12/13/09 Jill and Shannon Visit - Day 4

While Shannon was watching TV and napping in the living room, I secretly baked Shannon a Red Velvet birthday cake. Jill tried to get Shannon out of the apartment, to go watch the Redskins game, but she wouldn't budge, so I used my stealth skills to mix and prepare the cake by the sink, and blocked the oven with the refrigerator door! She had no idea!! 

That afternoon, we headed to Hanauma Bay to go snorkeling.

View of the bay from the top

 

 

 

Jill underwater... 

 

 

 

 

 

 Even though I had been snorkeling once before in the Bahamas, I still half hyperventilated for the first 10 minutes - same thing I did in the Bahamas! Tony calmed me down and once I got the breathing down I had an amazing time!

Look, Me, underwater!

 

Tony and Jill wrestling underwater... 

 

Me and Tony underwater... 

The snorkel gear had to be returned by 5:30, so we only had about 30 minutes to snorkel. When Tony and I get our Hawaii licenses we are going back - free for Kamaaina. The beach is really gorgeous, and it would be nice to have a relaxing day to go in and out of the water snorkeling.

For Shannon's official birthday dinner we took Jill and Shannon to Tanaka of Tokyo East. Our new favorite Hibachi Grill. This location is literally two blocks from our apartment, and we still managed to be a few minutes late!!

 

 

The food is always delicious and the cook is always entertaining! I ordered the birthday package for Shannon - she got a photo of the group, a birthday cake, and a Tanaka of Tokyo glass. Mmmm!

After dinner we played pool at Mad Dog Saloon and then went to Nashville's for some Country music and darts!

12/12/09 Jill and Shannon Visit - Day 3

Saturday morning, Tony and the girls went surfing. We all went to Denny's for breakfast. After breakfast, Russell picked us up and we headed to the East side of the island to Makapu'u Beach.

Shannon couldn't believe that this is what they hiked the day before so she took some more pictures of Koko Head! See that small trail going up the center of the picture - that is what they hiked!!

It was a gorgeous day at Makapu'u Beach. The new waterproof camera was put to use again!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday night, we went to The Shore Bird again, to begin Shannon's Hawaiian Birthday Celebration. Her birthday began at 7pm our time (12am eastern).

The staff brought out a huge Brownie Sundae, and sang Happy Birthday.

 

 

Birthday celebration to be continued on Sunday...

12/11/09 Jill and Shannon Visit - Day 2

Tony, Jill and Shannon woke up early on Friday morning and headed to the east side of the island to hike KoKo Head Crater. I stayed in bed and slept in :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jill and Shannon said it was a bit of a rough hike - good thing I stayed home! The pictures they took are amazing.

After the hike we all headed to the beach, where I sunbathed in the lagoon and they went surfing.

 

 

We fully enjoyed Tony's Christmas present from his parents - a new waterproof camera!

 

 

 

 

I bet you never thought you would see this... me on a surfboard...

 

(That was in 3 feet of water, with Jill and Shannon holding the ends of the board)

 

 

Really cool panoramic feature on the camera - this is the view of Waikiki from the lagoon.

 

Friday night, we went to Cheeseburger in Paradise at the Waikiki Beachwalk. Jill ordered the Grilled Cheese, and everyone else ordered the $15.00 Kobe Burgers.  It was a BIG burger - and pretty good! Lots of toppings options.

12/10/09 Jill and Shannon Visit - Day 1

Tony and I picked up Jill and Shannon from Honolulu Airport on Thursday afternoon. We greeted them at the gate with Leis and lots of hugs! They were excited to get off the plane and to be in the warm, warm weather.

We brought them to our apartment, and within 15 minutes they were changed into their swimsuits and headed to the beach with Tony to hit the waves.

Shannon was craving some good sushi, so I took them to Doraku Sushi, at the Royal Hawaiian Center. On our way to dinner, we stopped to hang out with some parrots!

 

 

 

 

Tony and Jill both ordered Chicken Teriyaki - but impressively, both tried Shannon's and my sushi! Shannon and I shared 4 rolls - the Doraku Roll (my favorite next to Saki's Lasagna Roll), Shrimp Tempura Roll, Spicy Salmon Roll and a New Style Doraku Roll. Our table and food took a little while, so the manager brought over an extra roll of sushi for us - which Tony really liked! All of us were stuffed to the gills when we left!

We made it an early evening, heading back to the apartment after dinner, because a busy day awaited us on Friday.

Jill and Shannon Visit

We are having an amazing weekend with Jill and Shannon! In true Tony fashion we haven't stopped running around from adventure to adventure - but unfortunately our internet is not working so I cannot upload the hundreds of photos we have taken so far!

Tony got a waterproof, breakproof, Olympus camera for Christmas from his parents and it has been put on overtime this weekend! It is great!!

This afternoon we are going snorkeling at Hanauma Bay - there will be LOTS of pictures!

xoxo

Aloha!

Yesterday, Tony, with Russell's help, picked up and brought home our new coffee table. The microfiber matches perfectly with our sofa. The top is darker than our other furniture but I works really well!

Last night we went to the UPS Store and I shipped all of my Hanukkah gifts. They will arrive in Maryland tomorrow! Word to the wise - shipping is $$$ for a LARGE box! Well worth it! This week we need to finish Tony's Christmas shopping list and ship those gifts - halfway completed.

After spending $120 at UPS, we went to Office Depot to check out desks, and we found one!! Everything is truly coming together. The only items left on the list are a desk chair, new speaker stands (and speaker wire), a new TV for the bedroom and a moped.

The living room currently looks likes Santa's Workshop, so once the gifts are hidden I will take pictures to share!

The Countdown had begun: Jill and Shannon will be here in less than 48 hours!!

Tonight we are watching our first Netflix movie - Public Enemies.

Aloha! Happy Monday morning! We hope everyone had a good weekend.

On Friday night, Russell came over and played Rock Band 2 and Tiger Woods all night long over some delicious Papa John's pizza. (If you are on xbox Live let us know so we can play you!!)

Saturday morning Tony woke up early to meet some of his surfing buddies out in the Ocean - he paddled out to a new break in Waikiki, that is much further out, and said that he had the best surfing day he has ever had. He was out in the water for over 3 hours!! The weatherman are calling for near 60ft waves on the North Shore this week! Lots of surfing competitions have been canceled, and storm shelters have been opened up for residents of the North Shore!!!  After Tony's safe surfing excursion in Waikiki, he came back to the apartment and woke up his sleeping beauty and together we went to the Waikiki Lagoon and relaxed on our floats for a few hours.

Saturday night we went out to dinner with some friends at The Shore Bird. Think Outback meets Melting Pot meets Sizzler, but nicer. There is a nice sized salad bar, which I enjoyed - had sprouts on the bar mmm! Then you pick your meal - which was mostly cuts of steak, Mahi Mahi, or chicken. They bring over the raw meat, which you take over to the grill area and grill up your own meat. They have a big clock, and a board with cooking times. There are different seasonings to flavor your dish. It was interesting. As we were finishing our meals we got the pleasure of listening to the sounds of Karaoke... we left soon after that started!

Yesterday we took it easy, laying around the apartment until mid afternoon. We had to go to Target for some odds and ends, so we decided to stop at the Rooms Hawaii store to look for a desk and a coffee table. No desks but we did find a coffee table we liked... AND it was in the Clearance section!! We got a great deal on a cute coffee table, that we are hoping will match - we know the top is darker than the rest of our furniture, but the price was right! We attempted to fit at 37 x 37 x 16 coffee table in Tony's TL but it just wouldn't budge (duh!) Tony is going to pick it up today and come this evening the living room will be pretty much completed (pictures to come)!! There are no photos or art on the TV wall so I do need to work on that. After Target we made our normal Sunday grocery store run to Safeway.

I have purchased almost all of my Hanukkah presents and we are halfway down Tony's Christmas shopping list! I need to get everything wrapped and shipped today so that it makes our family Hanukkah party on Saturday!

This week is going to FLY by because we are both so excited to have our first guests at Casa de Lindsay & Tony!! Jill and Shannon touch down in Honolulu Thursday afternoon - and as you would expect Tony has a whole list of things planned for when they get here!! Tony took vacation days the whole time they will be here, but you know there will never be enough time to do everything we want to while they are here!

We have not bought our Chrismaka tree yet, but our countdown is working great :)

Lots of new adventures and lots of new pictures to come after this coming weekend with Jill and Shannon!