Friendsgiving 2014

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! 

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Culture Night, Girls Night, Movie Night

**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.

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Thursday Night, Wing Night

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!

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October Update!

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!

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