Sike …with Love

26 Tuesday Feb 2013

Posted by Making Magic in Thoughts from Jenn

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Laughter, love, Marriage, married life, Maui, newlyweds

So some of you may or may not remember that last month on January 25th I posted on my Instagram and Facebook a picture of Colt & I wishing him a happy six month anniversary from when we got married. I was so overly excited and just couldn’t believe we were already married six months until ….sike we really weren’t! Last month only made five months! I guess I really was a little too EXCITED because I clearly can’t count (and neither can Colt) since he too was like “happy six months babe” hehe! The even better part was that all of our family and friends also went along with it …..until I got a text.

It was Anu in a semi panic (she of course had something planned for us for our six month) so she had to clear up the obvious typo! As I re-read the text and re-counted the months I quickly realized she was right, oh my goodness what a dork I am! I quickly texted Colt in hysterical laughter. Only I would make such a silly mistake (and of course I felt like a total idiot) but the bright side? Two six month anniversary celebrations!

So today we celebrated our love (and our official six months)… again!

As I mentioned earlier Anu of course had something special up her sleeve! She made us these amazing snicker doodle (our absolute favorite) cupcakes in the shape of a six! She also got us these awesome sparklers! Thanks Anu & Joe you guys are always the best!

And of course it wouldn’t be a celebration if we didn’t have Thai!! Colt tried to talk me into all these fancy restaurants but I of course only had one thing on my mind, nom nom nothing beats Thai (well besides being in Thailand of course)

Sa-wat-dee Kah

Pretending like we might actually order something different when really we know the menu by heart and know exactly what we are going to order every time!

And the fest begins!

The same Thai waitress that always waits on us when we go in was so awesome and brought us out a coconut ice cream to share after our dinner. It was so thoughtful and sweet of her and reminded me so much of how we were treated while traveling in Thailand, kob kun kaa!

Once we got home we still had our snicker doodles and sparklers to light! We were stuffed to the brim but still made room for our favorite treat of course!

They were really awesome sparklers!

It couldn’t have been a better night just the two of us together celebrating our love.

Thank you Colt Olden for yesterday’s memories, today’s love, and tomorrow’s dreams…

A Day in Paradise

25 Monday Feb 2013

Posted by Making Magic in Life on Maui

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Beach days, family, fun in the sun, Happiness, love, Maui, paradise, stand up paddle board, SUP

Ingredients for the perfect Maui beach day include blue skies, little to no wind, cool sand, medium sized waves, whales breaching off shore, good food and great company. Lucky for us we live in paradise so this equation happens often but today was even more awesome because Colt’s auntie Jamie is in town from Reno.

Colt & Auntie Jamie. Isn’t she the cutest? I just want to squeeze her!

Colt woke up early since we wanted to paddle board. He left the house around 7:30a.m. so him and Cam could go to the storage to pick up and load the boards. Paddle boarding is always best between 8a.m. and 10a.m. before the wind line starts to come in and the water gets choppy. Being on the water by 8a.m. ensures crystal clear conditions and optimal turtle and whale spotting opportunities.

Since Colt and Cam got to the beach early they set up camp for us with all the goods. A tent for shade, coolers, the BBQ, games, paddle boards, the boom box and boogie boards. I couldn’t wait to get on the water but not before Katie and I snuck to the resort pool bar for a little Sunday Funday treat!

yummma theres nothing better than a spicy morning bloody! Cheers sister!

After our little pick me up we headed to the beach and hit the boards. The rest of the day was filled with fun, laughter, food, sunshine and new memories.

Colt & Khloe hitting the waves. Khloe is such a little pro on the boards.

My favorite little beach bum. She loves playing and exploring at the beach.

Auntie Jamie also got out on the boards and actually stood up this year! Last year during her visit she only paddled from the kneeling position but this year she totally rocked it!

One of the highlights of the day was Caylee getting out on the paddle boards! She is usually such a sand baby (Khloe is a water baby) but today she got out in the water and on the boards with Khloe. After a little while of Khloe towing her around Caylee took over and started paddling! Its so fun to see her coming out of her shell and into her own. She did so awesome and we were all so proud of her.

Planning the “switch”

There she goes! Getting her sea legs!

Uncle is always trailing close behind, he loves his girls so much.

All smiles, so proud!

Way to go Caylee!

Next it was my turn! I love SUP. There’s nothing better than gliding on water while working on your fitness and your tan!

All that paddling sure does make you hungry (and thirsty) so Cam cooked up some Brats and turkey burgers for everyone, it was the perfect beach lunch!

My extra handsome hubs enjoying his lunch (I know you all wish you had such an awesome beer koozie)

Around 1p.m. the winds started to pick up so we decided to pack up and call it a day.

I had such a wonderful time playing, relaxing and getting sun kissed with the people I love.

~ Live, Dream, Explore ~

05 Tuesday Feb 2013

Posted by Making Magic in Life on Maui

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Discover, Dream, Explore, Fitness, Hiking, Maui

Colt and I went on a killer hike this past Saturday. It is about 15 minutes from our house and is called the Lahaina Pali Trail or the West Maui mountains.

I drive by the West Maui mountains every day on my way to work and it has never once occurred to me that you can actually hike up there. At the top of the mountain there are these huge windmills (which is how a lot of our electricity on Maui is generated) and they are really cool. Once I found out it wasn’t private property and there was actually a hiking trail the idea consumed me! I had to get up there.

This is where the trail begins, we parked by the highway which added a 10 minute walk onto where we were suppose to start, we also missed the trail and went the wrong way for awhile so we just called that our 25 minute “warm up…”

Once we finally found the right way it was close to 11a.m. and the sun was blistering hot but we decided to do the hike anyways we were already there and sweaty.

This was one of our first outlooks about half way up the windmills. At this point I was over it. It was hot, the whole trail was up hill (moderately steep) and we only had one bottle of water. I wasn’t sure I was going to make it the rest of the way but luckily we aren’t quitters so I contiuned to push along.

(disclaimer: if you do decide to do this hike while on Maui make sure you put on a lot of sunscreen and bring a good amount of fluids. We were so sun burnt and dying of thirst by the end….)

This was the only tree on the entire trail. It was so beautiful and reminded me so much of the tree of life from the lion king. The hunk standing in front of it just adds to the extreme beauty.

This was our first glimpse of the enormous windmills (and thinking we finally made it) Don’t let the picture fool you even from here we were still almost a mile away from actually reaching them!

As we continued to climb we were blessed with this amazing-ness. It took my breath away. It’s so easy to take Maui’s beauty for granted since we see it every day. This was a great reminder to stop, take it all in and appreciate how blessed we truly are.

We finally made it up the steep hill and closer to the windmills. Exploring with Colt is one of my favorite things in the world to do.

The windmills were ginormous and made this really cool whistling sound as they spun. It was so peaceful up there, it felt like we were hanging out on top of the world.

If you know anything about me (or my best friend Kristen) we still often think that we are 12 years old and the worldest greatest gymnast heading to the junior Olympics. This basically means that at 28 years old we still try to flip and stretch the way we use to when we were 12. The result, never ever missing a great opportunity for a gymnastic photo shoot!

(Here I am attempting a scorpion on top of a rock)

The thing I love the most about Colt is how he will always play with me and how much he makes me laugh. It reminds me of what it would be like if when you were 8 years old you didn’t think boys had cooties. I remember one time when we were still dating we went to visit my family in Oahu. We were having a beach day and I started tumbling. He came up and started doing handstands with me. I knew right then and there (I already knew for a long time) that he was the one. I love that he will always do what I do no matter how much bigger he is and how much harder it is for him to maneuver. He is so much fun and makes me laugh harder than anyone I have ever known.

So here he is my husband in his attempt to do a scorpion on top of a rock. His level of concentration and form are enough to make me die from happiness & laughter. I have been having fits of giggles over this photo since Saturday. Kailea’s face is also priceless since she looks like she is saying: “Dad I am not sure you should be doing that..”

(disclaimer: he will probably kill me for posting this picture but I couldn’t help myself)

Cheering him on for doing such a great job in his pose! Babe you freaking rock!

Taking it all in one more time before we start to head down. We were so proud of Kailea who actually came on the hike with us. This was the biggest adventure of her pampered life.

photo 4 (2)

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

– it’s time to make some big changes, freebird!

Fairytale of a Dreamer

11 Thursday Oct 2012

Posted by Making Magic in The 9 month road to marrying the man of my dreams

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Tags

Dreams, fairy tale, goals, Happiness, love story, Marriage, Maui, paradise, true love, wedding day

A day forever etched in my brain as a real life fairytale, my real life fairytale come true. I still sometimes think about our wedding day and laugh because it so often doesn’t seem real. I have sat down so many times to write about this magically perfect day and instantly get butterflies. I feel like if I let all my feelings out that somehow I might lose some of the magic that I still feel inside, feelings that I never want to leak out of me or disappear…

The morning of my wedding started great because I was snuggled tight in bed with my big sissy and Kailea. I had my other sister Ashley on my pull out couch with my good friend & bridesmaid Deni and you could physically feel the love & excitement in the room before we even opened our eyes. Speaking of my pull out couch, let’s back up. The day prior to us getting married Friday August 24^th we had a great day. We planned an amazing beach day with our entire family and friends. It was a perfect Maui day and there was so much fun and laughter. Later that afternoon I had a private manicure and pedicure session with my bestest of girls and it was more laughter and happy tears. So many memories were made in those 5 days it still brings tears of joy to my eyes. As we were getting our mani’s and pedi’s the Grand called to tell me our wedding suite was ready. Now if you know me you know that I LOVE the Grand Wailea, there standard rooms are exciting to me so I could barely believe that we would be staying in a wedding suite and when we got there it got even better. It was so beautiful I thought I would drop dead and it was only the beginning. Two bathrooms, a living room, a pull out couch, a wrap around lanai with 360 degree views of Maui and a master bedroom you would kill for in real life, it was another dream come true and it was ours.

We happily ran through the entire suite, jumped up and down and laughed uncontrollably it was really happening we were here for Colt & I’s wedding! So back to that morning, I woke up early not as early as I would have thought and I actually did sleep which I didn’t think was going to happen. It was around 5:30am and my sister was already bright eyed and bushy tailed she is such a morning person I love it. As I looked around I made a promise in that moment to not let one second of this time slip away. I stayed in bed thinking about the course of the day while my sister happily chatted about our timeline and my other sister Ashley came into bed with us. I couldn’t believe this was it, our wedding day. The course of that morning stands out to me so much the feelings, nervousness, excitement even the temperature of the room I can feel right now as I type. My senses were on overdrive and refused to miss even a second. Over those next 9 hours of us getting ready here are some of the moments that were so special to me:

Anu made breakfast for the all the girls and guys and it was so special, thoughtful and delicious

Joyce and George (my best friend Kristen’s) parents got a huge breakfast spread delivered to our suite which was perfect since at one point there ended up being 16 girls in the suite getting ready, eating and waiting. It was the sweetest surprise and added so much more love to that morning.

Watching each of the girls that are the most important to me get beautiful for our special day. At one point I remember I was pissed thinking they were giving me a run for my money, the breaks of having beautiful friends…they all looked so beautiful.

Spending a special moment with each of them to give them there presents. I got them all a bracelet from Alex and Ani. They were the same bracelet but the charm was different on each girls and representative of who they were as individuals.

My sister Ashley doing my hair and make-up. I never thought that would be such an emotional moment for me but thinking about how selfless it was of her was so touching. It was also such an honor to me because of the relationship she has with Colt. He loves and respects her so much. I can honestly say I know he thought I looked one hundred times more gorgeous because he knew his baby sister got me ready.

Having my sister and mother get me in my wedding dress. This moment was one that is burned into my brain. The emotion on each of their faces and love they projected is enough to make me burst.

Getting my flower girls ready. In that moment so many memories came over me of Khloe and Caylee and how much we have shared in these last 3 years. It was so crazy to see little ladies standing in front of me and create such a special moment with my little sister Tristyn.

Having my mother-in-law and Colt’s grandmother with us getting ready. Just seeing the love and happiness in their eyes was more than I could have ever asked for and the moments I will cherish always.

There are so many more moments from that morning that come over me as I type:

My sister Ashley swallowing my right contact lens first thing that morning and leaving me blind for the first 3 hours! I forgot my contact case and put them in a water glass in the bathroom which she of course used to drink water in the next morning. I swear there has never been even one dull moment in our relationship so I couldn’t have asked for a funnier memory on my wedding day!

Having my sister Jessica catering to my every need. I don’t think there was one minute she ever let me worry even for a second. If my facial expression changed she was by my side and ready to attack. It was so nice to not have to think or worry.

Watching my best friend Kristen’s emotions and love for me after all these years of friendship. She was my superwoman that day, my real life superwoman.

There are so many other stolen moments with so many special people I could go on for hours.

As we left the room to walk to the chapel I couldn’t believe it was happening! It was one of the only moments through the whole process where I felt like my nervous might get the best of me but then I looked up and saw my Dad. Seeing him for the first time was emotional for me and a moment I will always cherish. He of course kept me laughing and eased all my nerves. He was so strong and I needed that more than I even knew.

Over those next 15 minutes of waiting and walking I can honestly say it was the only time I truly felt like I was in a blur, a dream, like I was there but I wasn’t and then we got to the chapel doors and I saw him…

Every ounce of my being was still. My heart caught up with my brain and I was there, present and calm. I couldn’t have been more happy to marry this man.

So many special moments took place over the course of our ceremony, moments that I play over and over again in my head every day.

Moments you can only see to believe.

I hope this video of our wedding day gives you every ounce of love and happiness it gave to us and all 60 of our closest friends and family.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BrB0JVq_kE&feature=relmfu

It was a day of dreams and fairytales come true…a day of everlasting love..it was the beginning of our forever…

Chasing the Maui Son ✨

Tag Archives: Maui

Sike …with Love

A Day in Paradise

~ Live, Dream, Explore ~

Fairytale of a Dreamer