Maui nō ka ʻo

Maui nō ka ʻo! It basically means Maui is the best.

IT IS 100% accurate! 

This was our first trip back since our honey moon almost exactly 5 years earlier. We got to stay in the same hotel for the first 3 nights and then spend 2 nights with Richards family a little ways down the coast. (Three day weekend + 1 comp day)

Sadly, as seems to be our trend lately, we barely took any photos. But we had the most wonderful time!

We were at a great wetland/marsh reserve area and saw this adorable little chick from the board walk!

We both got new snorkel masks and the shop we got them for gave us an amazing deal on a catamaran ride and snorkel tour on the Alii Nui:

It was the most luxurious experience of my life. The crew was so friendly and pampered us on every turn! Also they made the best homemade ginerale with fresh ginger... I basically drank gallons of the stuff.

And they even let me drive the boat!

 We got up ridiculously early to watch the sun rise above the clouds at Haleakala. We drove from sea level to 10,000 ft! It was freezing but super beautiful.

Since I had just switched companies I didn't have any vacation time and had to leave on Tuesday. We spent my last few hours at the aquarium:

Richard however got to spend the rest of the week with his family:

This is one of my favorite shots:

its an adorable little squid with his family in the background.

A lizard being awesome:

Katie wrote some great posts on their adventures here.

It was so great to be able to go back! We've done so much in the past five years, it was pretty cool to go back and see that for the most part Maui was still the magical wonderland we remembered :)

Here is a slide show of that trip 5 years earlier:
http://s211.photobucket.com/user/gabby_jayne/slideshow/Honeymoon

Steam Punk Hawaii

Though we don't have nearly as much down time here, we have still been crafting and selling steam punk stuff:

Several months ago my friend sent me an announcement. Steampunk Hawaii is having a meetup at the Ewa Train station.  We decided to go. 

Here are some of my favorite pics:

We met a bunch of fun people and they were so impressed with Richard's work they asked us to speak at a panel at Kawaii Kon (like Comic Con or Dragon Con but much smaller)

one of the attendee's drew these super cute sketches of us while we were presenting on how we create our props

We met with all kinds of people and even had a few fans. One guy was like "Its so great to meet you guys .. I know your work from the internet!" It was fun to connect with other artists and play dress up ;)

We just recently attended another 

And one of our writer friends just invited us to speak at Hoku Kon!

A little bit of catch up!

So its been over 8 months since I did a real blog post... Needless to say plenty has happened. Unfortunately there was very little photo documenting of it all. However here is a ridiculously quick recap:

Got an awesome deal on a 2012 VW Turbo Beetle:

Had a very Happy Halloween! 

Had a Thanksgiving dinner that couldn't be beat!

Enjoyed snow in Hawaii

(they make it snow bubbles in the mall here for Christmas)

 

Had an awesome Christmas!

Enjoyed the never ending beauty that is Oahu:

Enjoyed lots of quality time with my mom!

This is literally the only picture I have of the 6 MONTHS she was here with us:

(The very rare and camera shy Mama Wendy seen here on the north shore of Oahu!)

Enjoyed the crepes she made us!

Enjoyed some shenanigans with my friends:

Made and awesome batch of Æbleskivers:

Had a lovely Valentines day:

Found out what was causing all the pain in my back and started exploring options to reduce it

Got an awesome behind the scenes tour of a natural history museum:

Found an awesome cupcake place:

Remembered there was a North East corner of the island

 Made the tough decision to leave my work friends and get hired on with a better company

Went to San Francisco to get trained for my new job,

Flew Eli out for the weekend:

Ate this amazing salad at least 5 times!

Caught a big ol toad:

FINALLY got the shark wheels we invested in last fall.

went back to San Francisco:

  

and made some new work friends:

Still in awe of how pretty it is here:

Also had some awesome additions to the Steam-punk adventure,  Went on a trip to Maui! met up with some Ronnow Family, and had a visit from some siblings on both sides.... but those will be another post.