Christmas day

From our house to your house
Hope everyone has a merry christmas!!!
Visit us here next year...

honolulu marathon race day walk

Our finish line was the blue sign.

Since we were going to Hawaii for Kassidee's Opera concert and it was also Honolulu Marathon and Race Day Walk we decided to try the 10K walk for fun. We had to leave our hotel at 4am so we could walk (approx 20 minutes) to the start line at Ala Moana park. The Marathon started at 5am and walk started at 5:25am. I wanted to arrive in time to see the fireworks. I was a bit worried about walking 6.6 miles. I usually walk during the week days but with the remodel I haven't had any practice time. Jeff claims he walks a lot at work...

Fireworks for the start of the Marathon. We walkers have to wait another 25 minutes for our start.

Ready, set go. And we're off... I think Jeff is the only white guy!!!

It's dark and raining but not cold.

Time signs along the way.

Walking in Waikiki. It was a bit difficult with the rain and all those slippery cups on the ground. The water in the cups came from a hose pipe so it wasn't very appetizing. We are used to bottled water!!! (We're not spoiled)

mile 6

Almost at the finish line. We're not tired yet, could keep on walking...

We made it!!! 6.6 miles in the pouring rain. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The route looked really far on a map. Wish we could do the Marathon (26 miles) but we could be one of the last ones to finish. There is always next year...

I have to say that the walk was really fun and I hope we can do it again next year. Anyone who wants to go with us, let us know!!!

Wow, finisher certificates and fans. What more could we ask for???

We tried to walk around the finish area but it was so muddy and we didn't want that beautiful Hawaiian red mud on our fancy running shoes.

After we were about to leave we found the 10K sign. Strangely it was past the finish line...

Finish line for the marathon. Can't believe these runners are finishing 26 miles at around 3 hours. The last person finished in 14.5 hours.

Marathon runners getting their shell lei.

christmas opera concert

Kassidee

A main reason for our trip was to attend Kassidee's Opera Christmas concert. We sort of ran out of space on our camera so it's really short. She is on the right side, second from the end in the second row. The concert was great and put us in a Christmas spirit.

good eats in hawaii

here is a sample of good eats we had in hawaii. of course we ate a lot more but forgot to take photo's before we dug in!!!

meat jun from yummy's at ala moana food court. our first meal in hawaii and a favorite place. note:meat jun is korean, and is a thin piece of teriyaki marinated meat fried in an egg batter.

saimin. we love it...

another meat jun from our neighbor's auntie's restaurant in wahiwa. one of the best we have eaten!!!

hot dog musubi anyone???

(no we did not try this one but looked interesting)

lunch at the pineapple room. stir fried soy beans.

tempura fish sandwich, not very pretty but oh so good!

seared tuna and tofu salad

Dot's, famous sizzling hamburger steak. and yes, it's big.

oh what a day

So much is going on and our kitchen is getting closer to finally being complete. When they installed the granite, I noticed that there was something not right with the sink area and I was unhappy with how it turned out. Today they came back to try to fix it. They did a good job and it's not perfect but I can live with it.

We also got our floors sealed in preparation for the wood being installed. It was very sticky and smelly. They made a small path for us to get out.

Love that green!!!

Also 32 boxes of our flooring was delivered. Jeff was home and decided to help unload it. His arms hurt the next day!!!

The best part of the day was that we got to meet our new nephew. Kai. He was sleeping when we arrived so we was not too happy when we woke him up!!! He turned bright red and started to cry when Uncle Jeff held him.

So cute!!!


After all of that we ended the night in Hawaii!!!

This is the view we woke up to. We are taking a short trip that was planned when we thought our kitchen would be done the day before Thanksgiving. It will be a nice break from all the work being done at home.

granite installation day

Another, I can't believe this day is finally here. They got our granite cut in record time. Just 9 working days from when they made the template. This is a major item in our remodel since the flooring, appliances and plumbing can't be done till the granite is installed. They are afraid if the granite gets dropped the flooring will get damaged.

Back side of the granite.

Workers are doing the final fit work outside. There was a big white cloud of dust over our house. I am sure our neighbors are not happy again.

Powder room.

Jeff took the drawers out and tried to protect the cabinets as much as we can. Unfortunately, we have already had some bad dings and dents. Pretty sad but they just keep saying all that will be fixed in the end... I have already shed tears over it.

Looks great. We love it!!!

painting, again...

Seems like we have been painting for months. Finally starting to paint the upstairs. The rest will have to wait till next year. Hopefully we will be done soon. We still have to paint our baseboards before next week when the flooring will be installed. Note: not a good idea to paint at night cause you miss a lot of spots.

Thought we would have to hire a painter to paint the stairwell since it's so tall but Jeff risked his life on a ladder (no photo) to paint the top. It's a little rough around the edges but it's done.

It has been fun doing all the painting but also very hard and time consuming. Still don't think we would have hired a painter since it's something we can do ourselves. We have learned a lot in this remodel and look forward to our next project. We are also now experienced in patching and re doing wall texture.

sydney

with her favorite toy. missing her parents, Clyde and Kelly.

we were dusted

Last week the granite fabricator's made a template of our counter tops so they could cut the granite to fit. They told us we are able to go to the shop and see the layout. We really didn't have to go since our granite has no pattern. As you can see it's all black with small grey spots. We thought it would be interesting to see anyway and it happened on a day Jeff was off so it worked perfect.

We were a little shocked when we got there. It was near Disneyland but in a very industrial part of town. It felt like we were in a very bad neighborhood. Good thing is was during the day!!! We finally found the shop and it was small with a couple of guys working. There was dust every where. Inches of it on the ground and we could see it in the air. As we walked in I kept telling Jeff, we are going to die in there!!! It was so bad we could barely breathe. After they got the granite out with a fork lift I told Jeff OK, that's good let's leave. The guy wanted to show us the edge styles. I stayed back to take pictures while Jeff went into the shop with the guy. He wanted me to look at an example of a mitered edge. Normally you would see a line where the edge is glued on but on the mitered edge it is sort of hidden. We never heard of it before so we wanted to see it. The piece was covered in dust and as the guy was wiping it off with his hand,I noticed it was a grave stone. I was mortified!!! I couldn't wait to get out of that place. We were covered in granite dust and took us a while to recover...

The template was made with thin wood and a glue gun!!!

our thanksgiving

Our day started with taking Clyde and Kelly to the airport. They are on their way to Japan to pick up the baby they adopted. One suitcase for them and one for the baby. Check out baby Kiyoshi's blog to see their adventure. We can hardly wait till they get home...

Baby's new stroller, waiting for it's first ride!!!

We spent the rest of the day at Disneyland. Just walked around and ate. It was pretty crowded so we didn't even go on any rides. There is always next time...

Very big Christmas tree.

Lots of Christmas decorations to look at.

Our Thanksgiving lunch. It was surprisingly pretty good. We usually get fried chicken at this restaurant but since it was Thanksgiving they served a traditional meal instead.

The turkey the President pardoned, we think. There was no sign yet but last year the turkey also ended up is this same place. The turkey was so big, it could barely walk.

Reindeer . Jeff loves looking at deer. These were big but a little stinky.

A note from Santa.

Taking pictures of ourselves again. Had to take many since most did not turn out very good. There must be an art to self photography. Longer arms maybe???

Bye, Mickey. See you soon!!!

Our simple Thanksgiving dinner at Uncle's house. We had prime rib instead of turkey this year. We are missing the big Thanksgiving dinner we usually have at Clyde and Kelly's house with both family's. We look forward to next year with the addition of their baby... Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!!!