Denny and Jana's Excellent Adventure

Let Me Try This Again!

2009-01-04T19:50:00.004-10:00

Okay, I know once again, it's been a long time since I've updated this! One of my New Year's resolutions is to keep up this blog, so we'll see how it goes! This past semester was the busiest yet, so we didn't have much time to do a lot of the fun things we have been doing. But we made it through, and the year ended with a nice trip home to see our friends and family. Our trip was cut a little short, our flight had been overbooked, so we were bumped and ended up leaving a day later. We had to cut out our trip to see Lucy, which was sad, but maybe next time we'll get to see her. We spent the first half with my family and the second half of the trip with Den's family, and we squeezed in a little trip to see our friend's Branson and Nieni, who just had a baby on December 31st, Eliana Elizabeth! Congratulations guys! We can't wait to meet her. So, we've been back for a full week now. Den starts school on January 12th, and this semester will be just as brutal as last semester, so say a little prayer for us! I just wanted to post these two pics. The first one is of Den at the Hawaii Psychological Association State Conference, where he presented on his infamous topic of caffeine. If you ever want to know anything about the effects of caffeine, talk to Den, he loves to talk about it!
The second pic is of when we were home at the Bourdo's. This is our wonderful niece and nephew, Alexis and Elijah. We love and miss them so much!

Catch Up

2008-09-14T18:47:00.004-10:00

I'm going to try and get back into this blog thing. I haven't written in so long, but I really do want to have this to keep everyone back home in the loop, as well as have something to be able to look back on someday. This has been a summer of visitors for us. As you know, my brother was here for 6 weeks in June and July. Den's parents were here the last two weeks of August, and my parents are coming here this Thursday to stay for a couple weeks. We've had some good times with our family and I know it will be a great time with my parents too. We have gotten into somewhat of a routine again as Den started up school the first week of September. He started his practicum in which he's working at private practice doing psychological testing and assessments. This job requires some traveling to the different islands, this past week Den had to go to Maui for the day. Another exciting event this past week, Friday, Den was on the set of Lost again as an extra. He spent a good part of the day there and had a blast, so we'll see if he makes it on TV this time, but we still have a little while to wait before the season starts! I have been at CARE Hawaii for over 3 months now, and have been enjoying the job and the people very much. It is a pet/baby friendly building so there always seems to be a baby or a dog to play with, it makes for a very lively and interesting workplace! We've been doing some hiking here and there, but our camera wasn't working for awhile so I haven't taken any pics the past couple months, but I think we have it working again, so I'll have to catch up on that! Other than that, we're doing well, trying to enjoy the beauty of this island any chance we can get. I'll have more updates and pics to come!

Day 3 of Maui Trip - Finally!

2008-07-30T16:25:00.007-10:00

Sorry for the long lapse between now and my last post! I have been bad at updating this lately. Anyway, I did not want to miss out on the chance to share our last day in Maui with you. The day started out with waking up at 4am to drive to Haleakala National Park, to watch the sunrise. This is a popular touristy thing to do on Maui, and everyone we talked to who's been to Maui, even the locals, said this is a must for the Maui trip. We were definitely not let down by the beautiful sunrise that day. One thing, we weren't quite prepared for the temperature at the top of this volcano. Yes, people had told us it was cold up there, but we had forgotten and hadn't brought very many warm clothes. Luckily, I brought a light jacket, Ry had a long sleeved t-shirt, but poor Denny, all he had was a t-shirt. He bared the cold though, and had a beautiful experience up there. This picture is the outline of the people waiting for the sun to rise. Here, the sun is rising a little bit more. And this last pic is after the sun has risen and we were enjoying actually seeing what we had driven up (it was pitch black when we were headed up the volcano). We had such a wonderful time in Maui, and we'll definitely be going back there sometime! We would love to spend more time in Hana especially, it's such a beautiful town!

Maui Day 2 - Road to Hana - Part 2

2008-07-10T19:18:00.004-10:00

I have so many beautiful pics from the Garden of Eden that I have to post some more. This first one is a pic of one of the many gorgeous unique looking flowers in this garden. This next one is our view while we ate lunch there. After the Garden of Eden we kind of sped up the trip a little bit. We had already been on the road over 3 hours with all the stopping we were doing, and we weren't even half way there. The scenery was just gorgeous though, and eventually we did make it to the cute LITTLE town of Hana. I think I mentioned before, it's not about actually being in the town of Hana that's so spectacular, although it is beautiful, but it's the drive getting there that makes you feel like you're lost in another world, another time. Here is a pic of Den at a beautiful beach in Hana. After being in Hana for a little while, we had to take the same winding, one lane bridge road all the way back. This was probably our favorite day in Maui. One more day of pics to go!

Maui Day 2: Road to Hana - Part 1

2008-07-09T17:17:00.005-10:00

Sorry about that, I meant to write last night but time got away from me. Anyway, day 2 was even better than day 1. We slept in a little bit on Saturday morning, got up and had some breakfast, and headed towards the infamous "Road to Hana." Once again, if you ever come to Maui, you have to do this. It's not the actual town of Hana that is amazing, although it is cute, but the actual trip getting there was so fun and beautiful, words can't even describe it. And the pictures are nice, but nothing compares to driving this road and seeing it with your own eyes. We started our journey in Paia, this cute country town with all these neat shops and restaurants. We didn't stop though, we just drove through. Our first stop was Hookipa Beach Park. This beach is famous for it's windsurfing. However, we got to the beach before all that started, and the locals were still getting there morning surf in.
We continued on and stopped at a recommended little store called Maui Grown Market and Deli. It was really this little green painted shack, with a couple dogs sitting on the porch. When we were inside at one point I thought the place was going to collapse when the wind picked up, but we stayed and got some shave ice (they don't call it shaved ice here, which drives me crazy because it doesn't sound right, but that's how it is). Den got pineapple flavor and Ry and I split a coconut flavored. It tasted so good as we were roasting in the sun in our convertible, but we still loved it anyway. Our first glimpse of a waterfall in Maui happened at Twin Falls. There was this little trail on the side of the road that led to this magnificent waterfall and swimming hole.
As you can see, this is a hot spot for tourists. We continued on our journey and stopped again in the remote country town of Huelo. This was a super small town, but what was the most interesting about it was this historical church called Kaulanapueo Church, built in 1853.
I can only imagine what it was like in this town back then. We didn't stay long there, as I don't think the locals liked us being back there and we stuck out like a sore thumb in our white convertible rental car, so we headed back onto the main road and our next stop was this amazing garden, called "The Garden of Eden."
And I actually believe that this place resembled the actual Garden of Eden. I cannot describe to you in words or pictures how breathtaking this place was. I never wanted to leave. I wanted to wander around there all day just walking through the gardens and fields. When we first drove in, on the side of the road their were some wild peacocks and ducks with baby chicks. We sat there for awhile and fed them and took pictures. Then we headed up further to where all the gardens were. If you can, double click on the pics to see them bigger.
I'll finish Day Two - Part Two tomorrow!

Maui Here We Come! - Part 2

2008-07-07T20:06:00.004-10:00

I had to break this first day up into 2 posts because I just couldn't decide between all the pictures I wanted to post, and the blog won't let me post that many! Anyway, For most people Kapalua is about as far west as they go, but not us. We are adventurers, so we decided to conquer all of the west side. Now, some people advise against this, because the road turns into a one lane road, with a lot of blinding corners, but I'm so glad we didn't wimp out. We had Denny, our excellent driver, lead the way. What we found on that road is something I'll remember for the rest of my life. We had been climbing the side of a mountain for some time, when all the sudden we could see a valley below, and the cutest town I've ever seen in my life appeared out of nowhere. I'm not exactly sure where we were on the map, but I believe the town is called Kahakuloa. It seriously was like a town you'd see in Old Hawaii. The town started with an old church, it looked like it had come out of an old photograph of Hawaii, what it used to be like. There was a man selling fresh, ice cold pineapple on the side of the road, best pineapple I've ever had. There was another hut selling banana bread, again, the best banana bread I've ever had in this little green shack. I wish I could have just sat there and stared at this town forever, but we were just passing through, their was nowhere to even pull over, but I'll always remember it. The rest of the drive was a little scary, but the most beautiful place I've ever seen in my life and probably ever will. We finally made it full circle back to Kahului, and headed to our hotel in Kihei, on the south shore. We checked in, ate some dinner, and then headed to the beach to watch the sunset, and see if we could see any fireworks. We never did see any fireworks, but after the sun went down, the sky was filled with so many bright, bright stars. We sat there for an hour just staring at the stars, listening to the waves, it was so amazing. I'll post about day two tomorrow, there's just too much to write!

Maui Here We Come! - Part 1

2008-07-07T19:26:00.005-10:00

I don't know where to even begin. Den, Ryan and I had such a blast on this trip. Maui is more beautiful than I could have ever imagined and we had so much fun exploring this island, and feel so fortunate to have had the opportunity! The trip started out with us waking up at 4am. Instead of flying to Maui, we took a new mode of transportation here, the Superferry. This worked out great for us, because the boat is docked practically at the end of the street we live on, so we just walked over. The Superferry was nicer than I thought it would be. The seating was so comfortable, they had a couple cafes for breakfast and lunch, a gift shop, a kids room, not to mention the amazing views of the islands as we sailed by. Here is a picture of Oahu as we were leaving on our way to Maui. We love our island! If you're ever out here and want to go to Maui, I would highly suggest taking the ferry. It took us 3 hours to get there from Oahu, but we thought it was worth it. We finally arrived in Kahului, Maui at 9:30am. We got off the boat, took a shuttle to the rental car company, and picked up our Mustang Convertible! This car totally made the trip, it wouldn't have been the same without it. We decided to head west towards Lahaina first. Lahaina is the touristy part of Maui, so we didn't want to spend too much time there. We have found that the more you get out of those areas, the closer you come to actually seeing what Hawaii is all about. So, we drove quickly threw Lahaina and continued up the west coast. We stopped and hung out at a popular beach for snorkeling in Kapalua. This also was kind of a touristy beach, but it was still beautiful.

Fun Weekend Part 3

2008-06-29T20:39:00.007-10:00

This is the last installment of "Fun Weekend". Today we spent the entire day at the North Shore. We started out by stopping off at the Dole Plantation to let Ryan taste the infamous pineapple ice cream. We sat out on the patio there, eating a bowl full of the ice cream, with fresh chopped pineapple on top, yum!! Here's a nice picture of Ry and Den there, aren't they cute?! After that, we started our drive up to the North Shore, I took a short video clip, hopefully you can play it!
The first beach we stopped at was a little ways before Sunset Beach, although I think it's still a part of that beach, I don't know. Anyway, the part we go to is not at crowded, it's where we saw Jack Johnson surfing back in January. We absolutely love this beach, so we stayed there for awhile. Here's a pick of Ryan coming back from being in the water. Also, we saw all these crabs coming up out of the sand, they were so cute. I tried to get a picture of them, but they are quick. If you double click on this picture it will get bigger, and you'll actually be able to see the crab. After that, we drove back over to a beach called "Three Tables". It's actually a really small beach, and it's set up to where their is not much of a breeze, so we really got cooked. This beach has good snorkeling, Ry saw a lot of neat fish in the water. Here's a pic of the actual beach. After all this we were starving and thirsty, so we headed over to the cute little town of Haliewa to eat at our favorite Mexican restaurant here, called Cholos. We had a really fun day, and it made a great ending to such a fun weekend. Stay tuned next week though, for our big Maui trip, I'm sure I'll have tons of pics!!

Fun Weekend Part 2

2008-06-28T19:13:00.005-10:00

Today we started out the day by going to our friend's son's birthday party. Theo turned 1 year old this past week and today was the big celebration. He is such a sweet boy. This first pic is of Theo with his momma Becca, and her parents who flew in from the Phillipines, where they're missionaries. The second pic is Theo, Becca and Becca's husband Dan. Thanks for the celebration today guys! I'm so glad we could be a part of it! After that we ventured on to the Leeward side of the island and spent some time at the beach. we drove as far Northwest as you can on the island. Instead of taking pics, I took some short video clips, so hopefully this works on your computer. It is so beautiful over there, it's one of our favorite beaches here. Hardly anyone is ever there, maybe because it's so far out of the way, but the sunsets are always so amazing there. Today, however, it was cloudy, but we still had a nice relaxing time. On to the North Shore tomorrow!!

Fun Weekend Part 1

2008-06-27T20:50:00.005-10:00

So, we have a lot of fun stuff planned for this weekend, so I thought I would post something each day to get enough pictures on here. Tonight we started off the weekend by going to Flavors of Honolulu.
The great thing is the festival was only minutes from our apartment, probably about a 10 minute walk. We had a really fun time. First, we watched a celebrity cook-off, with Dog and Beth Chapman of Dog the Bounty Hunter, verses the state prosecutor of Hawaii and his wife. I love Dog the Bounty Hunter, so I was so excited to see them up close!
After we watched that for awhile, we tried some yummy food! I had Tender Chicken Curry over Yellow Fragrant Jasmine Rice with Flakey Roti Paratha Bread and some Tiramisu with Kona Coffee Anglaise. Both were so good! Ry had Egyptian Rack of Lamb with Shariya Rice and Yogurt Cucumber Mint Sauce, and Banana's Foster for dessert. And, Den had a Mini Hawaiian Plate with Kalua Pig (yum!!), Chicken Long Rice, Lomi Salmon, Rice and Haupia, and for dessert, the Banana's Foster. The best part of tonight though, is I got to meet Dog and Beth Chapman! !

I was so excited to meet them! We actually live right down the street from their office here, Da Kine Bail Bonds. It's literally like a 3 minute walk away. Dog asked where we worked and we told him CARE Hawaii, and Beth said "we catch em, and you fix em." I was just so thrilled that she said that. Anyway, that was the highlight of my night, and that was one of my dreams while we were here, to meet them. I'll have more tomorrow!! Oh, and here's one more random picture. This is actually the picture of the building we live in. Ry took this picture and I thought it looked great.

This and That

2008-06-23T07:17:00.003-10:00

This past week was filled with a lot of activity, but we really didn't get to have much fun. Den has been studying hard, as his last day of summer class is this Wednesday!! We are so excited for him to complete his first full year. 2 more years of class to go! After Wednesday, he'll be off school til September, which will be a much needed break for him. He has worked so hard, and it's paid off, but he's pretty tired too, so he can't wait for the break. Ryan has been helping out with University of Hawaii's volleyball camps this past weekened. That wrapped up yesterday, so he's all done with that. He is still working at the Nuuanu YMCA here, and really enjoying the group of kids he's working with. I finished my 3rd week at my new job at CARE Hawaii. I love my job, my supervisor is so nice, really everyone is so nice there. I had my first day of holding the phones for the crisis line, which was exciting. I was nervous at first, but I think I did a really good job with it. On Saturday night Den and I went to friends house for dinner, Mike and Kalina. They just had a baby last Monday, Tava is his name, and he is so sweet!! We had a great time with them. They live in the beautiful town of Kailua on the windward side of the island. I'll definitely have pics to come soon. Next weekend is going to be a lot of fun, and in two weeks we have our big Maui/Lanai trip!

Sandy Beach

2008-06-15T19:10:00.004-10:00

This past week we had a state holiday on Wednesday, King Kamehameha Day, so me and Ry both had the day off. We started the day by going to Pearl Harbor. We were going to take the full tour, but by the time we got there the wait was already 2 hours long, so we just took a few pictures from afar and left.
After that, we came home for lunch, and then went and hiked Manoa Falls. Den and I have done that a few times before, but I really wanted Ry to see it. Here is a picture at the top with Ryan by the main waterfall.
This morning we went to church, had lunch, and then headed over to the windward side to a new beach we've never been to before called Sandy Beach. We've driven past it many times, and I've always seen so many people there, so I thought we should try it out. Let me first start out by saying that this is a popular place to bodyboard, the waves are ideal for it. We have a body board, it may not be a nice, professional one. In all honesty it's from Walmart, but I think a bodyboard's a bodyboard. As we drove in, the waves looked great, the sun was shining, their was a radio station set up and playing music, it was a really cool place!

I did notice however, that we were one of the few white people there, everyone else looked local. It crossed my mind that this might be a problem, as we've heard of racism against white people here before, but we ourselves have never had any problems with it, so I didn't think anything else of it. Everything was fine for awhile, none of us went in the water, we were just watching everyone else. After awhile though, Den and Ry were getting hot, and wanted to test out the water a bit. Now, Ryan and Den are both healthy, strong guys. The waves were pretty big, but their were others a lot smaller than them in the water. As they started heading out, they were halfway in, when one of the lifeguards announced through his bull horn, for Den and Ryan to get out of the water because they "didn't have the right equipment." So they both came back onto the beach, and we sat there baffled at what equipment they didn't have. In the meantime, a group of locals started snickering and making fun of them, and pretty much kept it up until we left. They didn't say stuff loud, but just loud enough so I could hear. I started observing, and every time the lifeguards went out, they were telling white people only that they couldn't go into the water, because it was too rough, even guys that were already out there, and doing a fine job of keeping up with the waves. I also noticed, that their were kids in the water, locals, some around 3-4 years old, and no lifeguard said anything about the kids being in the water. It became evident that they are not a fan of white people being here, and all these people are locals (basically not white) and they all knew each other. Right before we left, a lifeguard walked past us, and I asked him how they make their selection of who can and can't go into the water, and his amazing answer, word for word, is that they stereotype, he actually said that word. He said they know who comes out regularly, so it's okay for them, but anyone else who doesn't look the part (white) they call out. I was so shocked that he even said that to me that I didn't say another word. Needless to say, we won't be going back to that beach. It's a shame, because it's so beautiful and fun there, but the locals did not show their "aloha" spirit on this day. This last picture is of Ryan and Den walking into the water just before they got called back in by the bullhorn.

Makapu'u

2008-06-08T20:05:00.004-10:00

Today we took my bro on his first hike here, Makapu'u Point. This is located on the windward (east) side of the island. We even saw a cute sea turtle in the water below today, although I couldn't get a pic of him. Some interesting points along the way, it was so windy that Den's hat blew off into some bushes, which Ryan retrieved, I fell down and sprained my left ankle, as I do on every single hike we go on, and the camera flew out of my hand and bounced along the trail, so we almost didn't have pictures. The camera was a tough cookie though, and it made it through the fall. We also saw a guy from the Navy run up and down this trail atleast 3 times while we were there, and there was a huge incline!! Here are some pics of today's hike.

In other news, Ry's having a good time here. He bought a bike and has been riding around town. He has been playing beach volleyball with some guys he met at Fort DeRussy, a beach in Waikiki. Den has two and half weeks of school left, and then he'll be off school for two whole months!! He is so excited and can't wait to get through these next couple weeks. I am enjoying my new job, this past week flew by! We have only a 4 day week this week, because Wednesday is King Kamehameha Day here, which is a state holiday. We're still putting the finishing touches on our apartment, and waiting to get some furniture. We are loving our apartment though, it is so nice and I can't believe how lucky we got in finding it. That's about it for now. Have a great night!

2008-06-04T20:44:00.003-10:00

Wow, it's been awhile since I've written. A lot has changed in just a short two weeks. First of all, we moved into our new apartment! We are now living in the middle of downtown Honolulu, right across the street from Den's school. The building is so nice, and our apartment is much bigger than our last one, so we're loving it! We were able to paint it and have really made it our "home". The first picture is of our living room and the second one is of our bedroom.
The next big thing is that I started my new job at CARE Hawaii!! I started this past Monday, and I really think I'm going to enjoy it! A really nice thing about working there is that it's so close that I can walk there! It's about a 20 minute walk each way, which I love. We are so excited because my brother flew into Honolulu at 7:30pm our time tonight!! Yay! We're so excited to have him here!
Now this next picture might come as a bit of a shock, but Den got his hair cut! It really was getting out of control so he decided to part with it for now.

I'll post finished pics of our apartment soon. It's still in the works of getting put together! Have a great night!

This and That

2008-05-19T06:40:00.003-10:00

We haven't done anything too exciting in the past couple weeks. Den's summer semester has been extremely busy so far. He has five weeks left of craziness and then he'll have July and August off of school, which we're both looking forward to for him. This past weekend we went to a birthday party for someone's little boy from our church, Micah. He turned 1, and that is a big deal here! There were 180 people at the party. It was a catered event at the Japanese Cultural Center, with a band, balloon animals, the works! It was really fun and we had a good time. We have another one coming up next month when our friend's Dan and Rebecca's little boy, Theo turns 1 year old as well! Yay!! Probably the most exciting news of this past week is we found a new apartment! We'll be moving out of Waikiki (vacation central) and into downtown Honolulu, which is more of a business district. The great thing is, our apartment is right across the street from Den's school, so he'll be able to just walk across the street to school everyday. It's also within walking distance to my new job, so I'm excited to not have to worry about the heavy traffic everyday! It's also a 1 bedroom, so we'll finally be able to get a real bed! I can't wait! The futon has seen better days. We can start moving into the apartment this Friday, and we need to be totally out of our apartment in Waikiki on June 1st. I'll put some pictures of the apartment and building up next weekend. I guess that's about all for now. I'm really looking forward to the next couple weeks. We'll get to move into our new apartment next week, I start my new job in two weeks, and my brother is coming in two weeks!!

Bummer!

2008-05-09T07:40:00.003-10:00

So, if you watched Lost last night, you probably didn't see Den. We were disappointed, but I'm happy that he even got to have the experience. He was on there for like half a second, you'd have to really look. But, when we got home, Den pulled up the episode online, and you can actually see him really well. It turns out, the issue is when it's on TV it's not playing in wide screen, so it completely cuts him out, but if you see the episode online or when the DVD comes out, those are in widescreen, so that's exciting atleast. So, Den took a few pics of the screen so we can point him out to you!Do you see Den in this first frame? He is in the right hand corner. In this next frame you can see half of him behind the pole. This next frame was on TV, but you can't tell it's Den. That's him walking in front of the camera. And in this last one he's standing to the right again. So, although we couldn't really make him out on TV, we're glad he was able to have the experience, and when the DVD comes out, we'll have something to remember it by! Thanks for everyone watching!!

Sunday Drive.... and other news

2008-05-04T18:46:00.006-10:00

Every once in awhile Den and I like to go for a drive, we like to call them Sunday drives, where you just drive around and just look at different scenery. We used to do it back home in GR and found it very relaxing. We've done it here a few times, but haven't for awhile so we thought that would be fun today. Oh my goodness, it was the perfect day. The sun was out, about 85 degrees, with a light wind! It can't get any better!! So, we thought we'd take you on our Sunday drive with us. We started out heading towards the Dole Plantation and got ourselves our favorite ice cream. It was pineapple ice cream in a bowl, topped with fresh pineapple, yummy!! From there we headed toward the North Shore.
We drove through the town of Haleiwa on the North Shore, such a cute place with little shops, restaurants and beautiful beaches. If you ever come here, you have to go there!! We drove along the shoreline, and passed so many fruit stands today!! They are so neat. We didn't stop at any today, but I thought this sign was cute! Our next stop was at a shrimp truck to have an early dinner. This is another must if you come here. They grow the shrimp right there, it's so fresh and delicious! Here's a couple pics of that.
And as we rounded the corner, and started along the east coast, here is a picture of the famous Chinaman's Hat.
We had a very fun time on our road trip today. In other news, we will be getting back into our routine tomorrow. Den starts school tomorrow morning. I know he probably doesn't want me posting this, but I was so proud of him because he got a 4.0 this past semester!! He's so smart!! He worked very hard for it, so he definitely deserves it! Also, be looking for him on Lost this Thursday!! This is supposed to be the week he's on, so we're so excited for that! We're going over to our friend's to have a Lost party there to celebrate! Hmm, what else. I found out that I'll be starting my new job at CARE Hawaii on June 2nd. I'm really excited for that. I'll be working close to Den there so that will be interesting!! It's such a wonderful place, and they've been really good to Den, so I'm excited about that! We're starting to look for a new apartment and hoping to move at the beginning of June. I found a really cute one a few blocks away from where we are now, so I'm hoping to take a look at it tomorrow. We're hoping to move out of our cozy studio, and into a cozy 1 bedroom. We're getting really excited because my brother will be here in another month! We're starting to think of all the fun stuff we'll do together when he's here, I can't wait! I think that's all for now, have a good night!

We're Back!! Part 3

2008-04-29T08:44:00.003-10:00

After we left the beagle farm, we drove back up to Michigan on Wednesday night, and spent the rest of our time at home with my family. My parents live in Bridgman, MI, a little beach town along the coast of Lake Michigan. On Thursday and Friday we hung out close to home, and just relaxed, which was so nice. One of the most exciting parts about being at my parents is that my mom has been taking care of a pregnant cat, and she had babies while we were home!! This picture his of the kitties, a litter of 5 at 5 days old! Does anyone want a kitten? Let me know! My mom is looking for homes!
On Saturday, Den and I drove up to Grand Rapids and had a whirlwind day of meeting with friends. We split up in the morning, I went to breakfast with my former manager and now longtime friend, Julie, and Den met Mark Carbonneau for breakfast too. We met up again for lunch with some of our former small group from church. It was so nice to spend time catching up, especially since two people, Shelley and Melissa, are pregnant!! And, we got to meet Samuel, Curt and Katie's baby!! She was just about due when we left, so we never got to meet cute Samuel!! We had such a great time. After that we went to our house, and dug through the basement to bring some more stuff back, as well as do a little yardwork. Then we went Branson and Nieni's house for dinner, and had such a fun time!! They recently moved into this cute house just about 2 mintues away from our house! I can't wait to move back and we'll be so close! Branson also just got a teaching job at Kuyper College and starts July 1st, so we're so excited for them! The time we were at their house flew by way too fast, next time we'll definitely need a whole day with you guys! We went back to my parents house Saturday night, and then Sunday we drove down to Illinois for a family party. Again, it was so good to see everyone and catch up. Thanks to Shawn, Emily and Britt for trying to help me with my crocheting. Shawn, I'll be looking for the kid crocheting directions in the mail, which I apparently need. We celebrated the April birthdays while we were there. This pic from left to right, is our cousin Peter and his son Landon, Aunt Laurie, and our cousins Emily and Micheal. This next picture is of the other side of the table, all taking pictures which is standard at the Wiggins family parties. From left to right, you can see half of my Aunt Linda, and my little cousin Savannah, our cousin Mike, and then LB, Shawn, Paul and his son Joshua, and in the back is our Uncle Jim and Uncle Jack. I was so happy that my friend from high school Erin and her daughter Eden came to the party. Here's a pic with me and Erin! I love and miss you! And last, but definitely not least, is a pic with my Grandpa Wiggins!! He and my grandma are such great grandparents, and we are blessed to have them in our lives. Will someone print this out and show Grandpa, so he can see that his picture made it to the world wide web??

After the family party, we drove to Oak Lawn to see my Grandma Campbell and Uncle Jim. We had a nice time visiting with them, and after that, Den and I said goodbye to my parents and drove to O'hare and stayed at a hotel near the airport. Our flight departed at 6:00am on Monday, yesterday and we finally made it back to Oahu at 11:30am Hawaii time. The flight headed back this way takes about 10 hours, but no problems, and our luggage did make it back with us which I was excited about! So here we are! Den has another week off of school and then he starts summer 1 session on Monday. We are glad to be back, and at the same time, missing being home, we love both places so much and we're so glad again for this opportunity to be here!

We're Back!! Part 2

2008-04-29T08:28:00.003-10:00

On Wednesday morning we drove down to London, OH to visit our Lucy at Beagles R Us. We had such a fun time driving through the farmland! It was so beautiful, and I didn't realize how much I missed the landscape of it! We reached Lucy's place of residence around 1:30pm and stayed for a little over 2 hours. We had such a fun time with Lucy and the rest of the beagles! This first pic is of Lucy enjoying sitting on her mama's lap, I think she was trying to make the other dogs jealous with all the attention she was getting! This next pic is of some of the beagles hanging out with us outside! If I had to guess,their are probably around 30 beagles living here right now. There is a big fenced in field at the beagle farm, and the beagles like to be "taken on walks" back there, which really means they just like to walk with us, so here's a pic of that. Here's a picture of Denny holding Lucy like a baby! Won't he make a great dad someday? This last picture is some of the dogs resting in the shade after our second walk out in the field. This is the main yard that they usually hang out in. We had such a fun time there, it was totally worth the drive to see Lucy and everyone! It was kind of hard to leave, especially since Lucy knew who we were, which I wasn't sure if she would or not, and I kind of think she thought she was coming with us, but we will see her again next time we come. What a fun day!!!

We're Back!! Part 1

2008-04-29T07:48:00.006-10:00

We're back on our little island of Oahu!! We had such a great time visiting with family and friends, and just being home. I decided to split this up into 3 parts, because I have a lot of pictures and a lot ot write! We left Honolulu on Thursday, April 17th at 8:55pm. The first flight from Honolulu to LA took 5 hours, and the flight from LA to Chicago took 4 hours, so it's about a 9 hour flight total heading east. Both our flights went very smoothly, Den practically slept the whole way, while I was not so fortunate, I just can't sleep on planes very well! We arrived in O'hare around 12pm, only to find that our luggage did not make it with us. However, it was on the following flight from LA, so we waited an hour longer for that, and then we were on our way! We drove up to Michigan, and stopped in at my parents house in Bridgman, MI, to say a quick hello before headed up to Denny's parents house in Battle Creek, MI. We finally got up to Den's parents at around 7:45pm, and had a wonderful homemade dinner with the family. On Saturday, Den's family had a welcome home party for us, and it was so nice to see everyone!! In this first picture from left to right is our Grandma Boyle, my mom, Grandma Bourdo, Stacy our cousin, and our Great Grandma Vaughn Here is a picture of my wonderful mother-in-law.

And this last picture is of me, Den and my brother Ryan. This is the only time we got to see Ryan, as he had volleyball tournaments both weekends and school and work during the week. We were happy to see him though, and he'll be here for half the summer in a little over a month! We're so excited!
Den and I were able to drive up to go to our home church in Ada, MI, Ada Bible Church on Sunday. It was so great to see some of our friends there, we really felt like we were back at home! We went to Grandma Boyle's for Sunday dinner which was wonderful, and had a very relaxing day. On Monday we drove up to GR to do a little shopping and get haircuts! Yes, for all you long hair Denny fans out there, Den did get his haircut! But, it's still long, he just needed to clean up a bit! I'm also taking up crocheting, or attempting to atleast, so we went to Hobby Lobby to buy some supplies for that! I'm so excited to start, any tips?? On Tuesday night we celebrated Jen's 30th birthday (Den's sister) at Olive Garden, our favorite!! Afterwards we had cake at Dennis and Tina's house. Here is a pic of Jen with her 30th birthday cake
.And here's a picture of me with Jen's kids, Elijah, Brayden and Alexis.
We had such a great time with the Bourdo side of the family, we already miss all of you!! We left Battle Creek Wednesday morning and headed down to Ohio to see our little Lucy!!

So Excited!!

2008-04-13T16:28:00.003-10:00

I can't believe by this Friday we'll be in Michigan!! We're so excited to come home for a visit! We'll be leaving here Thursday night, and arriving in Chicago Friday afternoon. We can't wait to see our family and friends, and even Lucy!!! Yes, we will be making a trip to Ohio to the beagle farm, so see our sweet little Lucy! I want to say congrats to Denny, who is almost finished with a very tough semester. All of his major projects and papers were due last week. He has worked so hard, practically non-stop, and it really has all paid off. He'll have a couple week break and then he starts his summer 1 session in early May. That's about all for now. We'll be seeing a lot of you soon!

Best of Hawaii

2008-04-07T08:27:00.005-10:00

Since we've lived here for over 7 months now, I think we have somewhat of a good feel for the place. I thought it might be fun to come up with a list of the best and worst things about living in Hawaii, to give everyone a better idea of what it's like to actually live here. I'll write the worst list next time, but here's what I came up with for the best!

The Top 10 Best Things about Living in Hawaii

1. Weather - The weather is so wonderful here! Don't get me wrong, I do miss having 4 seasons, but right now, I love how I never have to worry about what the weather will be like, it's always so nice!!! It's usually in the mid to upper 70's in the morning, and 80's in the afternoon, and then back down to mid to upper 70's at night. It doesn't rain very much at all, except during the winter. It's sunny most of the year. Did you know it even snows on the Big Island, up in the mountains? I've seen pics of people snowboarding there.

2. Scenery - There is so much variety here when it comes to scenery. On the west side of the island, it appears almost desert like. There are cactus, the weather is very dry most of the year, so there's not a lot of green over there. The mountains look brown from lack of rain. On the east side, it is very lush and green, it rains everyday, the mountains are all green over there. We have rainforests too, which are so fun to hike through. There are rainbows everywhere, you could probably see one everyday. And the sunsets are amazing.

3. Insurance - For any part time or full time job here, the employer has to offer you health insurance. I think that's great, since back home, not very many part time jobs offered insurance.

4. Jobs - Did you know we have the lowest unemployment rate in the country? For some reason, there are a lot of jobs here.

5. Entertainment - On a typical weekend, it's very likely that we won't spend a single dime. There is so much to do, whether it be going hiking, going to the beach, snorkeling, and so on. If you have a state id, you can get into a lot of touristy thing for free or nearly free.

6. Friendly People - People are very friendly here. However, I think people back in Grand Rapids are just as friendly, so I don't notice a huge difference. A lot of times you'll hear people who want to sit around and "talk story". Even if they don't know you, they just like to talk and be friendly. They call it the "aloha spirit".

7. So Many Holidays! - I can't remember how many holidays we had back home, but here they have 14 holidays that you get off of work for. I think one is Kuhio Day, one is King Kamehameha Day, and I can't remember the others, but I think that's great!

8. Culture Everywhere - The main ethnicities in Hawaii are: Hawaiians, Caucasians, Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, Okinawans, Koreans, Filipinos and Samoans. This state is truly the melting pot of the world! I have never been around so many different ethnicities at once. I think when we first got here it was culture shock, but now I love it, and I love learning about the histories of each of them, and when and how they got to this state.

9. Environmentally Friendly - The people here truly care about their land and what happens to it. There are a lot of houses that run off of solar power, and recycling is huge here!!! They take great care to maintain the reefs, and it's amazing when seals come up on the sand to shed their skin, volunteers show up to watch and protect the seals round the clock.

10. Fresh fruits and veggies - I love going to the farmers market here. I loved doing that back home to, but there are so many different fruits and veggies that I'm not used to seeing. The pineapple is amazing. And, I was never big into papaya back home, but it's become one of my favorites here!

Next time I'll write about the 10 worst thing about living in Hawaii.

Fun Lost Day

2008-04-03T14:31:00.002-10:00

Today was the big day!! Den got up early and was on location by 6:30am. The funny thing was the location was right by a trail we recently hiked, so it looked very familiar to Den! We can't really say too much, because Den signed a confidentiality form. But, Den thinks he has a good shot of being on T.V. He doesn't think his face will make it, but we should atleast see him walking. He had a blast and met two main characters!! He said it was so cool being on the actual set, lots of energy but also very tense. They work at a very fast pace. Den thinks the episode will be the third one when they come back on at the end of this month, so sometime in May. This was definitely one of the best days he's had here! We'll let you know when we know for sure when the show will air!

Another Little Update

2008-04-02T16:13:00.002-10:00

Okay, so Den got the final call!! He has to be in Pearl City tomorrow morning at 6:30am (Hawaii time) to shoot the scene!!!! They told him to wear white shoes and a white t-shirt so he's probably going to be wearing scrubs. They said he will probably be in a scene with a major character of the show, so there's a very good chance his scene will make it to TV!!!!! We are so thrilled! Anyway, I'll post more tomorrow after he's done! Pray that he does well and makes it to TV!!!

Little Update

2008-04-02T08:02:00.001-10:00

I don't have too many more details yet about Den being on Lost, but it was so cool because last night the wardrobe lady called Denny! She was asking him his sizes and telling him to bring different clothes. It's just so crazy, we can't believe this is happening!! It sounds like he's either going to be wearing scrubs, or wearing a suit with a dr's jacket, they haven't decided yet. They're supposed to call today with the location of the shoot and time he's supposed to be there. They were also thinking about cutting his hair, since it's kind of long right now, and it's more of a professional role (versus being on the island and looking unkept!). I'll post more when we know!

My Husband the Actor (Definitely!!!!)

2008-03-31T11:53:00.003-10:00

Yep, that's right! Den got a call this morning from the Lost casting office, asking him to work as an extra on the set this Thursday!!! We could not believe it, we were jumping up and down and screaming in our apartment we were so excited!!! We don't know many details yet. All we know is that he is going to play the role of a physical therapist in a flashback scene with John Locke!!!! Don't you think he's perfect for that role??!!! We think it will probably air in May sometime, but we're not sure. I'll keep you posted on what's going on with that. Other than that, there hasn't been too much excitement going on. I have been sick for almost two weeks now, with some kind of cold/sore throat virus thing. It gets a little bit better everyday, but I have been resting a lot because of it. I think it should be gone in the next couple days though. I don't really have any pics to show except from taking Flat Stanley on a tour of Oahu. I thought they might be fun to share.
This pic is of Flat Stanley enjoying the day at our beautiful Waikiki Beach. It's about a 5 minute walk from where we live!

This pic is of Flat Stanley in front of Queen Liliuokalani's Palace downtown Honolulu. They are in the middle of filming a movie about her life there right now.

And this is of Flat Stanley in front of the King Kamehameha statue and palace in downtwon Honolulu.

Cardiac Hill

2008-03-17T11:43:00.005-10:00

Another week has gone by, and only about one more month until we're home for a visit! We are getting excited to get off this island for a little bit, I think we have island fever! Last night we were driving home from our friends house, and it is about 20 miles away from where we live, and I was thinking, boy this is really far away. How quickly I have forgotten about the day trips we would make to Illinois, which would take about 3 hours, now 20 miles is so far for me, how funny! Anyway, the title of this post pretty much summarizes our hike yesterday. We're only on number 4 of 50 in our book of hiking in Oahu, and yesterday we hiked a trail called Waimano Pool Trail. It was in the same city as our hike a couple weeks ago, but on the opposite side of the valley, and let me say, this was one of the most challenging so far. In the book, it described one part of the trail as "Cardiac Hill." We were thinking, it can't be that bad, but they definitely weren't exaggerating. On the way down Cardiac Hill, it was hard, because we had to watch our footing. There was a lot of loose rocks, and we were using tree roots as steps. It took forever to get down it.
The rest of the hike down the valley was pretty much the same way, just in smaller doses. The half way point ended at a swimming hole, but it's been so dry here the last few weeks, that the swimming hole was very small and filled with stagnant water. There is supposed to be a waterfall going into the swimming hole that keeps the water circulating, but no such luck. So, we sat there for awhile and rested for our trip back out. It was so quiet back there, and before long we saw a family of mongoose's come out. They were so cute. Once we recuperated, we started the hike back, and from this point EVERYTHING was uphill. At one point, we had to use a rope (in the pic below),
to pull ourselves back up, and before long we reached Cardiac Hill. We must have stopped 10-15 times to catch our breath, but what an accomplishment when we reached the top!!! So, that was our adventure yesterday. The hike was 3 miles long roundtrip, and it took us 3 hours, the longest so far! In the pics below, you'll also see a little guy in some pics, his name is Flat Stanley. Nancy's ( someone Den used to work with at Barry County Mental Health) daughter sent us Flat Stanley from her school, because he is on spring break. So he made the trek with us and had a great time!

Paradise

2008-03-03T11:02:00.003-10:00

As of February 23rd, we have been here for 6 months now. I can't believe how time has flown! Once we reach June, we'll have exactly two years left here. I know people from back home hate to hear this, considering the weather there right now, but this past weekend, the weather was absolutely perfect. As we were walking to the post office this past Saturday, to drop off the application for Den to be an extra on Lost, we were talking about how grateful we are, that the Lord has made this move part of His plan for our lives at this time. I mean, here we are, in Hawaii, strolling through the streets of Waikiki, sun shining, around 80 degrees, Starbucks in hand, going to drop off an application for Den to be on his favorite TV show, does life get better than this? I also felt this way yesterday as we were in church. The church building is kind of an open air church, something I will miss when we do move back home. The windows were open, sunshine pouring through on all sides, a light ocean breeze blowing through the window, and we were listening to a sermon on the last words of Jesus. The specific verses that were read that got me thinking were Luke 23:42-43. Jesus was moments away from His death and he was speaking with a criminal who hung on a cross next to him. "Then he said, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. Jesus answered him, I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise." A lot of people describe this island we live on as paradise, and I am continually overwhelmed by how beautiful it is here. If this place is paradise, I can't imagine how much more wonderful and beautiful Heaven will be!
Anyway, yesterday we got out of Waikiki. It is tourist season right now, and let me tell you, I can see why people who live here don't like tourists. They can be rude, they don't know how to drive here, and they take up all the parking spots! We hiked a new trail in a town called Pearl City, and the trail is called Waimano Valley Trail, and yes, it is in a valley between two mountain ranges. After that we went to a new beach in a town called Ewa Beach (pronounced Eva, a lot of words here that have W's in them are pronounced as V's, unless the letter is at the beginning of a word). The beach was so beautiful and was not crowded at all. Here are a few pictures from our day.

As I said, on Saturday we dropped off Den's application and pictures to be an extra on Lost. The casting director is supposed to receive them today. I don't know how it all works from here. We might not here anything, or if they did use Den, they might not call until a day or two before filming, so we'll see. Please continue to pray that he would get picked, it would be such an amazing experience! Below is the body shot we used. Isn't he so handsome?!

My Husband, the Actor (Hopefully)

2008-02-29T11:30:00.002-10:00

I have some exciting news!! The show Lost is currently accepting applications for extras!! Since the writers strike is over, they are back to filming, and there was a post today on Craigslist asking for extras for Lost!! So, Den has a 2:00pm appointment today (Hawaii time) to get some photos taken to send in!! We will be able to send the shots and application in the mail today! So, say a little prayer that they would pick Den to be an extra, because it's his absolute dream!!!!

Winter is Gone, Spring is Here!!

2008-02-24T19:23:00.005-10:00

Okay, I know that might be rubbing it in a little for the people in the midwest, but don't worry your time is coming soon!! We can tell that spring is here, the flowers are blooming, no more 75 degree days, we're back in the 80's!! Yay!! The sun has been shining and it gets warmer and warmer everyday. Den has been really busy with school the past couple weeks but we did a couple fun things this weekend. On Friday night we went to a movie called U2 3D. For those of you out there who like the band U2, I highly recommend that you see this. It's a 3D movie of their concert, and it was amazing, almost like actually being at one of their concerts. If a theater near you is playing it, you should definitely see it!! Today we went hiking on a new trail, the Pu'u' Pia Trail. It was located in the Manoa Valley, one of our favorite places. When we were about 10 minutes into the trail, we started hearing some snorting and we found ourselves about 20 yards away from a wild boar and her baby. We didn't know what to do, because they're kind of dangerous (remember Old Yeller?) but they went away so we kept going. The trail was absolutely beautiful. We saw wild Orchids, which were the best I've ever smelled, and some bird of paradise were in bloom too! Absolutely gorgeous. Here are some pics of our hike.
Boar hunting is very popular here, since that's all their is to hunt, so a lot of the trails we hike are also used for boar hunting, I just thought that sign was unique.

There was a tree down on our trail so we had to do some maneuvering.

This is another picture of the trail.

At the top of the trail, we got a panoramic view of the Manoa Valley, and this is a view of Waikiki and the ocean from the end of the trail.

This is a picture of a wild orchid that was growing on the trail. It smelled so good.

Tonight we had a special service at our church for a member of our small group, who is also the associate pastor. He was officially ordained as a minister tonight. It's interesting because when someone is celebrated here, everyone brings all these different colored lei's, and after the ceremony is over, anyone who has a lei comes up and piles them on. I thought we weren't even going to see his head anymore after awhile, but they took some off. They look so beautiful though. There was a potluck afterwards, and that was one of the most interesting potlucks I've been to. I didn't know half of what I was eating, some was good, some was an acquired taste, but we were adventurous anyway. We had a great time of fellowship and continue to meet new people at the church. It's really a great place. That's all for now!!!

Happy Birthday to Me!

2008-02-05T11:19:00.000-10:00

That's right, today I am 27 years old! Time sure does fly! We celebrated my birthday this past Saturday. Den made me breakfast, and then we went to the east side of the island where he had scheduled an hour long massage for me! It was absolutely heavenly. What was funny was the person who did my massage had the same exact birthday as me, 2/5/81. We even kind of looked alike, it was kind of weird! After that, we came back home and took a little nap, then drove out to the Dole Plantation to have my favorite, pineapple ice cream. Then we drove the furthest northwest you can go here, and watched the sunset at this one beach that we went to when we vacationed here in 2006. The beach is very remote, no one wants to take the time to drive all the way up there, and it is so beautiful. So, we were practically the only ones there. It was such a great birthday, and I'm so glad we're here to celebrate it, birthday in paradise. Den planned a really great day for me.

On another note, please pray for my dad. He has been home sick for over a month, and the doctors are trying to figure out what's wrong. My mom took him to the hospital this morning because he collapsed from being so weak. Pray that the doctors would have wisdom to know what's wrong, and pray for healing for my dad, and strength for my mom as she takes care of him.

Thanks to everyone for all the birthday wishes, emails, phone calls, and presents in the mail! It really means so much to me. I love you all!

Den's Special Day

2008-01-27T10:48:00.000-10:00

With Denny's birthday coming up this Tuesday, we decided to celebrate Saturday instead. I booked a tour for us at Koalua Ranch, a ranch on the northeast side of the island where they film a lot of movies and TV shows. Here's a pic of us toward the beginning of the tour. We saw a lot of different sites including some Lost sites, like where the golf course was that Hurley built, and also where Hurley was doing donuts in the field after they jump started that van. We also saw where Jurassic Park, King Kong, Pearl Harbor, You Me & Dupree, and 50 First Dates (if you haven't seen that movie, you should, it's so cute! and takes place in Hawaii) was filmed, among other movies as well.
This was right up Den's alley, as he loves all that kind of stuff! What I liked about it was they had all these animals roaming free all over the ranch. I guess there's a fence around the whole place, which is huge, but other than that, their are pigs, cows, donkeys and ponies just roaming free within the ranch. This one little piggie ran right up to me and it was so cute!!!! We had a really good time. I gave Den one of his presents yesterday, in honor of seeing some of the Lost scenes today, and because the season premiere is coming up this Thursday!!!! We can't wait! Have a good week everybody!

Hiking

2008-01-22T14:04:00.000-10:00

We bought this book at the beginning of the year called "The Hikers Guide to Oahu." Since we've moved here, we've become very interested in hiking. Their are so many different trails here, and they can be very different from one another. Some are rainforests, some are more desert like, and the one we did this past weekend actually reminded us of back home. There are 50 trails listed in the book, so our goal is to complete all 50 trails by the end of the year. It's a big goal, but we're going to try to reach it. This past weekend we did a trail called the Kuli'ou'ou Valley trail. It was 2 miles round trip, and not very hard, so we picked that to do first. Here are a few pics from our hike.

I don't know if I mentioned this before, but we decided to keep looking for another church. We just didn't feel that New Hope was the church for us. So after going to a few "interesting" churches, we found another one that we really like and have gone to the past couple weeks. It's called Kapahulu Bible Church and we're really enjoying it. It's small, about 150 people between 2 services, but we're very comfortable there. We were invited to attend a small group this past Sunday so we went and really enjoyed the people. It's really close to where we live too, which is a plus, so we can walk there. That's about all for now!

Exciting stuff

2008-01-12T14:49:00.000-10:00

We just dropped Dennis and Tina off at the airport this morning. We had a good time with you guys and thanks for coming to visit! It looks like we'll be on our own here until June when my brother comes. I also booked our plane tickets this morning to come home in April. We'll leave Honolulu on April 17th and return on the 28th. We're excited to come home and see everyone! Last night, my inlaws took Denny and I out to celebrate our birthdays that are coming up. We went to a nice restaurant in Waikiki called Roys. The food was absolutely amazing, some of the best I've ever had. What was also funny was that at the restaurant we saw another celebrity sighting, actually two! Gene Simmons from the band KISS was there with his girlfriend Shannon Tweed (who's also an actress) and their daughter. They were celebrating their 25th anniversary and also doing a taping of their reality TV show on A&E called Gene Simmons Family Jewels. And when I say 25th anniversary I don't mean wedding anniversary. Apparently they never married but have been together 25 years! They were literally sitting two tables away from us. They set up all these lights and cameras around their table. We got a couple good pictures as discreetly as we could,compliments of Dennis.
Here's another picture of the four of us at dinner..

Dennis and Tina also got us this great birthday present. There is a store here in Waikiki called Sand People that I absolutely love. It has a lot of vintage Hawaiian stuff in it that I think is so cool. There was a sign in there that I really wanted and they got it for us! Here's a pic of it

This weekend we're just catching up on some work from this past week. Denny officially started his second semester of school this past Monday and it looks like he's in for a busy school load, so he's got a lot of homework to do this weekend. I guess that's all for now! Have a great weekend!

Long Time No Blog

2008-01-08T13:49:00.000-10:00

We're back! Sorry for not writing in awhile, I guess I didn't realize that many people actually read this! Thanks for the encouragement to write again! I don't know where to even begin. The holidays were all kind of a whirl, but the actual day of Christmas was very relaxing. We were sad to not be with our families, but we still had a good time here. Thanks Kristy for sending me all those pictures and video from Grandma's house on Christmas Eve! I'm glad everyone got their pineapples! We have our first visitors here right now, Den's parents. We've been having a good time, doing lots of sightseeing. We had a second celebrity sighting, this time by me, and it's one of my most favorite singers in the world, Jack Johnson! we knew he was a local boy here, but weren't quite sure where he lived. We were at the North Shore on New Years Day, and for those of you who don't know, that's a popular place for pro surfers in the winter months because the waves are huge! Anyway, we're just sitting there watching the surfers and waves, and all the sudden out of the water walks Jack Johnson (who's also a pro surfer) right in front of us! I was so excited I could barely tell anyone else that it was him. Finally I got it out to Den and he tried to get a pic of him but by that time he was further away. He walked right up to a house off the beach so we think he lives right there. Click here, to see our favorite song and music video by him, lots of Hawaii scenes! I'll post some more pics soon. I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year!

Lost Sighting!

2007-11-18T15:50:00.000-10:00

For all of you Lost fans out there, Den got to meet one of his favorite actors on the show this past Friday, which made a great end to his week. Denny was at the post office mailing a few things out, and was standing at one of the tables filling out the addresses on the packages, when low and behold Michael Emerson ("Benjamin Linus" the leader of "the others" on the show) walks right up to the table and starts working beside him. Den was star struck to say the least, but he worked up the courage to start a conversation with him. A lot of you know how big of a fan Den is of the show, so this was such a great thing for him! He's always on the lookout for the cast, and he did see one of the camera men for the show in downtown Honolulu this past week too. Other than that, we've had a pretty quiet weekend. My job is going really well, I'm starting to get to know my clients, and I do a lot of driving for my job so I'm getting to know the island a little better as well. We're having a big Thanksgiving meal this Wednesday for all our clients, so that should be interesting to get them all together in the same room. Have you ever seen the movie "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest?" That's what this Thanksgiving meal will probably look like, never a dull moment. Den was on call last night for his job, and had to deal with another interesting client. Maybe we should write a book about all these adventures with the mentally ill. Today we went to church, and we've been taking it easy this afternoon. We'll miss all our friends and family this Thanksgiving. It won't be the same, but we love and miss you all! I want to send another shout-out to my mom, who hit a big birthday milestone this past Friday the 16th. Happy Birthday Mom! We love and miss you! And, also Happy Birthday to our nephew Elijah, who's birthday is this Wednesday! You'll be getting something from us in the mail soon. We love you buddy and miss you so much!

3 Day Weekend

2007-11-12T13:06:00.000-10:00

It's been a great weekend with an extra day off because of Veteran's Day. This past week has been good, Den is feeling a little better, and will be able to see a doctor in December when his insurance starts. He has another very busy and probably stressful week coming up, so pray that his stomach doesn't get really upset. He has lots of papers and projects due for his classes in the next couple days. We've had a fun weekend starting with Saturday, when we went to Waikiki Beach and spent a few hours there.
The weather has been absolutely gorgeous the past few days, mostly sunny and low 80's. Den was on call for his job on Saturday night, which was interesting. If you ever come across someone who works in the mental health field, especially dealing with the populations that Den and I do, stay by there side because you are guaranteed some hilarious stories, so that's all I'll say about that. On Sunday we went to the Dole Plantation, and the best thing about that place is there pineapple ice cream. It is the best ice cream I've ever had.

We spent a few hours there, and then drove about 10 more minutes north to the North Shore, where we ate at this small, but extremely crowded mexican restaurant called Cholos. The food was so good, Den and I loved there chips and salsa. We're hoping to get some hiking in today. We want to try a new trail. I want to send a shout out to my wonderful father in law who's birthday is today!! Happy birthday Dennis! Don't worry, I won't reveal the milestone you've reached today, but it's a big one! We miss you and love you!

"The Ocean Was Angry My Friends."

2007-11-04T19:54:00.000-10:00

If you ever watch Seinfeld, the title of this post might ring a bell. Anyway, that's what I thought about our good ol' state of Hawaii today. We woke up this morning, and were excited to do some fun things, but soon realized that it is rainy season. It's been raining off and on all week, but today it has rained nonstop, and I mean pouring. So intead we decided to take a drive around the island. We had a great time. The waves in Waikiki today we're close to 10 feet, I've never seen them that high before. In December on the North Shore they are supposed to be around 20 feet, so I'm excited to see that. Here are a couple pictures from our drive today.

We had a fun time, even though the weather wasn't the greatest. It's supposed to clear up towards the middle of the week, and then get nice again next weekend. I was actually really cold today which is funny, because it was still in the upper 70's, but maybe I'm starting to get used to the hot weather. I finished my second week of work, and really enjoy being there. Den hasn't been feeling well lately, he needs to get to a doctor soon. He keeps feeling sick everytime he eats, so we think something might be wrong. He was really stressed out right before it started so that might have agitated it, whatever it is. I know I haven't mentioned much about the church we are currently attending but it's called New Hope Christian Fellowship, and we really have been enjoying it. It's a fairly large church, which were used to from back home. Their website is enewhope.org, if you'd like to check it out. We are attending the Saturday night service which we really like. That's about it for now. Aloha!

Everything's Good

2007-10-28T08:20:00.000-10:00

This past week has been really great. Although we were so sad to see Lucy go, we realized this week that it really was the best decision for everyone. I started my new job and I absolutely love it! It's so great to be back in the field I went to school for. Everyone I work with is so nice, and is very team oriented. I went through orientation this past week, and this week I will be too. Then next week I'll start seeing my own clients. I was off of work for a little over two months, which was a nice break, but it's nice to be productive again too. Den had a hard week. He finished one online class he had, so he had a final for that, plus he had midterms for the rest of his classes, so he was really stressed out. He also started seeing his own clients at work this week, and that was pretty stressful too. This weekend he has been recovering and catching up on his sleep. We hiked a trail yesterday called Maunawili Falls Trail. It was a very challenging trail, the path wasn't very clear, lots of roots and rocks, but as it seems with a lot of trails here, it ended with a waterfall and swimming hole. The whole trail, there and back, was three miles, but we had a great time, it was an accomplishment to finish.
Just as we reached the waterfall one girl was recovering from passing out. She jumped off that ledge at the top into the swimming hole and accidentally did a belly flop and passed out. The other people there thought she was in shock so it was a little scary. We were far back in the middle of this jungle, so I don't know what would have happened if she couldn't of made it back. She ended up being okay though. Some sad news is that we found out we won't be able to come home for Christmas. I don't get any vacation until 6 months at my job, and too many people already took the week off, so it looks like we'll be coming home in April instead. I guess we'll have to come up with something really fun to do here instead.

I Love Lucy

2007-10-20T20:25:00.000-10:00

Today was a very sad day in the Bourdo household. Den and I decided that it really wasn't in Lucy's best interest to stay here in Honolulu. She just wasn't happy, and Wednesday's incident really showed that. I'm so grateful that she didn't get hurt, and with me starting my new job on Monday, I just couldn't stand the thought of her being so unhappy, cooped up in this apartment. So, today we put her on a plane back to Ohio to the beagle rescue she came from. She is in flight right now and will land in Ohio at 11:58am tomorrow (Sunday). The woman who runs the rescue is really nice, and she said she would keep Lucy until we moved back to Michigan, so it made me feel better that I will have her back again someday. The rescue is this great place out in the country, and their are over 20 beagles who live there, so she'll have lots of friends to play with. And there is this big field for her to sniff around in (I swear if she could she would stay outside all day just smelling the ground). I know she'll be a lot happier there, and we can visit her when we come home too. So, it's very sad, but we know it was the best decision. The following are a few pictures I took of her before she left today.

Lucy's Big Day

2007-10-17T18:27:00.000-10:00

Well, today was an interesting day. Everything started out normal, we took Lucy for a walk in the morning, had breakfast, got ready and then went and dropped Den off at class and I had to get a TB test for my job. I wanted to try and see if Lucy would be okay if we left her out of her crate. I mean, what's the worst that could happen, right? For those of you who know Lucy, she is really not the brightest dog, but she's cute enough to make up for it. We were gone 3 hours and when we get back, Lucy is nowhere to be found in our apartment. At this point, I'm quickly starting to panic. I have no idea what happened, and I'm looking around for any clues. I finally notice that something is not right with our air conditioner. Because the way the windows are here, it sits on the floor but is very secure. There is also a fan covering it to blow air into the rest of the apartment. The fan had been pushed aside and it seemed that Lucy barreled her way through one of the collapsable sides out onto our lanai (patio). Now this is the part that I can't believe, she jumped up on our table out there, and jumped off the balcony, probably onto a car parked below. We live on the 2nd story, and even though we're not really high up, I can't believe that she made it. So, we take off outside, me in hysterics, trying to look for her. You think I would be comforted in the fact that we live on an island, so she can't get too far, but I'm not. The city is so big, with so much traffic and so many people. We call the Humane Society but they haven't seen her. So, we drove around for about a half hour, and then the Humane Society calls us back and tells us someone just brought her in! Praise the Lord! I thought I was never going to see her again. We got there and she was so scared, and she has slept the whole rest of the day. So, that's been our day today. A lot of you know how much trouble it was to even get her over here, so I'm thankful the day ended on a good note. The Humane Society dialed the guy's number who brought her in and let me talk to him. I thanked him so much for taking care of her. He said she was about a couple blocks from our apartment, in the middle of a busy intersection and she didn't know which way to go, and was about to get run over, and he ran out in the middle of the road to get her. I was so grateful.

Beautiful

2007-10-13T11:03:00.000-10:00

After being here for a little less than two months, I feel like we already take for granted that we live in paradise. It is really so beautiful here. Last night we took our first walk along the beach at sunset, and my goodness, I don't think we have seen anything more beautiful. Here are a couple of pictures from our walk last night. Both of the pictures of our city, Waikiki. One is before the sun went down, and one was at sunset.
The next picture is of Lucy and her first trip to the ocean. She wasn't very thrilled to say the least, but she did get in the water. I don't think she'll be getting on a surf board any time soon.
The biggest news of this past week is that I got a job! I start on Monday, October 22nd as a case manager at Helping Hands Hawaii. I'll be working with the mentally ill population, helping them to cope with their mental illness and to be able to live on their own. I am so excited, it's an awesome place to work and the people are really nice, and their are a lot of great benefits. I feel the Lord has led me to this job so I'm really excited to see where it will take me. We're having a great weekend so far. We went to the farmers market this morning and bought some locally grown fruits and vegetables: papaya, pineapple, Thai watermelon, chinese cucumbers, romaine lettuce, tomatoes and some peppers. Sounds good, huh?! I'm really starting to get a feel for the "hang loose" atmosphere and we're really starting to enjoy the lifestyle. We're off to the beach this afternoon. Have a great day!!

More Progress

2007-10-01T13:03:00.000-10:00

We're continuing to get settled, little by little. Last Friday we were able to purchase a car! It's older, but it runs and looks great! This means that we are able to get out a little bit more since Lucy can go in the car with us (she is still not doing very well on her own). We took a long drive on Friday night up the east coast and the sights were beautiful! What we were even more excited about is that we were able to buy a bed finally! Well, it's a futon, but after sleeping on an air mattress for a month, the futon feels like we're sleeping on a world class mattress. Yesterday we took a trip (about 10 minutes from where we live) to Manoa Falls. It's a rainforest and we got some great pictures.
I am continuing to search for a job, and really praying about what direction the Lord wants me to go. Den starts his job tomorrow. Have a great day!

We're getting there!

2007-09-23T12:12:00.000-10:00

This past Thursday marked our being here for 1 month now. I can't believe a month has passed already, but I do feel like we've gotten a lot accomplished in that time. A great way to ring in our 1 month anniversary here on Thursday was we found out Den got the job at CARE Hawaii! We are so excited! He goes in on Monday to fill out some paperwork and they're anxious for him to start. He will be a crisis therapist there part time. His schedule is extremely flexible and I think it will be a great fit for him. Some of you might remember him being on call on some weekends with his old job at Barry County Community Mental Health. Well, the job responsibilities he had then will be very similar to this job. He'll be dealing with a lot of high stress situations, so please pray he doesn't get burnt out too fast. I also had my job interview with Waikiki Health Center on Friday which went really well. They wanted to do a second interview this next week, but after thinking about it, I think I'm going to hold out for a job in the social services arena. I'd really like to build my resume more in that capacity, and I've got time, so I'm going to wait until that kind of job comes around. Please pray that I'll be patient and trust in the Lord to bring that job to me. I'm really excited about what the possibilities are. Lucy is getting better each day. We left her for a couple hours on Friday and she was barking when we left, but she wasn't when we got back, so we're thankful for that. We're going to keep leaving her a couple hours each day so she gets used to us being gone. With the job Denny is getting, he does have to have a car, so he is out as I write this test driving a couple cars. I am looking forward to having a car, it will make it a lot easier to get around, and gas has really been about the same price here as it is back home, which is amazing to me. Once we get a car, then we can start buying furniture. I can't wait!!! Sleeping on an air mattress is not much fun, I wouldn't recommend it. That's all for now. I promise pictures for the next post!

2007-09-17T20:14:00.001-10:00

I am currently taking on the role of a dog pyschologist. Because Lucy has a case of separation anxiety, we have been trying to figure out a way for her to recover from that. After doing some research on the internet, I found a great behavior modification technique. The goal of the technique is for her to not feel anxious when we leave. So, what we do is start out by leaving her for little amounts of time (starting at a few seconds) consistently throughout the day and we keep increasing the time as she feels more and more comfortable at the time she's at. This is the second day that we've done it and so far it seems to be working. I don't have any pictures for this post, because we haven't been able to get out and do anything unless we can take Lucy with us. We went to the dog park on Friday with our new friends and it was so great! It is right across the street from Diamond Head and it's very big with lots of room for the dogs to run. We had a great time. Some good news is that I have a job interview on Friday! It's with the Waikiki Health Center. They're a great organization who do a lot of outreach in the community. It's only a few blocks away from our apartment so I could walk there everyday. I'm applying to be a receptionist there,so please say a prayer for me!! I think it would be a great job. To see their website, go to www.waikikihc.org. That's about all for now. Have a great night!

2007-09-13T15:17:00.000-10:00

There's not too much more to report on right now. We haven't heard anymore about Den's possible job with CARE Hawaii, but we're hoping to hear something soon. I have really just started looking for a job in the past few days. It's been nice to have some time off, but I know once Den goes back to work, I'll get really bored so it would be nice to find something within the next month. Probably one of the most exciting things is that we made our first friends! They just moved here from Orlando, Florida on August 15th so we're kind of in the same boat. And the funny thing is that their names are David and Jana, almost the same as Denny and Jana!!! How funny is that! They live just one floor up in our building and they have a dog named Taj, so we are all going to the dog park together tomorrow night together. It's nice to have someone to talk to in person here, and they are really nice. Lucy has been doing a little bit better with being alone. We're just trying to leave her alone for little bits amount of time each day. Thanks to everyone who gave us some great dog tips. The two pictures I attached today are more scenery we have around here. The first one is another shot of the walking path we take Lucy on each day. The second one is of a tree that I love. They have those kind of trees all over the place here and I think they look so cool!

2007-09-09T08:17:00.000-10:00

Not too much has happened in the last few days, mainly because Lucy is here now and we're trying to get her used to being here. Yesterday we left her alone in the apartment for the first time and it didn't go very well. I think she has a little separation anxiety because she won't leave my side and gets really anxious when I leave. Hopefully this will work itself out. We're trying to leave her alone everyday for little bits of time so she can get used to it. As for the pictures I posted, the first one is of our apartment building from the outside. Our street is between two really busy streets, Kuhio and Ala Wai, but our street is fairly quiet. We live on the second floor. The second picture is one view from the end of our street. It is the Ala Wai Canal, and we're unsure of what the town is called on the other side of it. The Ala Wai Canal has a walking path next to it so this is where we always walk Lucy. The last picture is of Waikiki Beach. This is about a 5 minute walk from our apartment. It is always very crowded and the most popular beach in Hawaii. That's about all for now!

2007-09-06T18:58:00.000-10:00

Well, our little girl made it! Thanks so much to our friends Thom and Shelley, who woke up very early to get her to the airport at 5:30am in GR! Lucy had a very long day. They ended up switching her flights last minute, so she actually got into Honolulu at 2:48pm, instead of what we thought would be 8:23pm, but she was still in her crate for about 18 hours! She could not wait to get out of there. She is very tired from her long trip, but I really think she is a true city girl. The picture is of her in her new home with her new blanket, and she is definitely ready for bed. Thanks for all your prayers!

2007-09-03T16:24:00.000-10:00

I love Walmart. I have never been the biggest fan, but they have a Walmart here, and the prices are so great. I'm sure many of you have heard how the price of milk is outrageous here, up to $8.00 for a gallon. Well, we went to Walmart the other night, and they sell milk there for $4.37!! I was so excited and it made my night! It doesn't take much to excite me I guess. Over the past few days we've been getting acquainted with our surroundings. The biggest event was that we moved into our apartment! We really love it and think it will work out very well. Yesterday, we visited Waikiki Baptist Church, which is where I went when I came here in high school. It's a very small church, about 35 regular attenders, but they have a lot of tourists visit too every week. We want to try out a few different churches, and hopefully plug into one fairly soon. Today has been a beautiful, relaxing day. We woke up late, and this afternoon took a long walk along Waikiki beach. Tomorrow Denny starts his first classes. He's a little nervous, but I know he's going to do great! The pictures posted of are our new apartment. If you're thinking, "Where are the other rooms to the apartment?", well that's all of it. It's not shocking to us anymore because we've been looking at these small apartments for over a couple weeks, but I'm sure it will be a little shocking to you, but it's really very cozy! I'll write more soon, with hopefully some more pics!

2007-08-30T15:31:00.000-10:00

We are alive and well in Honolulu! It's hard to believe that we have been here for 1 week now, but we have managed to accomplish quite a bit in that amount of time. Last Thursday, we were supposed to leave Grand Rapids at 10:00am, but we had to change our flights due to some bad weather in Minneapolis. We ended up having to go with a totally different airline, and flew to Chicago O'Hare. From there, we headed to Phoenix, where it was a whopping 105 degrees, very hot!! After that, we finally arrived in Honolulu at 7:00pm (1:00am Michigan time). Our hotel is very nice and in the center of Waikiki, close to everything. We had our room upgraded for free, which was nice since we are staying here for 9 days. We visited Denny's school the next day, and have spent a lot of time apartment hunting. We finally found an apartment yesterday and we move in on Saturday, and I think it will be a great fit for us. It is right in the center of Waikiki. This is the area of the island that we are most familiar with, so even though it's very touristy and expensive, we feel comfortable here. We signed a 7 month lease, and by that time we're hoping to know what other areas are good to live in and move somewhere a little cheaper. Den had a great job interview on Tuesday that went really well. He applied to be a Crisis Therapist for an organization called Care Hawaii. He just has to fill out some paperwork (actually a lot of paperwork) and turn it in to HR and as long as that all looks okay, it sounds like he has the job. The Lord has really provided for us and taken care of us, even when we didn't know what decisions to make, everything has gone rather smoothly. The big to do next week is flying Lucy in!!! We're hoping that she will be able to fly in (weather permitting) on Wednesday, September 5th, as long as it's not too hot. She had her last visit to the vet today, courtesy of our friends Thom and Shelley (thanks guys!!) who are taking good care of her until she can come live with us. It's funny, because there are a limited amount of apartments here that allow pets, but the city itself is very pet friendly. We opened up a bank account today, and the lady who opened up our account told us we could bring Lucy to the bank and she could come in the building anytime! They allow pets right in the bank and have doggie treats at the teller counter! I thought that was so funny. They also allow this at some of the restaurants here too! I think Lucy will really love it here. I'll post some pictures soon of our place and where we're living. Have a great night!