hawaii, day eight

day eight in hawaii may have been one of my favorites because it was SO LOW KEY. we started the day off picking up pastries and our beloved apple napples from the bakery, and then heading to Turtle Bay beach. we rented an umbrellas and chairs, and ended up laying out for about size hours. oh man, it was glorious. i also made sure to make a stop at the resort bar for a fruity drink to sip on.

that night, kendrick and i headed out for some alone time (first date night of the trip!) last time we were in hawaii, we visited haleiwa joe's and had some mouth-watering marlin, and have been talking about it since. so naturally, we decided to return for our date night! to our disappointment, they didn't have marlin at the time, and the chicken that i ordered instead ended up being pretty dry. 

luckily, the view from our table almost made up for it.......and so did the sunset afterwards.

after walking along the beach for a few minutes, we decided to call it a night and headed 

home. grateful for the alone time i had with this cutie in paradise.

birthday blues

i did it! i made it to twenty five!

kendrick and i have a tradition of doing "birthday weekends" rather than celebrating just on the day, so all of last weekend was spent opening one present a day.

on the first day, he surprised me with a kate spade dress that i've had my eye on since i saw it in picture from ny fashion week last year. i literally growled (for some reason it was the only excited sound i could get outat the moment?) when i pulled it out of the box, and kendrick is still making fun of me for it. anyways, major props to my husband for picking out the dress of my dreams.

that night, we headed out for an early birthday dinner- delicious sushi at tsunami.

on the second day, i opened up a gel nail uv light kit, and some polishes. i've wanted one of these for awhile, since all nail polish chips within days, and it's too expensive to keep up getting gel nails professionally done. we just need to purchase a specific kind of alcohol to rub on the nails, and then we'll be ready to test that baby out! (i'll probably try it on my mom first, in case, you know, it looks bad).

on the third day. i opened up a two-piece luggage set that i've had my eye on for over a year. they are both rose gold, hard shell, and amazing quality. the set came with a large sized one, and a handy carry on sized one. it was fun getting a closer look at them, as they have some really cool and convenient features that i never would have known had i gotten them. now the question is... where we traveling next ken?

(teasingly, i asked him why there wasn't a passport and two round-trip tickets to paris inside...psh)

that night, we celebrated with kendrick's family at his parents house. paul made us a delicious asian dinner, complete with chocolate cake and a tea light on top in lieu of candles (hahaha). they also gave me a couple of gorgeous plants and some copper kitchen ware. my in-laws know me so well.

on the morning of my birthday, i got a visit from the "birthday fairy" (a tradition that my mom did growing up, and i've forced kendrick to carry it over in our home). i was gifted with "me before you", a book that i had mentioned to kendrick... who i'm sure told the birthday fairy. ;)

on the final day of birthday weekend (my actual birthday), i woke up to darling banners in the living room. at work that day, my dad surprised me with a bouquet of autumn-colored flowers and a huge eclair. when kendrick got home from class, he let me open my final gift... which ended up being a card he made with a folded up paper attached to it... which was a home made certificate for "any purse of my choice". hahaha, why is my husband the cutest? he told me that it could only be redeemed once, but i'm pretty sure it's renewable...

 we went out and got some shakes, and then stopped at harmons for a cake and some candles. i may or may not have had a slight melt down in the pastry aisle when i realized that candles are sold in packs of twenty four, and for the first time ever, we had to buy two (insert traumatized sad face).

 in all realness, am i the only one who gets the "birthday blues"? i feel like birthdays are a bit overrated and hyped up so much, that when that day is finally here, it doesn't feel any different than any other day, and then it's over in twenty four hours. then it's another three hundred and sixty five days of hyping up, to find that once again, it's no different than any other day. i don't know if that makes sense, but i always get pretty bummed out on my special day, pretty lame right? however, i am so so grateful for my cute husband who goes to all lengths to make every birthday so special and memorable for me.

here's to twenty five!

hawaii, day five

tuesday started with something that i've wanted to do forever- swim with dolphins!!

it was a slightly overcast day, and having to climb into the chilly water sure didn't help, but it was so much fun and dolphins are definitely one of my favorite animals now. i guess i didn't technically get to "swim" with the dolphins per say, but i did get to dance with one, kiss it's cheeks, and kiss it on the lips... so i think i'm the true winner here.

(yes, my arm WAS that sunburnt)

we tried to cleverly step around paying for the ridiculously overpriced photos that the photographers take during the excursion, so instead we paid for kendrick to be an "observer", hoping he could snap some pics on our camera. however, sea life park is two steps ahead of us, and made sure that all bystanders were at a good enough distance from the dolphin to ensure terrible, terrible photos. so, in the end, sea life park won, and we purchased one of their photos to commemorate the experience. (although, i must admit, it's a pretty great photo) well played, sea life park, well played.

this is the beautiful view from the park.

after my dolphin adventure, we
decided to stick around a bit longer and take advantage of all that the park had to offer. we were just in time for a seal and sea lion show, which was just about one of the cutest things i've ever seen (how do you make a dog even cuter? easy, add fins on him and make him a seal lion)

kamiya met up with us afterward, and we took a short drive over to the makapu‘u point lighthouse trail, which was a gorgeous hike that lead to, you guessed it, a lighthouse.

this hike ended up being a lot longer, steeper, and harder than we anticipated, but the entire trip provided fantastic views of the ocean (infact, the entire trail wrapped around a mountain, giving you a panoramic view of the deep blue ocean at all times).

after our hike, we grabbed a quick lunch of burgers and fries, and then headed out to the chinese temple. this was hands down one of the coolest places i have ever been! the entire place was covered in fog, giving it an eerie feel. also, it was completely silent, which added to the effect.

that night, we headed out to waimea bay for a bit, and treated ourselves to some shaved ice cream. it was a jam-packed, very successful day.

hawaii, day four

we started monday out the best way we knew how.... shopping at the outlets (which included the kate spade outlet for me). kate spade outlets are basically the closest thing on earth to a gold mine, because the deals are insane. on this day, we happened to fall upon a sixty percent off the entire store sale... with an additional twenty percent off at checkout. i literally circled the store at least thirty six times, trying on every single bag in sight, until i finally landed on a darling blue backpack towards the back of the store. i'm talking buttery smooth cobalt leather with gold hardware... it was gorgeous. while it was originally four hundred dollars, it was marked down to one hundred, and then after the sale discounts came into play... it was a whopping thirty dollars. say whaaat?! thirty dollars for an all-leather kate spade back pack? even the cashier was in shock, and seeing that it was the last one in store, you know i grabbed it and ran.

(after paying, of course).

kamiya was busy helping his parents with a few projects around the house, so kendrick and i had a good chunk of this day to ourselves. we headed out to hale'iwa beach, and relaxed on the nearly empty shoreline for a solid hour (or more, who's keeping track?) 

after swimming a bit, we headed over to the darling shops and boutiques that circle around the beach. my favorite shop that we visited was this darling little number right here:

ken and i have a tradition of pick up one unique home decor item every place we travel, and we agreed this was the perfect place to pick something out. after much deliberation, we decided on a stunning piece of farm-grown coral to keep on shelf in our home. 

after strolling through a few more shops, we stopped at a cute little gelato shop for a treat. naturally, i chose the chocolate flavors, and kendrick went with a rootbeer float.

once we left hale'iwa, we quickly decided that we could definitely do more beach time.... so we headed to ka'ena point. this was my first time going to this beach, and it immediately became a new favorite. the entire beach was covered in sparkling white sand, the water was a deep blue, and tall, misty green hills lined the shore (talk about a gorgeous backdrop). also, we were the only ones there, which obviously made it even better (except for when kamiya finally joined us late-afternoon)

 that night, we went out for sushi at a super classy joint in downtown honolulu, it completed a very, very perfect day. 

hawaii, day three

continuing on with my "hawaii series"...

that morning, we attended a travel presentation that lasted only an hour and a half (thankfully). you're probably wondering why one earth we did this (especially after our traumatizing timeshare presentation in california last year), however this one was basically harmless and gave us a major discount on tickets to swim with dolphins. i'm talking like eighty percent off! so it was a done deal.

(kendrick was super proud of this artistic picture he took)

after our presentation, we headed over to the mall in downtown honolulu and did some shopping. kendrick picked up a new swim suit and I tried my best to stay away from any and all kate spade stores, because sometimes the temptation is just too much to bare.

afterwards, we met up with kamiya, hit up the dole plantation for some dole whips, and then drove over to waimea bay for some beach time.

after the beach, we went to one of my favorite places on the entire island- the point. i'm not even going to try to explain the gorgeousness of this place... just refer to the pictures below.

 

(still tying to convince aaron to make this his tinder profile pic)

 (reason #52383 i'm not a fashion blogger)

after taking thousands and thousands of pictures at the point, we headed over to the famous giovannis shrimp truck for some garlic trip.

...it was definitely as good as we imagined it would be.