Friday Flashback #12

For this week's Friday Flashback I would like to refer you back to this beauty:

http://alexfahey.blogspot.com/2010/03/words-cant-describe.html

Enjoy!

Take Me Out To The Ball Game

Last week, I flew from Honolulu to San Jose to visit with my dad and my brother Joe. The main purpose of this trip was to see Joe play baseball for his college team at West Valley. This is his first season playing for a college team, so it is a pretty big deal. (Well, at least to me it was!)

He had three games while I was there and it was so exciting to see my little brother play! He is division two right now, but I bet he will be picked up after his sophomore year for D1- and that's his goal!

My mom is the only one in my family who has been able to fly from Georgia to see him play, so I thought I would post some pictures of him playing. They are not too exciting, but he did really well. The pictures are from the second game I went to. He went 2 in 4 at bat, and played excellent first base. I even included pictures from the fall he took. The ball was thrown over his head... he jumped up to get it, and fell right on the runner's foot. He hurt his ankle pretty bad, but played the whole game. He got x-rays and it is not broken, but he needs to take it easy! Good thing there are only 3 three more games left in the season.

It might seem like I am bragging, but I am so proud off my little brother! Family, I hope this helps bring Joe a little closer to you!

Happy Birthday AB

Today, this little cutie turned 2!!!! I can't believe it! I remember when she was just a little baby. I think Annabelle was the first baby Matt ever held other than his sister. Matt and I were not able to come home for her birthday, but HAPPY BIRTHDAY AB!

Love, Auntie Alex and Uncle Matt

(Picture stolen from Chantal's Facebook page, since she won't send me any!!!!)

Friday Flashback #12

Little late again, but I am on vacation. It is the though that counts right?

Usually, my flashbacks are about me, but this week I thought I would change things up. For the last week, I have been staying with my brother Joe and dad in California. My dad flew me out to see Joe play baseball and to visit with them. I have not seen my brother in a year (the longest we have been apart) and dad was nice enough to buy a plane ticket. Anyway, one day we were driving to Yosemite (look for the post about that) and we started sharing funny stories about growing up. One of these stories inspired me for this week's Friday Flashback.

This week it is a flashback about my little brother Jo Jo.

In the year 2000, the movie Vertical Limit came out. If you need a reminder about the movie click here. Basically, it is about a bunch of people climbing mountains in the winter. Some people die and it is pretty intense throughout the whole movie. Now, I have not seen this movie since 2000, so I don't remember all the details, but what I do remember is Joe's reaction to the movie.

During the movie, all the actors have all their climbing gear on (helmet, ice picks, backpacks, etc.) Apparently, this inspired Joe to do a little climbing himself. Later that night, my sister Chantal and I needed to go run an errand. We left the house and there is Joe trying to climb up the "hill" to our house. But wait.... it gets better. Joe is wearing his bike helmet, a little backpack, and has two plastic hangers in his hands (you know to use as ice picks)! He is on is hands and knees pretending the hill in our yard is a steep treacherous icy mountain that he is climbing. Every move forward he sticks one hanger in the ground and then moves. And while he is doing this he is talking to himself. Words like: Come on you can do it..... Almost there....... One step at a time.

I really wish I had a picture of this flashback, but I hope you all can picture it. This is one of my favorite memories of Joe. He was just so into the movie and climbing and is reenactment was perfect.

Like I said before, I don't have a picture of Joe doing this, but here is a picture of him around this time. I think he was between 6 and 7 during his Vertical Limit stage. Maybe with this picture you can visualize him climbing up our hill.

What We Did Today- Instagram Style

Today Matt and I had a nice realizing Sunday. It included laying out, watching Friends, Big Bang Theory, cooking dinner, and packing for my trip to California. It was nice to just lay out and do nothing.

Sat by the pool at Turtle Bay

Made a Pot Roast

Had Strawberry Angel Food Cake

Drank Lemonade - Yummy

Hope your Sunday was just as great!

Two Years Ago... This Happened

Two years ago, Matt and I got engaged. The Saturday before Easter we went to Clash of the Titans and then after midnight when it was officially Easter Matt proposed.

I thought it would be funny/ slash hookey for Matt and I to post our versions of the engagement story, so enjoy!

Warning: This post is extremely wordy.... proceed at your own risk. I promise next post will be full of pictures!

My Version: (written to Matt)

As my mission data grew closer I told you we needed to make some sort of decision. One day you asked me to go ring shopping with you. You clarified that it didn’t mean I would be getting one before the mission, but just in case since I didn’t like surprises. So we went to Jared’s and I found the ring I wanted. And for the next couple of weeks, I hinted that Easter would be a good time to get a ring. Hint Hint. This date was important because anything later and I would have to get my shots for Bulgaria. My family was out of town for Easter so we decided to go to a movie. Earlier that week I had gone shopping with Nickie for your Easter basket. I worked so hard on it and there was so much stuff it- it looked good.

We decided to do Easter baskets after the movie at midnight at your house. So we head over and it hits midnight and I get your basket out first. And this basket is packed with goodies! I mean packed! And you go through it and love everything and then you pull out this wimpy Easter basket! I mean wimpy! And not only wimpy, but it’s got this freaking hollow Easter bunny in it! HOLLOW EASTER BUNNY! How many times did I tell you I hate hollow Easter bunnies- they are a rip off. So whatever, I put it aside and see my other goodies- a regular Easter bunny, which I thought was weird because you gave me the stupid hollow one so I thought you were just trying to fill the basket up. At this point, I will admit I was pretty pissed off. And then you said oh there’s a surprise in one of the plastic eggs. A surprise… like my ring!!!! Nope! A whopping 78 cents!

At this point, I am thinking I hate this man. He just ruined my Easter. And then you have the audacity to suggest doing your life long dream of drinking milk out of your hollow bunny. That is why I ended up with one because you wanted to drag me into this stupid plot. Well, being a good sport I quickly said, “No!” I didn’t want to do it- that’s why I gave you a hollow bunny. Go ruin your candy! At this point, you were pretty stubborn and just kept asking and asking and shooting me the sad puppy look. So I gave in, but I was not happy about it. In the kitchen I ripped the head off my bunny and look inside- there was something strange in there and I thought I had gotten a prize. (Oh, good I get something out this stupid bunny!) But it was not lotion like I had thought, but my ring! Inside was a note saying ‘See not all Hallow bunnies are a rip off – Love, Matt.’ WHAT HOW DID YOU GET IT INSIDE! You took the ring and knelt down and asked me to be your wife. I don’t remember all the details but man did my ring looked great! We were engaged! (April 4, 2010)

Matt's Version

Alex had shown me the ring she wanted. She also told me that she would really like it if she were to get the ring in her Easter basket. I knew the ball was in my court now, it was time to act. We had ring shopped at a couple places but she decided that Jared’s had the ring she wanted. I told my parents of the decision and it was agreed that my Dad should come with me to help with the financing stuff, then it was decided that my Mom should come to help pick out the right diamond, then it was decided that my sister should come to help my Mom help me pick out the right diamond. I’m not sure who decided these things but it wasn’t me. At any rate me and my consultants arrived and were helped by a couple different ladies. I found the ring quickly enough; then came the hard part of picking out the perfect diamond. I was shown all sorts of diamonds but eventually settled on choosing a circle brilliant cut diamond because it fit with the ring the best. I then began looking for the right circle brilliant. I had found one I thought would be good but Malia and my Mom said to go up a size because price shouldn’t be the deciding factor when choosing an engagement ring. I wanted to get the best I could for Alex so purchased a diamond that was a perfect size and had great color and clarity. The ring ladies made me promise I would propose in a romantic way. Luckily, I had already crafted a stellar plan for my proposal to Alex.

I had concocted my plan awhile before I had bought the ring so buying the ring was one of the last things I needed to do besides buy a hollow Easter bunny. My plan was to do as Alex hinted at and put the ring in her basket. However, that did not mean I had to just toss the box in with some fake grass. I had come up with something much better. I purchased a few things for Alex’s Easter basket but the key piece was a hollow shell chocolate bunny, this is significant due to the fact that Alex loathes hollow chocolate bunnies, because in her mind they are a rip off. So you may be wondering why I bought her something she hates and call it the key piece. Well it is because that bunny would become the new ring box. I daftly cut a port in the derrière of the bunny and placed the ring in a small bag; I then placed the bag inside the bunny and sealed the port back up using melted chocolate. I put the 5,000 dollar chocolate bunny back in its box and put it in her Easter basket. Now all I had to do was to wait till Easter which was only a day way, needless to say all my time not spent with Alex was spent hovering over the basket to protect the ring.

Now is a good time to mention that I was very nervous and had been most of the month knowing that I was going to propose. I think this reflected itself in the fact that instead of saying Easter I kept saying easker for the week or two before the proposal. It was funny to Alex and troubling to me.

On the Saturday before Easter we went and saw Clash of the Titans, then we went back to my house to hang out and we decided to exchange Easter baskets at midnight (mostly because the anticipation was killing me). We hung out for awhile then midnight came around and we pulled out our baskets and exchanged. Something that I did that was half mean half really funny was to put pennies and dimes in plastic eggs to make it sound like there was a ring inside (I don’t think Alex thought this was very funny). Alex looked kinda dismayed about her basket there wasn’t a ring in the eggs and I had gotten her a hollow bunny, something she knew that I knew she hated. I then convinced (begged) her to drink milk out of our hollow bunnies together. We went to the kitchen and broke the heads off our bunnies and then I heard her exclaim, “hey I have a prize!” She pulled out her prize and saw that it was the ring and as she did I got down on one knee and proposed. I pulled the ring out of the bag and with her help slid the ring onto her finger (I may have tried to put it on the wrong finger, oops). We hugged and then my family came running down and took a bunch of pictures, I guess they had been sitting at the top of the stairs the whole night waiting for that moment. I am so glad that Alex said yes because I love her soooooooo much. That’s my version of our engagement story, I hope you enjoyed it!

I hope this was not too tacky or lame, but I love having our history recorded! Stay tuned for how we celebrated this Easter!

Happy Easter 2012

Happy Easter you guys. I hope your day was as great as ours. If you have a chance check out this great video:

He is Risen

Best Friends in Hawai'i

As you all read in the Friday Flashback, my best friend Beth has been in town for the last week.

We did so much stuff while she was here. Swap Meet, Pearl Harbor, Ted's Bakery, Sunset, North Shore, Snorkeling at Shark's Cove, Pali Lookout, Hard Rock Honolulu, Iolani Palace, Waikiki, Haleiwa, PCC, Matsumoto Shave Ice, and much much more!

While Matt and I have gone to all these places, it was great to take Beth and have her experience the island for the first time.

Here are a few pictures of us exploring while she was here:

Aloha Oe Beth- Until We Meet Again

Friday Flashback #11

I know I owe you guys a couple because of my absence lately, and I think these will make up for it. Part of my MIA behavior is due to the fact my best friend Beth has been in town for a week. Like always, we have the greatest time together. Even though I had not seen Beth since last May (the longest time I have ever gone without seeing her), the moment I picked her up from the airport it was like we had never been apart. Beth and I met freshman year in high school and were friends all throughout high school and we roomed together and became best friends freshman year at Georgia College and State University. Even though I transfered 4,000 miles away the next year, we still stayed close and still to this day remain best friends. She was even my maid of honor at my wedding! I love this girl and can't wait to move back to Georgia to be close to her again.

In honor of her visits and the fun times we have shared, this Friday Flashback is for B!

These three pictures represent all the fun times we had with one thing: an Austin Powers wig.

My Aunt Nickie and her family had a themed Halloween one year and it involved buying two of these wigs. On one trip down to Nickie's, Beth and I found these wigs and decided to play a little dress up. (Top Picture)

On another trip, we again found the wigs and could not resist. (Middle Picture) While wearing the wig, we realized I resembled Rizzo from Grease. Which lead to the third picture.

During this trip, my Aunt Nicke allowed me to take one of the wigs home to keep since it provided so much joy for us. That action lead to a whole world of fun with this Austin Powers wig. One night I put the wig on and we drove through an Arby's drive through. The last picture is some fun we had the night I got back from Hawaii for break. We thought it would be hilarious for me to put the wig on and draw some fake eyebrows and a mustache.... and as you can see it was. Every time I see these pictures I laugh so freaking hard.

I hope you have enjoyed these pictures as much as I have.

Pictures of Those I Love

Matt and I on the Big Island

My nieces (Sophia, Annabelle, and Gianna)

Lego People that Jud and Olivia made

Olivia at Lego Land

Mom and Chantal at The Hunger Games