. That's right. I was that girl. The lady was so nice and tried everything she could think of to get that bus back or to get us on another tour. Unfortunately, ours had been the last one and there were no more for the day. We were leaving at noon the next day, so it would be too late. Did I mention the sole reason we came to Oahu was to see Pearl Harbor?

After some sobbing, deep breaths and realization that I was in Hawaii and should at all costs try to simmer down, we finally worked it out where we would take another tour the next day and change our flight to later in the day to go to Maui. We decided we would just do an extended tour of the North Shore that day instead of the shorter tour we had planned to do the next day.

So we got out our guide book, put down our jeep top, and headed toward the North Shore. We really started at the East shore and basically just drove in a loop around the entire island. Our first stop was the Valley of the Temples Memorial Park. You drive in through a cemetery and then come to this breathtaking Buddhist temple.


It almost looks fake it is so beautiful. Here is Jason. =)


Before you enter you are supposed to use this wooden log to bang this huge bell for good luck.


After that, we headed around the shore and stopped to take some pictures of the beaches. If you are a Lost fan, you should know that they filmed a lot of Lost on Oahu. Can't you just see Kate, Jack, Sawyer and Hurley running out of those woods away from the smoke monster?


Here is another beach.


We actually looked up places you could go see where Lost was filmed, but the most obvious was this place. Look familiar?


Yep! That is the camp where the Others lived! It is actually a YMCA camp in the middle of nowhere!

We also got caught in the rain with our top down. We couldn't figure out how to get it back up so Jason would hold it while I drove and looked for a place to stop that was covered. We stopped a few times and tried to get it back up, but those suckers are impossible! After about an hour we found an apartment complex with covered parking so we pulled over. It took us and two passerbys to get the darn thing up and then, you guessed it, it never rained the entire rest of the day. Ugh.

Oh well. We got some shave ice and saw lots of surfers and had a pretty enjoyable day in spite of things. That night we ate somewhere close to the hotel and crashed, knowing we had to get up AGAIN at 5am the next day.

Life

One of my favorite quotes is "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans". John Lennon said that.

Well, I have been planning to write in my blog more, but my busy life got in the way lately. Gosh, where are my priorities?

In all seriousness, life has been crazy the last few months. We bought a house and sold our house (in that order), had Christmas, a trip to Hawaii, Bella's birthday (and mine and Jason's in there somewhere), and Jason has been traveling a ton on top of that. So life has been busy and I have been super tired and stressed. I think trying to buy and sell houses at the same time is one of the single most stressful things I have been through in my life. I am definitely glad it is over.

Last week I got to go on a trip to Destin with some of my best friends and it was a seriously nice opportunity to wind down and relax. I feel like we are finally moved in to our house, now we just have to buy more things to fill it up!

Anyway, I say all this to say I apologize for not blogging more, and I really am going to try to do better. I have several blogs I will be posting in quick succession here shortly, so I hope you enjoy!

Bella in Wonderland

In March of 2010, my mother and I took a trip to Disneyland. I had never been and she hadn't been since she was 18 so we decided to go. The very first ride we rode on our first day was the Alice in Wonderland ride. They do not have one of these at Walt Disney World, so it was a fun new ride for both of us. Once we got off, my mom said "Wouldn't that be a cute idea for a birthday party?" And an idea was born. I immediately latched on to the idea and started thinking how cute that would be. I mean one of the biggest themes in the movie is having a "Very Merry Un-Birthday". So for over a year I had been planning this party and getting ideas for it. We did a Mad Hatter tea party theme and decorated with little tea cups all over the place.

Here we used a large tea cup for the White Queen's Punch, but we had the Red Queen's Champagne close at hand for adults (none for Alice!)

Instead of a cake, we did Mad Hatter Cupcakes

I got this cute banner off Etsy. Etsy and I became good friends during the planning phase of the party...

Signs for the front yard - also from Etsy!

For party favors we had little tea cups with goodies in them

Tea cup centerpieces. If you look close you can see a paint brush. My mother-in-law has a keen eye for detail and wanted to give the impression we had painted the roses red. There was also red paint close by.

Another centerpiece. My mother-in-law also did all the flower arrangements. She is so talented!

Isabella dressed up as Alice. Aunt Amanda got her all excited about wearing her dress and then she would not take it off until late in the day!


She very much enjoyed her cupcake


Her big present from us was her new water table. Bella's friend Andrew has the same one and I just thought it was so cute! It was a hit at the party. Apologies to all the parents who took home wet kiddos! =) This is Bella's friend Madison.


Her big gift from Grammy and Poppy was a new tricycle. She is putting on her "I'm 2" riding hat to take it for a spin.


This picture of Isabella and her friend Caitlin cracks me up.


These are my girls! From left to right is Tamra, Caitlin, Lacey, Presley, Kiley, Shawna, me and Bells.

I was really happy with how everything turned out. It is amazing how much work can go in to a 2 year old's birthday party. Not sure I will be able to go all out like this in years to come. Next year I am thinking Little Gym? =)

Merry Christmas!

I know I know. You are all thinking 'wow Kelli, you are SO timely on your blogging'. Well, yes, I am a bit behind, but to my defense I have been trying to buy and sell houses in the last few months and move somewhere in between, and then go on vacation on top of that! More on all those subjects in later blogs, which I swear will be posted sometime soon. It is literally written on my to-do list, so it has to get done eventually.

Back to the main purpose of this blog. We had a great Christmas this year. It was the first year that Isabella really started to get that if she opens a present, there will most likely be a toy inside of it for her. So she started getting excited about opening things.

This year we started our tradition of staying in town for Christmas. We went to the family service at our church on Christmas Eve, which was super cute. All the kids sing and put on a show of the birth of Jesus. Bella did so good, too. She sat still for most of it and would clap when we sang. Then we went out to eat at whatever Houston's on Preston is now called. I can't remember, but it is pretty much still Houston's. By the time we waited and got seated and ate Isabella was not the angel that she sometimes is at restaurants, but we had fun getting out.

This year was the year we would normally spend Christmas day with the Trents, but unfortunately they had to stay in Norman for work until the day after, so my parents decided to come up Christmas day so they could see Isabella open her presents.

Christmas Morning - Wondering how we are all so excited first thing...

Then she starts to get in to the presents...

Modeling her new coat...

Nana helping her open a present...

She got a princess tunnel and loved it. She pretty much always wants me to get in it, but I have to tell her mommy is just a biiiiiit to big.


The next day the Trents got here. They gave her this baby doll that comes with a diaper bag, bottle, diapers, fake wipes, a bed and blanket. It is hilarious to see her change the baby's diaper, because she wrinkles up her nose and goes 'shew' to show that the old diaper fake stinks.


So we had a great Christmas and I am sure they will just get more and more exciting for her!!

Third Annual Top 10 Song List

Wow. That is all I can say for this year in music. There were SO many good songs on the radio, I had a really hard time narrowing down what my absolute favorites were. I went back and forth and back again trying to make sure I wasn't leaving off something. As I am writing this I thought of another song I missed! Ugh, well, I may have a longer list of honorable mentions than I usually do, but without further ado, here they are. My top ten songs of 2010. I hope you will give them a listen!

10. Fallin' and Flyin' - Jeff Bridges from Crazy Heart - Jason and I saw Crazy Heart on our cruise in May and the music in this film was just great. I don't know why they can't write tunes like this for the radio. But I seriously love this line 'Funny how fallin' feels like flyin'...for a little while'. So true.

9. The Writer - Ellie Goulding - This song was on the target in Entertainment Weekly, and I had a hard time finding it online - not sure if it is on iTunes yet or not - but it was worth the search. It is such a beautiful ballad with great lyrics.

8. Crying Lightning - Arctic Monkeys - This song always has me grooving in my seat in the car. It is kind of a strange and freaky song about loving someone who is totally wrong for you. Haven't we all done that really?

7. The Cave - Mumford and Sons - I really liked Little Lion Man when it came out. Jason and I always would check the radio station when it came on if Isabella was in the car, to make sure it would be the censored version. =) So I got the album and I think this song is by far my favorite song on there. I love M&S's sound. How it is a little bit country (or bluegrass) and a little bit rock n roll. My favorite line? "Cause Iiiiiiiiiiii need freedom now, and Iiiiiiiiiiiii need to know how, to live my life as it's meant to be." I just feel it in my whole body.

6. The House That Built Me - Miranda Lambert - This song makes me cry every time I hear it. I am one of those super nostalgic people. Like when I go to stay in a hotel for a week on vacation, when I leave I have to give it one last look and feel a little ache in my heart to be leaving a place that I spent a week of my life. Weird right? But you can imagine how I feel about the house I grew up in. I still dream about that house when I dream of being home. We moved out when I was in middle school and yet that is still what my mind has in it as my house. I even dream about buying that house back some day. Again, weird right? But when I listen to this song, it makes me remember every detail of that house and just has me in a puddle by the end.

5. Justin Bieber - Never Let You Go - LOL, did you think I was serious? Sorry, I had to make sure you were still paying attention. I am proud to say I had to google JB to find the name of a song he sings.

The REAL #5. Something Beautiful - Needtobreathe - I bought this album at the beginning of the year and never listened to anything but this one song. My friend KC finally convinced me to listen to the whole thing, and it is a really great album. Through Smoke is especially convicting to me, but I still think this is my favorite song on there. The line that gets me when I am feeling less than worthy of God's love - "I know that I'm in reach, cause I am down on my knees, and waiting for...something beautiful".

4. Cosmic Love - Florence and the Machines - Heard this song on SYTYCD and it had me. I have listened to it, oh, maybe a million times this year. Nothing really to say about it other than it is just beautiful.

3. Help I'm Alive - Metric - Again, nothing deep to say on this one, but I LOVE it. If I listened to Cosmic Love a million times, then I listened to this one two million.

2. ONE - Yeasayer - The battle for the number one spot was a tough one. I could not get enough of this song this year. When it would surprise me on the radio, it was like Christmas. Even though I had it on my iPhone. Don't you find a song is so much better when it comes on the radio unexpectedly than when you play it deliberately? Anyway, I almost made this song number one. It's name would certainly have made it an obvious choice, but ultimately the number one spot went to.......

1. Sleepyhead - Passion Pit - I heard this song once described as munchkins on acid singing. It is an apropos description, but something about this song, I. JUST. LOVE. I love the music, the lyrics, the beat, the fact that I have no idea what the words in the opening mean, or if they are even in any language, but I LOVE it. I would highly recommend you listen to it a few million times.

Well, that is it. Disappointed? Did I leave off your favorite song of the year? Leave me a comment and tell me what yours was! Like I said, there were so many that didn't make the list that I loved, so here is my honorable mention list, in no particular order...

Chris Tomlin - Our God, Mates of State - Second Hand News, Christina Perri - Jar of Hearts, Miike Snow - Animal, Sleigh Bells - Tell 'Em, Tim McGraw - Mr. Whoever You Are, Taylor Swift - Back to December

Happy New Year!!

Welcome Home

So our last portion of the Orlando training was Disney. Mike Scopa -from http://land.allears.net/blogs/mikescopa/ - recently wrote some articles about your 'hook' at Disney. Not the big things like seeing the castle or the Magic Kingdom sign when you get to Walt Disney World, but those smaller things that when you get there makes you feel like you are home at last. Well, mine is sort of literal. I just love when you get to the front desk at your resort and they say to you "Welcome Home". I just smile and say "thank you", sincerely. That is how I felt when I walked in to my room at the Boardwalk Resort and saw this on my bed. Ahhh, I am home. It had been a very busy and long week, and wasn't about to slow down, but at least I was home. =)

The first day we spent the whole day in a conference room just learning about all things Disney. Fun gifts to put in people's room and different ways to make our clients stay at Disney World just a little more magical. Right before lunch, as we were wrapping up that session, who should make a surprise visit? Well, I think you can see...


For a room of Disneyphiles, you can imagine the response. I won't say there were tears, well ok yes, there were tears.

After we finally got done with the 'school' portion of the day, we had the whole evening off to go to the Magic Kingdom!! Woohoo! Sharla and I took off and got as much done as we could. I love the way MK is decorated for the fall...


The next day we started out at Epcot in France. They had this whole breakfast set up for our little group before the park even opened. It was truly an enchanting experience. It was so quiet and peaceful and just a great experience.


Throughout that day we got to go and see so many neat things. We saw a bunch of stuff behind the scenes that I was absolutely not allowed to take pictures of, but one thing we got to see was their HR building. When you walk in, instead of seeing like pictures of the forefathers, these statues were all around the room...


So cute.

That night we finished off the evening in a room above the American Adventure for dinner. We could watch the Eat to the Beat concert out of the window and there were lots of hilarious shenanigans that took place. We were all given magic wands and then we were taken to Test Track, where we were taken to the front of the line and given a ride. Then we got to go to a dessert party for Illuminations and were given these amazing, what looked like 3-D, glasses, that made all the fireworks look like Mickey Heads. I don't even know how to really describe it, but we must have looked like maniacs because every time the fireworks went off, we all were like FREAKING OUT. People must have thought we had never seen fireworks in our life.

To end the night we were taken backstage in to a back entrance to Soarin'. I LOVE Soarin'. So to get an after hours private ride was a perfect way to end the week.

I was only gone for a week for this training, but it was so busy and intense, it felt like a month. I was so glad to get home, but it was a wonderful experience. I would never have been able to experience it without MEI and Mouse Fan Travel letting me be a part of their team, so thanks to them!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Finally getting caught up on my blogging, so here we go!

Over Thanksgiving we went to Tyler to hang with my family. We had a photographer come and take a bunch of pictures of the family. My mom has been wanting to do this forever so we finally got it together.

Here is a picture of the entire bunch...



Another cute one - I like how Bella is giving me a hug. =)


A super cute one of Isabella and her daddy...


My sister and her husband had a bunch taken and I swear every single one was perfect.


Here is one that is similar to the one we used for our Christmas card. The Trent family!

Here is Isabella with her Nana and Grampa, who she now calls Bobo - or Bopa - depending on the day. I think I have mentioned how Bells loves ice. Her Bobo has started giving her ice with a splash of soda on it, so now the first thing she says when she sees him is "Ice?" Haha, we are working on moving over to juice instead of soda...


A sweet one with Bella and Bopa...