Monthly Archives: September 2013

Sailing Time (or An Easy Day After The Big Day)

Posted on September 16, 2013 | Comments Off

The day after the wedding, my mom had arranged for a sailing trip for our whole group (almost everyone who went to the wedding was able to join us).

I actually never got pictures of the boat, but you can check it out on their website.

I was a bit nervous about going sailing. I haven’t been on a sailboat since 2005 and since I have a tendency to get carsick, I was afraid of getting seasick. But I wasn’t going to let that fear get in my way of having fun.

It was a perfect day to be out on the water!

The boat was pretty spacious considering it was a sailboat. I spent most of my time sitting on the deck, but there were plenty of seats as well.

We didn’t really have a destination on this adventure, we just sailed around for 3 hours. There was food served on board, but I didn’t want to risk the seasickness feeling. I’m sure I made the right choice because I never got seasick! I can’t say the same for my brother though.

After Ross took a nap, he felt better.

I spent most of the sail just taking fun pictures of the group gathered on the boat.

We even sailed by the rental house!

You can’t quite see it in this picture, but we were able to find our neighbor’s house pretty easily due to some very colorful flowers they had in their yard.

Toward the end of the sail, the sun started to set.

It was nice being able to watch the sunset on the water, however it was a bit of a dud sunset. The sky never really lit up like we’ve seen it do before.

Of course, I tried to get some pictures in front of the sunset, but it was getting a bit too dark by then.

After 3 hours, we headed back to the marina. After the sail, I had to say goodbye to my cousin Adam, Ross’s friends, and Krystle’s family as we weren’t going to see them again on the trip. I’m actually not too sure when I’ll see any of them again, so it was a bit of a sad goodbye.

But I did still have one more day of vacation ahead of me. And tomorrow, I will have photos that prove that I got over my fear of the ocean (at least for that day)!

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Posted in Celebrations, Family, Fun Stuff, Travel

Tagged adventure, Hawaii, Maui, sunset

The Big Event! (or The Reason I’m In Maui)

Posted on September 13, 2013 | 3 comments

On Tuesday the 10th, it was finally the wedding day! (BTW, this is a very photo heavy post, but I think you will all love the photos.)

Since the wedding didn’t start until 4:30, my brother and the rest of my family spent the morning relaxing at our rental house.

My parents and I got ready at the house, but my brother got ready at the hotel he had reserved for that night. We all went to the hotel together and just before we left for the wedding, we got this picture of all of us.

Yes, I wore that dress to Marie and Chris’s wedding last year, but Krystle wanted me to wear it. Her mom, my mom, and I all wore lace dresses so I think she wanted us to match a bit.

We then drove 5 minutes down the road for the wedding. It looked just as beautiful as it did for the rehearsal the day before.

While we waited in the air-conditioned bar, guests started to show up. Ross had a couple of friends from elementary school and college there.

And the guys got him this gift for his wedding.

Finally, it was time for the wedding to start. I walked with my parents down the aisle and took our seats in the first row. Then Ross was there waiting for his bride.

Because the sun was in our eyes, it was tough for me to get photos of the wedding (I’m sure the professional photos will look awesome though). I did get one that turned out nicely.

It was a pretty quick ceremony (they did write their own vows though). And before you knew it, the officiant was announcing the new Dr. and Mrs. Levin!

We all headed back up the aisle to celebrate the wedding.

I got a picture with my new sister.

And of course a picture of the bling.

Then the family headed over to the side for the official pictures. I tried to snap a couple of my own between shots. This one is of me, my brother, and our cousin Adam.

Then Ross and Krystle went off to take their photos alone and the rest of us went to enjoy cocktail hour with an amazing sunset.

Just as cocktail hour was coming to a close, Ross and Krystle joined us again.

And we headed inside for dinner.

I was seated at the head table with the rest of the immediate family. It was nice that we all got some time to chat because I know how tough it can be at some weddings.

Dinner was 4 courses (when you counted cake). And it was seriously delicious!

There wasn’t really a cake cutting (just a photo-op), so I didn’t get any pictures of that.

After the food, it was time for dancing.

There was the traditional first dance.

And then even though I think technically we weren’t supposed to have music out on the deck where the dance floor was, the wedding coordinator plugged her iPhone into a speaker so we could have some good dance music!

I spent a lot of the dancing time just catching up with family. We don’t get to see each other all too often, so I take advantage of any time I get.

I also got this picture with two of Ross’s oldest friends (they’ve all known each other since kindergarten). My dad may or may not have said a pretty dirty word to try to get us to smile (which explains the surprise face on one of Ross’s friends).

Overall, I’d say it was a pretty great wedding. It was very small, but that made it easy to talk to people. And I think Ross and Krystle were beyond happy with how everything turned out.

I still have a few more Hawaii posts ahead with the rest of my activities, so those will be coming next week!

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Posted in Celebrations, Family, Food, Fun Stuff, Travel

Tagged brother, family, Hawaii, Maui, wedding

Rehearsal Time (or A Relaxing Day Of Vacation)

Posted on September 12, 2013 | Comments Off

Monday was the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. In the morning, my brother had to go and get his marriage license (got to make sure it’s official!), so my parents and I spent that time reading by the pool for a few hours.

Once my brother got back, it was time to change into our nice clothes and head over to Kapalua to Merriman’s for the rehearsal. My parents and I had driven by Merriman’s before but it wasn’t open so we hadn’t gotten a chance to see the venue.

It was pretty gorgeous at the ceremony space.

All my parents and I had to do for the rehearsal was sit in the chairs and watch the rehearsal take place.

This was the first wedding rehearsal I’ve attended, but I’m pretty sure this was just a standard rehearsal. The guy marrying them just went over the order of the ceremony. Easy peasy.

After the rehearsal, we got a sneak peek at the reception room. It was getting set up for another wedding, so the tables weren’t what would be there tomorrow, but it gave us an idea of the room.

After that, the rehearsal was technically over. But we sat at the bar and waited because another wedding was happening at the ceremony site right after that, and we wanted to see how it looked. While we waited, we had some drinks.

I, of course, had a Dirty Shirley (and water because it was so hot out!).

After spying on the other wedding for a bit, we headed over to the rehearsal dinner at Lahaina Grill. We had a semi-private room (it was a private alcove in a small part of the restaurant). We got our waiter to take a picture of the entire group.

The food there was incredible! For a starter, my mom and I split a mozzarella tomato salad (this picture is my half of the salad and it’s still pretty big).

And for my entrée, I got the pork shank. What I didn’t realize was how huge this thing would be!

The whole middle of it was the bone, but it was still a huge meal. I ended up taking over half of it home.

Although we all laughed at my doggy bag because we all thought it said “pork smack” instead of “pork shank” (we might have found that extra funny because of the wine at dinner).

After dinner, Krystle’s family headed back to their condo and my family headed back to the rental house so get a good night sleep before the big day tomorrow!

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Posted in Celebrations, Family, Food, Fun Stuff, Travel

Tagged dinner, Hawaii, Maui, wedding

Driving Around East Maui (or Crossing Things Off My Maui Bucket List)

Posted on September 11, 2013 | 1 comment

This day was all about East Maui. My Aunt Nancy decided to join me and my parents (my brother was spending the day with his friends), so the four of us headed out around 9:30am to start the big drive we had ahead.

One of the tourist magazines had an article on driving to Hana. We knew we weren’t going to go all the way to Hana and back (it’s like a 3 or 4 hour trip each way), but we decided to do a bunch of the stops that the article suggested. Also, I had a list of things that I wanted to do while in Maui (take a driving trip, see a waterfall, go snorkeling, drink from a coconut, have shaved ice), so this was going to help me do a bunch of those things.

Our driving adventure was on the Hana Highway and our first stop was to Twin Falls. This was a hike through the jungle and water to get to some waterfalls. The hike there was pretty much all uphill, and when you got close to the waterfalls, you had to go through some knee-deep water.

But the end result was totally worth it!

It was so nice and relaxing back there (after I got over my fear of slipping and falling into the water and ruining my phone and camera). We didn’t wear bathing suits so we didn’t go swimming, but just wading out in the water to get to the waterfalls was quite refreshing after the hike uphill.

After walking back through the water and downhill to the parking lot, we decided to enjoy some fresh coconut water.

I’ve never drunk out of a coconut before, and I have to say that this was so much better than the coconut water you can buy in the grocery store! My mom, dad, and I shared one and it was the perfect after hike treat!

The next stop we made was at Garden of Eden, an arboretum and botanical garden. We drove up to the waterfall viewpoint area.

And right next to that were some picnic tables with one of the most incredible views I’ve ever seen!

We had packed some fruit, pita chips, and spinach dip in the car; so we had a snack with a view.

Next on the Hana Highway tour was Puaa Kaa to see another waterfall. You didn’t have to get into the water to see this one, but my dad decided to do it anyway.

After that, we headed back towards where we started. We made a quick stop at Halfway to Hana for some shaved ice.

I have to say, I was expecting something very different from what we got. I’ve seen photos of Hawaiian shaved ice where it looks really fluffy and almost like ribbons of snow. This was more like a normal snow cone (but still yummy). I got half strawberry and half banana and shared with my parents (we still couldn’t finish the whole thing).

Our last stop of the day was something that casting director Marci Liroff suggested to me on twitter. We drove up to the top of Haleakala Crater to watch the sunset. There were a couple of viewpoints on the drive up the crater that we stopped at.

But we made it up to the top (over 10,000 feet above sea level!).

As you can see, we are all wearing sweaters up there. It was so cold! It felt like the winter in Lake Tahoe (minus the snow). We found an amazing spot to watch the sunset, and it was fabulous.

And as we headed back to the car, the sky on the other side was so colorful.

Finally, it was time to head back down the crater and back to West Maui where we were staying. Once we got home, we had been out for about 11 hours, so we were all pretty tired!

But I did get a lot of stuff done on my Maui list! Only snorkeling to go (and we are hoping to maybe do that on our last day here).

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Posted in Family, Fun Stuff, Travel

Tagged adventure, driving, Hawaii, Maui, sunset

Exploring West Maui (or My Dad Found A Coconut With Jesus On It)

Posted on September 10, 2013 | Comments Off

Day 2 in Maui was all about going around West Maui (the side of the island that we are staying on).

My brother and his almost wife arrived that morning, so my parents and I went for a walk around the neighborhood while waiting for them to arrive. Just walking down the driveway there were gorgeous views!

We saw some really nice flowers.

And as the title of this post suggests, my dad found a coconut with Jesus on it (at least we think that’s what we see in it).

When my brother and his fiancée got to the rental house, they stopped by to say hello, had a quick snack, and then they were off to spend the day at the beach and at a bar to watch the USC game.

And my parents and I went driving around West Maui to do some sightseeing. My parents have been to Maui before, but this is my first trip to this island (and my first trip back to Hawaii since I was 11).

Our first stop was at Honolua Bay. We just parked at the overlook and checked out the view from there.

There were a bunch of snorkelers in the water and even from up high we could see lots of fish!

Next, we went to this blowhole that my parents saw on their last trip here. We got a little confused on where we were supposed to park and walk down, but we eventually found our way (with a little help from this sign).

The blowhole was pretty cool, but it was not easy to photograph because the mist coming up wasn’t too strong.

We also did a little hike around near the blowhole, but I slipped in some mud and hit my hip pretty hard. I didn’t take pictures there because I was in a lot of pain (3 days later, I’m feeling better but still very sore).

After that, we drove on the “forbidden highway”. It’s called that because it’s a one lane road (meaning one lane for both directions to share) and most rental car companies say that if you drive there, you void your rental agreement.

The road was pretty easy. We didn’t see a ton of cars going the other way, but if we did, one car would always back up to a turnout to let the other car pass.

For that driving trip, we actually went around the entire circle of West Maui. It was a nice day and I loved getting to see a lot of the island.

We did a BBQ at the rental house that night and enjoyed another wonderful sunset.

And just after sunset, the moon was super bright and right about the water.

It was a nice full day of adventure for me!

Coming up tomorrow: East Maui, waterfalls, and giant craters!

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Posted in Family, Fun Stuff, Travel

Tagged adventure, driving, Hawaii, Maui

Day One In Maui (or The Only Way To Start A Vacation Is In The Hot Tub)

Posted on September 9, 2013 | Comments Off

I got to Maui safely on Friday (only minor panic attacks on the plane which was nice). I had a direct flight from Los Angeles, so there was 5.5 hours to spend watching movies that I loaded on my laptop (I only with I had invested in some noise canceling headphones but I will do that one day).

Once I arrived, I called my parents, whose flight landed about an hour before mine and had gone to get the rental car. They came to pick me up at Kahului airport and we were off to the rental house.

I had seen some photos of the rental house before when my mom emailed me the website, but it was way more awesome than I expected!

It’s so amazing here! I’m so lucky that my parents rented such a cool place for us.

As soon as we arrived, we got a tour from the house managers, but all I could think about was getting into the hot tub. So as soon as the tour was done, we turned on the tub to heat up and we all went to get changed into our swimsuits.

I spent a good majority of my afternoon in there. It felt so wonderful! I also spent a lot of time on those patio chairs reading my book (I’m currently reading “Scarlet”). My parents are both book nerds like me, so we were all super happy to just relax and read.

My Aunt Nancy stopped by our house for some snacks and then it was time to go back into the hot tub!

And of course, as soon as the sun was setting, we had to take some sunset photos.

I’m finally putting a photo of me in a bathing suit on here! I know it’s not the best photo, but I’m sure in the next week I’ll have plenty more. But I wanted to do this one at least.

Plus, check out my badass mom!

We were all pretty jet-lagged (and Hawaii is 3 hours behind California time) so we all went to bed pretty early. But considering that I left LA at 9am and took a 5.5 hour flight, I think we got a whole lot done on our first day of vacation!

More fun and adventures to come (plus my brother’s wedding)!

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Posted in Celebrations, Family, Fun Stuff, Travel

Tagged Hawaii, Maui, sunset, vacation

Off On An Adventure (or It’s Hawaii Time!)

Posted on September 6, 2013 | Comments Off

Most likely, as you are reading this, I’m on a flight headed to Maui right now. I’ll be there for the next week for my brother’s wedding.

I had a bunch of goals connected to this event. I really wanted to lose a lot of weight, but that didn’t happen. I did lose weight, but nowhere near the amount I wanted to lose.

But you know what? I don’t really care. At this is the first time that I’m not devastated about missing a goal. I’ve done so much good stuff for my body lately that the number on the scale isn’t the be all end all for me anymore (I still weigh myself obsessively, but I don’t focus as much on the number).

I’m excited to spend this next week with a lot of my family. Besides the actual wedding, there will be plenty of other times that I’ll get to hang out with family that I don’t get to see that often.

I’m a little nervous about spending a lot of time in a bathing suit (I wonder if I will ever feel comfortable in one). I’m also nervous about the ocean. I hate swimming in the ocean. I have a fear of any creatures that live in there (even the fish). But I’m hoping to at least try to swim in the ocean, but I’m not going to force myself to do it if I start to get panicky.

But I’m super excited for getting out-of-town and recharging my batteries some more. I got a taste of that during my weekend in Tahoe, but I can’t remember the last time I was away from LA for more than a long weekend. I will be posting on here every day as usual, but besides that I will be trying to stay away from the internet and social media as much as I normally do. It’s so easy to be on vacation and spend the whole time with your face in your phone. I want to focus on the experience of my trip. I don’t get to do things that like that often and I want to fully take advantage of it!

My next post will be from Hawaii!

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Posted in Celebrations, Family, Fun Stuff, Travel

Tagged Hawaii, Maui, travel, trip, vacation, wedding

Sharing Some Soul (or Another Day Another Friend At Spin Class)

Posted on September 5, 2013 | 1 comment

Over the weekend, I also got to go to spin class (technically, this day happened before the badass spin class). I’ve been trying to bring more friends with me to spin class, and this time founder of Ms. In The Biz, Helenna Santos-Levy, joined me!

We had been trying to go to a spin class together for a while. I usually go early in the morning, but since Helenna works late nights, that wouldn’t work. Fortunately, we were able to meet up on a day that I didn’t have to work.

Helenna had been to a spin class before, but never at SoulCycle. I had warned her it would be tough, and I’m pretty sure she believed me ahead of time. We took class with Jenny C., who led the beauty ride that I did a few months ago. This was my first class with her since that ride and it reminded me how great her classes are and that I need to find a way to fit her class into my schedule (it will be easier when I’m unemployed again).

The class was wonderful. It was exactly what I needed that day, and I’m pretty sure Helenna had fun too.

It was great having another friend share in my favorite workout. I know that Helenna and I are going to try to meet up for another spin class in the future.

Something I realized in this class was how I’ve been treating having friends in class with me. A lot of the time, I feel like I want them there so I can prove to them that I do a tough workout (I went through the same thing when I used to work out with Richard Simmons). I know for a fact that some people don’t believe that it is a tough workout because I am able to do it multiple times a week.

But after having a super supportive friend in class with me, I realized that I need to stop feeling that way. People are going to believe what they want about me, and if they want to think that spin class is a super easy workout then let them think it. I just want to have friends with me to enjoy something that I love and maybe to have more buddies to go to class with.

I think this new thought process does have something to do with trying to be more positive. Feeling like I’m always trying to prove something to someone isn’t healthy for me. And honestly, I probably won’t change their minds no matter what anyway. So I just need to focus on having an awesome time with my awesome friends.

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Posted in Fitness, Fun Stuff, Health

Tagged friends, SoulCycle, Spinning, tough, workout

Hollywood Bowl Evening (or A Perfect Way To End The Summer)

Posted on September 4, 2013 | Comments Off

This past Friday, I went to the Hollywood Bowl to see John Williams conduct the LA Philharmonic. This show is done pretty much every year and I went to it about 2 years ago. But this time, my friends Kate and Beth came with me and neither of them had seen this particular show before (also, Kate had only been to the Bowl one other time, so she was excited to get to go again).

First of all, a tip to everyone who goes to the Bowl: never drive yourself there! The parking is outrageously expensive plus it’s stacked parking so it takes forever to get out of there. You can take the subway to Hollywood and Highland and walk up the hill, but we wanted to bring a big picnic so that wasn’t the best option. What we did (and what I do almost every time I go to the Bowl) is take the Bowl Shuttle there. There are pickups all over town (we left from Santa Monica this time) and it drops you off right at the front. It’s only about $5 per person round trip so it’s very affordable!

After we took the shuttle to the Bowl, we picked up our tickets and headed to our seats. We were almost all the way on the end, but we were pretty close to the stage.

We were all pretty happy to be there, even though it was a crazy hot night!

I was super excited to see the show since I knew how amazing it was last time. But I was extra excited because of who the guest narrator was!

Julie Andrews was the narrator for the first half of the show!!! It was so incredible. She was as graceful as all the characters she’s played in movies and I was in awe watching her.

That’s her on the end of the stage. Since we weren’t super close to the stage, I spent most of the time watching her on the giant screen right by our seats.

The second half of the show featured movie soundtracks that John Williams did. There was a lot of Indiana Jones (which always makes me think of Disneyland). And the highlight of the evening was when the Star Wars music started. People come to this show with lightsabers just for this part of the show. And it was pretty cool to see the place lit up by them (sorry for the dark picture, but it was either that or a super blurry one).

There were 2 encores as well. The first one was Star Wars music again. And the second encore was the theme to “E.T.”. I remembered this being the last song the other time I saw this show. And at the final notes of the theme, the Bowl was lit up like a rainbow.

After the show ended, we headed back to the bus for our ride back to Santa Monica. I’m so glad I got to go to this show (and thank you Kate for buying my ticket for my birthday present!). I like to try to go to the Bowl every summer but this summer has been a little crazy.

I’m planning on going to this show again next year. I’m hoping my parents can come out for it (my dad has never seen a show at the Bowl before). But any show at the Bowl is really the perfect way to spend a summer evening!

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Posted in Fun Stuff

Tagged concert, Hollywood Bowl, summer

Working On My Inner Badass (or How Spinning Fit In Perfectly With My Life Yesterday)

Posted on September 3, 2013 | 1 comment

My plan was originally to share my fun plans I had this past weekend on here today, but that’s being pushed back by what happened in spin class yesterday.

I had the day off of work (thank you Labor Day!), so I went to SoulCycle for a mid-morning workout (a rare treat). The instructor for this particular class was Patrick. I’ve taken his class before and have really enjoyed it.

First of all, this was the toughest spin class I’ve ever gone to (even tougher than the very first class). There were moments that I questioned if I could complete the workout. But I took it slow and took some more breaks than I usually would take in class. And after class, I chatted with a couple of other riders who agreed that this class was the toughest that they’ve even taken (which made me proud that I was able to do it).

One of the things that I loved about SoulCycle from the beginning was the positivity and motivation from the instructions. It’s part spinning part meditation/affirmation time for me.

I was having a bit of a rough morning. Even though I’m not crying all the time about my mom’s cancer anymore, writing yesterday’s blog post really got to me. It was extremely difficult to write the post, and I cried pretty much the entire time writing it. The whole time I thought about how tough my mom is being through all of this. She is totally the rock in the family. And I’m not doing as well as I’d like to about being tough and a true badass like her.

Anyway, back to what happened in spin class. Patrick was having us work like crazy during this one song. We were pedaling super fast and did what felt like a million pushups on the handlebars. My shoulders and arms were killing me and sweat was pouring off my face. When we were getting toward the end of the song, Patrick talked about being tough and pedaling through the very last note of the song. He talked about how we all have a badass inside of us and we just need to bring it out.

That seriously hit home for me. Somewhere inside me, I am a badass. I’m sure I inherited my badassness from my mom (sorry Dad). I’m working really hard to find my inner bombshell, but at the same time, I need to find my inner badass. It’s there somewhere, I just needed to know to go and look for it.

I really felt like being in that class, with that instructor, at that time, and hearing those words really was a sign. I joke on my twitter profile that I’m a girl with Southern charm and Jersey moxie (my mom is originally from Louisiana and my dad is from New Jersey). So why can’t I work on having both an inner bombshell and inner badass?

I’m not going to change the name of this blog (that is far too much work), but I am going to focus on finding my inner badass now too.

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Posted in Family, Fitness, Fun Stuff, Health, Tough Stuff

Tagged breast cancer, cancer, SoulCycle, Spinning

Monthly Archives: September 2013

Sailing Time (or An Easy Day After The Big Day)

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The Big Event! (or The Reason I’m In Maui)

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Rehearsal Time (or A Relaxing Day Of Vacation)

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Driving Around East Maui (or Crossing Things Off My Maui Bucket List)

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Exploring West Maui (or My Dad Found A Coconut With Jesus On It)

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Day One In Maui (or The Only Way To Start A Vacation Is In The Hot Tub)

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Off On An Adventure (or It’s Hawaii Time!)

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Sharing Some Soul (or Another Day Another Friend At Spin Class)

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Hollywood Bowl Evening (or A Perfect Way To End The Summer)

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Working On My Inner Badass (or How Spinning Fit In Perfectly With My Life Yesterday)

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