Kona-teering

31 Wednesday Jul 2013

Tags

big island, family, friends, Happiness, Hawaii, Life, Travel, vacation, wanderlust

We spent this past weekend vacationing on the Big Island with Joe, Anu and her family. We were so stoked when Anu told us at the beginning of the summer that her Dad won a gift certificate for a weekend stay at the Hilton Waikoloa timeshares and decided to give it to us. It was such a generous gift to give and believe me we appreciated and enjoyed every single second.

The boys left early (5 a.m. kinda early) on Friday morning to catch the first flight into Kona, so they could golf with Auntie Shal & Uncle Russ. They were able to play golf at two of the nicest courses on big island and they couldn’t have been more happy.

Since Anu and I were going for more of the relaxing (let’s get drunk at the pool) kinda weekend we didn’t arrive until a little after 12:30 on Friday. Once we landed we drove over to Costco to stock up on all the essentials then headed straight for the hotel to enjoy some much needed girl time.

Anu & Jenn take Kona begins..

Next stop, best weekend ever.

Welcome to our home-base for the next 3 days.

As soon as the bell man (barley) closed the door Anu & I were jumping up and down and running through the condo like 5 year olds for a good 10 minutes.

It doesn’t get much better than this

(this picture captures “vacation” Anu perfectly, my goodness I just love her)

well until you open the back sliding door to your own private pool and jacuzzi…jackpot!

cheers to the best of friends and adult vacations on Kona

Pre-gaming with a game of Apples to Apples (to go) before heading over to Anu’s families place for a Friday night BBQ

Saturday morning the boys hit the golf course while Anu & I took over Kona, the Hilton, the pool and the pool bar

(you know just your typical girls day)

All that swimming and sunning sure did make us thirsty, so it was no big surprise that we spent the rest of our afternoon at the pool bar

We made friends with our bartender Donna and before we knew it we had sipped and laughed the afternoon away

Drink of the day (with vodka instead of rum)

Shot of the day (no clue)

Pact of the day

(you wish you knew)

the daily essentials…

flowers, heart shaped sunglasses, room keys, the boys credit cards and the vap (duh)

Best ranch in the whole entire world (ever in the universe)

A girls day wouldn’t be complete without a ANTM photo-shoot

We got these luscious looking drinks to take back to the room for the boys

(and then drank most of them on the way while stealing a golf cart…)

(don’t judge us, the ground was HOT!)

The boys were not amused with us so they hit the bar by themselves

(but we of course crashed their party)#jjacmusketeers aka double diva’s

After the pool we headed back to the room for some more apples to apples (to go) sunset, dinner and drinks

Since Anu & I had spent the day pooling & exploring we had found Sansei (which is one of our favorite sushi places on Maui) so we opted not to tell the boys and surprised them with late night 1/2 off pupus and karaoke

this is their “surprise” faces

we were pretty proud of ourselves

so we signed them up for some “surprise” songs, lol

Joe didn’t seem to mind

We even sang a few duets

(we would NEVER do this in Maui, btw)

On Sunday we all went down to the other Hilton resort and spent our day pooling and lagoon-ing

and we of course hit the slides

you don’t even want to know why they are cracking up

(or you do…but you just had to be there)

After hours of pooling we were totally water logged so we hit the road to go leave our mark on Kona by writing our hashtag in coral off of one of the main highways
finding the perfect spot

hashtagging it up

getting the “perfect” picture from above

#jjacmusketeers

(were here, best weekend ever)

“It is only in adventure that some people succeed in knowing themselves – in finding themselves.” –

04 Monday Mar 2013

Posted by Making Magic in Life on Maui

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Adventure, Explore, fit life, happy, Hawaii, healthy, Hiking, Maui, Trails, Travel, Waihe'e Ridge

First and foremost I would like to say that I am loving my new found freedom of extraordinary. I’ve had the time to slow down and really stop and appreciate all that’s around me and embodies me. I’ve adjusted to my relaxing wife life and my new “normal” pretty easily and I am just soaking up every second of it!

beach bumming

This morning we woke up around 7a.m. made some oatmeal with fresh fruit and headed out to hit the trail. We’ve been wanting to explore Maui more and we heard the Wahihe’e Ridge Trail was pretty awesome with great views.

We got on the trail by 9:30a.m. and the weather couldn’t have been more perfect. It was brisk with the perfect amount of chill in the air to cool you down as you sweat. The trail is 5 miles long round trip and has incredible views of the valley along with luscious green forest.

You gain about 1,500 feet over the 2 1/2 miles up the ridge so this sign is very important

Since you are climbing so high it is suggested that you get on this trail early (by 8a.m.) for maximum viewing exposure. However Colt & I got on the trail a little later than 9a.m. and although some clouds had already moved in the views were still breathtaking.

This is one of the first outlooks on your way up. You can see two beautiful flowing falls in the distance

This hike gets your heart pumping and gluteus working right away. By the time you hit 1/2 a mile you’ve already climbed 400 feet!

Someone was hitching a ride by 400 feet, my little “wanna be hiker”

The landscape was incredible and took my breath away. You are hiking through guava, kukui, swamp mahogany, cook island pines and millions of ferns all while moving towards this view!

Waihe’e Valley in all its raw beauty

As we kept climbing the air kept getting cooler and cooler it felt great to feel the elevation of the climb.

Going up!

We saw so many unique plants and trees along the way and we saw a ton of these, they are actually the stems that the ferns grow out of!

They reminded me of the caterpillar (the Hookah-Smoking caterpillar hehe) in Alice and Wonderland

Since it was a Sunday and later in the morning there were a lot of hikers also on the trail with us going up as well as coming down.

The most handsome hiker I saw all day:)

Colt loved all the different kinds of trees. The views reminded me of scenes from Twilight (they were that good)

My very own Edward Cullen

It took us a little over an hour to get to the top since we continued to stop for several photo ops!

Kai & I taking a little breather..

keep on climbing, climbing…

Natural beauty just lurking around ever twist and turn

Once we finally got to the top it was beautiful! Its the perfect place to have a light lunch if you should know to pack one. The air is cool and the visual silence is like nothing you can experience unless you are at 2,563 feet.

I love where the ocean meets the sky and the accent of green, there’s nothing better.

Flying high, freebirding

There’s nothing that I love more than experiencing this life and exploring this earth with this man

Going down..

Kai loves this part, she just cruises all the way down

Taking an extra moment to take it all in (once again)

I love the forest and getting lost in paradise

This hike is so beautiful and I highly recommend it to anyone traveling to Maui or to residents who have yet to experience it. If you love having your head in the clouds and paradise at your feet you will absolutely love it. I know we did!

“I used to dream about escaping my ordinary life until I realized my life was never ordinary. I had just failed to notice how extraordinary it really is..”

Surprise! We (were) in Reno

04 Friday Jan 2013

Posted by Making Magic in Wanderlust

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Explore, family, Happiness, Life, Marriage, married life, newlyweds, Travel, true love

Well I guess it is no longer a “surprise” that Colt and I spent our Christmas in Reno with our family. However, it was one BIG surprise when we showed up.

(Rewind to October)

We booked tickets back in October when I found a great deal online. It was Colt’s families year for Christmas so I just causally asked him one day if he would like to spend it in Reno. He just kind of looked at me with a “really” face and then excitingly said “Yes! Let’s do it!” I seriously couldn’t have been more excited, traveling for Christmas was like a dream come true for me. It just adds to the magic and nostalgia of an already magical holiday! We booked our tickets that night and decided we wouldn’t tell anyone (besides Ashley & Chad since they would be in Reno too). We giggled and laughed just thinking about how “surprised” they were going to be. We knew from my facebook stalking that Kellie (my mother in law) was hosting everyone at her house and that so much of Colt’s family would be there this year, it felt like real Christmas already and we were still a few months away.

(Fast forward, it’s December!)

When December 1st finally hit I was like a little kid in a candy store. I couldn’t believe we were only 20 days away from the surprise, I also couldn’t believe that it was still a surprise and that NOBODY knew that we were coming (just that sentence alone sends me into a fit of giggles, even after the fact) we were just days away from the best surprise EVER and on CHRISTMAS!

December of course flew by with work and holiday celebrations with family and trips to Oahu that before we could even say “Reno” we were on the plane. We flew out of Maui Friday December 21st on a overnight red eye to San Francisco. Our “plan” was to land in Reno at 9am on Saturday morning pick up our rental and spend the day with Colt’s family (word of advice there is no such thing as a “plan” when no one knows you are coming). We arrived in Reno a little over an hour late (we got delayed in San Francisco) just to find out from Colt’s mom’s facebook that she was snow plowing with Steve and Tristyn in Tahoe for the day! We couldn’t believe it! Here we are in RENO at 10am ready to surprise them and they were in TAHOE! (they didn’t end up coming home until after 8pm that night!)

What you will see below is a series of videos. I was so worried I wasn’t going to be able to remember every second of the experience to write about later so I decided to video blog every moment… ENJOY!

The Stake out Part I

http://youtu.be/5CPywZZey-c

The Stake out Part II

<;;;a title=”The Stew’s Take Reno”

The Stake out Part III

http://youtu.be/BTMM84SSAE4

The Stake out Part IIII

This was the last video of “the stake out” once we left the bar Kellie was home and we flew up her driveway like a mad man(woman). I (thought) I was taping the whole time but my phone died so I was only able to capture this…

http://youtu.be/UBguRS_qIQYb

..because both of our phones had died shortly after “the stake out” I unfortunately was not able to get Austin’s reaction either which was priceless (he looked like he saw the ghost of Colt, so sweet). However we were able to get Grandma’s reaction in her FULL shocked glory….

Since we weren’t able to get Kellie, Austin, and Tristyn’s reaction we later did a video interview with them asking what their “thoughts” were on the surprise…

http://youtu.be/DWpK25-Ccig

Since grandpa really had no idea what was going on during the “surprise” (he just heard grandma screaming and thought he won the Publishing Clearing house) we later asked him what he thought about the “surprise” to give him a little face time…

http://youtu.be/qF97U3SBbN4

and last but certainly not least we FINALLY got to pick up Ash and Chad (secret agents) that were “in” on the surprise…they of course got the FULL holiday mobile greeting from the Stews….

<;;a title=”Picking up Ash & Chad (secret agents)

We had so much fun with these video blogs and I couldn’t be more happy that I was able to capture every moment in its entirety! The Stew’s take Reno was a success!

I will post pictures of the rest of our amazing trip soon, until then keep laughing with one another…

The Happiest Place on Earth

15 Thursday Nov 2012

Posted by Making Magic in Wanderlust

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Dream, Explore, Happiness, married life, Travel

Is it weird that 90% of the time when I go to write a blog a song which resembles what I am about to write about instantly pops into my head? For example as soon as I sat down to write this…boom:

♪ There ain’t no rest for the wicked,

Money don’t grow on trees,

I got bills to pay

I got a mouth to feed

Ain’t nothing in this world for free.

I know I can’t slow down,

I can’t hold back

Though you know I wish I could

Oh no there ain’t no rest for the wicked ♪

Now the “wicked” part is debatable but the “no rest” part is a shoo-in because we honestly have not slowed down since the wedding/honeymoon. With Colt starting his new job we now have weekends off together and boy have we been making the most of them! We have done everything from family time, to photo shoots, to pumpkin picking, to pumpkin carving, to running 5k’s in honor and celebration of Auntie Jamie to going to Florida and planning & booking more trips. Every weekend since September has been filled with some kind of fun and or shenanigans and I am exhausted! Exhausted from LIFE and LIVING and I am loving it! I love that every moment we have that we are not working we are exploring a new space or place, making a new memory or just enjoying our love. I have to say getting married is the best thing I have ever done! There is just something about being able to experience life with your significant other who is also your best friend that is so exhilarating.

We just got home from Florida a week ago today. Colt has never been to the East coast (I know that statement is so crazy to me too) and I had a work conference in Orlando from Sunday to Friday so we decided it would be a great opportunity to fly him out. We quickly made plans with my two cousins who both live about two hours from Orlando and whom I haven’t seen in 5 years! During those 5 years Kelly & her husband Elton have had 2 beautiful baby girls and Chrissie & Omar also had a beautiful baby girl (I know I can’t believe it, 3 girls!) I was so excited to finally meet them and squeeze them but also have them all finally meet Colt! As if that wasn’t already amazing enough my bestest friend Kristen also decided to come down with her boyfriend Kevin so we decided to make the trip into a Disney World / Universal three day fun-filled family vacation! 5 parks, 3 days no biggie….or so we thought!

Colt got into Florida on Friday night right in time for my conference to end. I couldn’t have been more happy to see him (and in Florida none the less). I had missed him so much that week since this was my first trip without him since we became husband and wife. It was so exciting to be having our first real vacation as a “married” couple. Kristen and Kevin also got in later that evening so we went to dinner had some drinks then hit the sack. I of course had a strict itinerary planned for us over the next 3 days and there wasn’t much time for sleep.

Date: Saturday November 3, 2012

Location: Universal’s Island of Adventure & Downtown Disney

Begin Time: 6:00am

End Time: 11:00pm

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter was by far one of the highlights of my trip (it also happened to be one of my bucket list items..check!)

the butter beer was to die for, I had two then thought I might barf.

These three look a little too natural with those magic wands..hmmm

the Harry Potter exclusive “hog’s head” beer (on tap of course) hit the spot after a long day of flying on broomsticks

After 7 hours at the park we were ready to get our feet back on the ground so we drove to downtown Disney to meet my amazing family for dinner. Talk about baby fever, whew…these sweet girls captured our hearts instantly.

Ellyana this is her “don’t you see I’m coloring Auntie” look. Love this sweet angel, she is so beautiful and such a wonderful big sister to Ellysa and cousin to Giana.

Baby Giana. ohh just look at that face! She is so beautiful and such a happy & sweet girl.

The newest addtion to our growing family Ellysa Grace! She is so sweet and cute as a button at just 8 weeks old.

I honestly still can’t believe these are my cousins babies! It is so crazy and amazing to see them as Mom’s with their own families. You are both amazing wives and mothers. Love you both so much.

My beautiful cousins Chrissie & Kelly.

Date: Sunday November 4, 2012

Location: Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom & Epcot

Begin time: 7:00am

End time: 11:00pm

Good Morning Minni Mouse Diva’s & Best of Friends.

Rock and Roll Baby!

One of Colt, Kevin & I’s favorite ride…Kristen not so much.

our favorite park of the 4

best coaster of the bunch

Kilimanjaro African Safari got two thumbs up!

not much could compare to the Disney World dance party…just shaking our groove thing with the Goof!

Date: Monday November 5, 2012

Location: Hollywood Studios, Epcot, Hollywood Studios

Begin time: 8:00am

End time: 11:00pm

On Monday the parks were jam packed by 9am so instead of waiting in long lines we went over to Epcot for their food & wine festival which took us on a trip around the world and I must say Mickey’s Bar Crawl was a brilliant success!

…well until my best friend threw me in a rose bush!