Best Week Ever: Day 7

Day one of our "honeymoon" was spent with family and friends, just as we had wanted. We went down to Kona to meet Matt, Sarah, John and Sue to go stand up paddle boarding. I always wish I had pictures of the craziness that takes place on those boards, but don't have an underwater camera :( It's never enough to enjoy being on the water paddling around, so we have to see how many people we can get on a board, or Matt and I try to do head stands on the board together, basically anything that is almost impossible and makes us fall into the water! But when the water looks like this, it's hard not to want to go in!

They we headed to dinner to celebrate all the late August, early September birthdays!

Best Week Ever: Day 6

Waking up as Mrs. Jade Buckler was amazing!

Had a fabulous brunch with the guests that were still at the hotel.

Went snorkeling... saw sea turtles, fish, eels... some even saw an octopus and lobster.

Had lunch and a few more blissful hours at the bungalow before check out.

Said goodbye to many of our wonderful friends and family members and headed back to the parents house to hang with the friends and family that were still there, and to enjoy another week of Hawaii sunsets...

Best Week Ever: Wedding Day!

Besides waking up in the most beautiful place, with 5 of my closest girlfriends and having it be my wedding day, I decided to treat it like any other day. So, Sarah and I woke up to work out, like we have been doing every day for the past 4 months. The difference was that when we were done we had our own pool we could jump it to cool off... fantastic! By the time we had finished with that my in-laws had already come by with a bunch of food for breakfast! It was a wonderful and relaxing morning... we swam, we ate, my bridesmaids spoiled me :) Then Sue, my friend and photographer showed up (at 11 am, just like we said), but of course we weren't even close to being ready to get ready. So she did her thing and took pictures of the dress and the rings in all sorts of creative locations.

Finally, around 1 pm (we were taking pictures at 3 pm), we decided it was time to get ready! I was so lucky to have my bridesmaids, my flower girl, and my mom all there to help me get ready. They did everything from my hair and makeup to the finishing touches of lacing my up and putting on my veil.

Before I knew it it was time for our first meeting and pictures. We decided there wasn't really a better place to start than the bungalow...

After a couple hours of pictures it was time to line up and make our way down the aisle...

At the "alter" with Ang...

Compliments of Sue (more to come soon)!

Jen catching us in the moment of taking it all in...

Before we knew it the night was over. It was absolutely amazing, we couldn't have asked for anything more and we are so grateful to all our friends and family who helped to make it such an amazing event!

We got back to the bungalow and this is what we found... ;-)

Best Week Ever: Day 4

Checking into my home for the next couple days... fabulous!

Private pool with ocean view!

Take a tour...

On site for the rehearsal

Jade and I thinking about what it will be like to stand here 24 hours from now... as a married couple!

Me and Mom at the Welcome Reception

John and Sue- Our fabulous photographers and amazing friends! Love you guys and can't thank you enough for making all the way out to Hawaii to capture the moments of our big day.

Hanging out at the bungalow during the rehearsal dinner. Dad and Harry were the chefs of the night.

The boys horsing around...

Then Jade got kicked out so I could spend my last night as a single woman with my girls! Time for a good night sleep...

Best Week Ever: Day 3

Friday we woke up and headed to Kona for a snorkeling cruise Jade and I organized for our guests. The company who does the tours has been around as long as I can remember, and I always loved going on the boat when I was a kid. It's a large catamaran that has a high dive from the second story, 2 water slides and a bunch of other fun water and snorkeling gear. They also BBQ on the boat for lunch while you're sitting in the middle of Kealakekua Bay (where the Captain Cook monument is)...
... and yes, the water really is that clear. Where the boat is, the water is approximately 20 feet deep.

From there, my girls took my to get my nails done which turned out to be quite the fiasco, but an adventure none the less. Thanks girls for being insistent that I have them done over and over until they were done right (3 times)!!!

Later we headed out for a girls night out (my Vegas ;-) for dinner and Karaoke.

My Lovely Ladies.


Our first song... some were more into the singing than others.

Then the boys crashed our party ;-)

Angie had them sing to me (all pilots by the way: 3 Navy, 1 Air Force). Can you guess what they sang?...

You got it... "You've lost that Loving Feeling" Jade even got down on his knees!

Then Ang had Jade and I sing a duet. Embarrassing, but fun night!

Best Week Ever: Days 1 & 2

I'm gonna try to catch up on the last few weeks... It was a crazy, but amazing time in Hawaii! It all started on Wednesday (9/1) with a great, first class trip home- thanks mom & dad :)! Jade and I boarded the plane, the flight attendant hung up my dress, and we began sipping mimosas. Now I gotta say, that's the way to fly! We were greeted in Kona by my dad, and our great friend Angie who flew in from San Antonio just an hour before, then headed out to meet with the marriage license agent to make sure things are legal before the big day! From there we headed back to Kona to Costco to stock up on food and drinks for the rehearsal dinner.





The next morning Ang and I woke up for an AMAZING sunrise run! At 0530, neither of us could sleep anymore so we decided we might as well go for a run. It was a beautiful sunrise and the perfect time of day to be running. We ran out to the end of a road near my house where there is an unobstructed view of Haleakala (Maui). It was crystal clear and you could see every groove in the mountain as the sun shed its light. Then, we looked to our left and watched as a perfect full semicircle of a rainbow materialized in front of our eyes. (Wish I had a picture to post, but it was sort of like this)

Then we made the trip up to Waimea to run some errands. On the way we stopped at the scenic overlook to take some pictures looking out over the Kohala Coast. Here's one of me and Angie.

From there we headed down to the Mauna Lani (where the wedding was taking place and where many of our friends and family were staying) to meet with Pinkie our wedding coordinator to run through the last minute details. She took us and Jade's parents around the grounds of the hotel in her little golf cart where we ran into Matt and Sarah and they jumped in with us of the rest of the ride.

Sarah and I in the back of the golf cart!

The beginning of a wonderful week!

Bachelorette Weekend!

I'm a bit late in getting to this post... as most of you know, it's been a pretty busy couple of weeks. Anyway, a couple of weekends ago Jade went to Vegas with some of the boys for his bachelor party. While he was gone my friend Sarah thought it would be fun to have a girls "bachelorette" weekend...

We began the weekend with some stand up paddle boarding in Mission Bay which was awesome! There were seals hanging out in the marina and the water was beautiful!

That night we decided to pack a picnic and have a bonfire at Fiesta Island... Chloe LOVES Fiesta Island.

Sarah making fire with no fire! Of course we forgot matches, but some how she did it! (Probably with the hot coals still in the pit from earlier in the day ;-)

We began the next day with a morning hike up Cowels Mountain. Which apparently is the highest peak in the city of San Diego! Sarah would have it no other way.

Picture of Chloe and I looking out towards our new house!

A few happy girls!

Thanks Sarah for an amazing weekend! Love you girl!