Photo Purge

I'm super excited because, after this post, I will actually be caught up with blogging for the first time in MONTHS!!! April was a crazy busy month for us here, and I feel like it's best shared via pictures! We literally had something planned every weekend! Our first weekend was the Kwaj Spring Break Music Festival followed by Leanne's baby shower. The next weekend was my Mexican Fiesta themed birthday, and the weekend after that was Easter! WHEW! I'm exhausted just reliving it! While it was such a fun month, I know Johnathon and I are looking forward to a weekend with nothing planned! With that here is the month of April recapped:

Weekend #1: Spring Break Music Fest/ Leanne's Baby Shower/Miscellaneous Fun

Let's start with Miscellaneous...this actually happened in March but it was too cool not to share. The guys caught a Marlin! I thought it was huge until people told me it was actually very small for a marlin. Either way I was impressed!

I loved the color of this fish! Clearly, Johnathon also loved it

It's softball season! Looking for Sadie and I? I feel like we are always at the softball fields cheering on J and the Mud Ducks!

Not a bad field to play on :)

The first weekend in April was the Music Festival aka-the afternoon spent in the home brew beer tent!

Some pretty ladies I found in the beer tent (I feel like I should mention that Leanne is drinking ROOT beer) :)

Reliving our crazy college Spring Break days...clearly Cher and I had different Spring Break experiences ;)

Thanks Johnathon for ruining  really making this a top notch photo!

Sarah and I with the guy who gave me his parrot hat!

That Monday (U.S. Sunday) was Leanne's baby shower at the Country Club- How cute were the decorations??

One of the games was too mix and match baby pics of Leanne and Preston to come up with what you think Babytown will look like. Clearly this baby is gonna be a looker :)

Donna and Leanne

If I'm ever having a bad day, all I have to do is look at Lindsey's baby...hahahaha

The hostesses Angela and Jane with the mama to be!

We tried to recreate our prom pose from last fall...it's a little bit of a tighter fit now but we did it!

 Weekend # 2: My 26th Fiesta Birthday!

All I wanted for my birthday was a relaxing day at the beach with friends! And maybe food from Chuys....while Chuy's didn't happen, we did have some yummy Mexican food, and the rain held off long enough for a good day at the beach!

Owen helping me blow out my birthday cupcake

We took the party to the lagoon

Love this girl!

Love me some Donna too!

And of course I knew I could count on Angela to bring the fiesta spirit! xoxo

Jenny brought me some Patron for my Fiesta Birthday, and because it's my birthday, I forced everyone to take a Tequila shot with me! Judging by the priceless faces below...I think everyone really enjoyed it!

I went first...

Cher and Donna's face says it all

Lindsey got smart and licked a chip before hand because we didn't have salt

Johnathon clearly enjoyed it ;)

The ladies :)

 Weekend #3:
Last but not least, was our Easter Sunday on Kwaj. There was a sunrise service held on Emon Beach, and it was such a beautiful way to celebrate Christ's sacrifice for us! The service was held under a big pavilion, and afterward they held Baptisms on the beach. Two adorable girls chose to be baptized, and I think that was my favorite part of the day. After the baptisms there was a buffet breakfast that Johnathon and I capped off with a 2 hour nap! Happy Easter!

The first girl with Pastor Kevin

This girl was so cute...she ran in she was so excited, and she plugged her nose for about 5 min before she actually went under water :)

He is Risen! Happy Easter

April was so much fun, and I can't wait to see the Sekol's when they come to visit in May!

Hawaii Trip

 I'm still attempting to play catch up here, so here is a blog recap of my trip I took to Hawaii in March to see my family! I promised my family when we moved that I would try to see them about every 6 months, and February marked our 6th month on Kwaj! So at the end of February/beginning of March I traveled to Hono to meet up with my mom, dad, and sister! Unfortunately, Johnathon needed to save his time off work for our big trip back in August, so I flew by myself to meet up with my family. As most of you probably know I was not too excited about the idea of flying by myself. I have a big fear of flying, and I prefer to jump in Johnathon's lap at every little turbulence bump, as opposed to a total stranger's. However, since Johnathon couldn't make the trip, I befriended the very large Marshallese woman sitting next to me who didn't seem thrown by my tendency to grab her hand at every bump during the flight.

The other downside of flying from Kwaj to anywhere is that you have to fly to Honolulu first and you land in Hono at about 3am. Needless to say I was exhausted and ready to get to the hotel and crash, but the shuttle driver that picked me up had other plans! He dropped me off at a very nice hotel in Ko Olina, and informed me that this was my stop. I got out and proceeded to the check in desk where they informed me that they had no record of my reservation at all. Upon further digging I discovered that the shuttle bus driver had dropped me off at the wrong hotel, and that mine was, in fact, the one next door. The charming  helpful friendly crabby lady at the front desk told me they couldn't possibly find someone to take me next door at this hour, so I would have to walk. So me, and my 3 bags made our way down the ridiculously long sidewalk to the right hotel. I finally got checked in and caught up on some sleep and was very ready for my family to get in the next day. It was so, so good to see my family! We spent a week in Ko Olina, which is on the Southwest side of Oahu. Ko Olina is a really small town, and has great sunny weather most of the time. We spent several days lounging at the beach/pool, then going to dinner in town at night. We drove to the North Shore one day, and ate lunch at the Turtle Bay resort. It was rainy and cool that day, and the waves on the North Shore were huge!! I'm so used to the little to no waves on Kwaj that I found them particularly impressive. My family was nice enough to indulge in a shopping trip with me. Since there are no malls or really any shopping on Kwaj I had to take full advantage of a trip to the Ala Moana mall. I may or may not have done some serious damage there! We finished our shopping day with a happy hour at the Sheraton at Waikiki which had amazing views of Diamond Head.

The week in Ko Olina went by way too fast, and before I knew it, we were all heading to the airport to head home. While my whole family made it home without a hitch, my flight to Kwaj got cancelled. Apparently this happens quite often. They announced at first that our flight was having "mechanical problems" (always reassuring) and that we would be delayed an hour. Everyone on my flight started laughing and I couldn't figure out why. Well, after an hour of waiting they announced that the flight was cancelled and we would all have to wait for a flight the next day. Evidently I was the only one caught off guard by this announcement, and our flight has mechanical issues all the time. Awesome. So we all had to go to baggage claim and get our stuff. Lots of people travel to and from Kwaj with coolers full of fish and meat. Of course, in true Kwaj form, one of the coolers came open, so there were fish and raw chicken all over the bags and baggage claim. I really just had to laugh at that point because this would only happen on a Kwaj flight. So after one more unexpected day in Hono, I finally made it back to Kwaj. It was so great to see my family! It was really great to be back in civilization (California Pizza Kitchen and Starbucks in 1 week!!!!), and it felt like old times hanging out with my family!! I may be biased, but I really think I have the best family ever! Even though the trip was far too short, in a few short months it will be time to go visit everyone back in the states!! Here are some pics of our trip!

Me at the North Shore

Some big waves and Adrienne trying out her photography skills!

Sisterly Love

Mom and Dad at North Shore

Dinner in Ko Olina

The hotel grounds were beautiful

Lagoon at our hotel

Hortom/McClellan ladies before dinner

View of the pool from our balcony

Gorgeous Waikiki sunset

AA and I at Waikiki after our shopping day

Aloha!

We're Back!!!

So you may have noticed that we took a slight hiatus from blogging...BUT we're back, and with loads of pictures to share!!! We had a slow couple of weeks after Christmas, which we definitely needed. The holidays are always so much fun, but crazy busy! It was nice to slow down and regroup for the new year.  However, with this crazy group out here you know we didn't slow down for long. Cher's birthday was mid January, and we decided to take some golf carts out to the surf platform. The platform is at the very end of the island, and has some pretty spectacular views of the Pacific. Here are some pics from that night:

My favorite ladies :)

Angela and Cher the Birthday Girl!

Cher, Leanne, and Donna emphasizing Leanne's "bump"

We had a lot of fun, until we were packing up to leave, and I almost stepped on a gigantic crab! Of course I was calm, composed, relaxed, hysterical, and sprinted to the golf cart, which all the ladies seemed to find super funny. I was not amused. Angela even picked up a crab, and tried to put it on me! I think I'm still suffering from PTCD..Post Traumatic Crab Disorder for those not in the medical community. ;) It's not all the time that we get to ride around in a golf cart, so Donna, Leanne, and I finished out the night with a little joy ride around the island.

Donna and I on our joy ride

Leanne doing a great job chauffeuring us around

A few weeks later came Preston's Grad Party. Preston finished his Masters Degree for UTA in December, but unfortunately couldn't make it back to Texas for the graduation ceremony. Not to worry...that didn't stop our little party planner, Leanne, from throwing a very elaborate graduation ceremony Kwaj style. Leanne went all out. She set up seating with an aisle for Preston to walk down, Arranged for keynote speakers (Lindsey, Adam, Jerrod, and Jon), had food catered, and decorated each table with photos of Preston over the years. I'm telling you...I may be biased, but I think this party was better than any grad party back in the states. I mean, what other grad ceremony has speakers who read personalized Haiku's dedicated to the graduate?! There was also a slideshow complete with video messages from Preston's family and friends back home. It may not have been the most serious grad ceremony ever, but it was certainly the most fun!

The ladies and Preston

I was happy to contribute some mini-bundts to the party :)

Lindsey reading a personalized Haiku...please note the awesome video display in the background!

Jerrod came with a Limerick or 2 prepared

Diploma from the boss man/Jon

Johnathon and I with the man of the hour

The ceremony area

Reception portion of the evening

Hannah was a big fan of the graduation hats!

Jane and I ready to party!

We finished out the month of February with a shrimp boil at the Yacht Club. Adam's parents came to visit, and they ended their trip with a shrimp boil for everyone. The yacht club is one of my favorite spots on the island. There is a great open air deck that sticks out over the water, and it's a great place to have a drink, and enjoy the breeze and a nice sunset!

Obligatory yacht photo since the party was at the YACHT club

Another gorgeous sunset

And this rounds out our Jan/Feb recap. Up next...my trip to Hawaii to see my family...otherwise known as the time I drank a year's worth of Chai Latte's in a 1 week time frame. This is what happens when Starbucks and I get separated for 7 months!