Hawaii and Kelcy's Wedding!

Bill and I just got back from 4 days in Maui. I know, not nearly enough time to relax and enjoy ourselves, but we were going for a wedding and without the kids, so we thought we would make it a quick trip, this time.

Maui was wonderful. We stayed in the town of Lahaina (where Kelcy's family lives)at the Royal Lahaina Resort. The views from our hotel room were amazing. We could see the islands of Lanai and Molokai from our room and the neighboring Kaanapali Resorts and just bright clear blue water that went on for miles. The weather was great everyday we were there (minus a little scare we had during Kelcy's wedding, but that's another story). We rented a mustang convertible, so the wind whipped through my hair and gave me a little bit of color. I loved Maui because of what it did to my hair! It felt so full.

Thursday, Oct 23
We arrived around noon and drove about 45 minutes to our hotel. We checked in and were starving so went out to look for some food. We ate at The Mixed Plate, a local hangout that serves teriyaki type food. It was good and the view was nice. There were a lot of birds hanging around to eat any food that may have fallen on the floor..Let's just say that they got nothing from us. This meal was the first time that Bill was introduced to Poi. He did not like it (neither do I for that matter). But he did fall in love with Lomi Lomi Salmon..who knew? Then later that evening, we headed to Kelcy's rental and had a bbq by the pool for all the folks that arrived early.

Friday, Oct 24
We decided to go and try The Gazebo, per the recommendation of one Jacob Pollinger. We finally got to the place and sure enough, the line was already started. We waited about 30 minutes before getting seated and I proceeded to order the fried rice dish (the house speciality)..holy cow it was HUGE! At least two cups of rice (measured uncooked) and portugese sausage, ham, onions, egg, green onions all mixed together. We didn't even eat half of it. Bill ordered corned beef and hash..REALLY! and then we got one order of banana macadamian pancake (since they were famous for that too). I just have to say that I was not overly impressed with the food and left the place feeling bloated and FAT! I don't recommend this place. From there, we went shopping at the Whalers Village and bought Bill a pair of slippers and some trinkets for the family.

Then we had to go and help Kelcy set up for the reception, so we drove to the Jodo Mission and Bill dropped me off while we moved tables around. We also had the wedding rehearsal that day and the sunset was beautiful. Later that evening we went to the Royal Lahaina Luau. We got to enter through the VIP side entrance and had the best view in the house..of the ocean and the stage. The food was good the show was good. But I have to say that I wasn't too overly impressed. You know how it gets whey they hype everything up for so long..But I am always amazed at how they can shake their hips the way they do. Besides, you have to see a luau at least once when visiting Hawaii! After it was over, I went to bed and crashed.

Saturday, October 24
Wedding Day!!!

The day of the wedding started out beautiful. I kept telling Bill that Saturday was by far the best day. Not just because of the wedding, but because we woke up, got coffee, headed back to the hotel, hung out by the water and looked out over the beach and just relaxed. It was the first time we were able to do this together. I wasn't supposed to be at Kelcy's until 2, so Bill and I were able to relax together for a bit.

So this whole trip I've been wanting sushi. All I hear about is the freshness of the sushi, so I wanted to compare the fish in hawaii vs oregon. Well, it turns out that most of the good places don't open until dinner or they are on another island. We decided to go find some sushi at lunch, but were unsuccessful. Instead we hit this place called The Blue Lagoon on Front Street and had some disappointing food and drinks (at least I did). Another bad food experience.

But it was wedding time so Bill dropped me off at Kelcy's so the girls could get ready together..although, Kyle Dobashi was in the room most of the time..can we call him a girl too? =)

I used a flat iron for the first time and I fell in love with it. If I didn't have two kids to get ready in the morning, I would totally do that to my hair. My hair looked great (at least to me). The dress actually looked a lot better on me once I was surrounded by the other girls too.

Kelcy looked beautiful. She had on a spaghetti strap ivory dress with a small train. She also had the cutest shoes. We all headed over to the Jodo Mission so we could get the party started. The girls were lei'd and the flowers smelled so GOOD! As we were proceeding to the alter, the wind was starting to kick it up a notch and we could see the clouds getting bigger. The sun was gone and it turned a big overcast. After the ceremony was pictures and we had a good time, except there was a nazi videographer that just wouldn't let the newlyweds get to the reception in a decent time. During this time tables were being moved to covered areas, just in case, but thank goodness the rains never came and the evening turned out to be perfect! Everyone ate (the food was amazing..courtesy of Jayson Asuncion and his crew), drank, and danced (Kyle was a great DJ, if you're looking for a DJ, check him out). The party moved to a house and unfortunately, I was tuckered out and went to the hotel and slept.

Sunday, October 26

Time to come home. We left Lahaina early because we wanted to check out the neighboring cities. We headed southwest and north and drove through Kihei and Kahului, not that exciting. We drove to Paia and Kapua and that's where we saw the surfers, para-surfers. It was exciting and definitely a highlight! We got in at 11pm and went home and found two sleeping kids. It was a cute sight.

We had a great time in Maui and at Kelcy and Ben's wedding.

Check out the pictures from our trip here.

http://picasaweb.google.com/patty.grunwald/MauiAndKelcySWedding

Pumpkins, pumpkins, and more pumpkins!

Fall is my favorite season without a doubt! I love the crispness in the air and just bundling up and getting cozy.

With Halloween only three weeks away, we decided that it was time to get ourselves some pumpkins! We went with our friends the Ly's and Arbuthnot's and also met a new family, the Vogler's (Lynn's neighbors and they are very nice). We went to The Lake View Farms in North Plains. It was the first time that we've been there and for the most part we were impressed. They didn't have a pumpkin popper, but the other activities made up for it.

They have a boat ride that takes you to the pumpkin patch and a little train that brings you back from the pumpkin patch (or you can go to the pumpkin patch by train and return by boat or use the same mode of transportation for each way - so many options)! In the water they have a shark that comes out and pirates on a boat and and on the train, they take us through a tunnel that is decorated in a fall/halloween theme.

We had to do a little searching, but we picked three pumpkins! I have to say, for being a boy, Jae was worried about getting dirty and he was complaining that it was too sunny (oh, he will learn soon enough about it being 'too sunny' in Oregon)! He seemed to like pointing out the pumpkins that were rotting more than he did the ones that weren't. LOL. After we picked our pumpkins, the kids played on the hay bales and just enjoyed the open air!

A great time was had by all. Even Hannah was very well behaved..although, I'm sure she was tired from the night before..but that's another story in itself..teething. Enough said.

If you're interested in checking out The Lake View Farms, here is their website. http://www.thelakeviewfarms.com/

The mamas..

Mommy and Hannah

Jae and his long lost brother...LOL!

The kids...

Click or cut and past URL to view the pictures from the Pumpkin patch.
http://picasaweb.google.com/patty.grunwald/PumpkinPatch2008#

Buffalo Wings...mmmm...

Check it out if you are in Portland (http://www.portlandwings.com/).


A co-worker of mine told me about this place. He's a wing lover just like I am. It is located on Interstate just by the Prescott Max Station. It's not a large place and it's kind of a self serve establishment. One great thing about this place are the array of sauces. They offer like 12 different sauces that you can choose from. They had some good music playing in the background and we saw people from all walks of life there. Men in suits, construction workers, a family, a couple, and then me and Stephanie!

We were kind of hungry so I think (I should emphasize the "I" here) we over indulged. I ordered wings with sweet potato fries (my new favorite thing are sweet potato fries). I chose two sauces, the Medium hot sauce and bbq (I won't get the bbq again, stick to the hot sauce). Stephanie got onion rings and the HOT hot sauce..she was living on the edge.

The wings were good. Not too crispy fried and not too fatty. The hot sauce had good flavor and if I didn't have my sweet potato fries, I probably could have stuffed a couple more chickens into my belly!

Writing about our experience is making me want some hot wings now..

Stephanie's visit...

This entry is a long time coming!!! It's been about 3 weeks since Stephanie visited me (she currently lives in San Diego), but I've just been so busy lately and I'm actually behind in blogging that's I'm finally getting around to it. I've got a lot of stories that I want to post, but need to find some quiet time that I can dedicate to this thing.

So let's focus again...So Stephanie had a conference in Seattle and decided to extend her visit and hang out in Portland for a while. She met me at my mom's place (this is the weekend of my momb's b-day) and then we drove down to Portland. Stephanie got to experience the first Im family meal and I'm going to say that she realized how boring and repetitive Korean meals can be. Yes, we like eating leftovers - morning, lunch, and dinner, and then again the next day! LOL!

Once we were in Portland, I took a couple of days off from work and we went shopping. It's been a couple of years since she's been in Portland, so I wanted to show her some of the new things that have popped in the City. It actually turned into a quick drive around town. We went to Fire on the Mountain for lunch (that's another post) and got our grub on some chicken wings.

The highlight of the trip was getting a quick 'makeover' at the MAC counter at Nordstrom's. Stephanie and I went in to get some 'pointers' on how best to do the eyes and we came out of that place looking like something..or rather, I should say "I" came out looking something. It just wasn't that cute at all.

The kids really enjoyed seeing Stephanie. Jae still talks about her when he sees an airplane.

ABC's

Jae is growing and getting so smart. This morning he was sitting on the couch and doodling on a pad, when he exclaims, "Mama, I wrote a J!" So I look on his paper and sure enough, there is the letter J on the paper. I was so excited. This has been the first letter I've seen that he's written on his own (do you see it??).

We have been doing a lot of spelling exercises with him lately and he definitely knows his letters. Today we spelled Mommy, Daddy, Jae, Hannah, Auntie Barbara, Auntie Stacey, Auntie Anna, Uncle Jake, Uncle Eric, Bennigan, and Charlie and he knew all the letters. The only hesitation was him trying to read my writing! LOL.

He also comments on objects that he sees when we are driving in the car. Once again, my baby is growing up!

It was so strange, I had to do a double take!

This happened a couple of weeks ago, but I just had to share this bizarre story with you.

We were spending the weekend at my parents to celebrate my mom's birthday, so my brother and his kids were there and my friend Stephanie was there as well. My parents were at work, so they didn't have the opportunity to witness something so bizarre!

It was Sunday morning and everyone (except my parents) were in the living room watching football and hanging out with the kids, when I thought I heard a voice in the other room. At first I thought it was one of my mom's friends just walking through the door like they have done or someone had left the tv on upstairs, so I go to investigate. I open the front door to see if anyone is outside and it's clear, but I still hear the voice. So I turn around and look up the stairs and see a little girl standing at the top of the stairs! I was so shocked that I had to do a double take! At first I thought I was seeing things, but it was a real girl! I called for my brother and asked him if he knew who she was and I believe he was in as much shock as I was.

My first thought was "how the hell did she get in here and who is she?" Were my parents hiding a blond girl in the house and not telling us about it??? This whole time, she's repeating the name Josephine. So I go upstairs and ask her what she's doing here and she still keeps repeating "Josephine". So I ask her what her name is and she said "Allison", so I ask her where her parents are and she starts saying Josephine again. While I'm doing this, Bill and my brother are outside looking for a parent who might be looking for their lost child, but it's a very quiet Sunday and no one is out.

Meanwhile, I finally get her downstairs and outside and my brother and Bill start knocking on doors to see who she belongs to. They end up finding a house that knows her and then points to the house next door. They knock on the door and sure enough, it's her house. She ended up living 4 houses down from my parents.

I'm just surprised that no one was looking for her. She was a special needs child so that proved to be a little difficult in the communication part, but she was not scared at all to be in our house with strangers, or at least she didn't show it.

Lesson here is that you should always keep your front door locked, you never know who may walk through it!

Can we fix it? Yes we can!

Bob the Builder is in town!

For those of you who aren't familiar, Bob the Builder is a children's television character. Bob appears as a construction contractor specializing in masonry in a animated program with his colleague Wendy, various neighbours and friends, and their gang of vehicles and equipment (all made of clay). The show is broadcast on PBS.

In each episode, Bob and his gang help with renovations, construction, and repairs and with other projects as needed. The show emphasizes reuse, reduce, and recyle, conflict resolution, co-operation, socialization and various learning skills. Bob's catchphrase is "Can we fix it?", to which the other characters respond with "Yes we can!" (Thank you wikipedia).

The exhibit is pretty fun. There are several stations where kids can build/construct things, kids can go into Bob's trailer, as well as Wendy's trailer, and they've got some of the construction vehicles (scoop, lofty, rolly) that you can sit in and take some cute pics.

Jae had a great time playing at all the stations they had. We were also able to go outside and sit on the real construction trucks!














Anywho..Bob is shacking up at the Portland Children's Museum until January, so if you are interested, you should stop and say hello.