Sunday, January 19, 2014

Aloha in Paradise - OR - How to avoid the German traditions as an unmarried woman turning 30....

Aloha everyone in 2014. I guess this is the first blog post in 2014 and there is a lot that has already happened... Let's start with the very happy arrival of our foster-fur-child Rocky (and his mom of course), hehe. So, my sis came in the weekend before New Year's. For New Year's we were just gonna chill at home and watch movies, play with the fur babies. That did not happen since my fantastic fiancĂ© somehow got tickets for a sold-out club in Hollywood a couple of hours before it all actually happened. We had a great time, open bar, except for the fact that my sis could not understand that they turned on the lights at 2am. Welcome to L.A. Jasmin, lol. The rest of the week was honestly a normal work week for me. We went shopping on Saturday at an outlet mall with tons of sales and Sunday we did the obligatory "New Year's beach visit" - better late than never. The following Thursday it was off to Honolulu, HI for Jasmin and I. Of course our plane was delayed but that didn't mean to get upset. Hawai'i is so awesome, so relaxed, so beautiful - everyone should go there at least once in their lifetime. First thing we did after we were dropped off with our flower necklaces was go to the beach and the farmer's market, which was conveniently enough right downstairs in our hotel. The beach was right across the street from the hotel. Perfect. Friday morning we grabbed our fresh pineapple and coffee and went to the beach. After lunch we made our way to Diamond Head - on foot. That was about a 35 minute walk (at our pace) and then an hour hike up and down as well. Needless to say we took the bus back and went to happy hour straight after. The view from up there was breathtaking, we even saw whales. At night we were so tired that we went to bed at 9pm, hehe. Saturday was our birthday and we wanted to try to stay up but that did not happen. At night I woke up to a dripping ceiling and we changed rooms in the morning - higher floor, even more amazing view. Saturday at midnight we talked to my brother and sister-in-law because they had given Jasmin our birthday present and we wanted to open it "with them" - a very pretty bracelet. In the morning, after we watched some very entertaining birthday videos, we blew out our candles on our cupcakes and went out for breakfast at "Eggs n Things" on the way to the Ala Moana Mall. Very tasty. Then we walked to the mall and took advantage of all the sales, literally all of them. As we came out of one of the stores it was raining pretty bad so it was great we chose that day for shopping. We took the trolley home from there. Then we went to happy hour/birthday dindin. Sunday we went to "Leonard's bakery", the beach and the Honolulu Zoo, which was bigger than expected. We ran some errands and went to happy hour for some Pina Coladas - delicious, while we had a beautiful view of the ocean and the beach at dindin. Monday was our last day so we went to the Aquarium, which was a rarely short visit and then the beach to soak up some last Waikiki sun. Tuesday was our departure day so we got ready in the morning, were picked up almost three hours before our flight and almost got stuck in Honolulu traffic. The crew for our flight did get stuck in traffic, so again our flight was delayed. As we made it back to LAX my fiance picked us up and he had dindin and a cake for us - perfect. Here are some pics of the vacay. 







So, overall a really great vacation for our 30th birthday-escape. Wednesday it was back to work for me and Jasmin slowly had to get ready to go back to Germany on Saturday. But before that we had our housewarming/birthday party at our new place. In the afternoon Jasmin and I met with Stacey for a little photo-shoot for the Malibu Classix skates I got Jasmin for her birthday. Here are some pics of that. 




It was really fun and at night we had our party. That was fun too. We went to the store Thursday night and got drinks and snacks and had a really good time with everyone. Saturday morning at 5am Jasmin, Rockylinos and I went to the airport to drop them off for their journey to the mother-land. They made it safely and Aaron and I went to get a substitute for Rockylinos so Champy has a fur-brother from another mother. Meet Nox