Happy 5th Anniversary to us!

January 31, 2009 we celebrated our 5th anniversary. Amazing to know that 5 years have passed us by already. Crazy! I guess time really does fly when you are having fun, and having fun we are.

Out of our 5 years of marriage, we have lived here on the island for about 4.5 of them. Talk about a honeymoon!

We enjoyed waffles and banana bread muffins for breakfast, then headed out to a wonderful golf course, Kaneohe Klipper over on the Marine Corp Base here in Kaneohe. It was a beautiful day out on the course. Nothing like blue sky and clear blue water to look out at while you are teeing off. After our round of golf, we came home, did a quick clean up and change-a-roo, and headed downtown to The Top of Waikiki. It is a restaurant in the heart of Waikiki that is about 20 floors high and it revolves. I believe it takes about 45 minutes to do one revolution. So we head there about 30-45 minutes before sunset so we can enjoy the whole view and be about done when the sun goes down. The recently changed their menu so we plan on visiting on occasion since there are so many wonderful choices to choose from.

Here's to many more anniversaries for James and I. Love you honey!

Happy New Year and then some.....

ALOOOOOOOOHA and Happy New Year everyone! I/we hope everyone's new year has started off on a positive note and has been happy thus far.

We had a wonderful Christmas here in Aloha land. Warm weather, togetherness, and GOLF! Yes, it has been a tradition for James and I to play golf Christmas morning since we have moved here. Sparky (our Dalmatian) doesn't seem to mind so much. She gets her gifts, helps us unwrap our presents (she LOVES wrapping paper!), and with that she is happy.

New Years was loud as usual here on the island. Here the locals light off firecrackers at midnight to ward off the evil spirits for the new year. We are talking people will spend in excess of $1,000 on firecrackers alone. It's crazy. Of course, new years 2009 also means that James turned the BIG 40!!!!

With it being a "big" day, I wanted to make it special for James. With so many close family and friends so far away, it was nearly impossible to throw a meaningful birthday party. I put on my creative cap and tried to think of something. Low and behold, I figured it out. I sent out an email to as many people that I had email addresses for and even hit up James friends list on Facebook and Myspace and sent out a mass email. I was going to hold a "Card Party" for James. I asked everyone to send in cards (and to have fun with the cards since he was turning 40) and told them I was going to intercept the mail and collect all of them. So, the day of his birthday, I took all the cards received (almost 40 of them) and placed them inside his birthday present. I bought him a paddle carrier for his/ours canoe paddles. When I gave it to him, I told him how I would have loved to have thrown him a nice 4oth birthday party with family and friends, but obviously couldn't, "so I did the next best thing", I said. "Open your carrier". When he opened it, I said rather loudly, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY FROM EEEVVVEERRYYOONNEE!" It turned out great, and I thank everyone who helped make his birthday a happy one. So we celebrated with Mimosa's in the morning and hoped to play golf, but the weather was not conducive for that, so we opted for a movie.

After the movie, that night I cooked a wonderful Surf and Turf dinner for the two of us and I had also baked James a cake.

All in all, it was a great day, and turning 40 for James is now in the past........only 1.5 years to go for the celebrating being for me. YIKES!