Author: stephaniemags

I am stay at home mama to three beautiful girl, trying to keep it all together! Journey with us through life and learning to live with less so we can experience more!

House Reno {Before and After}

Published on by stephaniemags2 Comments

This post has been a long time coming… I’ve been wanting to do this forever and just never got around to it. I love good before and after pics and if there is one thing we love its to buy fixer uppers and renovate. Its tough living through renovations but it’s so worth it in the end. Plus we end up with things exactly how we like it! We’ve done a lot of work to our current house and our downstairs bathroom is the latest project we did. Dan’s Uncle has helped us do two kitchens now and I loved them both!

In this house he torn down a wall in between the kitchen and living room to open it all up. Here is a view from the same side of the kitchen, where we can now see all the way through to the living room.

before-and-after-1

And here is the view from the other side. The kitchen was virtually unusable when we moved in, the openings for both the stove and the fridge were too small for modern day appliances, and it obviously just needed a cosmetic overhaul!

before-and-after-2

 

We also did a few things to the living room to make it flow a bit nicer with the new modern kitchen. We added some crown molding around the top and spruced up the fireplace a bit. Its hard to compare this one, when there was no furniture in the house before. These are some of the realtor photos!

before-and-after-3

The upstairs bathroom, was a quick fix, cosmetic project that he did while we waited 2 weeks for our Corian countertops to come in. We just updated the vanity and toilet, he put down some new flooring an added some electrical outlets so we could actually use things like hair dryers and straighteners. The before picture is a horrible shot, but you can clearly see how outdated it was!

before-and-after-4

That was all work that we did when we first moved in. Since then we’ve also added a beautiful back deck to our house, and updated the downstairs bathroom. I’ll do a part two to this post soon. The deck is done but we plan to stain it this summer after its had a winter to weather. So I’d rather show that when its 100%, plus we’ll have the garden planted in the spring too! We plan to update the front of the house landscaping as well as soon as the snow melts!

Christmas time

Published on by stephaniemags2 Comments

It’s that time of year again, I don’t know where this year has gone once again. We had such a busy fall that I of course haven’t posted much! But we just had a beautiful family photo shoot at our home and I wanted to be sure I posted those before I forgot.

I originally planned on having an outdoor Christmas session at a Christmas tree farm, but then once our calendar started filling up, I decided it was better to just do something inside our home rather then spend half a day driving out into the middle of no where. I also thought it would be nice to have pictures from our house because we know it won’t be our forever home and I want to always remember every inch of where we call home and raised our daughter.

So here they are, a few of my favorite Christmas pictures for 2016 and lifestyle photo shoot of us just living our life!

lifestyle-20lifestyle-30lifestyle-31lifestyle-38lifestyle-40lifestyle-53lifestyle-62lifestyle-72lifestyle-81lifestyle-85lifestyle-90lifestyle-96lifestyle-101lifestyle-110lifestyle-115lifestyle-124lifestyle-134lifestyle-137

The Wedding from a Magazine!

Published on by stephaniemagsLeave a comment

Our good friends got married at the end of September and it was literally a wedding straight out of Brides Magazine! They had the best DIY wedding I’ve ever seen and I was honored to stand by their side as they said “I do”! There aren’t really many words for this wedding, it was such a perfect day. The entire wedding party was our group of high school friends, making it the absolute best wedding party in the history of wedding parties! We all stayed in three townhouses side by side so the whole weekend we were able to spend together! I love these two so much and it warms my heart to know they have everything they ever wanted in each other and I can’t wait to watch their family and their love grow in the future! Much love to Cody and Danielle on a beautiful wedding!!

dsc_0556dsc_0570dsc_0610dsc_0619img_1390dsc_0645dsc_0647dsc_0661img_1351img_4876img_1380img_1376

Adirondacks Vacation

Published on by stephaniemags1 Comment

Dan’s family takes a trip to the Adirondacks in upstate NY every year. They have been doing this for decades now. They stay at the same place and go the same week every year. While I would prefer to explore someplace new every year, I’ve learned to enjoy and embrace this great family tradition. Its always the week before labor day and right before back to school, so it’s a great way to end the crazy summer. In my profession of travel marketing for Niagara Falls, labor day also happens to be the last big, wild and crazy week of the summer tourist season too, so again its a great way to feel like I’ve wrapped up another great year!

This year, we went for 5 days. We don’t usually do a whole lot on this vacation, we have a beach, swing-set, and volleyball court all right at the cabins we stay at, so everything is right there. But the older Ada gets the more active I feel like we need to be, or maybe I just want to take advantage of doing something new on a vacation that we take every year. For Ada though, she is basically experiencing everything for the first time. Even if we did something before, she likely doesn’t remember yet.

This year we started the week out with a family kayaking trip. She loved the first 20 minutes of this, until we were way out in the middle of the lake and she decided that she was all done with this activity and wanted to go back to Grandma. Given that we were out in the middle of the lake, she wasn’t fond of the trip back and just wanted to get out. She did great though, and sat still for me until we got back. No major disasters, just a shorter trip next time. Attention spans are not great at 3!

DCIM100GOPROG0775687.
4th Lake, Old Forge, NY

We took her on an “easy” hike up Bald Mountain. We were off to a great start until she wanted to be carried. The way up she did half walking and half being carried. My favorite was Daddy carrying her while she sang every song under the sun! The ultimate lazy toddler. It was worth the hike up for the pictures alone. She did enjoy reaching the top (only because I had a bag of fruit loops for her to much on- and she drank everyone’s water- leaving those of us actually hiking pretty hot and thirsty- but you know, her needs come first!) I had to carry her ALL THE WAY back down by piggy back and she of course passed out on the car ride home. Being carried up and down a mountain is exhausting!img_0755img_4315img_0728

We took her out to dinner one night, where she was absolutely amazing. I really credit her great behavior in restaurants to the fact that we take her out frequently. We try not to eat out too much, but when we do, we like to bring her. And I really think she’s been brought up learning how to behave when out in public. I’m not saying she’s perfect every time, and she’s been known to unload every single sugar packet and sort them by color, (but who doesn’t do that?) I also try to make sure I have other “activities” stowed in my purse. Travel coloring books with crayons, sticker books, Little People. I sometimes even let her pick out a few small things that will fit in my purse, that way she is satisfied when we get there and I pull out the things she wanted and remembered packing. – After our dinner the views were just stunning so we had to go outside for a photo-op.img_0852img_0836img_0825

Our last day there was a little cool, but we still had fun! We made monster ice cream sundaes with all the other little cousins and took her on a boat ride, which she loved, despite it being pretty chilly. Ada even let us go out for grown-up night that evening with the other adult cousins (aka all the moms and dads) and she let the older kid cousins baby-sit her since Grandma had to leave vacation early this year. I was a little hesitant if she would even let us out the door, but she was awesome and we were able to have fun with the grown ups for little while. We made it back before bedtime and caught an amazing sunset!img_1026img_0639

All in all it was another great year in the mountains. We came back relaxed and ready to take on the fall. Next year we will have to find some new activities to do with her, but Its fun to just hang out with family, catch some sun and be a little active. Time off from work and time spent with family is something we all need to do once in awhile!

My Baby is THREE!

Published on by stephaniemagsLeave a comment

How the heck did that happen? I can’t even go into it again about how fast time flies, or how amazing it is to watch her grow into an awesome little person! Being a mom is seriously the best! What I will say is that I plan to start traveling a lot more with her, now that we are passing that infant/toddler craziness and she is becoming a little more rational (sometimes) and more patient with things (sometimes), now is our chance!  When we took her to Tampa this past spring, I have never seen her smile so big or her eyes lite up as much. They are like little sponges and they just want to soak up all life has to offer, and at this age they just want us to be part of everything with them.  Ada never wants me to leave her, I have to sit on the bed at night until she falls asleep, she wants me to play dolls with her, she wants to help me cook and clean. She always wants to give me one more hug and kiss. Now is the time in her life when I should just be spending every second I can with her, take her everywhere with us and experience everything amazing through her eyes. Because before I know it she’s not going to want me around all the time. She’ll want to do things by herself, she’ll want privacy, she’ll prefer to travel with her friends over her parents, and I don’t want to let this amazing time get away from me!

img_1269

In honor of her birthday, I asked her a bunch of questions so I could document her thoughts at three years old. Her answers were so adorable and proves how much she just wants us there. I think I will do this every year on her birthday! (Until she is too cool for it). We will love to look back at her innocence and her beautiful little heart as she gets older! I’ll also re-cap her birthday party in another post!

What is your name? Ada Magacheffy

How old are you? Three, holds up her three fingers every time. 

What makes you super happy? When mommy comes back to pick me up

What makes you sad? When mommy leaves

What is your favorite song? Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star and the Itsy Bitsy spider, I like both favorite songs.

Who is your best friend? Abigail and CJ

What is your favorite thing about school? Playing with legos and housekeeping, and too much friends.

What is your favorite food? Oh, mac n’ cheese!!

What is something mommy always says to you? Goodnight Ada

What is daddy really good at?  Doing puzzles with me

What is your favorite color? Red…. and yellow and the rainbow

What do you want to be when you get bigger? Doc McStuffins

What else do you want to tell mommy? I like to read and eating chicken nuggets too!

And just for fun I wanted to write some other things that I always want to remember about my little (big) three year old:

-Her favorite thing I make for her right now is peanut butter and cheese sandwiches, weird but she loves it!

-Give the girl some lemons and she is a happy camper, I’ve never seen anyone suck on lemons the way she does.

-She LOVES dip, anything and everything as long as she has dip she’s good. When we don’t have dip I sprinkle a little tastefully simple mix into sour cream.

-She sleeps like a champ most nights, (as she always has). I rarely hear from her, with the few exceptions of when she wakes up somewhere between 2am and 4am and wants to get up to play. Not Cool. Sometimes its to go potty, in which case she won’t even open her eyes as I carry her in and out of the bathroom and she’s back out seconds later.

-She has been potty trained since Christmas break, which is amazing! 27 months of diapers isn’t too bad! We tried when she was 18 months and she was just not into it at all, but when we tried again (when she was ready) she easily trained in about 2 days. We rarely have an accident.

-She loves watching these silly YouTube shows of grown-ass adults playing with toys, and while I really hate them and didn’t think there was much educational value to them, I’ve found that its actually teaching her how to play, and she now loves her kitchen, dollhouse and baby dolls more than anything. But the Surprise eggs? Is everyone else’s kids into these damn things too? How crazy that people spend so much time making these videos, and even crazier that kids love them so much! 

-Her favorite thing to tell me is that she is getting big, but that I don’t want her to get big, I want her to stay little (which is true!) I must have said it once and now that’s all she remembers.

– “Why?” She must say this 1,000 times per day and sometimes, I just don’t have the answer, I love her curiosity and trying to explain the most basic things to her, but holy cow it gets tough!

And that’s my little Ada, a fireball, a sweetheart and one smart cookie. I can’t get over how much of a friend and person she is to me now. She’ll forever be my baby and I miss holding her in one arm, but I sure do love watching her grow before my eyes and becoming the sweetest little girl I could ever imagine!

img_1313

Where we ate in Oahu, Hawaii

Published on by stephaniemagsLeave a comment

This post was a looong time coming, I know the Hawaii trip was awhile ago and I’ve been meaning to write this post all summer, but I wanted to write about all the places we ate while on the island of Oahu. We seriously ate like kings all week and I’m pretty sure I would 100% recommend every meal we had to anyone looking to plan a trip there. With the exception of the one breakfast we had at Denny’s because we foolishly thought it would be cheaper – I mean it was cheaper than any of the other meals we had, but for Denny’s it was not cheap.

Let me start off by saying, if you want to eat out, budget a lot for food in Hawaii. Unfortunately there are no All-Inclusive deals in the US (at least that I have found yet) and while the food was out of this world everywhere we ate, it was not cheap, and we probably could have went on another vacation with the money we spent eating out. There are a lot of things I would do differently next time in order to save some money, but the food was so delicious that I actually don’t regret it one bit! (Don’t tell my husband that, he would disagree). He feels a little jaded towards Hawaii after we added up our expenses!

Our first night we got in late, around 7pm Hawaii time (1am est) so we were exhausted and just wanted to eat food and go to bed. Tropics Bar and Grill was located right on site at our hotel, and it was ocean front so we headed straight for that one. I got the Kalua Pork Nachos, which were so amazing I would have went back and had them every day (had it been an all-inclusive resort).

Our resort had a bunch of different restaurants right on site that all came highly recommended on Yelp and Trip Advisor, so we took advantage of those on several nights. Bali Steak and Seafood was one of our favorites, we ate there twice (despite it being one of the priciest places) it was indoor/outdoor  (mostly indoor) and if you time it right you can catch an awesome sunset (reservations recommended for sure). We went with seafood both times because we just can’t get fresh seafood at home like you can in Hawaii. We always opted for the most authentic Hawaiian fish we could, staying away from stuff like salmon that we can get at home. Ahi Poke, was delightful!

The last restaurant right on property that we really enjoyed was the Rainbow Lanai. We had breakfast there one morning because we read reviews about  an amazing breakfast buffet. That is no lie…. The buffet was out of this world with variety. It had a ton of very European style breakfast items on it and the fresh fruit displays were fantastic (It is Hawaii afterall). We mis-heard the hostess though when we asked how much the breakfast buffet was. We heard $13 (which I’m not sure why in our mind we thought it would actually be that cheap- I guess it was too early) What she actually said was $30. So you can imagine the surprise on our face when they dropped a bill for $72 (plus beverages- not included). Its lucky the buffet was so delicious and that they dropped the bill before we were done, once we saw the price we helped our self to third helpings. We also skipped lunch that day!

On every blog, review, and person I spoke to before going, the one place we were told to go was Duke’s Waikiki. I actually wish we went here more than once too. We went for breakfast on our very first morning and it was a perfect way to start off. It was beachfront, we were able to walk the beach all the way down from our hotel, get a lay of the land,  and we enjoyed a great breakfast buffet, so we were able to try a lot of Hawaiian food that we otherwise might not have spent money on. Dan raved the Banana pancakes! We also had mimosa’s with breakfast that were among the cheapest drinks we’d find all week. I wish we would have went back for dinner another night, the atmosphere was that great!

On my birthday, we went BIG! We started off taking a short walk inland to The Cream Pot. We were recommended to this place by friends that went a few years ago and if they hadn’t told us about it, we never would have found it. The restaurant is super small and absolutely adorable. The decor is so sweet and simple, almost like a charming little dollhouse. Its off the tourist path a little which I think is what makes this place so special. I had the strawberry souffle pancakes and Dan had Eggs Benedict, both were out of this world, and the price wasn’t too bad. cream-pot

For Dinner that evening, Dan had made surprise reservations for my 30th birthday to Nobu Waikiki.  After he told me where we were going I looked it up and come to learn this is where all the celebs go when in Honolulu, one of Obama’s favorite places (Yes!) I was so impressed with him for taking it upon himself to surprise me for my birthday with something so special. This meal could have been much more reasonable, but we were splurging and went with the Waikiki Chef’s Tasting. I couldn’t tell you one thing we ate, but it was all amazing! Basically for a lot of money you let the chef decide what you are going to eat and he pulls out all the stops for about 7 courses. You have to be a little adventurous because it’s all sushi, seafood, weird veggies and sauces, hot and cold dishes etc. I surprised myself by agreeing to do this, but fortunately, being that it was THE most expensive meal we have ever had, it was also the most delicious and amazing food we’ve ever eaten. If you are up for an expensive adventure, this one is fantastic!

The day we rented a car and drove to the North Shore, we made two stops for food. Both were things that were on everyone’s “Must Do” North Shore Hawaii list. We hit up Giovanni’s Shrimp Truck and Matsumoto Shave Ice.

motsumoto

Both were delicious and well worth all the hype I’ve read online! One place I very easily would have overlooked on Trip Advisor was The Goofy Cafe & Dine. We were so glad we went, that we ended up eating here twice. It was a hole in the wall type place around the corner from our hotel. Just a short walk through the city. You have to go up to the second floor of what looks like a tiny (and kinda dumpy) outdoor shopping center. Once inside it’s a quaint, very beach-house type restaurant, rustic, exposed beams and an amazing super fresh and healthy food menu. Lots of salads, granola, acai bowls etc. I ordered the same thing both times we went because it was that good. We went for brunch one morning and I got a fresh salad with avocado, tomato, bean sprouts and fresh carrot ginger dressing. The second time we went for lunch right before we had to catch our shuttle to the airport and I got the same thing again.

salad

Lastly,  the one thing that is everywhere in Hawaii is the Acai Bowls. I hadn’t tried one and I had seen them on virtually every menu. So on our very last day, we went to Island Vintage Coffee in the Ala Moana Shopping Center. And I ordered one. It was so delicious I wished I had started every single day with one! I also came home trying to find someplace in Buffalo that makes them and no one makes them like they do in Hawaii!

acai-bowl

If we go again:

There are a lot of things I would do differently next time. I think because it was just the two of us, we were more comfortable with the idea of eating out. If Ada had been with us there is no way we could have gone out that much, I think we would have pushed our luck with good behavior in public. While it was really awesome to try a lot of local food and eat at some famous places, I think it would be worth it to spend a little more and make sure to get a hotel room with a fridge/microwave or small kitchenette. I think it would have saved us a ton to have found a little grocery store and made some meals in our room. Even simple things like oatmeal for breakfast or sandwiches for lunch could have saved us hundreds of dollars. Sampling local cuisine, in my opinion, is half the fun of traveling, so I would never rule it out entirely. Even when we stay at all-inclusive resorts we still like to get out a couple times and try some of the best local restaurants. Just be sure to do some research on the absolute best places to eat before you go, so when you do eat out you can hit up some of the best of the best!

And this is how we could afford to drink all week!! It actually did save us a lot of money!

drinks

5 Happy Years

Published on by stephaniemagsLeave a comment

Today my amazing husband and I celebrate 5 years of wedded bliss! I can’t believe its already been 5 years since we’ve said “I do” but more then that I can’t believe that this winter we will have been together for 10 years! Its crazy how fast the years go by. I thought it would be fun to do a quick post highlighting some of my most favorite memories in the last 5 years with the best person to ever have walked into my world!!

Of course I’ll start with my favorite picture from our wedding day. I love this one because it shows the pure joy and excitement we felt that day but more then that it has some of the most important people who stood by our side showing the same kind of excitement for us! And to this day almost all those people (20 in our bridal party) are all still a huge part of our life and all our favorite memories!

wedding

Our honeymoon is still one of my most favorite trips I have ever been on. We spent 10 amazing days in Curacao, N.A which is the place where we actually got engaged (secretly & unexpectedly). So the island itself will always hold a special place in our hearts. But we had SO much fun on this trip with just the two of us! We made tons of friends, ate some awesome food and just spent some of the best quality time of our life together here. It was relaxing, fun, adventurous and seriously the best trip of my life!

honeymoon-1honeymoon-2

In 2012 we ran our first half and full marathons together. Something neither of us ever thought we’d do. I ran the half and have never been so proud of myself for finishing something as strong as I did. Since then I have wanted to do more, but haven’t found the time and that kinda annoys me. But Dan ran his first full marathon after not fully training for it, and I was so proud of him for finishing as well. It was a huge accomplishment for us both and something we’ll never forget!

marathon

In 2012 we also went skydiving, which will forever be a highlight. It was the most amazing thing I think I’ve ever done and to this day still can’t believe I went through with it, I would also do it a hundred times over again. Such a rush! Next time I want to do it in some exotic place though where the scenery takes my breath away as much as the free fall does!

skydive

In 2013, we took a trip to the Dominican Republic where we made a very special announcement! We had no idea when we booked this trip that it would be our very last trip as a family of 2. We announced that baby Mags would be arriving in the fall and we were so excited to have taken that little baby-moon together and with a few friends. It was relaxing and just what the doctor ordered!

dominican-baby

dominican-2

In September of 2013 we welcomed our amazing little girl Ada Morgan into the world and into our hearts forever! She has since turned our life upside down and I simply cannot imagine our life without her! She has brought more love and joy into our life then I ever thought possible. She is simply the most amazing little person and I love more than anything watching her learn and teaching her about life, she is becoming my best little friend right before my eyes. She has made some of our lowest lows easier and always can put a smile on my face.

ada-welcome

family-3

 

This amazing man has been by my date to exactly 26 weddings since our own (yes I counted). And dozens and dozens before ours! He is the best party date I could ask for and I know he’d say the same about me only because he knows he always has a DD to take him home!

We travelled to Hawaii to celebrate 5 years together. It was a hard decision to go so far away and leave Ada behind for so long. But it was a trip that needed to happen. Its been on my bucket list forever (as its probably on everyone’s) but as someone who loves to travel more than anything it made me sad that I had never done Hawaii or Europe, I knew I had to scratch one of them off the list and we decided it was a perfect occasion to take a romantic Hawaiian second honeymoon. It was an amazing trip. Way more expensive than we thought it would be, but we had a great time, and ate like kings all week. You can read more about that trip here.

hawaii

I am so proud of him for being such a hard worker and fulfilling a dream of his to launch and own his own company. Last year a project he had been working tirelessly on for more than a year took flight when they entered a business competition called 43 North in an effort to win $1 million for his start-up tech company and they did it!! Proud wife and brag moment! (sorry this pic is a little blurry).

winners

More than anything though, after 5 years of marriage I am most proud that we still love each other as much, if not more than the day we said our vows and I am in love with our growing family and the life we have created. We both work very hard to keep life simple and moving forward and I love the teamwork we have had to learn together while raising a little one. I hope for many, many more wonderful years together, and there isn’t another person on the planet I would want to experience all the highs and lows with more than him!

cropped-christmas-photos.jpg

What’s New?

Published on by stephaniemagsLeave a comment

A lot has been going on here lately. I know I’ve been MIA for awhile.  First, I’ll start with all the new things going on with us. I know I started my last blog post with a teaser that I had some exciting news to share and a big announcement. As you might have imagined it was a pregnancy announcement and unfortunately this pregnancy didn’t go as planned and we found out around 9 weeks that we had a missed miscarriage. Nothing is more shocking then expecting to go in for your first sonogram and getting that kind of news with no warning signs. We were devastated and its been a long couple months getting back to normal, but hopefully everything will work out for us when the time is right. For now, we are just enjoying our beautiful summer with Ada, we’ve been doing a lot of traveling for work and just spending time with family and friends. I’m not going to go too far into what else we’ve been doing because its just a lot of nonsense, but I’ll share a bunch of pictures to make it more enjoyable!

We celebrated a warm Easter Sunday with family at my parents house! Complete with a family photo shoot!DSC_1022

 

We took Ada on her very first plane ride to Tampa, Florida to visit Dan’s brother and their new baby girl Penelope. Ada loved every minute with her new cousin. We can’t wait to see them again this upcoming week when they come home. Tampa 2

No trip to Tampa would be complete without a trip to the beach!Tampa

Or a trip to “Disney”. We took her to Disney Springs because its free, she’s only 2 she doesn’t know the difference yet! We’re hoping to take her to see the real thing this Fall when we go back to visit.Disney

I also stood by my best friends side as she married her new best friend!! Fortunately I really like him!

Katie wedding
Photo credit to Alissa & Michael Photography

We got to spend a lot of time together with out of town friends! Weddings are great for bringing people back together!DSC_0287

And we are getting ready to help another special friend tie the knot in September, we celebrated her shower in mid-June and I cannot wait to stand by her side as well while she, (who is one of my oldest childhood friends) marries one of my closest friends from High School.DSC_0093

And lastly, we had a fantastic weekend celebrating the 4th of July and a great kick-off to summer with our friends!!DSC_0196

Happy Summer!!

How did you celebrate the 4th of July?

 

 

Oahu, Hawaii

Published on by stephaniemags1 Comment

One week in Oahu, HawaiiIt’s been awhile since I’ve posted, but I have some fun news that I’ll share soon so check back for a big announcement! In the meantime I thought I’d share how our big Hawaii trip was!

It was a very looong trip (distance wise) New York is very far from Hawaii and if there is any reason why we wouldn’t go back, that would be it! It was also a looong time to be away from Ada, I decided I won’t do that again either! Aside from that we enjoyed our self very much, and it was great to just be a couple again, not be mom and dad or working all week. I think that was the point of this trip more then anything, we wanted to just have some time to our self, to reconnect, to be adventurous and to sleep! And mission accomplished!

I will say that I didn’t care for Honolulu quite as much as I thought. Waikiki is very touristy and its a big City, and to be honest, that’s exactly what it felt like, any old City USA.  The food was phenomenal though we did not have a bad meal, I’ll do a recap in another post of all our favorite places that we ate on Oahu.

I celebrated my 30th birthday while we were there. We kinda had a  big splurge day that day and did A LOT of expensive things. My hubby spoils me I guess. We started my birthday with a couples massage at our hotel. We stayed at The Hilton Hawaiian Village which was fabulous, and the Mandara Spa actually had really high ratings so we booked that. After our massages we took a snorkel catamaran tour, that again, was right at our hotel, and got to snorkel with the sea turtles. The catamaran was a little shorter then we like, I usually like to spend the whole afternoon out in the open water, but it was still fun and included two free cocktails.

Birthday dinner

Catamaran

We walked to dinner at Nobu-Waikiki and this is where we over-did it a bit. The restaurant came highly rated from some foodie friends that have dined there. Its also known for hosting a lot of celebs when they are in town. Instead of just ordering dinner, we decide to do the Waikiki chef’s tasting, which was a 7 course, (absolutely amazing) display of the chef’s favs. Would highly recommend this, but it came with a hefty price tag!

We took a day to drive  up to the North Shore, which was a lot of fun. We rented a car for only 2 days of our 8 day trip. Most of what we did was walkable from the hotel, but on the days we had the car we were able to really get out and explore which I’m glad we did. We visited Pupukea Park to check out the Banzai Pipeline, there isn’t much to do but watch the surfers since there is no way we were getting in that water. Then we road tripped back up the coast and hit up Waimea Bay, and the little surf town of Haleiwa. We of course tried the garlic shrimp plate at  Giovanni’s Aloha Shrimp and then tried the shave ice at Motsomoto, gotta get it with the ice cream for the best thing you’ll ever have. It was huge though and we probably could have shared one!

Shave Ice

DSC_0574

Day two with our rental car we headed to the small town of Lanikai and hiked the Lanikai Pillboxes. Everything we read said the trail was hard to find, and although it was weird that it was situated in the middle of a neighborhood, we didn’t really have any trouble finding it. The hike was a bit rugged, not difficult for anyone in good health, but there were some steep climbs and boulders to scale. It was a short hike and the view of the “moks” was amazing. You could also see Lanikai Beach from the trail, which was our second stop.  After getting our sweat on, we headed to the beach to relax. My husband has a hard time sitting still and relaxing when he knows we have more stops to make, so we didn’t stay long before we headed back out. We grabbed lunch at this small, hole in the wall place that had excellent Yelp reviews.  We both got a lunch plate. It really was amazing, and probably one of the cheaper meals we had while in Hawaii.

DSC_0672DSC_0674DSC_0691DSC_0709

The second part of the day was supposed to be an afternoon at Hanauma Bay, which out of everything I read before this trip was the ONE THING you HAVE TO do! But of course, we got there and it was closed!! We were able to still go into the park because its a state Nature preserve, but the beach access was closed off due to electricity problems on the beach. The day before it was closed because of jellyfish! What are the chances?!

Instead we did something that we weren’t sure we were going to have time to do.  We did the Byodo-In Temple which was beautiful and so peaceful. It was such a change in pace from Waikiki Beach, where its bustling with people. It was quiet, full of koi fish and black swans. We entered the temple where you have to take your shoes off and then rang the gong before we left. The temple sits in the middle of a giant cemetery with a gorgeous volcanic mountain backdrop. It was a photographers dream!

DSC_0790DSC_0820DSC_0823

On our last morning we decided that we wanted to hike Diamond Head before we left, but of course we didn’t have the car anymore. We found out that Diamond head was only about 3 miles from our hotel, so we put on our running shoes and ran! We ran the 3 miles to the crater, hiked about 1.5 miles up to the top at sunrise and then ran back. It was about 8 miles total and worth every second. The Diamond Head hike wasn’t exactly what I thought it was though.  It was like herding tourists up a mountain, there were so many people and tour groups, and the trail was a path with hand rails, hardly a rugged trail hike, there were also a TON of stairs at the very top, which burned a little after a 3 mile run! But in general totally worth the view at sunrise!

Diamond head

The rest of the trip we did a lot of beach time, we took a surf lesson. We sat at the pool and I feel like the trip revolved around where to eat next!   I wish we did more then one island, although we didn’t really have a lot of time to island hop. I think next time I would do a bit more authentic Hawaii in Kauai, Maui or the Big Island. Honolulu was such a big city it felt like we could have been anywhere. We also like the all-inclusive resorts a bit more because we can plan a little better how much we’re going to spend. We also tend to be big drinkers and the all-inclusive is the way to go for that! We can get beaches, palm trees and warm sunny weather without taking a 17 hour plane ride.

sunriseSunset

We loved Hawaii, don’t get me wrong. We had a great time and I definitely want to go back again, but we’d do things a bit differently!

How daycare is going

Published on by stephaniemagsLeave a comment

Yesterday we started our third week of school. You heard all about the first week here (link). It was a little rough but in general it was exactly what I expected.  It’s been getting better and better everyday.

Last week, the drop offs were all a little iffy, sometimes she would even start crying at home or in the car as soon as she figured out where we were going, but once I left she was fine all day. The teachers all said she is doing great, and all her end of the day reports were exactly normal behavior for her.

I think it helps a lot that she goes to my parents house on Monday’s because it starts the week out on a good note. She is comfortable and familiar there. This Monday she actually walked up behind me and pushed my legs and said “go to work mommy”! Well okay!

Yesterday, we didn’t talk about where she was going at all while we got ready, so she wasn’t thinking about it. As soon as we were in the car she cried all the way there after she asked where we were going and I said school. (When I say all the way to school, this is about a 3 minute drive) When I dropped her off though she was a little hesitant but went to Miss Kim easily and she walked off with little tears.

Today was our best day yet. I avoided talking about it at home again and just got her and I both ready as usual. All the way to school I just talked to her. We talked about Aunt Lisa and baby Savannah coming for dinner that night, about Santa Clause and Boo the Elf (her elf on the shelf) who arrives next week. We talked about the houses we drove past and the clouds. Anything to distract her. When we parked I got a small whimper about “no school”, but she walked in with me easily. When we saw her friends sitting around the table eating breakfast they all yelled “Ada!!” like they were so happy to see her. Miss Kim took her and Ada actually reached out for her. And that was that. No tears at all!

Next week is a short week because of Thanksgiving, but she’ll still go twice. I suspect by the beginning of December she’ll be a pro. She’ll also have grandma back once a week and we can get used to our more permanent schedule.

daycare banner

Read all about the first week here!