Happy Thanksgiving! Now...let's play catch up.

Happy Thanksgiving! 

I hope that you have had time to think about each and every thing/person that you are thankful for! I am thankful for family, friends, our health, the Great State of Texas and for the fact that we will only be "homeless" for a couple more days!
Since arriving on the mainland we have been very busy! We arrived in Dallas and tried to adjust to the fun time change. :)

I got to meet my "niece", Meranda, for the first time! She is soooo precious. She was very well behaved, gave us a tour of her cute house and even posed for some pictures with her mom and Aunties. CLICK HERE to see the pictures. Later that night we had a happy hour and dinner get together at the Iron Cactus, and got to see a lot of our friends! That afternoon/evening Zac drove up to Gainesville to pick up my new car! (I have a wonderful husband.) We are now the proud owner of a (red) Jeep Grand Cherokee. :)  Saturday we had an Elliott/Hacker/Cockrum family get-together at Zac's grandparents' house and then Sunday we went to see "ICE!" at the Gaylord Texan. CLICK HERE for all of those pics.
Sunday night we checked in to our hotel in College Station, and Monday we met with our realtor, Ashley, to look at homes there. She was super organized, and we saw 20+ homes that day! Whew - they were all starting to run together. But, we did find the PERFECT one for us, and we got it! We are now in the process of filling out paperwork and waiting to close. We will be able to move in next week! More on the house later, when we actually get to move in!! We are so excited to be first-time homeowners!!

Wednesday we ran errands and had some surprise visitors for dinner! Mary, Kaylie and Carter were in town for an archery thingy and met us at Pei Wei! This was my first time to meet baby Carter, who is perfect and already tall (go figure!). Kaylie made me laugh throughout the entire meal (she is so smart and clever), and even "read me her fortune from her fortune cookie. She said that her fortune said "You do not have to pick up your toys!" - what a great/perfect fortune for her! (She is so funny!) After dinner Zac and I went to the 10th anniversary Bonfire Remembrance at Reed Arena. I can't believe it has already been ten years since the stack fell. The Remembrance was a great way to honor the lives that were lost that day. We will ALWAYS remember them.

HAPPY 25th BIRTHDAY, SISTER! Thursday I drove to Austin to spend Mary Alice's birthday with her. We shopped around, hung out at her cute cute house and went to dinner with her roomie, Jessica, and our cousin, Emily at Z'Tejas! Friday I drove back to CS so that Zac and I could go to Yell with some of Zac's new coworkers.
Then, Saturday was Mom's and Zac's birthday! (November is a popular time to be born!) Zac and I got up and spent the morning walking around campus meeting some of the students he is advising and watched the game day activities on campus. We met Cameron and Michelle and their baby, Nathan, for the game against Baylor.

That was our first time to meet Nathan, who is sooo cute and well behaved. The weather was a little drizzly and rainy, but the game was fun! Afterwards we met Beth and Brent up at Northgate for an evening of reliving our college days. So many things have changed in Aggieland! It is so nice to live in a town that I know something about. I haven't needed to look up any directions just yet. Sunday we watched the Cowboy football game with Zac's friend, Blake. HERE are some pictures of that weekend.
Tuesday Mom, Dad, MA and Aidan came to College Station to see our new house. It had been almost a year since I had seen my puppy - but he remembered me! I have missed him soo soo much. We had lunch with Zac, shopped for a fridge and then headed to Austin. That night we met up with the Buntons/Georges for dinner. I have missed my family, and really enjoyed being with everyone. We stayed at my cousin Emily and her husband Jonathan's home, which is beautiful, and they were the perfect hosts. Wednesday we got to have breakfast with Mandy and Meranda :) , then shopped for Christmas decos for MA's house and started putting up some of her Christmas lights. That night we had our Bunton/George/Elliott Thanksgiving dinner at Emily's house. The food was amazing - including the awesome fried turkey that Jonny (assisted by Z) made. CLICK HERE for pics (from Austin and Dallas Thanksgivings).

Finally, caught up to today... We woke up this morning and drove to Dallas to have Thanksgiving dinner with the Elliott extended family. We went to Zac's cousins' new house in The Colony for a lovely (and delicious) dinner. Matt and Ashley were excellent hosts, and we all (again) ate way too much.  Tonight we watched our Aggies play t.u. in a good game. We put up a great fight, Aggies! WHOOP!
And now, we are caught up. :) Sorry for the gap in posting - I will do better in the days to come.
Me ke aloha,
Rebekah

We're BBBAAAAACCCCKKK!!

ALOHA, TEXAS! We arrived back in The Great State of Texas this week, after a long flight and dealing with some really annoying and rude American Airlines people. The flight was fine, and we are still struggling with the time change, but soon we will be back on central time.

Zac and I spent our last three days in Hawaii on the island of Kauai. We had an amazing time seeing the sights and relaxing before our big move. Our first day there we drove to Kauai Coffee and Waimea Canyon (the "Grand Canyon of the Pacific"), then we went to dinner at Duke's at the Marriott. The next morning we took a helicopter tour of the island - SUCH an awesome way to see the entire island. We were fortunate to be able to stay in a beautiful timeshare at the Westin Princeville. Our last day we kayaked up the Wailua River, then hiked to Secret Falls and swam under the falls. The trail was SUPER muddy, but it was a fun adventure. We absolutely loved our last little Hawaiian island hop trip. CLICK HERE for all of our pictures, and CLICK HERE for a few videos I took there. :)

We have already had a fun two days here in Texas, and I will tell you more about those verrry soon!

Until then, me ke aloha,
RAWE

Halloween/Completely moved out

Aloha!
This weekend Zac and I went to a costume party at Steve and Marisol's house. They completely out did themselves with decorations, fabulous food and even games with prizes! We had such a great time. We recycled our Barney and Betty Rubble costumes, since we have been so busy with the move. This is what we looked like, if you haven't already seen. :)

Friday a moving company also came to get the rest of our stuff that we had at the house. This is what the living room looked like before...

It only took the movers 25 minutes to pack all of this and finish the paperwork. I know it isn't that much, but I was amazed! And yesterday we completely cleaned and left our beautiful Hawaiian home. I was so sad. Here is a sunset picture to remind us all of the beautiful days and nights we witnessed there.

We also sold my car this week. So, here is the last picture of me in it right before we dropped it off. It was such a great car!

So, we accomplished a lot this week, moving-wise, and we are that many steps closer to living in Texas!

Me ke aloha,

RAWE

Kay and Steve visit Hawaii! - and Zac's Wardroom Farewell

Aloha! About two weeks ago Kay and Steve flew out to Oahu to spend a few days with us. We saw the USS Arizona, Punchbowl and had some great meals with them. That Saturday they left for a seven day cruise on NCL to see Maui, Kauai, the big island and then back to Oahu. They said that they had a marvelous and relaxing time on the cruise, and that the ship, islands and experience was great. They spent a couple more days here on Oahu with us before heading home, and we went to the North Shore, snorkeling at Hanauma Bay, 'Iolani Palace and of course did a little shopping. ;) We had so much fun being with them and we hope that they had a great vacation! We love you guys!
Click HERE for the pictures that I took from their trip!

Also, this weekend was Zac's (and Jason Downs') farewell with the wardroom of the USS Louisville. We all got together at the Simsic's house to tell funny stories about the guys and their time on the boat. Zac and I could not believe that it was actually time for his farewell. We have had such an incredible time and experience with these families, and will miss them all so very much.
Click HERE for the pictures from the party!

We have had a very busy past two weeks, but we are really enjoying our last few days on this beautiful island with some of the people that we love.

Me ke aloha,
RAWE

Hawaiian Portraits

We have SO enjoyed our time in Hawaii, and wanted to remember the beautiful surroundings with some professional photographs. The other night our sweet and very talented friend, Audra, took some pictures of us on Secret Beach on the North Shore. Here is a link to her blog, where you can see the four preview shots she posted. We hope you love them as much as we do!

http://simplesoulphotography.blogspot.com/

*If you are checking this a while after my blog post, you may need to scroll through her blog to see them.*

Me ke aloha,

RAWE

Hawaiian Pack-out

Today the movers came and packed ALL of our household goods. We are now living with an aerobed, two beach chairs, our clothes, coffee maker, microwave and a few dishes. Doesn't that sound glamorous? It totally is.

I loved how our movers improvised and sent the boxes down the two flights of stairs! Here is a video of the sliders.

We also made a lot of travel arrangements today. So, if you have questions about dates and locations of when we will be where, just ask!

Love to all - me ke aloha,

RAWE

Beth's Second Trip to HI!

Aloha!

This past week Beth came back to visit us here in HI. :)

We did a lot of hiking and saw a few of the sights that we missed her first time out in July. I didn't take nearly as many pictures as I should have, but HERE IS A LINK to the pictures from her trip (from my camera). For more pics, see FB.

We hiked Manoa Falls and Kuli'ou'ou Ridge/Valley Trails, if you would like to see where they are. When we hiked Manoa Falls, it was POURING RAIN, but that made it much more adventurous. The Kuli'ou'ou Ridge Trail was a BEATING, since we went the wrong way at the beginning, were literally followed by clouds of mosquitos (whose bites I am STILL recovering from) and didn't pack enough food and water to sustain our thirst and hunger! We were hiking for over four hours, and I burned over 1500 calories (yes, seriously - thank you heart rate monitor for reminding me how hard I worked). AND, we all fell at least twice. And not just little falls, but really hard falls. Needless to say, I complained a LOT about how much fun I was NOT having. :) I wouldn't really recommend that trail for novice hikers. And trust me, I will NOT be doing it again before our move.

Wed. we went snorkeling at Hanauma Bay (finally got to park there thanks to a lot less tourists being here)! Afterwards we went to Kaimuki for lunch at Big City Diner. Since living here, I have wanted to try "loco moco", a favorite Hawaiian food specialty. What is "loco moco" you may ask? Loco Moco = bed of white rice, with a hamburger patty topped with sauteed onions, a fried egg and brown gravy! I know that it may sound strange to you, but we really liked it! So, if you are here in Hawaii, TRY IT!

Me ke aloha,

RAWE