our garden, one year later

It's been one year since we started our blog. Time sure goes fast.

In honor of our 1st anniversary here are some new pictures of our

garden one year later...

it's time for summer

Now that summer is here we got a new grill, a mini one but still bigger than the one we had before.

Looking good!!!

Almost done.

Here it its, finally put together...

Our first grilled dinner.

And, no... We didn't eat all that food.

The steak was raw, so we saved it for

the next day. It was very good.

your big day

Today is Marissa's High School Graduation.

Lots of Love and Best Wishes from Auntie Lisa and Uncle Jeff!!!

Hard to believe you are all grown up.

the last layer

Sorry for the long delay in updating our blog. We have been so busy. Well, here it is finally the back splash tile has arrived and being installed. You might have thought our kitchen was done by now but this is the first thing that has happened this year. We finally decided on the tile and it took 6 weeks to arrive. We had some guest stay at our house for 2 weekends in a row so it took a couple of extra weeks before we had some time for work to be done. As you can see the hood and stove had to be removed so yet again no cooking for a few weeks. It will be a miracle if the flooring doesn't get messed up!!!

The center design layout.



Looks good so far.

First look at the custom made tile by Brittany & Coggs. It was pretty scary ordering it since we had no idea of how it would turn out. The center white tiles were ordered wrong so it won't be finished till next week. It will have a good amount of time to dry before it's finished and grouted. Stay tuned for the end result.

our hawaiian traditions

When we visit Oahu we have traditional things that we always do. First thing is usually to eat at Zippy's straight from the airport. Next, is every morning we go to Starbucks to get an oatcake and coffee of course. The oatcake is a very healthy sort of hard cake-like bakery item with oats, dried cranberries, dried blueberries and some other stuff that Jeff told me not to look at and is only made (and sold) in Hawaii. It's really good. We thought of bringing some home but decided to look forward to our next trip instead...

Next we always go to the Aloha Stadium Swap Meet. It's a great place to get souveniers at a good price. It's usually really hot so we try to go early. Jeff says the trailer that sells malasada's is the best he has ever had (even better than ever popular Leonard's). We usually meet my cousin Laura and her daughter, Kassidee at the swap meet and for lunch after.


The swap meet goes around the outside of Aloha Stadium, where UH football is played and the NFL Pro Bowl.

Jeff and Kassidee

Lunch time!!! We wanted to try Chun Wah Kam Noodle Factory, a place that we found on the Internet as a must try place. They are supposed to be famous for Manapua and giant plate lunches. It's sort of a Hawaiian and Chinese thing. A big bun (baked or steamed) filled with various items. This will be a new addition to our tradition list.

It was very crowded. You have to take a number and someone takes your order. Laura and Jeff figured out what to get while Kassidee and I saved a table.

Box of dim sum. 2 manapua, one steamed (chicken) and the other is baked char su (bbq pork). One sesame ball, 2 pork hash and 2 moon something that Laura ordered.

Beef Broccoli and Hot Dog Fried Rice

Chow fun (my favorite food) and Cold Chicken (also my favorite)

Jeff enjoying his baked manapua!!!

Close up of the char su filling (roast pork). We really liked Chun Wah Kam Noodle Factory. The food was really big and tasted good too. We are glad we tried it

Next stop is always the North Shore. It was a cloudy day but still warm and beautiful as usual. This trip we went to Pipeline, where they have big waves that are turn into glassy tubes of water.

Playing in the sand.

Watching the surfers.

We were walking along the beach and saw this house with a Volcom symbol on it. Must be a house where Volcom surfers stay. It was interesting to see. We had a very nice and relaxing afternoon at the beach...

After the beach we went shopping at Ala Moana Center. Our first stop is Shirokiya a Japanese store. We always stop at the bakery and since it will be Girls Day on March 3rd, they had these really cute cakes. Wish we could have gotten one!!!

Jeff's favorite at the bakery are these long johns. He never goes to Hawaii without eating several of these.

At Shirokiya we saw these new sweets. Mochi Cream, we didn't know what they are but asked the sales girl and she said mochi filled with whipped cream. We decided to try some. The sales girl said to wait 5 minutes before eating them (they were frozen). It was a long 5 minutes for me!!! I got chocolate and was a little disappointed. It was filled with chocolate flavored beans and a tiny bit of whipped cream. A little strange but Jeff said he thought it was good. Always fun to try new things.

Dinner time and of course Jeff had to go back to Palace Saimin. Laura and Kassidee joined us. We all had the saimin. If you want a soda, you have to purchase it from a machine.

This time Jeff got an extra large size and enjoyed it very much. I was starting to get tired of saimin and sort of grateful that Palace Saimin is closed the next 2 days cause I am sure we would have been back!!! Now we just have to wait till our next trip to Hawaii. Our traditons list is getting longer...