Vacation is a beautiful thing :)

Beautiful New Mexico sunset!

This past month has been so wonderful! I'll split up our trips into 2 posts though so you aren't overwhelmed with information and pictures :)

The first stop on our trip was New Mexico to see Luke's fam. We had so much fun there! We celebrated his little sister's 11th birthday while we were there, went to Carlsbad Caverns (and stopped at a couple places along the way there and back), went up to Pagosa Springs, CO so the guys could go snow boarding (and I got the most wonderful massage ever!), and got to spend lots and lots of time with the family. We went bowling, mini golfing, laser tagging and so much more! His family is a hoot when you get them all together ha ha!

Here's pics of some of our adventures while we were there:

White Sands, NM

the McDonald's in Roswell, NM
Luke & I in Carlsbad Caverns, NMLuke snowboarding at Wolf Creek in Pagosa Springs, CO

We also went to the Albuquerque Aquarium while we were there with Luke's brother and his Auntie Liz. We took mostly video there since fish don't hold still all that well ha ha. Here's a particular video that is worth sharing:

And that's pretty much all we did while we were there. It was 10 days of nonstop fun that's for sure :) I'll post what we did in UT in a different post so stay tuned! Later gator!

~Nicole

Almost time!

I'm so excited to be going on vacation on Tuesday! I just have to do some packing and finish cleaning the house before we leave on Tuesday night. We were able to get Luke's tickets (and lucky enough for him to be on the same flights as me too!) so we are good to go! We'll be in New Mexico for about 10 days and then it's off to Utah to see the fam there too! You all will finally be able to meet my wonderful hubby and get to know him better! And get to see my little baby bump too ha ha. Since I'm only 16 (almost 17) weeks along it's not much of a bump, but it's there just the same! We are having a doctor's appointment tomorrow afternoon before we leave and I'll be able to schedule my first (and probably only) ultrasound for when we get back. I'm so ready for that ultrasound! Can't wait to see the little one and know what it is! We might be lucky and see if we can get one done at a military hospital while we are home, but we don't know if that is a possibility or not. It would be awesome if it is! But if not then I will have to be patient. I can't believe I'm already in my second trimester! Time sure has flown by! Well, I better go do some chores before heading off to bed so talk to you later!

~Nicolehere's me at 16 weeks

Happy Halloween!

We didn't do much this year, just carved a pumpkin and handed out candy. Here's a couple pics of us with our pumpkin and some decorations. Hope everyone had a wonderful time tonight! Happy Halloween!

~Nicole

Let the planning begin!

I bought my plane tickets yesterday (didn't get Luke's yet because we didn't know if he would be getting a Language class out in Ogden or not..we found out today that he is) and I'm super excited to be going home!! Still haven't worked out the fine details of who we are seeing when (like when we are in Utah and such...gotta divide our time between at least 3 families if not more...oh boy). I'll be contacting people to make these plans and see what we can do. I can't wait to be home in a month! AAAAHHH! :) Well, I need to go do some things so ttyl!

~Nicole

oh the joys of pregnancy

After my last post I have realized that things aren't going the way I thought. For example, I was hoping I could get through this pregnancy without being sick...WRONG! dadgum nausea! It's not that I don't mind it so much as I just wish I would go from feeling like I need to puke to actually puking...not stay in that need to stage...not fun! Hopefully I will start to feel much better here in a couple weeks. I'm 3 months along now this week so things have just flown by. We got to hear the baby's heartbeat last Monday! All I kept saying was "aww!" and had the biggest grin on my face! I'm super excited to be able to wear maternity clothes soon! I will start wearing the military one this week cuz my old stuff is too small already. One of several good things that is coming from this pregnancy though is that I will get to separate from the Military next spring (around the beginning of March). That way we won't have to worry about childcare and I can focus on being a Mommy. I'm really glad that Luke is so supportive of my choice to be a stay at home Mom! And I'm also glad that he will be a SSgt next year which means more money for us!

I'm so ready for it to be November already! Our trip home is most needed. We'll be sure to let everyone know the fine details once we get them sorted out. I have to wait until 30 days prior to file for leave so just one more week and then we can get things planned! And I can finally buy plane tickets! Being home for Thanksgiving will be so awesome! It's been YEARS since I was able to see family on that holiday. And I'm so excited to be able to enjoy some good home cooked food too :)

Anyway, the house is slowly being put together and whatnot. I got some pictures hung up on the walls the last couple days and did some cleaning (the floors we're pretty nasty..). I made pancakes for breakfast this morning too which was fun and rewarding :) I'll be making chicken cheese squares for dinner tonight too (been wanting them for a long time now) which I'm pretty excited about. Anyway, I need to go tidy up a bit cuz I have a friend coming over so I will go now. Have a good one!

~Nicole

so it's been forever since my last post....

Where did the summer go?? I can't believe that it's practically the middle of September already. How time has flown! We've been pretty busy here in sunny/rainy Hawaii. So please be prepared for a looooooong post (gotta love playing catch up).

From July 18th through the 31st Luke and I had a couple family members here visiting us. Luke's brother Sean got here on the 18th and my sister Jessica got here on the 21st. While they were here we kept em pretty busy! Luke took them on a hike and to Haunauma Bay while I was in my last week of language class. Then that weekend (25th-28th) we went Island Hopping! We went to Maui first for 2 nights and then went to the Big Island for one night before coming back to Oahu.

While in Maui we went to the Iao Valley and saw the Iao Needle.

Iao Needle

Our first night there we decided to entertain ourselves by jumping onto the bed..here's a video of the event ha ha.

We ate out at Bubba Gumps, Roy's and the Melting Pot just to name a few places. The Melting Pot was by far the best!!

at the Melting Pot

We went to the Aquarium in Maui on the 26th and there was a mini golf nearby so we went to that afterward. Fun times!
Since we were in Maui for only 2 days we didn't get to do a whole lot...but, we did do alot on the Big Island! We stayed at the military camp at the Volcano...sweet Cabins!! but it got really cold at night up there :( . Obviously we went and saw the Volcano. And we utilized the cooking site to have grilled steak, corn on the cob and garlic toast! It was tasty!! :)

Jess enjoying some toast!

We went to Rainbow Falls (much bigger this time around).

Jess and I at Rainbow Falls

We went to Akaka Falls too (still cooler than Rainbow in my opinion).

Went to the Lava tube (and Sean found one with a river flowing through it so we saw that one too).

In the lava tube

And to end our wonderful trip we went to the Green Sand Beach!! and got destroyed by the ocean ha ha. I learned how to duck under a wave to avoid the destruction :)

Sean, Luke and I in the water (I'm diving under a wave)

We got back late Tuesday night and had to get up early to take Jessica to the airport :( she is missed! But we will be seeing her (and the rest of the fam) when we come out in November! Sean stayed until the 31st, but Luke had to take him to the airport alone since I had to work :( He said he's gonna make this an annual thing (or something like that) to come out and see us once a year. We're glad that they came to see us!

I took my language proficiency test on July 30th and Aug 4th and didn't pass :( I did however improve my score from the last time I took it so that's a good thing! Here's hoping I can pass it the next time I take it in December!

August just flew right on by! We went to Bayfest on Aug 15th and saw the Black Eyed Peas in concert! They put on a great show. Too bad the first part of the day was pretty boring. Rochesterfest is so much better for food and activities! We started our search for our new place and after seeing about 5 different places in one day, we decided on a place in Mililani. We are now currently living in a 4 bed/ 2.5 bath condo (I'll post pics later) that is...get this...10-15 mins away from work!!!! Which means that I can sleep in till 9 am on work days and not have to leave until 9:45 am to get to work and find parking (what used to be me leaving at 9 am to get to work an hour later to find parking...) so you can understand how excited we are about this move! Especially since I've been really really tired, moody, queasy, forgetful...you name it, and I've felt it lately. All because of this:

Yup, I'm pregnant! I'm due on or around the 15th of April and we are super excited! I've noticed that several family members are also pregnant so it must be that time to have babies! I'm not best friends with the potty as far as puking goes. I've been lucky and not had to deal with that at all. Just the occasional queasy tummy, but Ginger Ale is my best friend! And I know that Luke and I are gonna be thrilled when I stop being so cranky :) I'm super excited to hopefully be able to hear the baby's heartbeat at my next OB appt on the 21st. It hasn't quite sunk in yet that I really am pregnant. I mean I show all the right signs, but yeah...dunno how to describe it. I just hope that our baby is a happy and healthy one, and we will be excited no matter what gender it is! The ultrasound appt will be so exciting! I wish I didn't have to wait so long for me to get it though. Oh well, the time will soon be here I'm sure!

Nothing else has really been going on in our lives. Not too much can beat the excitement of moving and finding out that I have a little one growing inside me :) My birthday was yesterday too. We went to Red Lobster for dinner with some friends which was alot of fun! I also got to take not one, but two naps too so I was a much happier person due to that :)

Now I get to go do some unpacking so I will be off! Have a good one!

~Nicole

Happy 1 Year Anniversary to us!!

Today marks our first wedding anniversary! This weekend was pretty awesome (even though we didn't get to see the fireworks again this year...hopefully next year will be more successful!) Luke got us a hotel room at the Hilton Hawaiian Village, but when we got there they informed us that they had over-booked their hotel and asked us if we would be willing to go stay at the Prince Kuhio hotel instead. They said they would pay for one night stay and parking etc so what would have been over 300 dollars on a one night stay ended up costing us nothing! Sweet huh? However, as we were leaving I noticed that there was a Benihana's right at the entrance to the Hawaiian Village and told Luke that that's where I wanted to go for our Anniversary dinner that night. He agreed, but first we had to go to our real hotel and eat some lunch. At our hotel we were originally placed in a two bed room which we didn't want, so Luke called down to the front desk and asked if we could be moved into a one bed room. When the guy came up to switch our keys out he told us that they had to upgrade us to a suite...how cool is that?? so we stayed in a suite that faced the ocean and man what a view it was! We had hoped that we could watch the fireworks from our room, but sadly there were too many skyscrapers in the way to get a good view :[ so we went to Benihana's without getting to enjoy the fireworks beforehand.

But before we did that we went to lunch at Mac 24/7 which was on the Lobby floor of the hotel. We hadn't been there before so I figured why not try it right? It wasn't the best we'd ever had and Luke doesn't want to go back (the Alfredo had tomatoes and asparagus in it...and he HATES those veggies lol). I did enjoy my cherry-lime ricky though!




Dinner however was so freaking amazing! Luke and I had never been to a Benihana's before so this was an awesome experience! I took about 30min of video! The food was fantastic and our chef was Korean so Luke said a few words to him, thanking him and telling him he did a great job. You shoulda seen the guys face! It was awesome to see him light up when he heard Luke speak Korean to him!

Anyway so today we left our hotel and went to Cheesecake Factory for what else? CHEESECAKE!! White Chocolate Raspberry Truffle to be precise. It is my favorite one from there! Sooooooooooo gooooooood!!!! While we were waiting for our cake to be ready we went to Jimmy Buffett's for lunch. It was pretty good, but not as good as that cheesecake in my fridge!partially eaten cheesecake. yum! :P

Well, that's all I got. I need to go finish the laundry and get some food (I mean cheesecake) in my belly so talk to you later!

~Nicole

a little o' this n' that

Last night Luke was kind enough to take me to see UP. I LOVED IT!!! I didn't cry, but my eyes were misty for at least 75% of the movie. I really liked the Pixar Short that was shown with it too. Pixar always does amazing animated movies!! I'm so buying it when it comes out on Blu-Ray!

Today Luke and I went to the Bishop Museum with a couple friends and saw the Planetarium there. Let's just say that I have been to more interesting places of a similar nature. We won't be going there again that's for sure!

After that non-eventful trip we went to lunch and then Luke was kind enough to take me to get my nails done. Granted it took about 3hrs to get them all done, but I was in heaven for those 3 hrs :) Here's the pic of the results:
I love what she did! I can't get this done very often, at least not while I'm still in the Military. But since I'm in a class right now and I don't have to be in uniform for it, I thought I would treat myself to something a little more fun than just plain ole white french tips :) Can't wait until this can be a semi normal thing for me.

Well, that's all for now. I'm gonna go see what Luke is up to now so cya later!

~Nicole

oh man...this could take a while...

Since it has been almost 2 months since my last entry I have quite a bit to catch up on...so here it goes!

May was fairly laid back for us. I was on the Early Bird shift (4am-2pm) all month which was nice since I was able to spend all my free time with Luke due to us getting off work at the same time during the week.
For Memorial Day weekend we went to the Big Island with a few friends and had a blast! We flew in on Friday night (22nd) and went and saw the new Terminator movie since it was too late to do anything else. Saturday we spent the day looking at waterfalls (Rainbow Falls and Akaka Falls), went to the Thurston Lava Tube and explored the undeveloped section of the cave (it was soo cool!), and we went to the Volcano Park and saw the volcano. Sunday we went to the black sand and green sand beaches (both very cool) and along the way we saw a real live Zebra in someone's yard. Turns out that the zebra was the owner's inheritance..that's they only way she could have legally had the zebra! She had other animals there too, but the zebra was the coolest. That night we went snorkeling with Manta Rays (well I stayed on the boat due to having a major headache :[ ). Didn't get any pics though :[ , but they had fun swimming with them! Monday we had an early flight back home so that's where we ended our little adventure. Anyway, here are some pics of what we did while we were there.

Luke and I at Rainbow falls...which we lovingly called trickle falls ha ha..
Luke and I at Akaka FallsLuke at the Volcano Park
Luke and I inside the lava tubeThe gang (John, Mindy,Chris,Mei, and Luke) at the end of the caveLuke and I at Black Sand Beach
our feetGreen sand!Green Sand Beach! We hiked a little over 1 mile one way to get to this place, but it was worth it!

Zebra!!

And that's all the really good pics of what we did that weekend. I can't wait to go back!

I started language class this month and it's been going well so far. My plan is to take the DLPT after the class ends in July to see if I've improved since December. Here's hoping I pass it this time! Luke's brother Sean and my sister Jessica will be coming out to visit us in July so things will be busy around here, but it will be great to have them visit us!

And my last news of the day, we finally got out kitchen table!! We put it together today and I'm so happy that it's here! Now we can eat at a table like normal people and when we have guests over they will have somewhere to sit too! And playing Settlers on the table will be much much easier to do than on the floor, and more comfy too ha ha! Well, that's all the news I have for now. I'll try not to wait for 2 months before posting again. Playing catch up isn't as easy as I thought ha ha. Have a good one!

~Nicole

all better...finally!

The car is back and almost as good as new! We finally got to pick it up from the shop on Monday after dropping it off a month ago. So happy to have my wonderful car back! But we have discovered some other things that are now wrong with it. Like the locks don't like to unlock sometimes...keyless entry or not. And the seal on the driver's door is broken too...both things were fine when we dropped the car off. So we shall be calling them to see what they did that made this happen and get it fixed. At first I thought the batteries in our keyless entry things needed to be changed, but we noticed that the key doesn't work sometimes either. It's very strange. Anyway, here are some pics of the car looking oh so much better :]