HBD Bil!

Today is my brother-in-law's birthday.

At first glance he is quiet, seemingly shy and definitely unassuming.

But after you get to know him you realize that he is witty, intelligent, and has a heart bigger than the Mississippi. 

Josh-like I said in my MOH speech at your wedding this year~there is no one greater whom I would've chosen to be my sister's partner, best friend, husband and love of her life. Thank you for always taking care of her. I am honored to be your SIL!

Now, move back home already :D

Happy Birthday!

Aim

NZ Honeymoon: Downtown Queenstown

Welcome to Downtown Queenstown! The town is quaint, yet rich. It has character, yet it's clean and fresh too. Lots of local flair, but also full of standards like Louis Vuitton and Starbucks. It was the perfect mix of both and Blane and just fell in love with the place.

 We spent our first afternoon just meandering around the area, checking stores out and seeing places in person that we'd read about in our guidebooks. Queenstown is very walkable-in fact, it's somewhat more difficult to drive because some of the streets are so narrow-so not having a car that first day worked out just fine. Above is a super cool clothing store (left) that Blane really liked. On the right is the window display for Louis Vuitton. And yes, we walked in there too. Do you know my husband? Haha

 I don't know what type of store this was but it made me think of my sister :)

 The local Starbucks. I was really disappointed to find that they had nothing that was different from the Starbucks back in the States. Usually at Starbucks abroad, something is different-be it a mug or a type of sweet they offer to a different kind of drink or even a cool gift card! But sadly, New Zealand Starbuck's aren't really that plentiful and they might as well have been in California. Sad face :(

 I thought this was funny and if you know my love of caffeine, then you understand why I took this picture. :)

 Besides all the shops, there were randon grassy knolls throughout the town too. It was a beautiful day and people were just hanging out at spots like these.

 One of the reasons why Queenstown is so beautiful is because of its location-look at the backdrop!

 One of the first eating places we stopped at was Patagona Chocolates, located directly across from where our water taxi docked. They are known for their homemade chocolates and decadent hot chocolate. Instead of cheese boards they do chocolate boards and here's ours. We chose all dark chocolate, but they have milk chocolate too. We brought our leftovers back home with us and still have some in our fridge! Mmmm :)

 The one super-touristy thing that they have is a gondola that goes all the way up one of their biggest hills so that you can see the vista of the area. Since it was a clear and sunny day, we decided to check it out. Here I am with our tickets!

 On the way up was this thing (bottom left). Queenstown is known as the "birthplace of bungy" and people were bungy jumping off the mountain! Eeeek! If you look closely you can see a person flying through the air. No thank you. I think I'll pass!

 At the top the views were amazing. 

 You could mountain bike or luge back down the mountain, but we opted to just take the gondola back again. Adventure-seekers we were not that day :)

Next up, let's get to grubbin' shall we?

Kiwi out,

Mrs. S

NZ Honeymoon: En Route to Queenstown CBD

Now that the holidays are over let's finish up these honeymoon recaps shall we?!? We're almost done! Last city on the queue up and running!

So the Hilton is located about 15 minutes outside of downtown Queenstown. To get there, you either go by car (about 15 minutes) or you can take the water taxi that leaves every half an hour from the dock in front of the hotel (about 10 minutes). Of course we had to take the water taxi for our first foray into town. What fun!

 Here is Blane in front of the water taxi. How beautiful is the background? It was an awesome day.

 The duck that was waiting with us, haha.

 See how clear the water was? We could see straight to the bottom from where we stood on the dock!

 Off we go!

 We sped past our room (there is is on the left!) as we took off and we took a quick pic.

 The sky was so blue and clear...it was a lovely day to be out on the water.

 Shortly after we left the Hilton, we saw the beginning of our destination: the town of Queenstown! Everything looked so quaint and full of character. I was excited to explore this place.

Here is the dock where the water taxi dropped us off. We were hungry and I had a whole guidebook of dogeared pages of places to try. Where did we go next?

Stay tuned!

Be back straightaway,

Mrs. S

Akemashite Omedetoo!

Well, the holidays came and went. Thought I'd share a few of the pics that I took on Christmas. Blane and I woke up Christmas morning and shared stockings with eachother. It was a special time to spend with my new husband :). Then we went to church where it just felt right to be praising God on the day that we celebrate His Son's birth. 

We had lunch at Blane's parent's house with his side of the family where I received my first gift from Remington and Riley, the family kitties :). Blane caught the Miami game (Welcome back NBA -___- Haha) while we opened gifts and hung out with his parents and brother. I enjoy being a part of my new family and I am blessed that they have accepted me as such too. 

Later in the afternoon Blane and I headed over to my parent's house where we had our annual gift opening tradition together. Every year my Dad reads the Christmas story out of Luke and we sing a carol or two and pray together before opening gifts. This year was the first year that Josh and Blane were there and it made it that much more special :). I'm glad we made the effort to continue the tradition despite having to push it back a few hours. Then the fun began, family and people from church began arriving and we had Christmas dinner, followed by fellowship, dessert and games. It was good times! 

I hope that your Christmas celebration was as rich as mine was. I love Christmas! 

Unfortunately, January has come full swing and with it the Christmas decorations have come down, the tree untrimmed and taken out. Sad face! Haha. It's nice to have a clean house though-my dear Blane spent six plus hours cleaning the house last Friday afternoon and it looks great! Thanks Love :)

Happy New Year to you and yours.

Here's to all that God is going to do in 2012!

Aim

*"Akemashite Omedetoo" is Japanese for "Happy New Year"

A Christmas Birthday!

Today is my Mom's birthday. Happy Birthday Mom! In honor of her, I cooked family dinner tonight. We had the Pioneer Woman's Pot Roast, Brown Rice, Balsamic glazed Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Pear Tart for dessert. 

 Mom and my Gram at our wedding in October. Everyone says they look exactly the same. In fact, when I see pictures of my Gram when she was young, she looks exactly like my Mom did at the same age! It's uncanny.

 Mom being escorted down the aisle by my cousin No. Doesn't she look ravishing?

 As we left the church and hopped into the limo :)

Her and my Dad at dinner that night. 

My Mom is feisty, passionate, loves God with all her might, compassionate, caring, extremely generous, warm, hilarious, witty and creative. 

Happy Birthday to an incredible woman~my Mom!

Love you,

Aim

A Youth Christmas

Got to spend some time with these people last weekend...it was a blast-we ate yummy asian potluck, played a fun Christmas-themed gesture game and had a hilarious white elephant gift exchange. The best part of the day, though, was when we went Christmas caroling at some of the Senior Adult houses in the neighborhood. It was such a blessing to be able to sing to them! They were thrilled that we had come, and I think we were more blessed than they were to be there!

Singing at one of our dear Senior's houses. Special moments!

Can you see "Santa's elves a'workin'?!?"

No? Can you see it here then? Haha. It was a fun game.

I am unsure what our guys are doing in these pics. Oh how I love our guys :)

More game hilarium. I work with a bunch of awesome youth. They really are the cream o'the crop.

One crazy group picture. No people were harmed in the making of this photo. ;)

Merry Christmas from our crazy house to yours!

Aim

The Trim on our Tree

Have I told you lately that I love Christmas?!? Yesterday we got 20 Christmas cards in the mail. (*Aimee does a little dance) Made my week! It was neat because although most of them were picture cards, a few were good, old-fashioned Christmas cards from some of the seniors at our church. I loved them all!

In honor of Christmas this week, I wanted to give you a little lowdown on our Christmas tree decor this year. We started with a pretty clean slate (it is only our first year married, after all) but ended up with something quite full and beautiful. Check out some of our faves~

 The ornament on the left I like just because it encompasses the true meaning of the season.

The UCLA musubi on the right is a gift from my Mom-in-law. No matter how bad our athletics may be, I'm still a bruin-for-life!

 On the left is a Christmas card one of my youth made for me last year. Erika, you're so talented! On the right are two ornaments my Mom brought over from her own collection. The silver ball was Linda's and it makes me happy to have one of her ornaments on my tree. Oh how she loved Christmas! The embroidered candle on the right was made by an older man that my family used to know. Apparently when I was little and a shy thing, I liked this older man and was okay with my parents leaving me with him. Strange, but I've always had an affinity for Seniors so maybe it started young :) haha.

I love these two~bride and groom musubis! Another MIL gift from the Asian Craft show. Score!

 An ornament from Mom commemorating our engagement from last year and a "Love" ornament that I spray painted for Blane, also a momento from our engagement in NY last year.

 On the left, a souvenir from our honeymoon in New Zealand and on the right a locket ornament from Leah and Sherwin commemorating our first home this year. So sweet of them :).

 A personalized "Our 1st Christmas" ornament from Lola & family (they are so sweet to us) and a silver mercury ornament that my Mom bought us at Target because our tree looked "so bare" haha.

 Then there's these guys-my Mom gives me a Mousie ornament every year and these are some of my faves. They have their own little red tree in our living room.

 The ornaments my MIL got us at the Craft Show are so so cute. My favorite is this one on the right of the little clay musubi bride and groom...complete with veil and tux! I have to get a small enough pic to put in there from the wedding. 

 That little red Mousie tree also houses my annual Starbucks ornaments. Can't be me without coffee something right?!?

 I love our tree and our mantle and I could sit for hours in the living room because it's so Christmasy in there! I'm going to be so bummed next week when Christmas is over. Man, time flies!

 Last but not least, our mistletoe! What Christmas decor would be complete without mistletoe? Ours hangs on the bottom of our chandelier in the dining room and it looks pretty sparkling off the chandelier prisms. 

Do you have any favorite ornaments?

Every tree tells a story...what's yours? 

"Deck the halls with boughs of holly, falalalalalalalala!"

Aim