I can't believe 2012 is already coming to an end! What an amazing year it has been! And we are still alive! (Those Mayans can go screw themselves. Guess we better start paying off that huge amount of wedding debt we accumulated...) So many amazingly ridiculous adventures were had in the Hayes Evensen Ohana. Yes, I plan on bragging about it and filling you in on how great our life has been over the past year. Yes, I am fully aware that many hate these showy smoke and mirrors holiday letters, but this year I am fully jumping on board. In other words, like usual, I continue to not care what others think of me or how good life is with my happy little family. Besides, I am always happy to have another reason to talk about mine and Drew's AMAZING wedding on the beautiful island of MAUI!
First off I'd like to share this year's holiday card that I love so freaken much! I think the pictures really tell how fabulous our 2nd trip to Maui was. (Yes, that is some major bragging.) Didn't get one of these beautiful holiday cards from us this year? That's probably because we cut you from our holiday card list after sending you one for 2-3 years and never getting one back. Or it could have gotten lost in the mail. More likely though, we took you off our list. Cheers!
All Things Wonderful Holiday Card
Turn your family photos into holiday cards this season.
View the entire collection of cards.
Yes, we really did go to Maui twice this year. We know, we are jerkfaces and we are alright with that since it means we got to go to Maui twice in one year. We promise, the first trip was strictly business. We didn't enjoy ourselves one bit while the sunshine beat down on us in January, we swam in the warm waters of Hawaii, we got to see humpback whales that were so close we could have touched them, tasted cake for our wedding, hiked through Iao Valley, had the most perfect day while in Kihei and mailed our save the dates for our Portland wedding celebration from Maui. See, strictly business!
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| We didn't enjoy ourselves one bit! |
Now our second trip was all about fun! And us! And relaxing in the sun. (Yup, more bragging inserted here!) When we returned to Maui for our second trip, we were so happy to be back. Especially since this trip was going to be for 15 wonderful days in paradise! Talk about fan-freaken-tastic! We planned on fully blogging while we were on Maui to fill everyone in on what an amazing time we were having, but between running around, getting everything ready for the wedding and being in places with no signal that just didn't happen. I can't even begin to tell you how many times I pulled out my netbook to blog, but before I knew it I was passed out and drooling on the screen.
Don't worry, I've been blogging about it ever since we got back to fill you all in on how we celebrated the 4th of July, the exciting adventure of getting our marriage licence and our rehearsal dinner, just to name a few. I may have fizzled out from wedding burnt-out after those posts and stopped there, but no need to fret, I am finally ready to start fully recapping our wedding day. I know, you have been waiting a long time for this day!
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| Just Maui'd! {source} |
Surprisingly, not everything revolved around our wedding during that second trip. We also had Amanda's seniors pictures done while on Maui. Yes, Amanda is finally a senior! THANK GAWD! As many of you know, I had her very young and I'm more than ready for this little bird to leave the nest. Fly, little birdie, fly! Yup, I will be rewarding myself the Mom of the Year Award for 2012 for that little comment.
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| What a beauty! {source} |
Amanda's been up to a few other things besides being a model on Maui. She also stopped playing video games long enough to get an official ID, vote for the first time and to start thinking about college. She's even thinking about getting her first job. Yeah, this generation doesn't have the same drive as past ones. (Wow, that statement sure did age me. I'm pretty sure by at least 10 years and I feel new chin hairs sprouting.) Don't get me wrong, she may not have the same motivation that I did at that age (even under the influence), but she has a rare heart of gold and her art skills continue to grow. Yes, she does draw way better than your child!
Our other children, ChiChi and Cupcake continue to tolerate each other while trying to kill us in our sleep as they lay on top of us every night. ChiChi is just as jumpy as ever and continues to master her crack climbing especially when food or slipping you the tongue are involved. Cupcake has now decided he is an outdoor cat, but still hasn't lost any of his 28 lbs. Gotta love a big fat ginger! Sadly, we lost Radish earlier this year. The family is not the same without her.
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| Cupcake, now an outdoor cat. |
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| ChiChi waiting for food to drop. |
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| We miss you, Radish. |
Drew has been very busy this year. He built us a chicken run for our new chickens, Maui, Molokai and Lana'i, built us a tiki bar in our basement, finished painting the outside of our house, helped with landscaping the yard, did some more painting inside the house, helped a ton with the wedding projects, made us drinks, etc. Yeah, he's pretty incredible! I know many of you ladies wish your husbands were as great, but back the F off. He's officially mine and I've got the marriage certificate and ring to prove it!
We spent more weekends than I want to remember in 2012 restoring our beloved 1960s home, Knotty Cakes Ranch. We figured it was better to put the money into the house and have our Portland wedding celebration at home than it was to pay way too much for some hole in the wall to have a reception at that we wouldn't have been happy with anyway. Restoring the house has been a huge project, but we are so close to being done. Yeah, right. Some days we feel like we will never be done. Today, just became one of those days.
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| Can you believe we actually transformed this junk pile into a tiki bar? |
We had an at home reception in September to celebrate our new marriage with all of our friends and family back in Portland. We couldn't believe how many people came. Especially from out of state! We sure hope they didn't feel gypped. "Hi, you traveled all this way and all we have is this piece of musubi for you. What do you mean you don't like Spam?" Good thing we had drinks being made non-stop by Hale Pele's own Blair Reynolds. Everyone seemed to really like the cocktail I created, Hibis-Kiss. That should have made up for how little wedding reception traditions we did. Hey, at least we did a cutting of the cupcakes.
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| The lone wedding reception tradition we took part in. {source} |
When Drew and I weren't running around with friends living it up at places like Hale Pele and The Legendary Safari Club and I wasn't consumed with a million and one DIY wedding projects, I also took some time to take a Hawaiian cooking class, make some pineapple preserves and be in Tiki Magazine for my tiki-licious bridal shower #1. Yeah, it was a pretty busy year. We look forward to having more time to lay like vegetables and drink like fish in 2013!
We wish you and yours a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanza, Merry Chrismukkah, Happy Winter Solstice, Freaken The End of the World Didn't Happen, Happy New Year and any other holidays you think may be more PC for us to use!
Mele Kalikimaka!
Love,
Kimmy, Drew, Amanda, ChiChi, Cupcake, Maui, Molokai & Lana'i
*All holiday card photos taken by Sara Sanger. All other photos are from our personal collection.
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