Within a day...

The first snow of the year! Well, the first snow that actually stuck. I would imagine it to since it snowed literally for more than 24 hours straight. There was a winter storm warning and all these trees fell down! It is so strange! I took these fall pictures from our balcony and on my walk home. Then the next day, it was just snow snow snow. I love waking up to a winter wonderland!

The same street before and after Utah's "Hurricane Sandy."

I came home to the trees on the ground and thought it was so funny. This is crazy! Then I went to run some errands, and all over town there were trees lying on the ground. We were lucky that no one on our street parked in their driveways. Others weren't so lucky. Trees on cars, in the street, on the sidewalks. Trees everywhere.

Raging.

Infection. For twelve hours I had webMD/self-diagnosed unconfirmed tonsillitis. Instead, it's a raging infection. Direct quote from the doc herself. Turns out you can't feel your tonsils from the outside, so what I thought were my tonsils popping out of my neck/jaw were actually lymph nodes (webMD didn't tell me that). Suckers are big.

I hypochondriac-ed out for a minute when I made the appointment, but it's a good thing I went. Having a sore throat is the pits. How am I going to enjoy the full deliciousness of my burrito? And it'll probably cause more pain than pleasure because I have to swallow. Never thought of a situation where I'd ever shun food. Now I know.

Ohhhh yeah. Duh. They asked me to wear a mask. Strep is on the prowl and coming for you.

'Twas Joelle's Birthday...

...and all through the weekend, we celebrated. 

On the actual day, we went to lunch at Pho One on Kapiolani Blvd. Delicious as always. Cupcakes are all the craze right now. Not only on the mainland, but even in Hawaii. There are so many cupcake places that have recently opened, and that I still need to try. We started by going to Hokulani Bake Shop in the Hyatt Regency Wakiki Hotel. I spent the weekend there because my sister's wedding reception was there, and I had no idea cupcakes were under my nose the whole time. 

We got a four-pack.

 2 Strawberry Guava with Cream Cheese Frosting,

Lilikoi Cupcake with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting,

and the cupcake that helped them win Cupcake Wars on the Food Network, 

a Vanilla Cupcake with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting and a drizzle of Strawberry Compote (whatever that is, it's delicious).

Candid.

Remnants. The strawberry guava one was my favorite, then the strawberry, then the lemon. Regardless, they were all delicious.

On Friday night, we went to Addiction. It used to be called Crazybox, so I call it Crazybox/Addiction, CBox, the Box, Boxin' it etc. A ton of kids from my graduating class were there, okay there were like ten of us, and I thought we should take a picture and submit it to the annual bulletin. It's not like this is a rare coincidence, we actually see each other quite often. Maybe because I haven't been home in October in years that it seemed special. I don't know if they'll print us.

 

 My friend had my phone for a couple days, so I was off the grid. Luckily, I got Jojo's number and a sweet new watch. Thanks Stenos!

It was interesting to be phone-less. I had to write down numbers and actually call and talk to people versus texting them. I also only talked to whoever I really needed to talk to, but wasn't available for others to get in touch with either. There are it's pros and cons. 

P.S. I had to give the watch back.

"hearted"

Instagram, another procrastinating outlet for you know, when you're procrastinating.

I "hearted" this. I just had to.

We are Warriors.

University of Hawaii Warriors

We got to go the UH vs. BYU football game all thanks to the Chows! The game itself wasn't exclamation mark worthy, but the overall experience definitely was. Before the game, we hung out and ate at the Tyau's house, then walked over to the stadium. We cheehoo'ed and chopped on kettle corn. Always with the kettle corn.

There was a whole section for Hawaii fans, and there were tons of local Asian people there! We kept wondering if they flew up for the game or if they live close by. It was kinda like we were at home. Kinda. No, actually.

The one and only DI-C.

...

OMG!! The whole game I was like, "Let's get on tv!" But we didn't. BUT WE DID! Not on the jumbotron at the stadium, but on real tv. Jay just had to post this on Facebook with the caption:

"Some friends showed me that we were on TV for the UH-BYU game... Rachel Lee, that popcorn musta been ono! haha"

This is my television debut?! Kettle corn I tell you...

Becky, the newest newlywed, drove up with her husband during the week and stayed for the weekend while he went to a convention in Las Vegas. They're still married, don't worry. Before Liz, Aaron and I took her to the airport on Saturday (to go on her honeymoon), we all went out to lunch in Salt Lake at Niche. Everything we ate was really good. The side jalepenos are no joke. After lunch, we went to the capitol. It's a beautiful building that commands attention, like a state capitol should (not like Hawaii's one). They had these awesome buffalo statues outside the tourist information building. They're hollow and I thought I was going to break it. But alls well that ends well. The buffalo still stands.

Inside, there are historical paintings of the establishment of Utah. They have these grand staircases that are apparently good for bridals. There were two brides there taking their pictures facing each other on the opposing staircases.

There are twin beehives outside the building. It's probably the only time she'll be able to sit on a hive without bum stings.

A snapshot at an Android's capabilities.

We are Americans.
Aaron had this awesome idea to manipulate a panoramic picture. After each of our photos, we ran behind him to get into our next frame. It turned out really well despite the Chinese tourists telling us to move out of their pictures. No, we were not part of that tour group.