New Toy!

I'm excited to announce that we have a new addition to the Jones' house....our new iMac! While I used to post from work (shhh!), now I have internet & a new computer to use at home. Its really quite exciting! It wasn't easy getting all connected and we still have an issue with the satellite, but at least we are up and running and in touch with the online world. Now all I have to to is learn how to use this thing. Its been really easy so far, but I know it can do so many cool things, I can't wait to figure them all out!

Thanks to my fabulous husband for this awesome surprise! Love you honey!!!

Weekend Update

What a weekend! I spent most of the day Saturday cleaning up the house, doing laundry, all the usuals that pile up during the work week. Of course, I was also supposed to be waiting for Comcast to show up, but I assure you, you don't want to hear about how that turned out! Like I was saying, most of Saturday was cleaning and chores around the house. The kitties, as always, were so helpful...

For some unknown reason, they get very excited when I change the sheets on the bed (which is every Saturday, mind you). Out of no where they get a crazy burst of energy and run all over the bed, hide in the sheets, and dig on the mattress pad. Then of course, when the sheets are fresh out of the dryer, they refuse to get off the bed for me to make it up.





Once "their" bed was all made up they spent the rest of the day (literally 5+ hours) sleeping on it. We might as well call it their bed, they sleep there all night and apparently most of the day!





And several hours later...



Silly kitties, they were so tired!!

Sunday was much more exciting, we met with a contractor to see about remodeling our bathroom.





As you can see (its impossible to get a good angle!), we have a small shower in the corner (behind the door) and a huge tub we never use. So, we want to take both of them out and make a big, nice shower, with a linen closet for extra storage. Doesn't that sound nice!?! Hopefully the estimates are reasonable and soon these will be the "before" photos!

Soaking up the Sun

Lounging on Waikiki Beach, Enjoying the Sunshine





The view from our spot in the sand....



The beach was great, but we also loved the hotel pools. The one closest to our room was a little more secluded so there was less wind, fewer kids, free lounge chairs, and cool drinks!



Yes, I was really hot in this photo, about to melt actually! I didn't last much longer out there, I swear my skin is like a thermal blanket... In fact, maybe it is and thats why I'm so hot all the time! I'll have to look into that.

The Luau at Paradise Cove

Many of you may have already heard about our "interesting" experience at the luau. In case you haven't (or you've only heard Greg's version of the story), here it is...

We had originally wanted to do the luau offered by the hotel. Unfortunately, the hotel was changing the location of the luau or something to that effect, so it was not being offered while we were there. As you will remember, the dinner cruise was already booked for Valentine's Day, so we were scheduling the luau in its place (we did the dinner cruise on the 13th). It should have been our first clue that the luau was not what we were expecting since it wasn't sold out for that night.

To make a very long story short, we went to get on the bus for the luau at about 3:45 in the afternoon. After spending the evening waiting in line for drinks, getting rocks in our sandals, and having a very generic buffet dinner with 1,800 strangers (no whole roasted pig in sight), we finally got back to the hotel at 11 pm.

So, live and learn. Here are the photos...

Honolulu Gazette

This is one of the several "professional" photos the tourists destinations take at the beginning of each adventure and then sell to you at the end for $10-$20. Nevertheless, we thought this one was really cool (and the proceeds go to support the memorial). These are supposed to be some of the real headlines from the papers in 1941. It has a back side also with war photos and even a Spam add, for some reason I had trouble scanning that side.



Believe it or not, there are still more photos to post (even of just the good ones, not ALL of the photos we took), so keep checking back, I'm hoping to get them up soon!

Sunset Dinner Cruise

In the evening following our waterfall hike we went on a sunset dinner cruise, which turned out to be great! We were all a little unsure about eating and walking around on a moving boat (and the water was quite choppy!) but we quickly got used to it and had a great time. Bonus, we even got to see a whale! The photo was really dark because it was right at dusk, but Greg worked some magic and lightened it up enough so you can see the flipper splashing. We were so lucky we happened to be standing right there when it appeared.

Still more photos to post tomorrow!

Manoa Falls Waterfall Hike

The first real excursion we did in Hawaii (other than explore our hotel & Waikiki) was to go on a hike to the Manoa Falls - it was amazing! This was definitely one of my favorite parts of the trip. Although the hike was muddy and little more tricky than I had imagined, it was so beautiful and it felt great to be out walking in the middle of a rainforest!

Doesn't it look amazing?! The photos don't even do it justice. By the way, a countless number of movies and tv shows have filmed in this very place!