tintwo

I'm back!!

2011-11-03T23:22:00.000-07:00

I've ignored this blog for over a year now. But I'm back now with promise to not abandon it again...I know probably no one really reads this anyway but here goes.

I have lots of catching up to do...lots of pictures to post.

So cross my fingers...here's to blogging and keeping with it.

Wish me luck!

Hawaiian Vacation - Day 2

2010-11-20T11:31:00.000-08:00

Day 2 in Hawaii was overcast. It was still warm but the sun wasn't out so we thought it was a good day to hop onto a bus and hike up Diamond Head Crater.

Diamond Head Crater used to be a volcano that is now dormant and was once used as Hawaii's first military reservation. Now people hike up Diamond Head to enjoy the beautiful views of Waikiki and the Ocean.

I think this lighthouse was in the movie 50 first dates. Hehe

The bunker we had to crawl out of at the top.

Our view from the top

When our hike was over we hopped back onto the bus and made our way to Hanauma Bay for some snorkelling.

Hanauma Bay is a nature preserve because of all the different marine life living in the bay off of the coral. We had to watch a video about the importance of leaving the fish alone and not to step on the coral.

I was super excited to come here because I wanted to see a huge sea turtle really bad.

And of course we took pictures of us and the fish in the water.

The aquarium fish from finding nemo!

As you can see we didn't see a turtle...We were told they're not out as often during this time of year..so I was a bit disappointed but it was still super amazing to see all the fish that we did. And it was crazy how close you could get and they wouldn't even care. Hanauma Bay was probably one of my favorite parts of the trip.

Stay tuned for Day 3.

Hawaiian Vacation - Day 1

2010-11-19T12:34:00.000-08:00

We arrived in Oahu at 10 pm. And once we stepped out of the plane we could feel the humidity (yes even at 10 at night). It felt awesome to leave the cold rainy Vancouver weather behind.

Next we hopped onto a shuttle which dropped us off at our hotel. The streets were busy even at midnight. But we were so tired that we stayed in for the night.

The next day we got up super early. Maybe because we turned in early the night before but also because Hawaii is 3 hours behind and we were jetlagged.

This is the view from our hotel room.

We got dressed and had a quick bite to eat for breakfast and set off to explore.

Our first stop was the beach. We were actually lucky that we got there early because the beach was practically empty, which wasn't the case once time passed.

Checking out the water...

Experimenting with taking pictures in the water..

We actually got some pictures of fish!

We took a break at from the beach and had some lunch, changed and explored the area more.

This statue was right by our hotel. She was once a Princess of Hawaii. There were lei flowers on her everyday.

While we were walking we started to hear load Hawaiian music, then we saw a big crowd. So we went to see what was going on...Hawaiian dancers! in the middle of the city..AWESOME!

Our first day was full of exploring and beaching...although I love the winter season...i sure do miss Hawaii :(
Stay tuned for the rest of our stay in Hawaii.

Cake

2010-11-09T22:39:00.000-08:00

I've been ignoring my blog lately, so to make it up for it I'll do a day by day blog about our recent anniversary trip to Hawaii. Which I will say was fantastic! Beaching, exploring, sun, water...what more could we ask for.

However, this first blog post will not be about Hawaii but about our actual anniversary. We had an evening flight to Hawaii. So we got up and finished our last minute packing. Left a set of keys with our friend and drove to my parents' place with all our luggage.

When we got there we found this on the kitchen table.

Yup! The top of our wedding cake. My mom took it out of the deep freezer and had it defrosting for our one year cake cutting. How sweet is my mom? She's the sweetest! (But I also think she did it in part because she didn't want that cake taking up room in her freezer anymore) LOL

Here's some pics of us cutting into our cake.

Too be honest..it didn't taste too good anymore. It was dry..really dry!..lol..but I'm glad we did it.

One Year

2010-10-23T00:19:00.000-07:00

One year ago today I married my best friend. He knows how to make me laugh when I'm in a bad mood. He puts up with my moody moments and he will do anything for me. And I would do anything for him. He's the love of my life. And today we celebrate one year of being husband and wife.

We planned the wedding for 10 months and I wouldn't change anything about it. Here are some reminiscent pictures.

Love you hubby bubby! One year down..forever to go!

Lucky

2010-10-15T23:19:00.000-07:00

This week's episode of Glee was so heartwarming. Why? because Quinn and Sam sang Lucky (original by Jason Mraz and Colbie Caillat). Lucky was the first dance at our wedding. Speaking of which, its one week till our one year anniversary. How did that year go by sooo fast? We're celebrating by going to Hawaii. Woohoo!!

Anyways, sit and enjoy..

Evan & Avery

2010-09-21T00:17:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago my friend Avery tied the knot to Evan. She had a beautiful ceremony and reception at the Stanley Park Pavillion.

After the ceremony the newlyweds along with their wedding party took pictures...the rest of us took the opportunity to have our own photoshoot...teehee..

Emelyn & Leonard under a tree..K I S S I N G...hehee

We made the boys pose too!! hahaha

ok..ok enough about us...Avery and Evan's first dance...super sweet!

Congratulations to Mr & Mrs Evan & Avery O'Conner!!

I'm counting the minutes...

2010-09-18T14:50:00.000-07:00

till Sept 21!!! My all time favorite show comes back!! GLEE!!!!

Here's a teaser for my fellow Gleeks!

Summer Vacation - Part 10

2010-08-27T13:25:00.000-07:00

Our last day in San Francisco..was actually the sunniest...we started the day early, went to see a few more things then started our 16 hour journey back home.

The hubby really wanted to see AT&T Park (where the San Francisco Giants play baseball). So that was our first stop.

Our next stop was Union Square. This area is full of shops and also very tourist-ridden..especially since the sun finally decided to come out.

Then we went to Chinatown. We bought some souvenirs and bought Dimsum for lunch.

Our last stop was back to Twin Peaks. Because when we were there our first day it was way too windy and foggy to see anything.

It was still foggy but at least we got to see the beautiful views.

Yes..by the end of our trip we all <3 SF

Summer Vacation - Part 9

2010-08-18T22:52:00.000-07:00

After our tour at the Winchester Mansion. We had a quick lunch and drove back to San Francisco. Our next stop...the Painted Ladies. The Painted Ladies are old Victorian Houses most famous for their appearances on Full House, Mrs. Doubtfire, and many others.

The houses in San Francisco are all really skinny and barely have any space if not any between them. The Painted Ladies are no exception.

Me and my sister actually snuck up and sat on a couple of the houses' steps...

Then we drove down "Castro" Street...Castro Street is known to be America's largest gay district. Kind of funny for us coz of our last name..teehee..

As we were driving back to our hotel we found a Jollibee which was attached to a Red Ribbon. We definitely had to stop here for dinner. The last time we had Jollibee and Red Ribbon was when we were in the Philippines last April...so we were super excited because we don't have these places in Canada.

Summer Vacation - Part 8

2010-08-17T23:30:00.000-07:00

After our long and exciting first day we decided to drive an hour south of San Francisco to San Jose. Why San Jose you ask? Well we wanted to visit the Winchester Mystery Mansion. The story of Sarah Winchester and the mansion that she built was what drew us to visit the mansion.

Sarah Winchester married the son of the Winchester Rifle manufacturer during the 1800's. They had a daughter who died as a very young child. This made Sarah very depressed. When her husband died soon after she decided to go to a Boston medium to get answers of why many bad things were happening to her. The medium informed her that the reasons all these things were happening was because all the ghosts that were killed by Winchester rifles were haunting her and the only way to appease their spirits was to build a mansion to house all of them. After Sarah learned this she bought acres and acres of land in San Jose and set to work to build this mansion...

...But this is not just any old mansion...it is the most bizarre mansion you could ever imagine. Examples of how weird this place was...well it has a staircase that leads straight to the ceiling, doors that open into walls, twisted hallways, secret passages, and even doors that lead to no where. Sarah built her mansion this way to confuse the spirits that were haunting her...she seemed like quite an odd lady..

..to make it creepier their are actually stories of spirit sightings in the house..and to be honest it was a hot day and some rooms definitely felt colder than normal...but I won't get into that right now

...anyways to make a long story short..the house is now a historical landmark and is open for daily tours...so of course we had to see how bizarre this mansion was for ourselves.

Unfortunately taking pictures inside the mansion wasn't allowed so you have to settle for outside pictures instead.

There was so much detail throughout the whole mansion. Apparently construction was being done on the house 24 hours a day, 7 days a year up until Sarah Winchester died in her 80's. The house has 160 rooms, 2,000 doors, 10,000 windows, 47 stairways, 47 fireplaces, 13 bathrooms, and 6 kitchens. By the end of our tour the tour guide informed us we had actually walked a whole mile.

The door that leads to no where..

The staircase to the ceiling..(not from my camera)

Summer Vacation - Part 7

2010-08-16T22:58:00.000-07:00

Also on Fisherman's Wharf is the USS Pampanito. The USS Pampanito was a naval submarine that was used in World War II. It has since been restored for daily tours and is located on Pier 45 at Fisherman's Wharf.

A torpedo..

More cut out fun!

Next to the USS Pampanito was a building filled with vintage arcade games that you could actually still play. Some of them were super creepy looking and some were just plain weird..

We explored the Wharf a bit more then got back into the car to get a better view of the Golden Gate Bridge. Yup still pretty foggy..

Can you believe this is how big one of the cables on the Golden Gate Bridge actually is?

Once our pictorial session was over we got back into the car again and headed up twin peaks. It was supposed to be a great view of the whole city..we should of thought it through better because the fog and wind was even worse up there. - FAIL..lol

We decided to come back on a clearer day...that is if we actually would be lucky enough to see some sun in San Francisco.

And that's the end of our first day..Stay tuned tomorrow for Day 2!

Summer Vacation - Part 6

2010-08-16T00:00:00.000-07:00

So after our awesome lunch at In-N-Out burger we walked down to Fisherman's Wharf.

Fisherman's Wharf was first established during the Gold Rush where early Italian immigrants would fish for dungeness crab. It has since boomed with popular tourist attractions and is now a must see on any tourist's list.

We walked through Fisherman's Grotto where there were tons of vendors selling all kinds of seafood fare. DELISH too bad we were already full from the In-n-out burgers.

Then we went to the Boudin Bakery. Which is a popular bakery known for its artisan sourdough bread.

I thought it was so cool how they made animal shapes out of the bread.

...and how they transported the bread in conveyor belts on the ceiling from the bakery to the front of the shop to be sold.

Then we went outside to check out the views of Alcatraz. Alcatraz island was once a federal penitentiary which was shut down in 1963 because it was more expensive to operate than other prisons. The buildings were eroding because of excessive salt water saturation and the water was becoming very polluted by the sewage generated by the 250 prisoners that it was home to.

There are now tours of this popular prison, unfortunately for us we didn't know tickets are usually sold out two weeks ahead :S So we settled for viewing it from the wharf.

Stayed tuned for tomorrow the last part of our day :)

Summer Vacation - Part 5

2010-08-12T23:17:00.000-07:00

The evening we arrived in San Francisco it was so foggy we didn't even realize till we were half way through that we were on the golden gate bridge. I knew that San Francisco was known for its foggy days but I never knew it was as heavy as it actually was!

The next day we ventured out into the windy foggy weather for our first day of exploration in the city of San Francisco.

Our first venture was Lombard Street. It is known to many as the most crookedest road. It has a one block section where it is very steep and yields very sharp turns. Cars (including ours of course) were taking turns driving down this road. Many tourists (like me..hehehe) got out of their cars to get pictures.

Can you believe people actually live in those houses?

Our next stop? - Ghirardelli Square

This was once home of the Ghirardelli Chocolate Factory during the Gold Rush but has moved since. What remains is a Ghirardelli Chocolate shop where you are greeted by a sample of oh so yummy chocolate and you can buy oh so many kinds of Ghirardelli Chocolate. Also in the square are many cute little shops and boutiques. A tourist's delight!

Next Stop... The Cannery

This was Del Monte's old cannery which is now home to shops and restaurants.

Hubby found an In-N-Out Burger right across the street..which is where we stopped for lunch. We were super excited for lunch here because we don't have an In-N-Out anywhere near us..so this was a special treat..hehe.

That takes us to halfway though our first day..stay tuned tomorrow for the second half of our day :)

Summer Vacation - Part 4

2010-08-12T01:40:00.000-07:00

On our second day of driving we drove down the northern California coast. Basically its 2 million acres of redwood forest. This sounds really nerdy but these trees are humongous..so humongous that you can drive through them in your car...which is exactly what we did.

Before that as we were driving we saw this huge Paul Bunyan..so we had to stop and see what that was all about.

Hubby and dad grabbing Paul Bunyan's bull's privates..hehe

The huge Paul Bunyan actually would talk to people and he could wave his hand and wink..he actually flirted with my little sister for a bit and made her sit on his giant boot..keke..my sister loves paul bunyan now...keke..

We drove through the avenue of the giants which has some of the biggest trees in the forest.

We found a huge hollow tree..

And saw an "immortal tree"

Then we drove THROUGH a tree!!

And finally we went in some tree houses.

Huge trees are cool! 8-)

Summer Vacation - Part 3

2010-08-11T09:30:00.000-07:00

Our next stop on the Oregon Coast was the Tillamook Cheese Factory.

Tillamook Cheese was established in 1909 and is known for its quality dairy products in the states. At the factory you can go on self guided tours and also watch how cheese is is made at the cheese factory. We had to stop here..afterall who doesn't love cheese?

Silly times with cut-outs...

The Cheese Factory

Cheese Sample Bar...YUMMY!

And we couldn't leave without getting ice cream..DELISH!

Summer Vacation - Part 2

2010-08-10T11:29:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to see the Oregon Coast for some time now because everyone has always told me how beautiful it was. So on our way down to San Francisco we decided to drive the coast so that we could see what everyone has been boasting about.

Everyone was right. The Oregon Coast is definitely a must see. We stopped at Arcadia Beach because the sand was so beautiful and the beach looked endless. I never would have imagined that we had beaches like this in the pacific northwest.

Mom and dad...

Hubby and me..

Sister and me...

Our time on the coast was short but hopefully we'll be back really soon.

Summer Vacation - Part 1

2010-08-09T15:52:00.000-07:00

Last week the hubby and I went on our summer vacation. We were supposed to go to Mexico for our friends' wedding but unfortunately plans fell through. Instead we visited our neighbours to the south and went on our annual family camping trip at Larrabee State Park. After that the whole family packed up for a roadtrip to San Francisco. So this post and a few posts after this will be about our trip.

Part 1 - Camping at Larrabee State Park

Every year for as long as I can remember my family packs up on the long weekend for a camping trip. Always at Larrabee State Park. We go shopping (woohoo!), and do go to the beach, roast marshmallows and hotdogs, and just chill with family (direct as well as extended).

Some of our tents..

Walking to the beach..

The View..

Enjoying the sunset..

Cousin and sister..

Moi..

The Parentals...

Goodbye Larrabee..until next year!

Lynn Valley Canyon

2010-07-29T00:04:00.000-07:00

We've been having such beautiful weather this month that last week the hubby and I decided to go to Lynn Valley Canyon. We picked up my sister, brought a picnic lunch as well as my trusty new toy. It was a perfect place for me to play with my new toy. A suspension bridge, hiking, and a river (where we spent most of the day because it was so hot).

The Suspension Bridge (Hubby was scared..lol)

The View from the Suspension Bridge

Hiking...

These pictures kind of remind me of the forest in the Twilight movies (yah yah im a nerd)

The River..

It was really nice because the water was super cold..perfect on a hot day!

The rocks were really slippery..

And we actually got to see some mermaids on rocks!!!!!

LOL =P

And that was our day at Lynn Valley Canyon. We will definitely be returning again soon.

River Rafting Adventure

2010-07-25T23:16:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago my friend Bern contacted me about having a surprise birthday for her husband, Jan. She told me that Jan had always wanted to try river rafting and she wanted to throw a surprise birthday river rafting trip. The hubby and I agreed to go along with our other friends, Irene and Mark. I was a little nervous because I've never been rafting before and I can swim.. just not very well...I was also really nervous because I've been to the Chilliwack river before and I know how fast the river is. It ended up being a really fun experience despite our very rude tour guide (which I won't get into on here) it was quite an adventure.

Jan had was blind-folded and had headphones on the whole way to Chilliwack. He had no idea where he was going that day or who would be there.

Jan finally finds out where we are and what we're doing that day.

The boys...

The girls...

The hubby and I...

We had lots of gear to put on before rafting.

Our Rafting Adventure...

Ryan + Maricel's Wedding

2010-07-19T22:11:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday was my cousin Ryan's wedding. Ryan is like my big brother and seeing him get married made me realize yet again how old we're all getting. I remember when we were younger we would have sleepovers and make music videos and believe it or not we would have tickle fights. Ryan met Maricel at my debut 8 years ago. Who would of thought that the girl Ryan was asking me about on that night would eventually be his wife. I love weddings and I always tear up no matter who's getting married. So this one was a tear fest for me. I had to try to keep it cool because I was part of the ceremony luckily my cousin had plenty of tissues for me to use. :)

Here are pictures of the big event.

The Church

Some flower girls and groomsmen

The hubby and I

The new happy couple

Congratulations to Ryan and Maricel.

Welcome to our ever growing family Maricel!

More pictures to come soon

My new toy

2010-07-18T23:06:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend..the hubby and I bought a new toy for us. Well mostly for me..teehee. Yes, he thinks I'm spoiled sometimes..but just sometimes. The Canon T2i.

Who says that only boys like gadgets..girls like gadgets just as much. It's got so many options that I don't even know how to really use them all...but I'm super excited to learn how especially since we've been having nice weather...I can go out and play with my new toy under different lighting conditions. I'm even considering taking a class? We'll see..lol

This weekend was my cousin's wedding. So I will post pictures soon..which of course were taken with my new camera!

Kids say the darnest things (Part 2)

2010-07-13T23:02:00.000-07:00

payton: I wanna be a zookeeper!
cj: Really?! What's your favourite animal?
payton: Penguins... and koala bears.
cj: Really? Koala bears? Aren't they dangerous?
payton: No! They're not dangerous!
cj: Yeah they are. They attack people.
payton: No they don't! They're so cute.
cj: Ask Daddy Peter.
payton: Daddy Peter, are koalas dangerous?
peter: Yeah they can attack you.
payton: No they can't.
peter: Yeah they attack you when they need to defend themselves when they think you're going to kill them.
payton: Well I'm not gonna kill them. I'll just say "It's okay I won't hurt you."
isabelle: Umm Payton, I don't think they understand english.

Hahaha I love it when kids say funny things that totally catch you off guard.

my prink

2010-07-09T15:42:00.000-07:00

even since the hubby and i moved to our new digs..i miss my dog...she used to scratch on my door at night so that she could come sleep in bed with me...

i get to visit her often but on the odd occasion i bring her to our place to spend the night...she doesn't like being at our place so much coz shes not used to being in a condo compared to my parents' house :( which makes me sad...maybe one day the hubby and i will get a dog of our own...

browsing through some pics and found these...i just think its so funny how dogs like to stick their heads out of car windows even though its too way too windy to even open their eyes..lol

i miss my prink

tourist day date

2010-06-28T00:07:00.000-07:00

on the rare occasion that my hubby and i are off on a weekday together we try to make a day out of it. it was a beautiful day so we decided to be tourists for the day.

first we went to spanish banks...since it was a weekday there were barely any people there

then we went to the granville island brewing co where we ordered a sampler..which was 4 mini pints of your choice of granville island beers on tap.

then we explored all the beauty that is granville island..

the market..

hubby ate a candy apple...

then we enjoyed the views...

we live in such a beautiful place...its dates like this where i actually realize how nice it really is.