long time no blog. and saying goodbye...

[say hi to whoopi! vegas trip 2010]

hi blogging world!

it's been a minute.

i hope all has been well.

i have been blogging elsewhere.

almost everyday actually...

i know. i'm surprised too.

no one knows about it except for our families.

i'm not quite ready to share it with you yet.. just because i've been writing about our recent happenings-- things that we can't share publicly yet. once this phase is over, i'm sure i will be letting you in on it. but until then... you can just imagine what it is. ;) [and no, i am not pregnant.]

anyway, i will be saying goodbye to this blog.

there is really no need for me to keep two. i will leave it for memories sake, but won't be updating it anymore.

so, thank you bloggy for all the good times!

and cheers to the new bloggy blog!

k, gotta go to a meeting. 

happy monday!! 

life is still beautiful

we are back from hawaii. fortunately, we were able to get back home the day before the tsunami hit.
our life has been very chaotic since we've been home. i haven't had the time to absorb everything that's been happening. i'm completely devastated. i don't know what to think... i was having a meltdown when i wasn't able to reach my family in japan. not to worry, i was finally able to get in touch with them on saturday. they are all safe. just minor injuries. i am so grateful for the outpouring of love and kindness my friends have showed me. i wouldn't have gotten through without it and i am forever grateful.
thank you for being there when i needed you most. i will never forget those of you who were kind to me.

during this devastating time, we ask our friends and family to keep the people in japan in your prayers.

te quiero mucho to you all.

so...

this week, we were *suppose to leave for hawaii. 

turns out, it's going to be raining every single day while we are there. 

ah... just thinking about it makes my head ache. 

i swear i just gained couple of zits on my face from this. 

let me demo you the emotional roller coaster i just went on. 

top: this is when i found out about the weather. 

middle: as you can tell, i was nothing but furious. 

bottom: if mother nature were a person, i'd hunt him/her down. 

top: after calling travelocity and finding out canceling the trip would cost $500. 

second from the top: lehi giving me options on activities that we could do in the rain. 

third from the top: somewhat made my peace with the crappy weather. but still hopeful. 

bottom: but also still upset with mother nature for the cause of more wrinkles and zits. 

family, sorry i've been m.i.a. 

promise i will write you all emails soon. 

friends, if i haven't commented on your bloggys lately, i'm sorry. 

i've been very busy with life and other things. 

i'm still alive and well. well.... except for the mini breakdown i had today. 

i will catch up with you all later. 

promise. 

please still be my friend? 

love, me. 

oh, na, na

last weekend, we took a spontaneous trip down to vegas. 
yeah, i know. you've never met anyone who goes to vegas as much as we do, right? 
you think we are gambling addicts? yeah, don't you worry. i'd think the same if i didn't know any better. and you know, it's not so much the night life that we look forward to. 

it's the amazing restaurants, shopping, and shows that we love. 

and it's a nice little getaway. 

we left right after work on friday night. so, we didn't even get to vegas until 11-ish. poor will who was the driver was so tired and he just crashed in his bed. and his wife/my bestie sarah just followed him. 

on the other hand, lehi and i were completely energized. i think we were just so excited to be out of utah. we just wanted to go out and feel the warm breeze. so, we decided to go out for a little dessert. 

lehi and i love discovering new bars and restaurants. we checked out this new place which had the BEST Crème Brûlée. i also had their maracuja mojito and it was a-okay. nothing special. after our late night snack, we came back to the hotel. the crazy person that i am decided to go run on the treadmill. so i did. i ran for a mile. i had to stope when i started tasting blood in my breath. i am so out of shape it's ridiculous. 

saturday morning we woke up super early. like 8AM. super early for a mini vacation, right? 
we had breakfast and left the hotel at 10 to go shopping. while at the mall, we spotted some marketers from toyota. lehi and i have previously participated in their surveys. so, we knew that when you participate you get a free gift card. once we told that to will and sarah and got them excited about the free stuff, we HAD to go claim our free gift cards. 
so we did. we test drove a lovely prius. bonded with the marketers. got a toyota bag full of yummy snacks and a free gift card to the movies. after shopping and our little adventure with the toyota crew the time was still before noon. so, we decided to catch a matinee with our free movie gift card. we saw no strings attached. it was ok. i felt really awkward the entire time more than anything. but hey! it was FREE. i can't complain. 

after the movie we fought the traffic and went to fat burger. oh, good gracious. their burgers are sublime. i got their small burger. it was literally the size of my palm. and i paid $6 for that little thing! next time i'm paying the extra $1 and getting medium. stupid fat burger owned me. grrr. 
definitely worth the hassle of parking and walking, though.
then we went to the world's biggest pinball hall. that's where i demonstrated my stellar pinball skills. ;) and yes, i totally look possessed in the picture above.

then we decided that we wanted to see pawn stars. so, we googled it. drove to the sketchy part of town while getting harassed by multiple homeless people on the way AND in the parking lot. it was worth it all. oh, and speaking of homeless guy, this guy approached us and offered to take pictures of us in front of the sign. as soon as he offered, i knew exactly what he was going to do, a.) he will either dash off with my camera, or b.) he will take pictures of us and ask for money. either way, i just didn't want to talk to anyone especially in the part of town we were in. so, i kindly declined. after i declined he went and harassed will and asked for money. good thing we all don't carry cash. anyway, the pawn shop was awesome. 

for dinner, we headed to firefly. i know. i told you! we go to vegas to eat! we eat every three hours. we love food THAT much. and yes, you may call us fat. i prefer fatty though. anyway, the food was scrumptious as always.  oh, and you see the picture above? that's my favorite tapas at firefly. it's bacon-wrapped, smoked almond, red wine reduction, with blue cheese. if that doesn't get your mouth salivating i don't know what will. 

 lehi and i were little cranky pants. we wanted more food. 

sunday morning: i dragged all of them to anthroplogie inside of caesars. afterwards we treated ourselves with serendipity. while the boys watched sunday football, sarah and i ventured out to caesars grounds and found a hindu shrine.

our annual mystery adventures trip. it's really awesome. ask tripadvisor. they will agree with us. ;) 

sayonara 2010

 

 

(pictures from my iphone)

hello 2011. 

we had such a wonderful time ringing in the new year with our besties. AND celebrating the birth of william. our weekend was filled with lots of laughter, good food, and more good food!

we are beyond excited for 2011.

cheers to amazing family/friends, more traveling, good health, and amazing food.

life is beautiful...

and so are we. ;)

juuuust kidding. we are not that conceited.

today was a wonderful day. i had the day off to do whatever i wanted while lehi was at work. it was nice to have some time to get all the christmas gifts wrapped and somewhat clean the house. i may or may not have ate someone's present while wrapping others.

ok, i totally did. i have no self control. and you wouldn't too, if you had sweet tooth fairy's cakebites sitting in front of you!! oh, well. someone just won't receive a gift from the tenorio's this year.

our anniversary celebration was low key. nothing extravagant. just lehi, me, and good food. we ventured out to happy sumo. yuh, happy sumo. i told lehi that i wanted japanese. he said he wanted sumo. now, people who know me really well would know my true feelings for this place. buuuuut... because i love him a lot, i compromised. though, i must say, it wasn't all that bad. would i go back?-- no. but it was a wonderful dinner with my love. :)

then we went to barnes & noble to get caught up with all of our magazines for this month. barnes and noble date is one of my favorite things to do.

now we are home watching sports center. i'm so sad that the vikings didn't make it to the playoffs. i'm even more devastated that this season is going to be brett farve's last season. on a happier note, did you see the eagle's game!? ohhhmygosssshhhhhhh. i can't believe i missed the 4th quarter!! :(  i watched some clips here and there on nfl channel and espn, but it's not the same! i wanted to watch it live. i'm incredibly sad about this still.....  maybe we should get tivo? no, i'm too cheap. waaaaaa.

anyways, we didn't take any pictures at dinner. i hate myself for it.
so, we decided to take lame-o photo booth pictures to preserve memories of the day.

better than nothing, right? :)

 how can you have self control when this is staring at you!? 

merry-almost-Christmas!

finally...

well well well... where do i even begin? i've been back from japan for a month now. i can't believe it's already been a month. no... do you want to know what i can't get over? our anniversary is next week. which means.... christmas is only 9 days away. and and.... that means 2011 it right around the corner. 

wowza. where did time go?

i just found this picture on my friend's facebook. even though it's a bit blurry, i think it's one of my favorite pictures from the big day. (i'd like to think that my husband's cousin was too excited for us to stay still. :))

now, that-- that was the perfect moment. the first time coming out of the temple as married couple? ah, perfection. i just wish my stylist didn't flake out on me at the last minute, i wanted to wear my hair up. waaa waaa waaa. 

oh, well.

anywaysss, here are some pictures of japan from my phone. yes, these were all taken from my phone. 

you see, japanese people are super uptight with cameras in their stores. so, i couldn't really bust out my big canon in the store, let alone walk in the store with my gear. so, pretty much my phone came to the rescue and helped me preserve memories.

so... are you ready for this? 

and just so you know, this isn't everything. i still have gazillion pictures in my phone and i have few memory cards from my point and shoot that i still need to upload. goodness gracious. i will never be done. 

that will be my new years resolution. 

(pictures are not in order, sorry!)

 one of my favorite things in japan: mr. donuts. 

another favorite thing of mine in japan: cakes. you will never see me eat cake in the states. EVER.

 right: this is what i looked like most of the time. always searching for wifi, so i can facetime with lehi.

left: on the bus to the airport.  

 right: the day after we landed in hokkaido, we did a 7-11 run at 5AM. 

 right: gindako's takoyaki. a.k.a octopus balls. it doesn't really contain octopus balls, we say "balls" because of the shape. 

left: sari vs. octo: octo wins! 

 right: our favorite fast food restaurant in japan: moss burger. 

left: double moss burger. our las meal in japan. :( 

right: the day after we landed, we ventured out to muscle park in chitose for a little work out. 

left: before our obstacle race. i should mention that i won almost breaking the record at 39 sec. booyah.

 right: my grand mama's family grave. 

left: my cute little grand mama. 

 right: all you can eat crab buffet at meisuitei. 

left: sari vs. crab: sari wins! 

 

 right: our room at meisuitei. 

left: shiatsu massage is a must in japan! 

 

 right and left: our last hour with ji-chan and ba-chan. :( 

waiting for la bus. 

 right: it's absolutely normal to have ginormous stuffed animal at super markets. 

left: they need to bring 17 ice cream to the states. best ice cream for 120 yen!

 right: sari and her yucky plane food. 

left: me trying not to through up from the smell of the plane food. 

 everything is just better and healthier in japan. even mickey-D's. (not to say that mcdonalds is healthy, but it's healthier.)

right: melon soda. 

left: lost!?  

 

right: nipple enhancers are a must. 

left: i honestly felt like i was in japan seeing these mannequins. 

 right: muki. best invention ever. 

left: who wouldn't want their butts to smell like mangoes, peaches, and grapes!? 

 right: another must have fashion trend in japan. 

left: sari's gone bananas. 

 

 going home... :( 

 

in otaru. i was almost taken by the wind. no joke. it was that windy!  

 gyukaku. best kind of bbq. 

 right: sapporo. left: sari amazed by the people in the subway. 

left: notice something?? 

top: disney cubed. 

じっちゃん、ばっちゃん、アンちゃん！

今週中に電話するから！

バイビー！

p.s

somewhere along the way i started to get left and right confused. yes, i'm an idiot. and i have no intentions of fixing them right now.

love me.