i take chae suemy...

[y] those were the first words of the vows that chae accidentally messed up (should have been "i chae, take suemy...") but he must have been too nervous or awestruck by her beauty =) it was cute...congrats chuemy!!

wowee maui: part 3

[y] ok so after a busy 1.5 weeks of being back in houston, i've finally found time to post some more pictures from our trip...and i promise, this time i'll actually post pictures of us!

almost everyday, we were treated with beautiful turquoise waters, nice sunsets, and swaying palm trees. we did a lot of snorkeling and sunbathing. while on the beach, we always had yummy maui onion chips to snack on...those of you who have been to maui should know what i'm talking about! like we mentioned before, we basically went everywhere that the maui revealed book told us to go. well, the only waste of time was our trip to the petroglyphs...not worth the trek...



we also did 2 of the maui "must do's"...the road to hana and biking down mt. haleakala. for those of you who don't know, the road to hana to a stretch of mostly coastal road along the edge of mt. haleakala along the northern coast of maui. there are waterwalls, nature hikes, cute villages, and other natural wonders along the drive. it was quite a challenge to get to some of these waterwalls...we had to walk through dense forests of bamboo, muddy paths, jumping over a 3-4 gap over a rushing stream 10 feet below, walking across streams on slippery rocks, climbing over big rocks, and other naturey things that i am not accustomed to! but they were all well worth it in the end!



we got to see the sun rise on new year's day atop mt. haleakala at the rim of the crater! it was worth the 3am pickup to the top of the mountain and the FREEZING air whipping around us. after we watched the sun rise, we rode bikes down the mountain...at the top, you're freezing and wearing a bunch of layers...as you get closer and closer to the bottom, you strip off layers of clothing...and then you end up at the beach 38 miles later. i hadn't ridden a bike in 10 years or so, so i was quite anxious about riding down a mountain on a curvy road with sharp turns and no guard rails where apparently there is 1 major accident per week. but i survived and it was so fun! ms150, here i come? =)



on our last day in maui, we treated ourselves to a nice $130 lunch at mama's fish house...it was good fish...but dang, $130?? luckily gordo cooked his soy sauce chicken and i cooked spaghetti on most of the nights =). then we topped that off with a monstrous hawaiian shaved ice in paia. yum!



and this concludes our wowee maui series...

sugar cookie icing

[y] my photo submission for my christmas sugar cookies made it to the main recipe page for the sugar cookie icing recipe from allrecipes.com!

i highly recommend the icing...easy to make and decorate with. it dries bright, glossy, and hard. the cream cheese sugar cookie recipe that i used for the cookies in the picture is also highly recommended!

wowee maui: part 2

[y] then the wedding...it totally looked like a scene from instyle celebrity weddings. the wedding was on a grassy lawn with the teal ocean in the background. nanoh walked down an aisle of white orchids...all different colors of cymbidium orchids adorned the tables...we ate under tents of organza as the sun set before our very eyes. it was definitely a wedding in paradise...congrats nanoh and brian!

aisle of white orchids...

a myriad of tropical flowers...

brian and nanoh exchange vows amongst 50 friends and family...

then gordon and i started hitting all the hot spots on maui...part 3 to come...

do we have to go home tomorrow?

wowee maui: part 1

[y] happy new year!! so g and i have been in maui since christmas eve and we will be heading back to the mainland tomorrow evening =(. we originally decided to come because i had to use up a few southwest rapid rewards before january and southwest allows you to double up your rapid rewards to fly to hawaii via ATA. but it turns out that my friend nanoh was getting married in maui at the same time we were there so double bonus! thanks to maui revealed, we knew where to get the best shaved ice, snorkeling, shopping, and sun-bathing. since we have some down time before we hit the beach again, i thought i'd give a recap...

the first few days were spent with the trinity folks who were in maui for nanoh's wedding. we drove around to become familiar with the island. we went to a luau for the rehearsal dinner (they were shaking their booties so fast that i couldn't get a clear picture).

driving around maui...look at that sky and those trees!

grass skirts...coconut bras...luau!