One Year

It's crazy to me how fast this last year has gone, and how truly amazing it turned out to be! I fall more in love with my handsome husband every day, because every day he does something new to amaze me. It's been the best year with the best man.

I think my number one regret this year is not keeping up on this blog. The blog of us. But I have been feeling so uninspired by the title and the look of it, so I think it'll get a makeover soon... I hope.

Anyway, in honor of our first year: Our Wedding Video. I've had it forever and remembered that I never posted it! My awesome brother in law was our videographer and I couldn't have asked for a better video! Enjoy!

P.S. The password, when it asks for it is "jenessa+derek" with the + sign, all one word!

And here's the link if it doesn't work.... Wedding Video

Flyin' Hawaiian

I've never been the biggest fan of ziplines. The ones I've been on have been a waste of money because they're expensive and they last maybe 15 seconds.

In Hawaii last week, mom signed us up for a zipline and I was excited for it because it was in Hawaii. Everything's exciting in Hawaii! But this zipline blew all other ziplines out of the water. It was so dang much fun.

It was a 4-5 hour zipline, and we took 8 different zips and hiked in between each. We saw so much of the island and it was gorgeous!

All set in our sexy vest seats and our lovely helmets!

You get to take two of the wildest off roading road trips of your life! Seriously so fun! I'll see if I can post videos of the craziness!

These handy dandy little contraptions were what they used to attach us to the line, we hiked with them everywhere

This right here was one of the funniest things I've witnessed. Both Bailey and Abbie didn't quite make it and the guide had to slide to them, hang upside down, and use his feet to maneuver them across the rest of the line.

So beautiful!

Not sure how she got her hair outside of her helmet!

Came in too hot! Went way too far!

A cool thing they do to keep the land from being built upon is they plant native hibiscus flower plants! We got to water a few each.

oh, it was just so much fun! Seriously, if you're going to Maui, you have to do it!

Check them out here!

 Flyin' Hawaiian Zipline

Zip on, Zip on!

Happy Engaged-Aversary!

Time is a funny thing. Growing up, all I did was dream about the day that I would be engaged. I would run scenarios of proposals through my head. I even had names for my make-believe potential grooms. I would look down at my left hand and picture a ring there and, sometimes, I'd even put ctr rings I had on my left hand and pretend I was engaged while no one else was around. I've always been wedding and proposal crazy. I think it's the hopeless romantic in me. I watched wedding show after wedding show, browsed dress site after dress site, and designed rings on shane co. All I wanted was to be engaged and plan a wedding.

It wasn't until Derek came along that I realized why I was so wedding crazy. I wanted to be engaged because I couldn't wait to have a man that I could call all my own. One that I could share everything with, one who would always make me laugh, one who would know me better than anyone else. I wanted to be completely committed and know that there was nothing that would tear us apart. I never liked the open ended idea of dating... It was hard on me to know that at any second, that relationship could end. I wanted a forever marriage... one built on trust, love, communication, laughter, and happiness.

It has been a year since Derek proposed, and it has been everything I always imagined it to be. The ring was perfect (and the newer one is just as beautiful, ha!). The setting was perfect. And even though my reaction wasn't what I had always planned, I like the real reaction better. I'm so glad that Derek arranged to have it filmed, it's one of my favorite things in the world to watch.

I'm working on getting the video embedded, but for now, hopefully this link will work!

Or you can read about it here!

The proposal meant that I would be marrying the man of my dreams. He's everything to me and more. He does every little thing that he can for me and makes me feel so special and so wonderful. He's the best man I know and I'm so grateful he proposed because I wouldn't be this happy if he hadn't. I love him more than he knows.

P A D D L E

We knew, as soon as we knew we were going to Hawaii, what we wanted to do. 

PADDLE BOARD

And boy oh boy was it fun!

We rented 4 boards and rotated them between the 6 of us

The weather was beautiful

The waves were perfect... 

calm enough to let us learn, rough enough to make us tumble a few times

It was the funnest, and one of the hardest things we've ever done

Standing on that board isn't as easy as some make it look

We spent most of the time on our knees and our bottoms

When we were daring enough, standing became the only thing we focused on

However, standing was scary due to the coral 3 feet under us

We were told: "When you fall, fall flat"

Whaaa?! 

Falling flat is tough stuff

Then, this handsome cut his foot open on the coral and paddling was over for him.

isn't he cute?

Hawaiian Sunrise

We are in HAWAII this week!!

We all (mom, Kev, Der and I, Bailey and bay's friend Abby) arrived around 11:30 am yesterday and after grabbing our giant Yukon, we were off to the beach! 

This morning, we woke up at 3 am and drove 2 hours to see a sunrise. All the way up, the only things said were "Who's idea was this anyway?!" 3 am is so early for something you're not even sure will be cool. 

Turns out... it was the coolest thing I've ever seen. 

You get to the summit (about 10,000 feet) and you're seeing the same view as if you're in an airplane. You're above all of the clouds. 

This is how it looked at first.....

So neat right? Derek wanted to jump and fly through them... we decided the guard rails were put up because of people like him.

Then, slowly, the sun showed up... and it's been said to be similar to a religious experience... and it really was majestic...

NONE of these have been edited... 

Enjoy this cute photobomb from my sister

I love the iPhone 5 panoramas! In the bottom one, the rainbow shape was made out of clouds... so neat.

Then... we went to this breakfast buffet and had cinnamon french toast with coconut syrup... to die for!

Then it was off for a nap and then the pool!

We ended this beautiful Mother's Day with hawaiian shave ice... complete with coconut ice cream!

Hawaiian Shave Ice was all she wanted, and she sure got it!

Happy Mother's Day to our beautiful mothers! We love you both so much!