Guess how this week was...BUSY! I keep getting surprised every week when we are so busy. It happens so often, I am not sure why I am still getting surprised!
Friday night, date night! We had some coupons to a new sandwich place in town called Togos so we went there first. It was pretty crowded, but it was nice that we got our food for free! They were pretty tasty, but I don't think I would go there again just because their prices were really high. I'll stick with Subway. After that we went to Coldstone and got some yummy ice cream. I love it so much. Always so good. Then, we went to the grocery store and grabbed some food for Friendsgiving. Friendsgiving is just Thanksgiving with your friends before you go home to have real Thanksgiving with your family. Waiaka and I were in charge of the turkey! I was a little bit nervous, but Waiaka found a good recipe online. We gathered all the materials, then headed home.
Once we got home, we realized we had a frozen solid turkey and our Friendsgiving event was the next afternoon. Thinking quickly, Waiaka filled up the bathtub with some warm water, and we put the turkey in there. We were nervous that they water would get in the turkey, so we rigged up some plastic shopping bags to the shower curtain and tied it to the turkey so it would stay upright in the water. Genius, right? By the next morning, it was completely defrosted! We stuffed the inside full of onions and garlic, smothered the outside with butter and sage, then wrapped the whole thing in bacon! It was really fun to make with Waiaka. After a few hours it was done!
Proud of his invention! Defrosting the turkey!
Right before we put it in the oven. Look at all that BACON!
We had our Friendsgiving at our friend Natalie's apartment. Everyone brought food to share and it all tasted delicious. Our turkey came out so juicy and tender, probably the best one I've ever had (sorry Grandma!). After we stuffed our faces with Thanksgiving food, we went over to the lounge of her apartment complex and took some family photos by the fireplace. Real classy. Then we had a little snowball fight in the parking lot (which was quite painful considering it was mostly ice balls!) and then came inside for dessert. Taylor made some pumpkin pies and Natalie made an apple cobbler. Both were extremely good and I wish I could have fit more in my tummy, but I would have exploded. We all rested and cleaned up. It was a very successful Friendsgiving and I am looking forward to many more in the future! We love our friends!
We are a very serious group.
Just the girls! Michaela, Taylor, Mallory, Natalie, and I.
The hottest couple in Rexburg! ;)
After all the Friendsgiving excitement, Waiaka and I went to Idaho Falls to do some shopping. I am in desperate need of a new coat, and a few weeks earlier I was at the mall with the girls and saw one I loved. We got me my coat and a new pair of pants. Then we just walked around and window shopped and enjoyed each others' company. I love spending time with my husband and I love shopping, so it was a perfect night!
We are so excited to have Thanksgiving this week! It will be nice to be with family and to have a nice long break from work and school. Catch us next week!
**This post is for the week of the 10th of November.**
This week was crazy! Waiaka and I stayed very busy. On Wednesday, we performed in Culture Night, which I mentioned a couple posts ago. It went super well! Waiaka was an awesome emcee and we both danced like champions. Waiaka danced traditional Hawaiian and then we both danced Tahitian. I learned how to really shake my hips! We had a lot of fun and everyone who preformed did so well. It has been really fun to learn how to dance Polynesian and I am looking forward to doing it some more.
We also found out some exciting news that day! Waiaka landed an awesome volunteer position at the school. He is going to be the director over all the student associations. This also means that his tuition is going to be paid for next semester, which is a really huge blessing. He will be crazy busy, but it will be a really great experience for him.
On Friday, Waiaka had a retreat with the other directors that lasted all night. So, I got to have girls night! It was so fun! I got together with my friends Mallory, Taylor, and Natalie. We made peanut butter and chocolate bars and caramel apple cider, watched a romantic comedy movie, and obviously had girl talk! It was a nice change to be with just the girls. Once Waiaka was done with his retreat, I went home to spend some time with him.
Saturday we got to do date night! We ate at Taco Bell (I know, very romantic) and then went to the cheap theater and saw Guardians of the Galaxy. Waiaka has been wanting to see it forever so we finally made the time to! We both really enjoyed it and highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't seen it. Afterwards, we went to our friend, Shane's house. We played a game called Werewolf for like three hours. It was fun. The game is pretty similar to mafia, just a little different. We then planned our Friendsgiving event which I will tell about in the next post.
Overall, a pretty packed but exciting week! Keep checking back for more posts! Peace and blessings.
Hey everyone! Yes, I know you're shocked, but I am actually posting on a Sunday! I treated myself to a super long nap after church, but promised myself that if I did that, I would post on the blog. Unfortunately, we were super bad about taking pictures this week, so please forgive us and read anyways! This week has been just like all the others lately; crazy! But, we have found times to have our fun. I've been getting home from work earlier than usual this week which helps me get my homework done earlier and then there's more time to spend with my favorite guy. Fun fact, November 5th is National Donut Day! So we went to the grocery store and got ourselves a dozen! It is a very important holiday in this house.
Okay its blurry, but its the only picture we took together this week!
Nothing very exciting happened during the week until Thursday. We were getting ready to go to the gym when I remembered that at Buffalo Wild Wings they have Boneless Thursdays. This is when they have their boneless wings only 70 cents each! We have been meaning to go there for a while now and Waiaka felt that it was about time. So, we called up some of our single friends, Shane, Mallory, Taylor, Natalie, and Mason, and invited them to join us. But first we went to the gym and then we had Polynesian Culture Society meeting. After that, we headed down to Idaho Falls and after a little wait got to devour some yummy wings! They also have half price appetizers after 9:00, so we took advantage of that too. Afterwards, we were wondering why we didn't go there every Thursday! It was so fun and the company was great; what more could you ask of a Thursday night!?
YUMMMMMMMMMY
On Friday we decided not to do a date night because of our Thursday night outing. Instead, we went over to our friend Shane's apartment and played "The Game of Things" with the same group as the night before. It is kind of like Apples to Apples, but you make up your own topics and write your own answers and then everyone takes turns guessing who wrote what. It is so much fun and can last hours. We also all made a big cookie pizza. It consists of a roll of chocolate chip cookie dough as the crust, a mixture of chocolate and peanut butter as the sauce, and all kinds of chocolate candy as the toppings. Basically, diabetes. But, it was fun to make and eat. If you're ever craving extreme amounts of chocolate, I would advise making this dessert.
Okay so this isn't an actual picture of ours, but it was very similar. Thanks, Google.
Saturday, as always, was so busy. It used to seem like a day where we could clean the house, go to the temple, and then just relax. I miss those days. Now its running errands, homework, cleaning, tests, and much much more. This Saturday, we did some homework in the morning, then we went on campus to meet up with people from the Polynesian Association to practice for Culture Night. If anyone reading this is in the Rexburg area, feel free to come to Culture Night! It is on Wednesday the 12th at 7pm in the Hart Auditorium. As far as I know its free! Waiaka and I will be performing some dances, so we would love to see your shining face in the audience! After dance practice, Waiaka went home to study and do more homework while I went with some of my girlfriends (Taylor, Mallory, Michaela) to Idaho Falls to do some shopping. Our friend is getting married soon, so we had to get her some fun stuff ;) We also did some shopping for ourselves as well. It is always fun for me to have some girl time! But, for the record, I did miss Waiaka the whole time. I came home and Waiaka and I cuddled on the couch and watched a movie. Super good week! I apologize again for the lack of pictures...I vow to be better. We love you so much!
I am sometimes really bad at blogging. Okay, well lots of times. BUT this will be exciting since I get to cover three weeks in one post! Date Night 1- October 17 For this date night I was nominated by Waiaka to be in charge! We went to our favorite Chinese restaurant in Rexburg, The Mandarin. Usually when we go there it has a couple other people but I guess word got out about how amazing the food is and how low the price is so it was packed! They still served us really quickly though, so we weren't bothered. I got the Orange Chicken meal (as always) and Waiaka got the Mandarin Chicken meal.They give you so much food and it makes my tummy very happy. Afterwards, we decided to let ourselves digest so we walked around Wal-Mart. We got some popcorn so we could watch a movie later on. After Wal-Mart, we went to Coldstone! One of our friends works there, so he hooked me up with some coupons. Always gotta find the dealz right? Waiaka tried the pumpkin ice cream and I stuck with my usual, cake batter. We crammed our stomachs with ice cream goodness then wobbled ourselves to the car to go home. We popped our popcorn and watched How to Train Your Dragon 2. Overall, pretty good date if I do say so myself!
Date Night 2- October 24 We were pretty indecisive this night. We probably drove to about four restaurants that night and once we got there and saw how long the line was, left and went to the next place. We realized we needed to get a little out of town to find a place with no line. That usually requires going to a hole-in-the-wall. We found ourselves at Blisters BBQ. It is probably the best barbecue in Rexburg, but it shares a building with a gas station, so I feel like its popularity suffers from that. Doesn't stop us though! I got a cheese steak and Waiaka got a pulled pork sandwich. This place also has great fries and sauce. Afterwards we went to DI and Wal-Mart to find some pieces for out Halloween costumes. Since that will be featured in this blog, I will keep it a surprise as to what we dressed up as! We ended the night snuggling on the couch watching a movie (not sure which one, its been a few weeks!). That next day, there was a little Halloween street festival happening in town that we decided to check out. You could tell it was geared towards little kids, but that didn't stop us from having a good time!
Date Night 3- October 31 After a few weeks of searching for the right pieces to our Halloween costume, we finally got to put it all together and show it off. We decided to be Wayne and Garth from Wayne's World! It turned out really great! Waiaka and I were invited to a party by some friends that are in our ward. There were about 3 other couples there. Everyone looked great and it was so fun to play games and hang out with our friends. We had lots to eat. We brought a cake that looked like a spider! I wish I could say I made it, but the grocery store takes the credit on this one. We played fun games like Werewolf (its like Mafia if you've ever played that), The Game of Things, and the classic "Eat a Donut off a String" game. It was a great time!
Sorry this was so lengthy and I probably missed out on a bunch of really awesome things we did but just believe me that we are almost always doing something fun; that's the best thing about being married! I PROMISE I will be better next week. I know you're all dying to read about us, right? We love you all and hope you had a fun and safe Halloween!
This past week has been CRAZY! Waiaka and I have been so busy. On Wednesday, Waiaka had to prepare for his Polynesian Culture Association party which was happening on Thursday, so he had his vice-presidents over to help with that. We went to the store and bought all the ingredients for spam musubi. If you haven't had it, it is kind of like sushi. It is rice and spam wrapped in seaweed. Don't be afraid of spam, its good! So we spent a few hours with his vice-presidents over working on making them but they had somewhere else to be so they left before we could even start wrapping them. Right after they left, Waiaka started feeling like he was getting the flu, so it was up to me to make all the musubis! I was kind of nervous, considering native Polynesians were going to be eating them, but I got pretty good at making them! It was a fun experience and Waiaka was sad he couldn't help. But he was cheering me on the whole time, telling me that I was doing a good job.
Spam musubis and fruit with li hing mui on it
Thursday was the Polynesian Culture Association party! It was the first one of the semester and we had a great turn-out! Everyone is really excited for the meetings to learn native dances, songs. and recipes. I am excited to go too so I can learn more about my husband's culture! Waiaka is a great president and everyone loves him (not like I'm surprised about that!).
What a hot president! ;)
On Friday, Waiaka came home from school pretty late because he had a bunch of tests and studying to do. When he got home we relaxed for a little bit, then we went to my cousin Cassie's house. She and her husband Drew invited us over for dinner and a scary movie. We ate chicken enchiladas and I made my fruit salad. After dinner we watched "House at the end of the street". It was my first time watching it and it was pretty freaky! I highly recommend it if you're looking for a good thriller. We always love spending time with them because they are not only good friends but also family! And they have a cute puppy, Loki! On Saturday, we both got up early (boooo). I headed to Idaho Falls to help a friend pick out a wedding dress and Waiaka went to the library to do some more studying. It was really fun for me to go wedding dress shopping again because it brought back so many memories of preparing for my own wedding. The whole day the girls I was with kept asking about my wedding and reception and it was so fun to share those experiences with them (since I didn't know them back when we got married). I so wish I could relive my wedding day! It was the best day ever! When I came home, I powered through some homework and Waiaka came home. Around 5 we went up to Island Park with a group of friends. Our friend Shane has a cabin up there that is super nice and relaxing to be at. It is always nice to get away, even if it is just for a few hours. We all made dinner together and then we played some games. We made some dessert and then just all relaxed and talked. It was so nice to not have to worry about work or school and just enjoy ourselves.
Natalie, Mallory, me and Taylor.
Waiaka, Shane, and Adam. So serious.
Today (Oct.12) is our 6 month anniversary! I love being married to Waiaka. He lights up my life and I could not picture my life without him. These past 6 months have easily been the best months of my life and I can not wait to spend eternity with him.
Thanks for reading! We love you all and hope you have an awesome week!
Every April and October, our church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) has something called General Conference. It is a time where all the members come together to listen to the words of the leaders of our church. It is such an inspirational and inspired time. There are two sessions on Saturday and two on Sunday. Growing up in Chicago, I've never had the chance to attend the sessions in person in Salt Lake City. Waiaka has been a few times before, but we haven't gone together yet. Well this past conference was the 4th and 5th of this month and we got tickets! I was so excited to finally attend this meeting in person. We had tickets for the Saturday morning session and Sunday afternoon. We drove down to Utah Friday afternoon and went straight to Provo for Waiaka's mission reunion. Unfortunately, the traffic was so absurd that we barely made it for the end of his reunion. We still had the chance to talk to some of his friends and his mission president and his wife, so it was still worth the trip. Afterwards, we met up with our friends Shane and Elise at In-N-Out burger. I always try to make it to In-N-Out when I'm in Utah because they don't have one in Idaho and it is one of my favorite places to eat. Afterwards, we went to my grandparents house because they were kind enough to let us stay with them.
This is the conference center!
The next morning we woke up early to get ready to drive to Salt Lake City to go to the first session of conference. After we parked, we walked over to Temple Square. It was our first time back since we got married there, so it was fun to be by the temple and reflect on that amazing day. We had to wait in line to get in for about 15 minutes but after impatiently waiting we got into our seats. We were on the balcony level which is kind of far from the speakers, but just being in the same building as such inspired men and women made my heart feel full. It was amazing to see and hear the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in person; they are such a talented choir. The talks were inspirational and the Spirit was so strong.
After the first session, we went to lunch with Shane and Elise and then headed back to my grandparents' home to watch the second session. It was equally as amazing as the first! Once the second session was over, Shane and Elise left and Waiaka and I worked on homework (fun, right?). Once that was finally done, we met up with my cousins, Rachel and Erin. They go to school at BYU in Provo and it was so nice to see them since I hadn't since the wedding. We met at Culvers which is a restaurant we always eat at back home. It made me kind of homesick, but it was a fun time.
The next day, we woke up and watched the Sunday morning session of conference. I made some cookies and other treats and we ate them during conference so we wouldn't fall asleep. Between sessions, we made some lunch. Then we watched the second session at my grandparents instead of at the conference center. After the second session, I took a long nap! When I woke up, we started packing up and getting ready to leave. My grandparents worked as ushers at the conference center the whole weekend so we didn't get to see much of them. We waited to leave until they came home on Sunday night and we went to Applebees with them for dinner. It was so fun to finally see them and spend some time with them. They are the sweetest.
After such an exciting weekend, we drove back up to Rexburg. I loved attending General Conference and watching it from my grandparents' house. I felt very uplifted and edified. I encourage you all to check out the conference talks! You can find them at www.lds.org. I love being a member of my church and if you have any questions about it, let Waiaka and I know. Thanks for reading! We love you.
What's up everybody! Sorry this post is late..again. But at least its not a week late, right? Its the little things. :) Well, school has just started up for Waiaka and I which has kept us pretty busy. I am only taking two 2-credit classes online, but I am working 40+ hours a week at the daycare. Waiaka is taking 12 credits, is the Polynesian Association President, and the second counselor in our ward, so he is extremely busy. We still find some time together, and it is usually at the gym. Couples who work out together, stay together!
Waiaka on his first day of the semester!
Last Friday, Waiaka went to a retreat for Student Support, which he is now involved in by being the Polynesian president. He went to school all day then went straight to the retreat until about 11 PM. As you know, Friday night is date night, so it had to be moved to Saturday. I spent the day working, then I hung out with our friend Shane and his buddies. They used to be Waiaka's roommate so we are all pretty tight. We played some night games at a nearby park then had some ice cream. Best part of the night was when I was able to pick up my man and we exchanged stories about the day. Its always exciting to hear about Waiaka's day and he puts up with hearing about mine. ;)
Random picture: A huge rainbow appeared after a storm this week! It was beautiful!
On Saturday, Waiaka had part two of his retreat that was from 7 AM until about noon. When he got home, we cleaned, did some homework, ran some errands, and went to the gym. Sounds like a pretty typical Kealamakia Saturday, right? That night, we went to a pizza place out in Ririe (which is like a 25 minute drive from Rexburg) with our friends Kimball and Dustin. The place we went to is call Stoplight Pizza. I highly recommend it if you are in the area. The owner and his employees work hard to make sure you are happy and that you have a good experience. Waiaka had been here a couple times before to do a pizza eating challenge (16 in pizza, lots of toppings, 9 lbs.) but one of the times I went with and we found out they make a 32 inch pizza! So, naturally, we ordered that when we went with our friends. It took a while to make (especially because they just had dinner rush before we came and they ran out of cheese. Someone had to run out and buy more for our order and a few others!) but it was totally worth the wait! One half had ham and pineapple, and the other half had pepperoni, sausage, and onions. I could only eat two slices before becoming full! The slices are thin but super long, so I thought I was going to eat at least one more! But, we couldn't finish it. But, we had some leftovers, which are Waiaka's favorite!
Even though we had to wait a while, it was a great night because we were able to chat with our friends and catch up and then have time to eat. We love being with them! It was a really fun experience to eat such a big pizza with our really good friends and we are excited to visit there again soon.
Had to fold the slice because it didn't fit on the plate!
Thanks for reading! Sorry, again, that its a little late! I came down with a virus this past week and posting on the blog was not on my radar! Check us out next week for more fun and updates!
What a crazy month September has been so far! Sorry for missing a blog post last week, we got crazy busy. To make up for it, we made a video for you! I'll post it later in the post.
So, last weekend (9/5-7) was a productive one! We wanted to save our Friday Night Date for Saturday so that we could go to our favorite breakfast place, JB's. They have an amazing weekend breakfast buffet that literally has everything we love. We did that first thing in the morning on Saturday. After that, we got cleaned up and went to the temple. We did a session and, as always, it was amazing! After the temple, we treated ourselves to an ice cream cone from Burger King (cause they are only 75 cents!) and then went home to clean.
That night, I had a party for a friend in my ward that I went to while Waiaka stayed home and worked on his calling. At about 8PM we drove down to Idaho Falls and went grocery shopping at Winco, our number one store for everything we need. While we were down there, we also got a tire plug for our car because one of the tires had a screw in it. We came home that night, put the groceries away, and watched a movie to celebrate our productive, but fun, day!
This week has been super busy but amazingly fun. On Monday afternoon, my mom and brother came to town! My brother also goes to BYU-Idaho so my mom was helping him fly his stuff out from Chicago. Monday night, my mom, brother, sister, brother-in-law, husband, and I went to Pizza Pie Cafe and enjoyed lots and lots of pizza, pasta, and salad together. Afterwards, we went to my sister's house and played games and laughed til our stomachs' hurt. Who would have thought that Mouse Trap could keep 5 adults entertained for a few hours?
Tuesday, I got most of the day off of work, so we went to the Idaho Falls Zoo. It is quite a small zoo, but it was really nice out and it was fun to be with my family. I had to work for a few hours, but after I was done we went to my sister's house again and had a barbecue. The food was great and so was the company. We played games again that night and said our goodbyes to my mom as she had to leave the next morning. It was such a short visit, but very worth it. She and my dad are hoping to make a trip out here soon, hopefully before it snows!
It has been fun and exciting to have our family and friends back in town for school. We were able to have dinner with my brother, my cousins Cassie and Lauren, my uncle Al and some of his friends at Pizza Pie Cafe. Waiaka and I are probably their #1 customers! After dinner we watched the BYU football team slaughter Houston.
This Friday night's date has to be one of my favorites that we have done so far! We started out doing a fast food progressive dinner, but ended up just trying to get as much food as we possibly could with $10 dollars at four different fast food restaurants. We recorded it all and made a video so you could see how it went!
We spent Saturday night at the movies with our friends which is always fun. We saw Edge of Tomorrow. It was a pretty good movie, but even more fun because we got to be with our friends again.
Thanks for reading, and sorry it was so long but I hope you enjoyed it and be sure to share this with your friends and keep an eye out for our next post!
This past week was one for the books. Last weekend (the 23rd) Waiaka and I went out to dinner with our friends, Kimball and Dustin. We went to Big Juds which a local hamburger place. I had been there a few times, but Waiaka had never been. Kimball and Dustin hooked us up with some coupons too, which is always nice. We decided to get the Double Big Jud special which is a huge burger with two 1-pound patties. Needless to say, Waiaka was in heaven. It came with ice cream cones too, which was probably my favorite part. Big Juds is now one of Waiaka's favorite places to eat. There's honestly nothing better than enjoying great food with great company!
On the not so bright side of things, I got majorly sick this week. Okay, so I might be a little dramatic. I got a pretty bad cold. Luckily it only lasted a few days, but it really slowed me down. On Friday night (which is always date night), Waiaka convinced me to get ready so we could go out. He said he had the whole night already planned out. I love going on dates that are pre-planned, so I got ready and we headed out. Once we exited the highway, he had me recline my seat and close my eyes so I wouldn't know where we were going. He parked the car and I sat up to see that we were at Texas Roadhouse! It is one of our favorite restaurants and it is also where we had our first date.
Our first date picture beside our current date picture!
So we are sitting at our table and I am looking over the menu, chatting with Waiaka. I finally get my eyes off the menu to see a ring box sitting on the table. I open it to see the wedding band that matches my engagement ring! I was so surprised and so happy to have it! We didn't have enough money at the time of the wedding to get my wedding band but, we got some extra money from the school this year which allowed us to order it a few months ago. My ring was already gorgeous, but this really makes it look amazing. Waiaka is so thoughtful and knows I like surprises (even though I try to figure them out sometimes) and did a great job at making our date special.
That wraps up August! Time sure does fly when you're married to the man of your dreams. We are looking forward to September with my parents visiting, school starting up, and many more fun date nights and stories to tell.
