Our trip to Hawaii

Better late than never. A little photo recounting of our wonderful trip to Hawaii!!

In November, 2012, we went to Hawaii for 10 days. The first five days we stayed in Kaanapali and celebrated the wedding of our friends, Dan and Jil.

The last five days we stayed in Wailea and had a bit of a romantic/adventure vacation! Romancing the stone?

Golfing in Kaanapali - really who cares what your handicap is when the view is this good!

The golf game was a tournament set up for the wedding party. James ended up winning a prize! 

Snorkeling off of Black Rock at the Marriott. Great location!

James has mad snorkel skills. 

More snorkeling. 

The rehearsal dinner was at a Luau - open bar! - this was a fun night!

The next day was the wedding, at Merrimens. Great location with a beautiful sunset view.

The newlyweds at dinner where we were all stuffed full!

A view of the sunset from the wedding!

The next day, James bravely faced the giant waves at Big Beach.

Checked into the Grand Wailea and they had romanced out the room - so lovely!

One of our favorite activities! A really fast sail on the America II!

Dan and Jil joined us for the sail. It was good times! We got soaked and really enjoyed ourselves.

Added bonus - great sunset!

We found this guy the next day while snorkeling near our hotel.

Grabbing some much deserved froo froo island cocktails after our surfing lessons at Cheeseburger in Paradise.
This seriously is paradise - the water laps up to the window right next to the bar.

James doesn't care about sharks. Sunset boogie boarding had to be done!

The next day we did the "Road to Hana" - we stopped several times to take in some sights (surfers braving some 20+ foot waves, waterfalls, expansive views, rain forest) went swimming in the falls and dipped our feet into some lava sand beaches and had some delicious local cuisine. 

Walking through the jungle. 

Seriously Jurassic Park must be right behind those hills.

Three waterfalls.

The next day, we went ziplining, which was just thrilling!!

We did a "canopy tour" and it felt like we were in the Ewok forest, very fun!

A quick stop at the Lavender Farm up the mountain to Haleakala.

A neat "Experimental Forest" that was planted on the way up Haleakala to see if any of these foreign trees could thrive in Hawaii. Some did not and others started to destroy the local ecosystem. It was pretty neat to walk through though, and a nice break from the heat and humidity.

The top of Haleakala for sunset and star gazing. This is 10,000 feet up and was COLD!! Very romantic though, what a wonderful evening with my awesome Jamey - we watched the sun set over the island then watched hours of shooting stars and constellations. The more you stared at the sky, the harder it was to find a spot without a star. Just incredible.

9/11/2012 - it has been too long

It has been way too long since I updated the blog.  My main excuse for this is that we haven't really had any photos together lately. I know this is a LAME excuse. Well, this weekend, since James is in Macau, I thoroughly cleaned and neatened my house. Immediately after that, I ransacked it looking for something (that was never found, by the way). I looked around at the mess I had just created and decided it would be a perfect time to organize some things, which is when I found the photos, below. And a perfect excuse to update the blog.

My last check in was in February. Since then, we attended our friends' wedding in Vegas (Dan and Brigid Arcari), I went to a Bachelorette party in Vegas, then we went to another friends' wedding in Vancouver (Steve and Simone Scaia).  All wonderful trips and some good time together. We also had family visits - my sister Stephanie and her boyfriend Dave, my dad came to visit, then James' mom was here. All of the visits were so wonderful, its a great excuse to tour our city as tourists!

Work is good. Keeping busy and active. I am way too busy with my alumni board and homeowners Association Board - I will likely quit the HOA when my term is up for renewal in February. We are keeping active and James has taught me to golf and I am really enjoying that!! I am still going to the gym and am now doing Zumba, and James just completed and passed a Sailing Certification course. Now I have no excuse not to get on the boat with him. :)

So here are the photos. The first is from my company Christmas party, so December 2004, and about 4 months after we starting dating.

I've never known what to do with my hands in photos - help me Tyra.

These are some Polaroids from our first Valentines Day - so, February 2005. We would have both been 27 years young, and dating for 6 months. These were starting to really fade, and make it look like we started dating in the 70s. I'm glad I found them when I did and could scan them before any more damage.

I'll admit to some "what's happening" anxiety when this photo was taken. 

Not sure what is happening here -
but the Langoliers (nerdy Stephen King reference) are attacking this photo

The next set is from a photo booth at Kenchy and Melinda's wedding in September 2008. So we had been married for 3 months.

Lots of Vampire style biting...

The next set are from a website launch party I think in 2009.

In the coming months, I hope to get some more pictures of us together! We will be heading to Maui, Hawaii for our wonderful friends Dan and Jil's wedding!  We are going to stay an extra few days and make it our annual trip, as well. We have some fun things planned  -  maybe too many things, thanks to Yelp and Tripadvisor and my anxiety about having to do all of the "Must Do" activities, ha ha.  We are really looking forward to it!

Enjoy and as always, keep in touch!
Roxanne & James

Happy Valentines Day!

James will be on his way back from a long work trip tomorrow - he has been in Panama and Chile. This has probably been for the best because in the meantime, I have been working with the partner at my firm on my first ever jury trial. We have been fully immersed in this endeavor now for about 10 days, and we expect closing arguments to take place this coming Friday. Thank goodness the courts are closed tomorrow for Lincoln's birthday, it is giving us some much needed time in the office to catch up on everything else! James and I are both looking forward to being home and enjoying some stress free relaxing (maybe next weekend!)

We had a wonderful Christmas back east in Connecticut. Santa really spoiled everyone and the time off was great - very relaxing. It was fantastic to spend some time with Barbara and Eric and the Connecticut family.

January was a fun month - We really enjoyed Patrick and Maureen's new year's eve wedding.  James made a wonderful best man and made a very touching speech that had me in tears.  Thanks to New Years Day falling on a Sunday, which we used as our travel day, we were able to be back in Los Angeles in time for the Rose Bowl game! We joined our friends Dan and Jil for some tailgating about 6 hours after we landed at LAX. We wore our crazy hats that Becky got us for Christmas (meant for sledding, but there was no snow!).

Later in January I celebrated my 35th birthday - a little early (it is actually the 23rd of February) but my friend Missy K and I decided to join forces and rented an awesome box suite at Staples Center to watch a hockey game. The suite was more than I could ask for and I had an awesome time.

We are looking forward to some quieter months ahead - not too much on the calendar for March and April - thank goodness!

xoxoxo Roxanne and James

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing everyone a happy and safe American Thanksgiving! :)

Update from the West! 11/10/11

I am hoping to get a bit better about updating, and I am hoping that having these updates in one place so I can see when the last time I sent one was will help!


Welcome to the blog! I posted the last update in here, and hope to find the rest and add them. 

Snorkeling

The last few months have been fabulous. In July, James and I went on our honeymoon to Aruba. I really recommend waiting to go on a honeymoon because it was so wonderful to have the uninterrupted time to check in with one another. I loved every moment of it, and have even almost forgotten how scared I was when we were saling on the hobie cat (we capsized and I hurt myself pretty bad). I had so much fun learning to windsurf, snorkeling (I never thought I would enjoy that, since I have an aversion to fish), laying in the warm waters and sun bathing. The food was also delicious. 

At the pier bar

Happy Hour!

Disneyland Half Marathon

As the summer came to an end, I started on my "half marathon trifecta." This began with the Disneyland Half that we try to run every year. The next was a Disney World half, in Orlando, which helped me and my three girlfriends cinch the "coast to coast" medal Disney Sports offers competitors who run a race on each coast. The third was the Los Angeles Half which I regret to say I did not participate in due to a pretty bad sinus infection (I was able to run the 3 mile mini marathon and still get a medal). 






In the meantime, James spent the time globetrotting: Mexico, Brazil, Atlanta, Vegas..He is back now with only some short travel through the next few months. 


This month, my mom and aunties are coming to visit Los Angeles - we have some fun things planned, including a hockey game and wine tasting.  While I am at work, they will be taking the town by storm on a TMZ tour, The Price is Right and Disneyland. 


At the same time, James will be hosting some friends for a bachelor party, our dear friend Patrick Lamb will be getting married this New Years Eve! Patrick was the best man at our wedding, and James will be serving as his best man. I am looking forward to celebrating their marriage! And having a date in a tux on new years :) 


We will be spending the holidays in Connecticut this year, then making our way to Massachusetts (Hingham) for the New Years wedding.  


Looking at the calendar, it doesn't seem like the dust will be settling any time soon, though life really is better that way. And, once back from the holidays, I will start training for the Los Angeles FULL Marathon!! I think I have finally convinced Becky to join me on that adventure, and our goal will simply be to cross the finish line. 


Keep in touch and we hope to hear from everyone really soon!
Love
Roxanne and James

More pictures from Aruba!

Sunset on our first night in Aruba

Little shops across from our hotel

Enjoying Pina Coladas

The Jolly Pirate ships, used for snorkel tours

On the Jolly Pirate ship

James Snorkeling. We learned quickly to wear our rash guards
to avoid turning as red as the rest of the tourists. 

Getting drinks at the pool bar after racing on the water slide

Watching a sunset, we tried to do this every night. 

Pasta made in a giant cheese round. Delicious!

Disgusting local beer! In the city checking out
the shopping and museums (Sparse!)

Ancient trash dump - emptied shells left behind after dinner