waterproof film camera

You know when you get ready for the day and you feel totally good. Your outfit. Your hair. You know you're lookin' hott and maybe deserve a little smack on the booty from Husband. Well, the day this was taken was totally not one of those days. But it's still one of my absolute favorites! 

Don't you just love when that happens?

p.s. 

I miss the days of film cameras. Digital, even with it's fancy photoshop tricks, just doesn't have the same feel. I think I'm going to start using a lot more film.

a side note

So, we're back. At 5:25AM we landed in LA and then proceeded to the nearest McDonalds where we stuffed our faces with the ever so scrumptious sausage, egg and cheese mcgriddle which was followed by self-loathing and a pact to go on diets. We may have abused our bodies while in Hawaii...sorry body. I promise to take better care of you from now on.

On a side note.

I think that someone missed their Daddy :) This picture completely melts my heart. Maybe I'm silly but watching how much Matt loves and spoils our little pup, I can't imagine how much he's going to love and spoil our babies.

the perfect trip

Tomorrow is our last day in Hawaii and I can't even describe the sadness inside me as I write that.

Usually by the end of a vacation I'm ready. Living out of a suitcase and hotel room gets old and I miss my home and regular life. Our trip isn't even over yet and I'm already sulking around. Matt laughed at me yesterday and teased me about it but I told him he should take it as a compliment and sign of how amazingly amazing this trip has been! I really am not ready to leave yet. I'm not ready to leave this paradise. So we made a list of things we want to take back with us, a little of the island livin', and then I felt a little better. But I wanted to make a list of a few of my favorite things about this trip. Just a few of the moments that have made my heart swell with joy and gratitude for all my many blessings.

Things I never want to forget:
1. The deliciousness of the shaved ice cones. It's more than just sugary syrup. It tastes like actual pineapple, mango, banana, coconut etc.. juice. I could eat it every. day.
2. The busyness of Kalakaua Avenue. We'd step outside our hotel at any time, day or night, and were swept away by life. Fire throwers, child singers, acting parrots, artists, we saw a family of performers and the little girls trick was pole dancing! Seriously, the possibilities of what we might encounter are endless.
3. All the Japanese bride's and grooms in our hotel. We probably see 10 different brides a day. It's fun to see how happy and excited they are :) At one point, after passing a bride and groom, Matt spun me around and planted the biggest kiss on me. He said every time he saw a groom and how happy he looked it reminded him of how stoked and ecstatic he felt on our wedding day. And then I swooned.
4. The endless "Aloha's" and "Mahalo's."
5. All the super fresh pineapple. I've been eating a pineapple a night before bed and I don't know if I can stop.
6. The way the ocean looks like glass it's so clear and sparkly. Not to mention its warm! I have a hard time getting into heated swimming pools, so the fact I can run and jump into the water without hesitation says something.
7. The banana cream cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory. I know this isn't specific to Hawaii but it is specific to how we celebrated on our anniversary and let me tell you...if I have to eat something every day for the rest of my life, it would be that banana cream cheesecake. Orgasmic.
8. The way Matt would scoop me up in his arms and carry me around in the water, saving me from waves, coral, hardcore surfers, and rocks. How he'd teach me to body board :) (even though I already know how.) And just the constant playing and laughing together.
9. Jungle hikes to find waterfalls. Even if we got just a few mosquito bites, it was worth it. (If you ask Matt he might say if you don't have bug repellant it isn't though, haha.)
10. Staying up until 1AM icing Matt's mosquito bites and helping him stay comfortable enough to sleep. He got eaten alive :( But even still, taking care of the man I love allows me to show my affection, devotedness, admiration, humility, and how much I really cherish that man.
11. Swimming with the dolphins! Or in our case dolphin and whalphin! (Yup! A whale and dolphin baby! And the only one in the world.) I may have cried with happiness afterward. It was more than amazing being able to touch and look at them. Their intelligent, beautiful and amazing animals!
12. Visiting the dole plantation. First of all I had no idea pineapple grew from bushes and second their pineapple icecream? Gooooooooood.
13. Going to the temple. Unfortunately we weren't able to do a session because it was closed :( But just walking around, feeling the spirit and love of the Lord is worth making the drive to the North Shore. There is such peace found at the temple.
14. Ditching the luau and doing our own thing. Yup. Even though the Polynesian Cultural Center is supposed to be the best luau ever. After the dinner we decided to be break free, skip the show, and go eat again at Puka Dogs. And guess what? It was totally worth it.
15. Matt getting me a pandora charm for our anniversary. It was a gold seahorse and I died.
16. Having my husband all to myself! He didn't do more than 15 minutes of work a day the entire time. I don't know how I'm going to transition back to real life :(
17. Going to the ABC store multiple times a day to get sodas, floaties for the ocean, macadamia cookies, waterproof cameras and any other random thing you can think of.

Basically I could go on and on. I wish there was a way I could record and relive every second of this last week. It was the perfect vacation. But I guess, for now, I just have to look forward to all the vacations the future holds. But I will say this, if this trip is a precedent... well then. I am pretty freaking excited for what the future holds.

the day before the day before hawaii

What goes on in the Bartlett home when a Hawaii trip is less than 48 hours away...

Lots of dancing and skipping around.

Laundry piles everywhere.

Random bursts of made up songs about luggage, waterfalls, shredded pork, and other things.

Spur of the moment hair cuts and trips to the saloon. Ombre anyone?

Extra Sawyer kisses and snuggles. (Shhh, he doesn't know he's not coming.)

Beach boys.

Last minute shopping for swim trunks and other miscellaneous things that we've put off.

Nights we're too excited to go to bed because it means we're 1 day closer to leaving. (eeeh!)

Referring to each other in our hawaiian names, Kalena and Makaio.
Sentences that start with, "OH! OH! Let's...."

And listening to this song...

I do love her voice.

husband's eyes

Husband has really attractive eyes. 

And they're especially attractive, like this...

...

...

...

I get to look at these babies all day long. And I wouldn't want it any other way =)
p.s. Happy weekend!

call me alex

When I was little. Well, young. Younger. Okay, when I was in high school. I wasn't a senior or anything, that'd just be embarrassing. I was a Junior. I decided I was bored of the name Glenna. Yeah, I wanted to try something different. I guess living with your Aunt and Uncle in a new state (across the country) isn't different enough. And what's more different than a different name!

I actually thought really long and hard about what my new name (but I would explain to people it was a nickname given to me as a young child by all my many many friends back home) should be. I wanted something cool and edgy. Something that set me apart. Because, ya know, Glenna is a way common name and all. Biggest eye roll of my life. You guys, I was weird in high school. Who am I kidding, I'm still a weirdo. But onto my embarrassing story.

Glenna is a pretty tricky name to get a nickname from. There was always Lenna (which some of friends from home actually did call me) but it wasn't different enough. Then there was the obvious, Glenn, which happens to be a mans name. And although I wanted to recreate myself....I wanted to go in a less transexual direction. So thinking of a nickname from my first name was out of the question.

Then there was my middle name. May. I actually love my middle name but I wasn't edgy enough to get away with being called May. It's kinda weird. So...I went to my last name. My maiden name is Allen, again not much to work with. But finally I came up with the name Alex.

Alex. Yes. That would be my new name.

I was seriously nervous for the first day of school. I'm not sure why. Maybe because I thought I had a big sign on my forehead that said, "My name is Glenna." in big red letters.
Then when I tried to be all calm and casual and say, "Hi, I'm Alex."
They'd be like, "Say whaaaa?! You're not an Alex! You look like a Glenna to me."
And then I would cry because I'd have to explain why I lied about my name being Alex.

So first block came and I nervously waited for the teacher to call my "old name" so I could correct him and tell him "I actually go by a different name..." As if being called by Glenna was so absurd and ridiculous that he should already know I go by Alex. Duh.

And guess what? It totally went smoothly. And he totally believed that my name was Alex. And all my classmates called me Alex. And I smirked and smiled inside and patted myself on the back because my mad acting skills obviously deserved an award of some kind.

But then something happened. When people called me Alex I would forget they were talking to me. And I sat there like a big oaf who didn't know her own name and when I finally realized was like, "Huh? What? OH! Me...." And I'm pretty sure they thought I was a little bit retarded.

It was exciting to be Alex but way too much pressure and stress. So it only lasted a semester and then slowly I started telling people to call me Glenna. And I didn't feel retarded anymore. And life was normal again.

The end

                                   

"Alex"

Good ol' Glenna

you guys. I love animals!

You know when you go to the zoo and it's super boring because all the animals are either sleeping or hiding and you wonder why in the world you spend $14 bucks to walk around bored and eat expensive zoo food?

Trust me, I usually do but the zoo Gods must have been smiling down on me the last time I went. I not only got to see the majority of the animals up and swinging about but making noises and acting like real live animals! It was so exciting! And kind of sad too. I'm starting to think maybe I should become a Greenpeace activist or something. It breaks my heart to see these creatures in cages that, more often than not, are way too tiny and cramped. I understand that they're endangered and will live longer lives in the zoo rather than in the wild but still...I just wish they were larger and less cage-like. 

memorial day weekend via instagram

 I'm sure you guys have heard of instagram. It's kind of a big deal. 

It gives people like me, who lack the skills to properly manhandle those big beautiful cameras, a chance to capture a big or small, every day moment and make it beautiful simply through your phone. Seriously. It's amazing. 

Okay, so maybe you shouldn't take my word for the amazingness that it is. Especially since all my pictures are of Sawyer, the Mr and I, and food :) It's how we roll.

bc matt and glenna

Once upon a time I started dating Matt. A month later, he and his Dad and brothers all went to Hawaii. He tried to invite me to come, but Glenna BC thought that was weird seeing as she had just met the guy and who knew if he was a creeper or not.

(Welcome to Glenna and Matt BC version. That means before we knew what was in store for us.)

When he got back, he gave me that little dolphin necklace I'm wearing. With it he also promised that some day he would take me to Hawaii and we would swim with the dolphins. Well, I married a man of his word because guess who will be swimming with the dolphins on their anniversary? 

We're kind of really excited about it over here. 

And watching the discovery of mermaids on the animal channel sure hasn't helped (okay, so it was totally cheesy and not real but still cool.) Neither has the movie Big Miracle. Which is beautiful. And will make you cry. Because whales are huge and vulnerable and I want one.

hawaii

We're going to Hawaii!!
in 1 week and 5 days.

A few months ago Matt and I read a book (well, more like we read an article about a book) that talked about the life of an entrepreneur and their families. It was really eye opening and kind of funny in an ironic way. It was scary how spot on they described Matt and his working tendencies. But however intense you have to be to start and run a successful business that's exactly what I love about my husband. His passion and love for work is inspiring and admirable. And lucky for me, I think I have one of the few entrepreneur's that, more often than not, puts his wife/family first. But the article talked about how easily friction and tension can build in the home when a spouse has to dedicate not only lots of their time physically, but mentally and emotionally into their work. It talked about how because of this vacations are extremely important. Even if you can't afford them. 

Since moving to California we have definitely had to scale back financially. The costs of rent and living are much higher here than what we were use to in Utah. So it's safe to say we haven't had a real vacation since our honeymoon almost 2 years ago. Sooo, Matt and I went for a walk by the bird refuge (where we do all our serious talking) and got-to talking..

Matt: Let's do it!

Me: Cautiously watching and waiting for any signs that he may be joking.

Matt: Seriously! Let's go to Hawaii! Let's go for our honeymoon (yeah, we call our anniversaries 'honeymoons') and we'll make it work! Regardless of money...

Me: We're going to Hawaii? 

Both: Grinning and letting the euphoria of the statement take over.

Me: WE'RE GOING TO HAWAII!!

And then we basically re-enacted the final dance scene from Footloose because the joy inside us was that great. And then after that we went on "diets" which really just means we've been living off of almonds and string cheese so we can save every penny we have. But it's been so worth it because in less than 2 weeks we're going to Hawaii.

catch up

Blah, blah, blah. Words. Some more words. And some things.

I seriously have so much to catch myself and this blog up on but for lack of motivation and the proper creativity that writing requires, I think I'll just keep putting it off for a little bit longer.