Finalizing wedding stuff

The Alison and I have recently returned from an awesome trip to Hawaii. It was great to spend time with my (our) family and friends. There were a lot of babies runnin' around which was great. There's something really life-giving about spending time with babies. Kind of renews your faith in people. ANYWAY, I digress. While we were there, we met with some important people that will have their hands in our wedding.

First was Tina. She is our wedding site coordinator at Haiku Gardens. Tina is really great and seems terrifically organized, which has been/is going to be very helpful in the upcoming months. She walked us around the site and let us take a ton of pictures that will help folks understand how cool this place is.

Second was Cricket. It's not her real name but it is what she goes by. Cricket is a baker and runs Cakes by Cricket. After some solid collaboration, we came up with some really unique ideas for our wedding goodies. You will have to wait and taste this one. So good.

Third was the lovely couple behind Leslie Mansberger Photography. Eric and Wendy are a cute couple from San Jose who have recently moved to Hawaii to continue their photography business. They talk about their style as very photo journalistic; wanting to capture the emotion and intricacies of mood that sometimes are missed with staged photos. Plus they want to steal us away and get to a beach for some photos as well. Stellar. I am looking forward to working with them.

Things are definitely coming together. We even spent time over at my parents place looking at embarassing baby/kid photos including (but not limited to) one wear I was "drinking" a beer and wearing diapers, one where I had a solid mullet haircut, and of course the dreaded naked baby picture. Ali and my parents had an awesome time making fun of me.

Making all these plans is getting us so excited. We can't wait to share it with you.

PEACE

(PS- Respect to Mathyus, Emma, and Koltrane for being awesome babies. Big ups to Pono and Dawn for being great hosts. Holler to Tan and Felicity for kicking it so much. Shouts to Roxanne, Ari, and Cameron for a breakfast to remember. Pounds to BJ, Somer, Bryson, Braxton and Brianne for a warm send off. HUGE mahalos to Mom and Dad for taking a walk down memory lane with us and for helping us figure out wedding stuff. Y'all are missed and loved.)

Hau'oli la hanau!

A number of years ago, my beloved Alison was brought into the world.

I thought "There's no way I'm getting up early enough to beat any Minnesotans to being the first to say happy birthday." So I cheated and did it before I went to bed at about midnight. She was half asleep and I think smiling. I left some flowers and peanut butter M&Ms for her to wake up to.

After work, we met up and went to PF Changs for dinner. Lettuce wraps and Changs spicy chicken...good enough? Nope, we boldly (read: foolishly) took on the Great Wall of chocolate. We maaaaaaybe got through a third of it...thus the leftovers bag she is holding.

It was a good night to be together. Celebrating life and being excited about sharing our lives. Ali and I are going to Hawaii on Thursday where I am sure we will celebrate more.

SO excited!

While Ali makes sure that the useful stuff is taken care of (suggesting places to stay or airlines to use, etc.), I felt like I should provide some useless information and share things I am excited about.

In no particular order, here goes.

I, the pre-husband, am excited about:

-Marrying an amazing woman, spending the rest of my life with her, having children with her, growing old with her, etc. Okay maybe this one is in order as first because this one is super duper, mega, ultra type exciting.

-Our pre marital counseling. Kurt and Rochelle are an awesome couple and have been such a blessing. We’ve only known them a short time but can already see how good they and their counseling will be for us.

-Buck my tattooist helping us with design stuff that we will incorporate into invitations and possibly favors. He is a good friend and has been such a good presence for me in Spokane.

-Tim Hooten coming to Hawaii to marry us. He means a ton to Ali and me and is a great mentor and friend. It is very special to us that he is officiating our ceremony.

-Going to visit Hawaii in less than a week. It will be great to see the fam, to meet with wedding site folks, taste different cupcakes for the wedding, and even get some beach time in. Plus, getting out of Spokane for a tick sounds so good. Oh, I don’t want to leave out Giovanni’s Shrimp Truck and Kuru Kuru sushi.

and last but not least...

-The Oster citrus juicer I registered for at Target. I am a simple man, a simple man who desires fresh orange juice that will have as much or as little pulp as I choose. Perfect.

Hawaiian Airlines

If you are checking out flights I have some information about Hawaiian Airlines. They have given up a special code for wedding guests to use and it'll give you a little discount. Here are the directions:

Go to: https://apps.hawaiianair.com/weddings/wedlogin.aspx.

The star file # is WED424

Bride's last name: Ninmann

Groom's last name: Pau

The just click Make A Reservation.

Let me know if you have any problems with it. Good luck!

Ali