Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

I hope you all had a wonderful turkey day! Gil and I had a great time preparing Thanksgiving for the first time on our own. Of course it wouldn't be a great first Thanksgiving if we didn't have a great story to go along with it. No need to worry; you won't be disappointed!

We decided to come together with our new friends (Meredith and Pat) down the road this year. Since it was our first Thanksgiving together as well as theirs we still really wanted to cook all of our own dishes. So we decided to have two Thanksgivings in one. Gil and I did all of our own dishes plus the turkey and they did all of there own dishes and brought the drinks. I prepared almost everything the day before so all I had to do was heat it up on the big day. We woke up early to start on the turkey and got it in the oven at a decent time. We began basting it every 30 minutes and it was looking REALLY good when...THE POWER WENT OUT! Yes I am not kidding you; the whole entire base was out of power.

One of our other friends texted us about 20

minutes before saying their power went out and we offered them our stove since most of our stuff was done. What we didn't know then was soon we would also be losing power. We quickly came up with plan B...THE GRILL! We migrated the turkey to the grill and kept basting it. Right about when we got it settled on the grill our power came back on (it was out for about 30 minutes.) In the end it turned all great; the turkey was beautiful. We were really proud of ourselves!

We took all of our dishes over to our friends and had a very large feast! We have so much food left over it is insane! Lucky us though that means great leftovers...gravy bread, turkey sandwiches; I can't wait!

Meredith and I took a walk after dinner while the guys watch...you guessed it, football! Big surprise, right! All of the houses on the beach were packed with friends and family. Here are some pictures from our walk.

We had a great day and it was nice to share it with new friends. I hope you all had a great day with friends and family as well. Here are a few more pictures from our Thanksgiving.The pretty table Meredith set.

Dinner one (Meredith & Pats)

Dinner two (Mine and Gil's)

The Boys watching football

The girls relaxing.

Desroches Family

McFarland Family

Miss you all!

First Surfing Injuries

The first of what I assume to be many!!!

So for those who don't know yet, Gil and I bought surfboards a week ago.  We really loved  it when our friend took us out and knew we would buy boards at some point so we decided to commit and get our boards sooner rather than later.  Some what of an early Christmas present for us.  We went to a new and used board store called Kimo's in the town we live in.  We walked in not knowing too much but the owner of the store (Kimo) was really good.  He spent an hour and a half with us asking us questions and explaining the purpose of each board and what would be best for us.  We narrowed it down to two boards.  The best part is that Gil and I are able to use both of them.  If I want a little easier time I can use Gil's board and if he wants to make it a little more difficult he can hop onto my board.  It was really two boards for the price of one.  Kimo even gave us exercise to work on and told us what beaches for us to start out on. 

Ever since we got our boards we have been trying to go out whenever possible.  Gil hasn't had much time off lately so we decided to take advantage of his extended weekend.  They got out of work early so that they could go to 'Family Day,' which was required.  Apparently we had the time wrong though because when we got there, no food was being served and there were very few people.  Shortly after our friends arrived and after we ate we headed out and went to the beach. 

Our friends met up with us at the beach and we spent the afternoon surfing and boogie boarding; or should I say balancing and boogie boarding.  Gil and I aren't exactly capable of actually catching a wave yet...not that we didn't try, hence the (or my) injuries.  It was pretty amusing to watch us because every time we tried to catch a wave we would fly off one way and the board would fly off the other way.  Very funny from an outside perspective.  I think the waves were just out to get me.  Soon enough I am going to look tan due to bruises rather than a sun tan!   It was a good time though and afterward we went out and got sushi.  

Sunday we headed back out.  One of Gil's college roommates (Brent) lives here and has been taking us out when he can.  We went by Diamond Head which is right outside of Honolulu.  The waves were pretty big and very strong.  Little'ol me couldn't even stay on my board.  Towards the end, Gil finally committed and caught a wave.  After being run-over by another woman and cutting my foot on the coral I headed back in and practiced my exercises then worked on my tan rather than my bruises.  

It is definitely going to take time to get up on our boards and be comfortable but so long as we are having fun that is all that matters.  I still don't have any pictures of us and our boards, every time we go out I forget to take pictures but I promise I will get some soon.  

Wall-e

If you haven't seen this movie yet, you need too!  Put it on the top of your Netflix list, rent it from Blockbuster; whatever you have to do, see this movie!  I have heard nothing but good things about it but I was curious how good a movie would be with no talking but it was funny and absolutely adorable.  I can't explain to you how adorable it is; so pick this up for your next movie night!

Speeding Ticket

On Sunday I got my first speeding ticket (not first in Hawaii, first ever!).  I guess it was only a matter of time before we got one with the speed limits so wacky.  I think it will just take time to get use to them.  It is hard when the speed limit is 35 but nobody is going 35.  We just ran out of luck; we became one of the few to get picked out by the cops...seeing that they could have pulled over any of the 30 cars that were going way over the speed limit.  

This happened 2 hours before we were finally going to register our car.  He mentioned that we needed to get it registered because if our car got towed we would have no way to get it back.  He was nice enough not to write us up for it and told us just to get it done.  Of course when I told him we were on our way to get the car registered right then, he didn't believe me.  I know people use that excuse all the time but it really was true!  

Oh well, learned our lesson the hard way, I guess.  

October

I was very excited about Halloween this year. I haven't done much in the past few years and I have never gotten to hand out candy. Being on base this year we had tons of little kids stopping by in adorable costumes. I even carved a pumpkin this year. I can't remember the last time I carved a pumpkin, let alone an artistic one. (As you can tell I am very proud of my pumpkin.) Gil kept telling me that pumpkins are suppose to be scary but we are in Hawaii and what is cooler than a sea turtle! I was lucky enough to find a pattern online and it ended up turning out great. We ran out of candy pretty quickly but we got to see some very cute costumes. I think the best was this little boy who was probably 2 years old. He was dressed up as a baby duck, he had the big round belly and everything. Very cute! Once we ran out of candy we walked over to our friends house and hung out for a while.

We also went to our first hail and farewell this month. It was an interesting experience; the combination of the old and new, the incoming and the outgoing. All of the new Marines and wives were introduced and the wives received leis. I was super excited about that. I was really bummed out when we didn't have anybody to receive us and give us a lei when we first landed, so I was very happy to receive the lei at the hail and farewell.

This month Gil inherited quit an interesting....piece of art....Echo company 2/3 has a mascot named Coa (sorry if I misspelled that.) The only way I know how to describe him that he is a large wooden tekke man or totum pole esk thing. Each year the old Marines nominate a new Marine to be in charge of caring for him for the next year, (we are pretty sure Gil got picked just because he went to Harvard.) Which means Gil has to take him to all 2/3 functions....hail and farewell, Marine Corps Balls...the whole nine yards. The hard part is supposedly other Marines will try to kidnap him so you really have to keep a watch out. Apparently Coa also has a log book for when he misbehaves. We had him for only three days when he stole Gils cover (hat.) I personally find it very entertaining. We had to lug him to Honolulu for the Marine Corps Ball then find a safe location for him where they may not find him. We were getting some pretty strange looks getting in and out of cabs with this thing; he is not small or light!

At the beginning of November we went to our first Marine Corps Ball as a married couple. It was held at the Hilton in Honolulu. They had an amazing cake...which by the way we didn't get any of it. We were pretty upset about that. What is a birthday party without any birthday cake. Either way we got to get all dressed up and we spend a nice night with our new friends.The house is coming along really well. I got the bedroom completely painted. The only thing I have left to do is hang some photos. We also recently bought the nightstand that matches our bedroom set. I love our bedroom now that it is complete. I also have the kitchen finished. There are a few things I want to hang up before it is completely finished. I am working on the dining room and living room while Gil is gone this week. After that I only have the two additional bedrooms left which I saved till last since they aren't used as much. Once the whole house is done there will be a lot more pictures.

Life In Hawaii

Here are some things I would like to share about Hawaii. Therefore if you ever travel here you already know of some of this states corky habits.

First off don't bother bringing any sweaters. It is 86 degrees, give or take maybe one degree, every single day! Not bad, huh! I use to be a person that brought a sweater everywhere I went because I was always cold. It is so pleasantly warm everyday now that I don't even remember to bring a sweater because I can't imagine that I could get cold. Of course I still do because the buildings are air conditioned yet not air conditioned like the mainland where it feels like you walked into the North Pole. Along with this beautiful 86 degree weather there is this wonderful breeze that is constantly blowing so you never get too hot...that is unless you are running and in that case it gets really hot.

Second, they have the perfect beaches. One of Hawaii's beaches even made MTV's top 5 best beaches! Their reasons were slightly different than mine but either way the beaches here are beautiful. Unlike most beaches I have been too, you can only spend a certain amount of time because you just get so hot. In Hawaii you may think you would get hot but we have the trade winds that blow off the water keeping you nice and cool...not too hot and not too chilly! The water is a perfect temperature and great for floating! I have never been in water that has been so easy to float in. The water is amazing shades of aqua blue and we are surrounded by these gorgeous green mountain ridges.


Third, don't worry about speeding! Or maybe I should say really worry about speeding! On base it is understandable that the speed limits are low...really low (between 15 and 30.) The base is really small and large amounts of it is housing which has lots of kids wandering around. Now off base it is just unacceptable! There are three major highways on Oahu; highway 1, 2 and 3! Not too hard to remember. Most of them don't really have on-ramps; you kind of just drive through a town or neighborhood and the next thing you know you are on the highway...can cause a little bit of confusion until you get use to it. Now back to those speed limits, I was talking about. The highway that takes us from our base to Honolulu reaches 55 mph but only for a small stretch. Most of the highway is between 35 and 45 once again because it is going through residential areas. I promise you that I didn't go over 50 mph in over a month when we first got here. It is a strange thing to get use to. When you know it is a highway it is hard to not go above 40 mph. I guess they just want you to "smell the roses" as my high school cross-country coach would say. It is the Hawaii hang loose attitude.

Fourth, bring your own music! We learned very very very quickly that they are way behind the times when it comes to music. There are three main radio stations, hip-hop, love songs, country. The hip-hop station place the same 10 songs over and over again (Rhianna is much loved here.) The love songs station as Gil likes to call it would be considered the hits from today and years past...most from years past. You would think since they are playing older songs that they would have more to choose from...I mean you have had SEVERAL years to get copies of the songs, yet there are still about 15 main songs that they continue to repeat. I do have to say though that I have heard some songs that I have always enjoyed which aren't played much on the mainland anymore, so that is a plus; lost songs are found again on Oahu radio.

Five, who knew on street needed so many Coach stores! The main strip that goes through Waikiki and Honolulu is the home to every couture store you could ever think of (Louis Vuitton, Prada, Kate Spade, Cartier...the list goes on and on) There are three Coach stores alone! At least that is how many I have counted so far and that isn't including the ones in the malls, which in that case there are several more. I never knew Honolulu would be such a wealthy clientele...at least I assume they do to keep those stores in business.

Sixth, I underestimated the Japanese influence that there would be here. I would say 90% of the tourist have flown in from Japan. Just while on our honeymoon we saw 3 Japanese couples get married. I guess it is a pretty quick and easy flight...at least they make it seem so. Due to the Asian influence there are Japanese restaurants every where. I was totally not prepared to eat a large amount of semi raw seafood when I first got here! After about 2 weeks I begged him to find me an Italian restaurant. Surprisingly we found one! It is right off base and it was actually some of the best Italian food I have had in a while. Although that could also be associated with my want of food that is familiar to me. Either way it was really good. I have learned that they have almost every type of cuisine you just have to hunt a little harder for some. I am not knocking on Japanese cuisine it is just difficult to get use to, at least for me. Actually the first week we were here we found a sushi place with the rotating bar! That was so exciting for me! I have always wanted to go to one. It was a great experience. You just grab the plates and once your done stack them according to the color they are then they come by and tally it all up. It was a great deal. Gil and I actually both ate for less than 20 dollars. It would be really fun with a large group as well.

Well, those are just a few things that we have learned about Oahu while we have been here. Not necessarily Hawaiian culture but the differences between the mainland and our island.

As a side note a Target is coming next year! I am super duper excited about that. I have never been a big Wal-mart goer so I can't wait for Target to arrive. Lets hope it goes up quickly and is close by!

Well, I gotta go get ready for the Marine Corps Ball. Happy Birthday Marine Corps! I will post about it soon, probably while Gil is gone this next week.