Happy Monday!

I think it’s about time I finally stop hoarding and start sharing my beautiful photos from Hawaii. Most of these were taken on a Canon D80. Enjoy!

Diamond Head

Family photo in Oahu

Dole Plantation

I didn’t know that this is how pineapples grow!

A hibiscus, Hawaii’s state flower!

Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve

A fish my sister and I saw while snorkeling at Hanauma Bay

We saw tons of these fish at Hanauma Bay!

Palm trees at Hanauma Bay

View from the top of a mountain in Oahu

Kailua beach park in Oahu

Aliiolani Hale

Wainapanapa black sand beach in Hana, Maui

My sister scuba diving!

Coral 30 feet underwater!

Random peacock just hanging out at Waimea Valley!

Jumping rock at Waimea Bay Beach Park

Roast pig at luau

We were 10,000 feet up and above the clouds at Haleakala National Park!

The world’s largest dormant volcano at Haleakala National Park

Me at the summit of Haleakala National Park on our last day!

Absolute paradise! Just looking at the pictures makes me nostalgic. I need to go back someday.

1. My new camera and photography

My dad just got a brand new D7000 a few months ago so I bought his D80 off him. Then around Father’s Day, I saw a Groupon for two photography classes in Central Park and bought one for each of us so we could take it together. We just took the second one together on Saturday and I loved it! I learned a ton. Here are some photos taken on my D80:

Look forward to some better quality (AKA not taken on my iPhone) pictures around here soon!

2. Qi

Qi’s the name of a Thai restaurant in New York with two locations. I went to the one in Times Square last last Saturday and my dad and I went to the one in Union Square this past Saturday after our photography class. It’s official – this is one of my new favorite restaurants. I love the atmosphere and decor of the place and the food is awesome and reasonably priced.

On Saturday, my dad and I started with the Herbal Coconut Calamari. I feel like calamari is usually a hit or miss for me – I either find it really oily and heavy or light in a you-can-barely-tell-it-was-fried way. This was the latter and I really liked it! Super flavorful and the sweet chili sauce it came with complemented it perfectly.

My dad ordered the Gai-Yang & Som-Tum. It came with two huge pieces of perfectly tender chicken with a dipping sauce, a pickled vegetable and papaya salad, and black forbidden rice. It was delicious!

I had the Triple Mushrooms Gravy. I absolutely love mushrooms so I knew this was what I wanted when I saw it on the menu. It was really flavorful and full of mushrooms, so of course I loved it. I will say that it kind of struck me as just a generic Asian dish though, and not particularly Thai. But it was still good and we finished every bite.

3. Eating clean

The last two dinners I ate at home were both clean and tasty. First up, a roasted zucchini cucumber hummus wrap:

And a black bean burger with zucchini fries. Yum!

I also bought this Muscle Milk last night so I could get my protein fix this morning and it’s not bad! I still prefer my own protein shakes, but this isn’t bad for when I’m trying to clean out the fridge.

4. The fact that I will be in Hawaii in less than 48 hours!

This is why I’m working on cleaning out the fridge. I cannot tell you how excited I was to put on my out of office and get out of the building yesterday at 6 pm! Hawaii, here I come!

I’ve been getting a little behind with blogging lately, but I still wanted to share some photos from my sister’s graduation last Wednesday.

We got there about an hour early and if you remember, Wednesday was hot hot hot! Sitting in the bleachers with the sun beating down on us was absolute hell. Literally everyone around us was sweating buckets! I can’t even imagine what it would have been like to be one of the graduates in their navy robes and right in the middle of the football field. They must have been dying! My dad got this shot of my beautiful sister in the procession.

And we took some more photos on the field afterward.

Then we got in the car to go to Red Lobster for dinner! My sister loves it and we hadn’t been there for a while. Unfortunately, the hostess skipped us at least once when going down her list so we were waiting for a pretty long time. We were all starving by the time we actually sat down to eat! Despite our sweatiness, I still got everyone to pose for some photos.

How cute are my parents?!

Please ignore all of our sweaty shiny foreheads. Ick.

We started with the Cheddar Bay biscuits, my sister’s favorite! She was uncontrollable with them.

Our meals came with soups for my mom and sister and salads for everyone. That was fairly uneventful though, and a good amount of it went uneaten. For her entree, my sister ordered the Cajun Chicken Linguine Alfredo. It was huge!

My mom went with the Garlic-Herb Shrimp and Chicken. It was good, but a little salty for my taste.

I don’t remember exactly what my dad’s dish was called but it had lobster and shrimp scampi. A little heavy on the butter in my opinion, but not bad.

Lastly, I had a half-size portion of the Island BBQ Salmon. It was a topped with a papaya barbecue sauce and pineapple salsa. So good!

My sister and mom’s meals came with dessert, so we also each tried a bite of the apple crostada and key lime pie. Loved them both! The rest of my family could barely get down a bite of each, but I of course saved room. I took quite a chunk out of that key lime pie.

Such a fun day with my family! Congrats again to my baby sister for graduating.

Congratulations to my baby sister Steph for graduating high school last night!

I’m so proud of you! I can’t believe the four years have passed already and that you’re going to college in the fall. Crazy how time flies! I know there were times you thought you’d never make it this point, and even though it always seemed far off, I always knew you would.

Love you so much and I can’t wait to see where life takes you!