February 1, 2017 - Oh Happy Daze

Kauai on my mind.

I had so many good intentions for this post. I had planned on sharing all our Kauai traveling tips with you and all the details about our days on the island, but I just don’t have time and honestly I’ve forgotten most of the details. You’ll just have to settle for a barrage of pictures. And you’ll like it.

Traveling to Hawaii is exhausting {particularly when you do it cheaply like we do by hopping red-eyes and enduring layovers}. But so worth it. My new favorite traveling accessory is this sweater. It’s basically a blanket with sleeves. So comfy and perfect for a power nap. Also, Chris learned a long time ago that the way to make friends in an airport is to bring a power strip. We never travel without it and we’re always everybody’s best pals.

We’ve stayed in Poipu {on the southern-most tip of the island} during our two visits. From there, it’s less than two hours drive in either direction to the furthermost point you can travel {many parts in the north are inaccessible by car as they are state park and preserves}. Kauai is the oldest island in the state. It’s had the longest time to erode resulting in forest covered mountain ranges, lush rain forests, and white sandy beaches. It definitely lives up to its nickname as “The Garden Isle”. No freeways, no skyscrapers. Just 2 lane roads {and sometimes single lane roads where you practice the art of taking turns with other cars}, chickens, roadside food stands, farmer’s markets, more beaches than you can count along with every water sport you can imagine, and endless mountain ranges to hike.
Things to do in Kauai: Eat and Hike and Swim. That’s about it. If you’re looking for a hoppin’ night life or a Target or a downtown with sky scrapers, don’t visit Kauai. You’d be better off on another island. That being said, I would choose Kauai every time {Though I might be tempted to visit Molokai or Lanai, two small islands off the coast of Maui that are very rural}.

EAT:

We are foodies when we travel and pretty much just while away the hours {or minutes} until one of us says “I could eat. Let’s try that place”. I could definitely eat my weight in pineapple and the sushi in Kauai is FRESH.

HIKE:

For this visit, we hiked almost every day. We can’t wait to go back and try out a few more hikes we weren’t able to get to this time around. All I can say is I’m so thankful for all the squats my instructors at the YMCA make me do in class. Climbing uphill never felt so good! I certainly felt like a beast after finishing this first hike up Sleeping Giant {until we passed a woman running up the trail on our way down…… she was hardcore}

Sleeping Giant

{of course, we had to go beyond. they said please}

Waimea Canyon

On our first visit in 2010 we actually biked down a road in this Canyon. That adventure is not for the faint of heart.

Awa AwaPuhi Trail {Out to the Napali Coast}

I did a pull up on the trail, and nearly pulled a muscle.

Everything was sore afterwards. Worth it.

In 2010 we got to see the Napali coast and do some snorkeling from a zodiac boat trip. It was breathtaking then and I’m so glad we were able to see this part of God’s creation from another view this time around.

Hule’ia River Kayak Trip

We kayaked then hiked to a pool of water where we braved a rope swing {It was supposedly the location of a Pirates of the Caribbean scene, but that remains to be fact checked}.
Chris’ little yelp makes me LOL every time I watch that.
The water was frigid and I was terrified to touch the leafy bottom, but I did it!

Kuilau Ridge Trail

SWIM:

Kalihiwai Beach

Hanalei Bay

Keoniloa Bay

There are so many more trails and beaches to visit and I hope we’ll get to visit again some day so we can check those off our list!
Other reasons to check out Kauai:
Awesome hair. The humidity is reportedly similar to Hampton Roads but almost constant tradewinds carry the humidity away, leaving you with fabulous hair that you didn’t even have to work for (don’t look into this research, just believe it).

Sunsets.
Tunnel of Trees.
Warm weather, year round. So perfect for someone who is always cold like me!
Also, there’s chickens and roosters everywhere. So if you’re ornithophobic, you might want to pic a different vacation spot.

The weather is always changing. “If you don’t like the weather in Kauai, just wait 10 minutes”.

Lastly, but most importantly to me:
Limited tech access. Sure, there’s internet at the resort and cell service in most towns, but for the most part we tucked our phones away and stayed away from the internet {except to post the obligatory Facebook photo to say ‘we are here’}. Some of our best, most heart and soul-baring conversations have been on a quiet trail on a random mountain range when it’s just the two of us and God.
We are so thankful for the traveling we have been able to do as a couple. We know we’re blessed and sometimes we second guess whether or not we should travel. But we’ve decided to take every opportunity we have to snag these experiences and memories while we can and we’ll continue to save and plan and be smart with our finances so we can take the time to enjoy this earth because we don’t know what the future will hold for us.
XOXO,
Ashley

October 2, 2016 - Oh Happy Daze

For My Husband

On this day, 6 years ago, we became husband and wife.

We dated 6 years before saying ‘i do’. We fought for our long distance relationship, and won. You survived law school. I survived my grad program. We survived the longest engagement ever known to man. We battled horrible rains and flooding and the grief of losing my Nana in the days leading up to our big day. I wore my rain boots. I did my own hair {I’m cheap}. I did my own flowers {I’m cheap}. I threw out the last half of my wedding ‘to do’ list and deemed things “Good Enough”. We were gifted a gorgeously sunny day. Our family and friends surrounded us with so much love. It was absolutely perfect.
Except…..
My vows to you were HORRENDOUS.
We opted to write our own vows. Which is an idea that I actually still support, even though mine were less than stellar. And you totally ‘wowed’ me by singing your vows to me. {swoon}
But mine were {pardon my harsh language} total crap.
I worked on them and revised and revisited them often, throwing out so many drafts, but when it came time to read them I remember looking at the paper and the words I’d written in love and absolutely hating them. If you asked me now what I had written on the paper I couldn’t tell you. I’m sure they were nice words, but I just couldn’t make myself say them. I suddenly didn’t like a single bit of them. So I went rogue. I just said words as they came to my mind {super classy, as always} and we all know I don’t do well with ‘off the cuff’ stuff. I think I may have included an “I love you” and a {cringe} “you always make me laugh” {what is this? an end of the year yearbook signing?}. That actually may have been it. No promises to honor and obey and be a good Jesus loving wife. I think I even ended it with “Ok, I’m done”. {face, meet palm}. I bet I threw our pastor for a loop.
I basically made ZERO promises to you. But you know what? If I could rewind time and do it all over again I don’t think I would go crazy with the promises. I think, for newlyweds, the best you can do is be honest and keep it simple:

I promise to love you and love Jesus

and fight for our marriage no matter what we face.

The end.

Now, after 6 years, I have a little better idea of the vows I want to make to you. I almost wish we’d given new vows to each other on our anniversary each year. Maybe we can start that tradition from now on? It will force us to reflect on our marriage, to pick it apart a bit and look at what’s good as well as what needs some more work. We are always changing and always growing, so as a byproduct, our marriage is changing and growing as well. Our old vows just don’t fit anymore. We’ve outgrown them.
Here are my new vows to you:

Chris, I promise to love you and keep working towards loving you.
I promise to love Jesus and keep working towards loving Jesus.
I promise to be honest with you… in all areas of our life. No hiding things, no secrets, no lies.
I promise to make ‘you before me’ my anthem { out of obedience to God, and also because I know you’re doing the same for me}.
I promise to focus on your good, because you are good, and dwelling on the not-so-good parts of either of us is inviting discontent to come between us. Discontentment is not invited.
I promise to assume the best. Like you told me early on in our marriage “If there are 2 ways to take a comment/action, assume the better meaning/better reason/better motivation behind it, rather than assuming the worst/the negative/the purposefully hurtful”.
I promise to not bristle when you use the words ‘overly sensitive’. I promise to take an introspective look to discover if I may, in fact, be responding in a sensitive way. I will discover that I am, in fact, overly sensitive. You will be ok with me being sensitive. You will give me a hug and kind words.
I promise to run to you and not away from you when I am upset with you. I will let you get in my space with a bear hug to diffuse my temper, because we know that time and space when I’m angry or upset actually makes things worse. ‘Hug it out’ has legit healing powers.
I promise to make decisions with you. Big decisions, little decisions. We are #TeamBaker and we will tackle things together.
I promise to obey. That word doesn’t scare me. I am so comforted by the leader God has gifted me with, one who seeks God’s best for us. Lead on; I will trust and follow.
The end.

Thank you for loving me and for putting work into our marriage.
I feel honored and cherished and loved by you and I will work to make sure those feelings are gifted back to you times ten.
Happy six years to us.

Caption for the photo above: Me, trying to think of words. Mitch, our pastor, wondering what happened to my brain.

Side note: Kazoos at a wedding are SO fun. You can’t not smile when kazoo-ing. I still get the giggles when I think about this moment!

November 14, 2013 - Oh Happy Daze

Our Third Anniversary

Beginning with year one of our marriage I decided I wanted to try and take a photo of Chris and I each year on our anniversary. I am already loving being able to compare Team Baker from each year; what we looked like and how our family has grown.

Year One

Such babies we were! Ha, just us and Baxter. We should have included our furry first baby in our photo, though now that I know what it’s like to wrangle kids for a photo I am glad we opted for a ‘no puppy photo’ the first year so I don’t feel pressured to have him in it every year. It’s much easier to use my supremely awesome photo shop skills to add him in later if we choose, like this…

yes, he is in fact wearing a birthday boy hat in this photo.

Baxter’s birthday is the same month and year as our anniversary, so it’s always easy to remember how old he is…or how long we’ve been married… or neither in my case.

Year Two

Last year a 2 month old Charlotte had added!

You can read more about our first and second anniversary photos + a bit about our wedding day here and here.

Year Three

First of all, I just have to say that I am totally distracted by the fact that I am standing on the left in these photos instead of the right like in the previous 2 year’s photos. Totally a first-world problem. I just had to get it out. Whew, moving on.

The wedding-arch-thing is still standing. My dad built it for our wedding and I am still so amazed by how beautiful it was and that it is still {sort of} standing in the woods in their backyard.

At the time that these photos were taken we still had our first foster squish. I am so glad my mom took these pictures and I couldn’t resist posting this one {with a little mustache censoring to protect squish’s privacy} because it makes me so happy to see how far God has brought us over the past 3 years.

I pray that the next 50 years creep by; I don’t want to miss a minute of them by being too busy or rushed.

October 14, 2013 - admin

I'm in time-out.

Well, it happened.
Chris put me in time-out. He made me pack up the laptop and drive to Panera to order something yummy while I sat at the computer to finish the previous post on fostering. He didn’t give me a choice. I don’t know if you all have a husband like that? One who is forcefully generous and compassionate? It’s really annoying. How dare he.
Maybe it was the barking dog. or the crying baby. or the other crying baby. or the zombie feeling from not getting enough sleep. or the to-do list running through my head {get pictures developed, find child care, make eye appointment, return library books. seriously, return library books. no time to write it on the to-do list}. or maybe it was the indigestion. or the 20 toddler books scattered on the floor. or thread unraveling the sleeve of my favorite shirt.
it could have been any one of those things that did me in. regardless, there I was, standing over the washing machine with ‘poop hands’ {I had just finished cleaning some of Charlotte’s cloth diapers}, crying and yammering on to Chris about how I’d only been able to write ONE line in my blog post in the past FOUR hours of trying to finish it.
Sad, right? It happens to us all, so don’t feel bad if you cried over ‘poop hands’ today too.
As soon as I’d gotten the tears out I felt exponentially better. It’s a halloween miracle! but Chris was set in his decision. I still feel a bit guilty, leaving him alone in the same house that brought me to the breaking point. Thank you God for giving me this husband to ‘do life’ with. There is no one better.

OHappyDaze

Looking for the lovely in life.

marriage