Back from Hawaii!

ALOHA ALL! The awful irony with my posts is that when I go a long time between them it's because there is so much going on I don't have time to write. Of course then I feel like I need to update you all on EVERYTHING that has gone on. I'll refrain in this post.

The 20th we left for Oahu, Hawaii. We had such a good time, Mom & Dad took us to celebrate our recovery from cancer. I still remember laying on the hospital bed saying,

"After all of this, I'm SO going on vacation!"

Lucky for us my dad heard me & he & mom made it happen! What a blessed life I lead & what generous parents. Thank you so much Dad & Mom for everything, far beyond taking us Hawaii! The first picture is from our last night eating dinner at the Shorebird on Waikiki beach. (My mother's absolute favorite restaurant on the island.) Lilyanah wasn't interested in anything on the menu & characteristically decided to take a nap. The next picture is of mom & Lilyanah sporting her movie star glasses from her Mema. Thanks again so much Linda! You're so good at picking out clothes & accessories for Lilyanah! Of all the times we put them on her she never tried to take her glasses off!

We have relatives on the island who own a shop where they make Puerto Rican tamales. Tuesday we decided to make our way inland to see them. Unfortunately they had taken the day off, lesson learned, ALWAYS call ahead & don't go if you can't get someone to answer the phone! I decided to consult mom's handy-dandy book to try to find a good restaurant. It really is a very helpful book & I would definitely recommend it to anyone going to any of the islands as I'm pretty sure the authors have done one for all of them. Anyway, long story short the restaurant I picked was closed & we had to find another one quick as we were all past hungry.
I've never had to work so hard for my food! I
ordered crab. . . not expecting to have to do all the work to get the meat! I guess Will didn't expect me to dig into the challenge. In our 3+ years of marriage I haven't had crab with him. . . It was an authentic Chinese restaurant & Dad gave Will a hard time about ordering beef prepared some way so instead he got octopus. Dad followed suit by getting the beef Will was gonna get! Anyway, I had to include that picture, however bad.

Thursday was Mom & Dad's 32nd anniversary
so we rented a car & drove around Diamond Head up to Makapu'u Beach. It's a great beach to boogie board on. Though I guess Will & Dad got slammed pretty bad by the same wave & decided that was enough body surfing. So I got the boogie board & Will conquered a few waves! You can barely see Lilyanah in the picture but what a GORGEOUS day! We got cleaned up & continued driving around the island stopping at a restaurant where Will told a Hawaiian gentleman Hola & couldn't figure out why he looked at him strangely. He had a really hard time with the Hawaiian words, but at least he tried!

This last picture was taken at Pali Lookout. I guess it's where the last battle for the island took place when King (I'm not even going to attempt to spell his name) was uniting the islands. It had an amazing view of the island! I was snuggling Lilyanah pretty tight cause the wind made it REALLY cold up there! That's enough pics & enough of an update for now. Thanks to all of you faithful for sticking with me & my sporadic entries. ~Weneki (my Hawaiian name)

Let's see, my question for the day is; what is your favorite vacation memory? Love you all!

Corey & Kelsey - Married August 12, 2006

Well, Corey and Kelsey were married in a beautiful ceremony at Camp Yamhill on Saturday, August 12, and the newlyweds are now on their honeymoon. Thank you to all of you who shared in our wonderful afternoon. The day was absolutely perfect, not too hot, a beautiful blue sky, and lots of friends and loved ones in attendance. Here are just a couple of pictures. Enjoy and thank you again! Denise

The List Goes On. . .

I'm taking a quick break in between packing boxes to write you all a quick update. Life is crazy, although I guess that's nothing new! Corey & Kelsey are getting married one week from tomorrow, it amazes me how dates sneak up on me so quickly! Now, as if the rehearsal dinner & wedding plans were not enough Will & I decided to move out of our apartment so Corey & Kelsey could move in. We figured it's about time we get a house & nothing's more motivating than being homeless! It's never been more convienent that we live in an apartment on top of a mini storage. . . Packing consists of filling up the boxes & taking them down the stairs to our unit. Such a blessing! We're very interested in a house here in town but are keeping our options open. I kinda want a fixer-upper with a little land, but if that's what we end up with we'll be at Mom & Dad's for a few months while we do improvements. . . . We're actually looking at one that's 1600 sq. feet & on a 14,000 sq. ft. lot. Which is enough land to satisfy me for now at least! Anyway, if any of you know anyone selling a house or thinking about it please let us know. More importantly, please pray that God leads us to the right house. . . He's already taking care of us! A couple of days ago we went to look at one that's just around the house from the mini storage (which would be convienent for Lilyanah & me as I will still be managing the business). We had a friend/real estate agent come to look at it with us. . . It was 1500 sq. feet on a 7000 sq. ft lot. . . . 2 stories, a fixer-upper in the fullest sense of the word(s). They were asking $189,000 which we thought was an amazing deal, especially here in Newberg where the plot alone would have been worth $125,000. Anyway, long story short. . . there was no crawl space & we ended up finding out the house is basically sitting on cinder blocks (NO FOUNDATION), for all of you who have no idea of what I'm talking about! Anyway, we told the guy we weren't interested after finding that there's no foundation & he called today to tell us he would sell the house to us for $1000 less. (It would cost a minimum of $15,000 to lift the house & pour foundation under it!)We just laughed & thanked God for the insight! Lot's of fun parallels to the foundation under a house & the Foundation of our lives. . . Anyway, back to packing. . . I love you all & thank you for the continuing prayers. If you would please include little Lilyanah in them, she's come down with her first illness; an icky cough & runny nose. But she's still such a trooper & smiles through it. Until next time. Wendy.