Hawaiian Honeymoon Part 1

Good morning!

Yesterday on my way home from the gym, it began sleeting and by the time I arrived home and showered, it was full-on snowing! We finished decorating our tree before heading out in the snowy weather to attend the Saturday evening service at our church.

We went to the evening service since I'm headed over to Andrea's place this morning to make some homemade Chex mix with her and my mom. It's a family tradition that we've had ever since we were young and I hope to carry on the tradition when Andy and I have kids. You know, in like 10 years or so.... ;-)

Before I head out for the day, I wanted to share some more honeymoon photos with you guys! Let's have at it!

Hawaiian Honeymoon

My family, minus Andrea's husband, Andrew, since he was at Air Force training that day! He came to the reception though.

(Source)

After the wedding and reception, Andy surprised me by informing us that he had booked us a room at the Westin, which is a really fancy hotel. The room was phenomenal! Huge king-sized fluffy bed, a super modern bathroom, and room service!

They brought our breakfast into our room the next day--how fun to have breakfast in bed the day after the wedding! The rest of the day was spent running errands to pick up things for our trip.

We stopped by the mall right before they closed to cancel my cell phone account, join Andy's account, and get iPhones! These came in so handy on our trip! Andy even downloaded an app that showed us where everything was in Maui.

Our flights over there were kind of long. We first flew to Phoenix, then flew directly into Maui; however, the flight to Maui started at 10 and we didn't arrive until 2pm and we didn't get lunch on the flight, so we were starving! Plus we were 5 hours ahead on Minnesota time, so it was really 7pm our time. Talk about jet lag!

As soon as we landed, we grabbed our luggage--does anyone else freak out overtime they go to baggage claim that their bag won't be there? Luckily this has never happened to me before, but that would be awful! After exiting the airport, we headed to the car rental agency to pick up our car for the week. We got a brand new Ford Focus to zip around in while on the island.

There were chickens walking around everywhere! We were so surprised to see this!

Since we skipped lunch and didn't really eat much for breakfast, we stopped at the closest place to the airport--McDonald's! I was surprised to find out that everything cost much more in Hawaii since it all has to be imported onto the island. Everything on the menu was about a dollar more than in the states!

Also, we headed to Wal-Mart later in the week to pick up some snacks for the plane ride home and their prices were higher than usual too. It was interesting that they didn't have bags for your purchases either--you had to bring your own or go without! Crazy!

After our lunch/dinner or whatever it was at that time, we headed to our resort, which was about a 25 minute drive from the airport. I was gawking out my window the whole time with my camera--capturing all of the neat scenery, plants, and mountains that were around us! 

Our resort was so wonderful! We stayed at the Makena Beach and Golf resort for the week and loved every minute of it. 

Our room was on the very top floor, which provided us with some excellent views of the ocean and the resort grounds--including a golf course and a pool view.

The open-air resort was tropical, clean, and relaxing in every way possible. We had a gorgeous view out our balcony, and the staff was so friendly that we didn't want to leave at the end of the week.

Excited to be off of the airplane and in HAWAII!

Stay tuned for part 2!

Ever had breakfast in bed?

What do you usually order at McDonald's?

iPhones- yay or nay?

A Beautiful Bridal Brunch

Hello there!

This past Saturday was my first bridal shower! Attending this event definitely made the "oh my gosh I'm getting married" feeling much stronger! Now that we're getting closer to the date, things are starting to feel more real; for awhile, it felt like our wedding was so far away but now it is just around the corner!

After brunching, we moved to the living room for a fun dice game! We passed plates of dice around the circle, and if you rolled doubles, you grabbed a small gift from the middle. After all of the gifts were gone, if someone rolled doubles, they could snatch a gift from someone else. It got pretty intense rather quickly! 

After that game, we played another one in which everyone was given a sheet of paper with questions about Andy and I. My mom and sister both tied for first place (go figure! They're a little biased...) but my Aunt came in pretty close!

Next, gifts were opened! We received so many great things from our registries and we can not wait to use them! One of my favorite gifts that wasn't on a registry was this neat bike that one of the guests gave us. She also included a little poem about how riding a tandem bike can be related to our relationship with God. It was such a unique idea! I am looking forward to displaying this bike in our new home! 

I was so excited to receive such useful gifts! It will be so fun to have guest over and be able to use all of these new kitchen gadgets and serving dishes. Plus, I'm sure that many of them will make their grand appearance on the blog, as well! :D

My grandma assembled a cookbook for us with all kinds of great recipes all categorized and organized into a neat little book! This will be great for meal ideas! 

A Vera Bradley bag from my aunt! A new Kitchen Aid toaster was hiding inside! 

Lots of cards! 

The whole group that came to celebrate with me! I am so thankful to have all of these wonderful women in my life! 

Relatives from my mom's side of the family. Left to right: 

My cousin, myself, my other cousin, my mom, my sister, grandma, and my aunt!

2 of my bridesmaids and my personal attendant! 

Andy's sister Jen, myself, Andrea, and Krystine! You might recognize Krystine from a previous post since we are coworkers now! 

My two moms! Andy's mother is on my left, and my mom is on my right!

The wonderful ladies that thew the shower for me! Aren't they adorable?! My mom has such great friends--they threw a shower for my sister last winter too.

They had decorated the house both inside and out! I was so touched by their generosity and thoughtfulness!

After the shower, I headed back to my parent's house and chowed down a bowl of cereal since I hadn't eaten since earlier that morning! My sister and I sat down to plan my bachelorette party before my mom and I headed out to run a few wedding errands. Our first round wasn't too successful on the wedding front since my mom purchased a dress and a purse, and I came out with a pair of khakis and some new jeans. Oh, and a pretzel from the shop in the mall was also bought and consumed as well. 

After  the mall, we headed to another store and finally crossed some items off our our list! I found my bridesmaids gifts and I can't wait to give them to my bridesmaids for being a part of my special day. We also ran into one of my mom's neighbors at the store and it was so great to catch up with them! 

The next day, Andy and I met with our musicians to choose our ceremony music! Things are really coming together! I am so excited for the song that will be played when I walk down the aisle with my dad. Rather than doing the traditional route of canon in D, I chose "Interlude" by Shane and Shane after hearing it at a friend's wedding last Fall. I loved that we added this twist to our ceremony music and that we were able to incorporate an artist that has a special meaning to the two of us since we attended a Shane and Shane concert when we first started dating. 

After choosing our ceremony music, we went out to lunch with Andy's parents before checking out another place to live! We even got root beer floats--I haven't had one of those in so long! It definitely hit the spot as summer comes to an end.

Andy was so sweet and scanned in all of my pictures for me so that I can start working on our wedding slideshow! I can't wait to start on this project--it will be fun to watch us grow up on the video! Okay, and just to prove that I wasn't that strange as a kid, here's a normal one:

Those were the days!

Time to go blow dry my hair and head into work! Have a super day!

What special songs did you have in your wedding? Or, what songs would you like to have in your wedding?

Do you remember what your favorite age was? I'd have to say 7 or 8 was mine!

Best/worst bridal shower game you've played?