Snorkeling with Tami

Hi,
Tami and I decided to go snorkeling at Hanauma Bay on Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend. It was a very relaxing day in the water. At Hanauma Bay there's a thing called the keyhole which is where we go around because then we avoid going over the coral. I get a little nervous going over the coral because we're not supposed to touch it and you get really close to it sometimes with the water. But going around the keyhole we don't have any problems seeing enough fish and we can avoid accidently touching the coral. Usually we go in just once and go around a few times and then get out and leave but today we went in 3 different times. It was a really good day for both of us since Thanksgiving wasn't exactly what we had hoped for. It was a much needed break before the last 3 weeks of the semester. I hope you enjoy the pictures. :)

Tami and I were super excited when we got on the bus. The Arizona State Women's Basketball team ended up getting on the bus with us to go to Hanauma Bay so we were talking to some of them. They're here for a basketball tournament at UH.

We saw lots of big fish. Bigger than we've ever seen any other time we've been there. Here's a Humuhumunukunukuapua'a. Just keep scrolling down to see more fish. I so love having an underwater digital camera. I took 195 pictures today.

This is by far my favorite fish because its so colorful. Its a parrot fish.

This guy got really close to me. In fact lots of fish were getting really close.

Ok so there is a fish in this picture. He's right in the middle of the rock in the middle of the picture. We had never seen this kind of fish before and he was just sitting there so we of course took some pictures.

We got to swim with a couple sea turtles today. It was so cool because the turtles were there in the same spot each time we went out. Needless to say I'm pretty sure the majority of the pictures I took were of the turtles.

Well I didn't make it through the day without getting hurt. Today I was slightly braver than the other times that we've gone to Hanauma Bay and we swam over the coral. The one time I got a little freaked out because the water level went down and we were really close to the coral. I got myself turned around just fine to head out of the coral but in the process of leaving that area I hit the coral and got a little scraped up. The salt water is a really good cleanser for wounds but I did put Neosporin on it just to be safe. ;) I'll put some videos up on another blog. I hope you enjoyed the pictures. Sending you warm wishes and aloha kisses.

Thanksgiving 2009

Hello Everyone,

So here's pictures from Thanksgiving where we all made stuff for dinner. But of course the day had to start off with breakfast and this was mine. :)

Here's the turkey in the oven cooking away. Alex was in charge of this and the potatoes.

It was a beautiful day in Hawaii of course.

We were watching the Thanksgiving day parade and I just happened to get a picture of my turkeys and Tom Turkey on the TV.

Here's the turkey all carved up.

Here's the rest of the food. There's scalloped corn, green bean casserole, yams, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy. We also had apple pie and pumpkin pie.

Tami and I waiting until Jon got there so he wouldn't have to eat alone. We were really excited to dig in.

Here's our feast and yes mom that's milk at my place. ;)

The next day Tami and I went shopping and when I got home I decorated for Christmas. This is the decorations on mine and Tami's door to our room.

I got these window clings that had a tree and decorations to put on it so I decided to put them on our big mirror in the dining room.Here's my little tinsel tree that I put on top of the TV.

Here's the window clings that I put on our big windows. I also decorated the lanai with garland, lights and bows.

Here's our lanai all lit up.

Here's one of the bows that I worked so very hard on.

Here's another picture from our lanai of the lights.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures. It was definitely a different Thanksgiving even compared to the one last year. I can't wait to be home for Christmas. Sending you warm wishes and aloha kisses.

Veteran's Day

Hello Again,
So for the first time since school started we actually went to North Shore. It took us until November to make the journey. We woke up to this beautiful morning and our awesome view. Its okay to be jealous because Hawaii is definitely a beautiful place. ;)
We got on the bus at the mall and met Jon downtown. This picture is of on the bus before Jon got on. We were so excited. Afterall for all of us we can count the amount of times we've been to the beach this semester on one hand. Its so much different from the amount of times we went to the beach last year.

Since we were heading to the North Shore of course we had to stop for shave ice. I always think that its funny because everyone else will get a large and I get a small and I'm always the last to finish. Its because I provide entertainment and usually don't shut up so it takes me longer. We were really excited can't you tell?

We decided to go to Waimea bay.

There were signs posted about the dangerous shore break for that day and the lifeguards kept anouncing that. But Tami, Jon and I all went for a swim and let me tell you it was intense but so much fun. We each ended up with like a pound of sand in our bottoms by the end. Then we went and laid down to soak up the sun for the rest of the day.

See the shorebreak was pretty crazy and that wasn't even the worst of it.

We had to get a good group shot since we haven't had one in a while. This was the best picture of the day.

We decided in an effort to save money we'd pack a lunch for the day. We had sandwiches, chips and granola bars for our lunch. We were all thinking that we should have done it last year since it was a lot of fun and we didn't have to leave after we got to the beach. For all of us it was a much needed break from school. We all didn't want to leave the beach since it was so nice not to have to worry about school and other stuff. Hope you enjoyed the pictures. Sending you warm wishes and aloha kisses.

Lots of Cookies!!!!

Hello,
So I decided back in September that I was going to make sugar cookies for Halloween. The Monday before Halloween and right after my first onsite clinical I took over the kitchen and made 10 dozen sugar cookies. It was a few more than I planned to make and I still had left over dough that I froze so I can make cookies for Thanksgiving. Enjoy the pictures of my day of baking.
My spot for rolling and cutting the cookies.

Alex came home while I was in the middle of baking so she was taking pictures.

While the cookies were cooling I mixed the colors in the frosting.

I took over the table to frost the cookies. I had 4 different cookie cutters so I had 30 cookies of each shape.

Here's the view from the other side of the table.

I did the base layer of frosting on the cookies before we ate dinner.

While Tami and Alex had some fun with the frosting.

Alex decorated 3 cats.

But when it got to the fine details I had to put my headphones in to block out their silliness so I wouldn't screw up. I was serious about my cookies.

Here's some of the pumpkins and cats before the details.

Here's cats and ghosts after details were added.

The happy pumpkins.

The finished bats and some more cats.

More pumpkins and ghosts. I took some of the cookies to work for our Halloween potluck on the Friday before Halloween. Making all these cookies was a much needed stress reliever for myself. I had a lot of fun plus everyone loved them. Sending you warm wishes and aloha kisses. :) Jessica