nice view

happy memorial day. rianne and i drove out to anaheim hills to meet up with christine and her parents. we all went over to orange hill to check out their banquet room and to enjoy their beautiful view. lovely.. just like our lovely pose. sike.

the roar

today was anthony's mom's birthday. we started the celebration with korean bbq for dinner at koji's. then after filling our bellies and stinking up our clothes and hair, we headed over to rolling hills to watch a movie. anthony, grace, and i watched shrek while the rest of the family watched prince of persia. our movie was way better! haha jk. i don't even know what they thought of their movie, but ours was really good! grace and i especially liked the scene where a little boy kept telling shrek to, "do the roar." A+

camping

today we joined our homies and the fabrigas clan at their campsite in san onofre! we weren't able to stay the night, but it was fun just hanging out for the day. we ate tons of bbq and other stuff for lunch/dinner, listened to the laker game on the radio, made smores by the campfire, and then ended the night with pictionary and cranium. i love board games. fun stuff. (=

hooters chicken strips

after work i had dinner with rianne and christine at hooters. the hooter girls always give us weird looks when they see the three of us plain girls eating dinner there. this time, our waitress actually asked, "how did you guys end up here? were you in the area for a movie or something?" and i answered, "no, we just love hooters." after the waitress walked away, christine started laughing saying that my answer could have been very misleading. haha. so to clear any confusion.. we don't give a hoot about the hoo hoos. we are just loco over el pollo. got it?

sleep

jetlag sucks. but on a happier note, sleep rules. (=

back to normal

so things are pretty much back to normal. after waking up late, i found out that our bathroom sink is leaking. and while i was rushing to get on the freeway, i noticed that my flat tire warning light was on. haha geez. it turned out to be a false alarm, my training session at work was pushed back an hour so it didnt matter that i was 15 minutes late, and anthony took care of the whole sink issue. so everything is a-okay. it was just a reality check that im not on vacation anymore. oh well! i enjoy my everyday life, too, so i dont mind going back to normal. =P

home

we arrived at LAX about 5:30 this morning. and while i was able to get some sleep on the flight home, i was still pretty tired. so after my dad picked us up, we went home and took an hour nap before i showered and got ready for work. luckily, i wasn't feeling too tired the rest of the day. i stopped by the carson house to say hello to everyone, including miss meliss (aka meli). she was excited to see me, contrary to what this picture portrays. haha.

red eye

today was our last day in hawaii. we still had the whole day to hang out, though, 'cause we're taking the "red eye" flight back home. the boys went golfing in the morning while us girls lounged around the house, went swimming, and bbq'd the rest of the chicken in our fridge. we had a late check-out so we didn't have to rush to leave. after we were all packed up, we said goodbye to our beautiful vacation home, jammed all our stuff into our van, and then headed into kona for some last minute souvenir shopping. we were all sad to leave. we took this picture while we were at the airport waiting to board the plane. i told anthony to show the camera how he felt about leaving hawaii. we both ended up looking super excited. haha. liars!

turtles and rainbows

today we checked out the southern and lower east side of the island. it was a long windy car ride to get there, but it was worth it because we got to see the black sand beach in pahala and the volcanoes national park. two turtles washed up on shore at the black sand beach and two rainbows filled the sky while we were on the volcano. beautiful!

swimming and cruising

the big island is very different from oahu. to get to our beach resort from any other part of the island, you have to drive through miles and miles of black lava rock. anthony and i kept saying that it didn't even feel like we were in hawaii. but today we finally did something that felt like the hawaii we are used to. we went to the beach! we ended up at hapuna beach where the water was shallow and clear. we were originally planning to snorkel, but ended up just hanging out in the water 'cause we didnt have snorkel gear. but still, i could still see fish swimming by my feet. at one point a turtle even swam right next to us. while most people would probably be excited about that, anthony and i started screaming because we were not expecting to see it. haha. it was a good time at the beach and i FINALLY got some color on my skin. (=


after the beach, we headed back to our house to clean off. then we headed over to the king's shops to rent beach cruisers! we cruised around the entire waikoloa beach resort and then parked the bikes at the hilton to hang out there for a bit. we made it home a little after sunset. it was a nice workout and a great way to spend the afternoon. i love hawaii!

hilo side

today we drove to the other side of the island to check out akaka falls and hilo town. on the way, we stopped at "beach 69" (because a girl working at the shops yesterday recommended it) and tex drive in for some malasadas. even though hilo was much cloudier than our side of the island, anthony and i agreed that it felt much more "hawaiian." after having dinner at cafe pesto, we got some delicious shaved ice from wilson's by the bay. it was super good, but so hard to eat because it was HUGE! it was dripping all over the place. very yummy, though.

relaxation

we had a pretty low key day. we drove out to kona this morning to have a hawaiian breakfast at good ol' mickey d's. haha. here in hawaii, mc donald's serves eggs, rice, and spam or portuguese sausage for breakfast. yum! after eating, we visited more traditional hawaiian places.. like walmart and costco! haha. we stocked up on lots of goodies to prepare for the bbq we had later in the evening. before that, though, anthony and vince went golfing while the rest of us checked out other parts of the resort. we walked over to the king's shops and then took a shuttle over to the hilton. that place is so pretty! it's huge. they have waterfalls, dolphins, water slides, and even a monorail that takes you around the hotel. the townhome we are staying in is not so bad either, though. it's very homey and relaxing. (=

waikoloa beach resort

aloha from hawaii! today we started our vacation to the big island. we arrived in kona a little after noon, and then just spent the rest of the day settling into our beautiful vacation home. we are staying on the waikoloa beach resort which is sooo pretty. our backyard is a golf course. it's lovely.

slumber party

silla is spending the night at my house tonight for some QT before i leave for hawaii tomorrow morning. i'm so sad that the minnesotans won't be here when i get back. boohoo! but anyway, silla and i spent the evening drinking our boba, watching funny twilight videos on youtube, styling her hair with a bump-it, and packing my stuff. she even helped me fold all my clothes. she's always great company. i miss you already, silla!

grandma's 94th birthday

today was my grandma's 94th birthday! we celebrated her special day with dinner at the carson house. my mom made her delicious tacos, along with some other dishes. yay.

happy birthday, grandma!

love,
karina

magical proposal

what a magical day at disneyland!! we all secretly met up at the magic kingdom today to watch jeric propose to eva. he did it right in front of the castle. it was sooooo cute!! eva had no idea that he was going to propose today, nor was she expecting to see all her friends and family cheering them on after he popped the question. it was such a touching moment and i feel honored that jeric invited us to share this exciting occasion with them. hooray!!!! congratulations on your engagement, eva and jeric!!! i'm so happy for you two! (=

serena's birthday party

today was serena's first birthday party at her grandparents' house in hawthorne. priscilla was nowhere to be found while this picture was being taken, so we used serena's cousin, bailey, as a stand-in. (= too bad serena is so miserable-looking in this picture. womp womp.

eyelashes

i stopped by the carson house after work today to hang out with serena for a while before she had to move onto the next house where more people were waiting to see her. she's such a popular little girl! she was too busy to look up at the camera in this picture 'cause she was playing with my phone, but i like it anyway 'cause you can see her long eyelashes. what a cutie pie.

little fish

tonight silla got to hang out with her cool aunties and uncles! we took her to guppys for dinner 'cause she doesn't get to enjoy boba places like that back home in minnesota. we filled her up with chicken wings, french fries, milk tea, and brick toast. y-u-m!

visitors

after three months apart, tonight we were finally able to reunite with our beloved minnesotans. yeeeee! we always get so excited for their visits! i was very happy to see my nieces, but it looks like the feeling was not mutual with baby serena. haha. looks like she was still trying to figure out where she was and whose lap she was sitting on. at least silla still remembers me! (=

campaigning

today after work, i went to grace's house to help her prepare for her upcoming student council election at school. she is running for "commissioner of awards" so we thought it would be cute to decorate one of her posters with lots of different awards and ribbons all over the place.. and then design the other one as a giant certificate. gracie did a great job.. dontcha think? after finishing up the posters, we finalized her speech. i'm so proud of her. i hope she wins!

YES SHE CAN! VOTE FOR MARIANNE!

(grace's first name is marianne.. so that's what she goes by in school.)

p.s. today is serena's first birthday! YAY! happy birthday, babyyy!

girl talk

tonight i had dinner with gel and venus at blenders. over dinner, we complained about our husbands and their sporty lifestyles. haha. just kidding. but really, our husbands love to keep themselves occupied with snowboarding, golfing, mountain biking, etc.. while all us girls need to have a good time is each other. sitting around to talk is the best (and cheapest) hobby out there! =P

mommy

happy mother's day! after celebrating mother's day with anthony's mom last night, we drove to tehachapi this morning to celebrate with my mom at my parents' new house. we took her to brunch at a latin restaurant called don juan's. the good was pretty good. and after filling our bellies, we walked around dollar tree for a bit and then just went back to their house to hang out. i think all of us youngins ended up falling asleep for at least a short while. rianne and i always seem to get sleepy when we take day trips out to places that are in higher altititudes. but anyway, it was fun hanging out in tehachapi. i hope you had fun, too, mommy!

mikaylah

today our niece, mikaylah, turned one! we went to her birthday party in burbank to celebrate. she had a hello kitty themed party. how cute! and what's even cooler is that i left the party with a box full of hello kitty party supplies! while they were cleaning up at the end of the party, they found a box full of stuff that they forgot to use. instead of having it go to waste, they kindly donated it all to me to use at serena's birthday party next week. yay!

disneyland

i was a little bummed earlier because of something that happened at work, so anthony and i went to disneyland where troubles always seem to disappear! we didn't even go on any rides today. we walked around the entire park and then just sat at a table in new orleans square for an hour to talk. if we did the exact same thing anywhere else, it probably wouldn't have been as fun. but there's just something about disneyland that makes me feel so happy. i guess that's why it's called the happiest place on earth! (=

round table

i should just turn this into a food blog since most of my pictures involve food. rianne, ricky, and i went to round table for dinner. they had a buy-one-get-one-free coupon, but since anthony wasn't able to join us, we ended up bringing more than a whole pizza home with us. the food was good.. there was just too much of it.

nachos

because it's cinco de mayo, anthony and i felt like we had to eat something mexican for dinner. haha. we decided on poquito mas 'cause i wanted some carnitas.. but since we got there right before they closed, they ran out! instead, i got a huge plate of chicken nachos.

crazy guy

anthony just figured out how to send picture texts on his phone even though that feature has been broken for the past couple months. so yeah, this is what i received from him while i was at work earlier. i started cracking up when i saw it. hopefully nobody heard me, otherwise they probably think i'm crazy.. crazy like anthony's face!

crab legs

today we went to carson buffet for baby chloe's first birthday party! i wanted today's picture to include the birthday girl, but she was crying in both pictures i have with her. doh! so instead, here i am with auntie bab posing with a delicious crab leg. she and i ate 3 plates of crab legs after everyone else already stopped eating. it was just so good that we couldn't stop. it was all-you-can-eat, so why wouldn't we?!

corona

we spent the day in corona with anthony's family. the boys went golfing while us girls did all the fun stuff.. like eating, shopping, and then eating some more! we had dessert at a cute place called frostbites where we all got different flavors of sorbet. good stuff, but i seriously think i gained like 3 pounds today. haha.