Happy Birthday

Me and mom, 1978.

I love you, Mommy! Happy Birthday.

One year ago..

One year ago this week, we were in Hawaii!! The most beautiful place on earth (of the places I have been).

I warn you, this is a long recap, but I never did get to show off the photos to anyone... was busy preparing for Kate's arrival at the time...


This was the first night in Hawaii. We got to our rented beach house just in time to see it.. every night, we had beautiful sunsets to enjoy. We were on Sunset Beach on the North Shore of Oahu.

I feel like we have found the best deal ever - these houses on the beach for rent. It is an amazing deal... for now. One day I'm sure it will cost a fortune to stay here. :(

Here we are getting settled in the house for the week! Not too many photos of the house we stayed in... it wasn't much to look at - your basic beach house.

We went to dinner that night, and we got to sit next to Terry O'Quinn who is the actor playing John Locke on Lost.

ohh.. ahhh... celebrities.

The next morning began at 6 am. We could not sleep!! The time change gets us every time. We always drink a lot of coffee when in Hawaii. Here's James standing outside the house looking at the ocean.

And here is daybreak. It was beautiful already!!

Shortly after, the surfers arrived. And then the photographers! You know there's a surf competition going on when all the photographers are out (or some big waves!).

We had the competitions and the waves the week we were there - lucky for us. :)

Once the sun came out, it was a gorgeous day - look at that rainbow.

Most days were spent lounging on the beach. We had 2 other couples go with us: Rob and Jennifer, and Tod and Margaret. Rob and Jennifer stayed in our house on the beach, while Tod and Margaret rented their house just down the street.

I love this photo of Tod, Margaret and Jennifer.

James taking a swim.

At Turtle Bay, 7 months pregnant.

We spent some time at Tod and Margaret's house. It was a pretty sweet place - set back off the road and secluded. It was truly a surfer's house. There were several apartments with pro-surfers renting them out.

The North Shore is called the Country, and this is one of the reasons why - roosters just hanging out (I think those were some sort of grapefruit on the ground).

Check out the boards!

And one of these had Rob Machado's name on it!!!!!!!! (He's a pro-surfer, if you didn't know)

Stephanie Gilmore was one of the girls staying there who was a pro-surfer from Australia. I just saw that she ended up going on to be the world champion for 2008!! We saw her a few times (ohh... ahh!!) and hung out with some of her groupie friends at Tod/Margaret's house.

Hanging out at the pool table.

Throwing some darts.

On Thanksgiving Day, we decided to cook a turkey breast for dinner. While it was cooking, we all went down to enjoy the sunset. Here's mine and James' "Olan Mills" posed photo, hahaha

Jennifer and Rob: They got engaged!! What a perfect location to get engaged. They were just married - and I recently posted about our trip to Connecticut for the wedding.

Margaret and Tod - who got married in Hawaii 2 years prior... Happy Anniversary guys!

there she goes...

Our Thanksgiving dinner with Turkey, Stovetop stuffing, cranberry sauce, roasted vegetables and deviled eggs (with bacon, yum).

We went to watch some of the Triple Crown Competition. this is at Sunset Beach, just down the street from our house. Awesome!

This was also the last day of our trip. check out those waves!!! You just can't believe how big they were unless you were there I suppose... none of us could get in the water that day.

Our last night, James and I went to dinner at Jameson's by the Sea for some seafood.

We had a wonderful trip. I can't believe it's already been a year!! We can't wait to go back.

Mahalo!

Kate and stuff

I cannot stop talking about how much fun Kate is these days. She always was fun, but now she is really entertaining us with her giggles and fascination in things.
We have a lot of fun at Target. Now that she can sit in her seat, she just looks at everybody and everything and enjoys herself.
She's eating everything we put in her mouth. Yesterday, she took a cookie from me!! It was her cookie.. (they taste really good!!).

We've been kicking it Halloween-style for the past few weeks, clothes-wise. This onesie says, "Gouls just wanna have fun"
We are wearing pumpkin socks, too.

OK, so I know I made her the ladybug costume, but she didn't actually get to wear it on Halloween!! Crazy, right?! She was napping prior to Halloween time, and when she woke up, she was hungry so we had to feed her, and then she was fussy for bath/bed. THEN the trick-or-treaters came after she went to sleep. So it didn't make sense to put her in the costume for dinner. James decided we should put her in her UGA cheerleader dress (that will never happen again on his part)!! I thought she looked adorable.

I even carved the baby pumpkin! I thought it would be cool to carve the large one, but who has that time. Did I mention I've been sick?? Hellooo... that little pumpkin was enough for me.

This past Saturday morning. Just chillin in our PJs. Because we can on Saturday.
This is Kate's Cindy-Lou-Who face. Loves it!

What happened to October??

October went by so fast. It's like I blinked, and it was over. I guess it was fast because we were so busy!! And sick. Kate and I have been sick since.. Sept?? Minus a few weeks. James has been dealing with painful shoulder and neck issues, stemming from an injury back in Sept. He has always had issues with his neck, since we started dating. Hopefully we will be well in November!! I think we are all doing much better.
I just love this photo of Kate. This had to be the first week of October, her hair is so much shorter!
I have been in the mood for some pumpkin! There for a while, this meal satisfied it, but now I want more. This is me making Pumpkin Sausage Pasta. It was really yummy!
James saw this cooking and did not know what to think. Pumpkin in pasta?? No, this cannot be good.
Well he did like it!! I did, too. But not after that night. I was done! Here's the recipe if you want to try it out: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/pasta-with-pumpkin-and-sausage-recipe/index.html

Jennifer and Rob got married!! They were married in Connecticut, and we made the trip. This photo of a truck o' pumpkins was taken in route to the hotel. Rob is from Connecticut, so his entire family was able to attend the wedding.
James, goofing off as usual (ha!). See those fall leaves? it was just beautiful up there. Of course I was worried about Kate most of the time.. since she was sick and in GA!! But she was in good hands with my parents. :)
Me, Jen and Liz, before the wedding.
Jennifer, on the way to the reception (sorry no more photos with Rob, the camera died!).
Here's me and James at the reception. It was a beautiful wedding, and Jenny was a beautiful bride. We had a great time; would like to visit again sometime.
Jennifer and Rob were with us last year in Hawaii on vacation, and that's when they were engaged. How romantic!! oh yeah, except they were with us... :)