My adventures with King Khameamea

Yes, blog world, there is a 4th sister...her name is Lisa. She fell off the planet because she wasn't doing anything cool. But i'm back, with one fabulously breif trip to Hawaii under my belt.



I learned many lessons while in Hawaii. Like how snapshots can be far superior to a posed picture, and how if you leave your beach mat by a tree...it won't be there when you come back for it 5 minutes later (in fact you'll find a homeless man sleeping on it not 5 yards from where you left it.)

We somehow managed to pack our days completely full with seeing all the signts that Oahu had to offer.
From relaxing and staying on the beach, to a PACKED full day learning about polynesian culture, to a beach front cheeseburger in paradise, we had ALL of the fun.

Mom and Dad are the cutest, by the way.



oh yes, and we are all ukulele champs, now. I was going to upload a video of me singing and playing the uke....but i realize my skills aren't up to par with Don Ho. And this blog is a less than forgiving crowd...so I will restrain. For now.

But at the culture center we went to a luau...ate poi! and we had so much fun at Hale Ohana Luau!

We climbed Diamond head, and snorkeled...and we shopped all over Waikiki beach! Also, count the newlyweds is a really fun game.

Dad is oh so special!

Its so beautiful....I couldn't stop taking pictures!

The USS Arizona and Pearl Habor Memorials were so moving, and an incredibly awesome way to spend our last day on the island. I just didn't want to leave...and I was so mad at Dad that he got to stay...an extra 25 days. :(

And yes, awesome beach-blown hair runs in this family. Its post diamond head tresses!


I think the pictures speak for themselves, but I can't say enough how perfect the timing of this trip was. I really needed something that nothing could ruin....I had strep and a ridiculous fever the day before I got on that plane...and thanks to antibiotics, I was good to go! I've come back to manhattan recharged and ready for the semester....but a little dissapointed in the lack of palm trees....


Besides that....theres not a whole lot I can justify complaining about...because i just spent 5 days in the most beautiful place i've ever seen.

In the words of my wise, wise father (at a tourist complaining)..."Shut up...you're in Hawaii!"

Life is good :)

Meghan is KENYAN!!!

Eileen and Meghan (and Aunt Kelly!!) ran their first full marathon this weekend and TOTALLY smoked it!! Meghan (our resident speed demon) finished in 4:16!!!!!!!!!! Eileen and Aunt Kelly held hands across the finish line at 4:54 (also AMAZING!!)



We can't wait for the Newport Pie Run this Thanksgiving - even though I will be the SLOWEST member of the family this year!!

Kate

Possibly the first in a series...Kate's Homage to Neil Patrick Harris

"Every note from his throat is like a not to be "tivo-ed" kiss...."

Never laughed harder in my entire life when he said... "this show could not be gay-er if Liza was named Mayor."
I never miss the Tony Awards, I love them. Just ask Meghan and cousins Maureen and Kelly - they had to suffer through 2010 with me!
Here is the closing number from the 2009 Tony's, to the tunes of West Side Story...




This song is from the 100th episode of How I Met Your Mother.....its worth it, this man is amazingly talented!





What can I say? I absolutely love him....enjoy world.

Hail to the Chiefs!!

At around 8:35 pm EST I recieved a call from Meghan, who informed me that she was entering the hallowed gates of Arrowhead Stadium to witness what we soon discovered was the Advent of what is destined to be one of the greatest seasons since the days of Joe Montana....that's right, I went there. Prediction. Write that down.
I was immediately envious when I marked Meghan's location, even though I had just returned home from a lovely evening of sushi and deep tissue massage...I made myself a Chopin martini, dirty, to dull the pangs of jealousy coursing through my veins.
And then...the rain started to fall. Not on me, on Arrowhead.....and I daresay that Meghan was then jealous of my dry house and my TV (and my martini, I mean, come on, I make an awesome martini).

But I digress to the point of this post: we are Chiefs girls for life and we thank our Meghan for representing in style last night.



GO CHEFS!! (and for anyone who is lame enough not to get that joke and make an inappropriately rediculous comment about my spelling: see below...and eat your words.)

The Graham's Summer Adventures

Hi everyone, this is Eileen, for once, finally posting an update (Kate is NOT the only sister, wow!)

So, as many of you (how many of you are there out there reading this?) know by now, I finished my Ph.D in June (see post from earlier this summer). It has been a long and difficult, but rewarding five years, and it was totally worth it (at least I think so, get back to me on that!). I am starting a new job this fall at Mount Holyoke College as their latest and greatest Visiting Assistant Professor. The Professor part means that I will be teaching... a LOT... and I will have my own lab within which I get to discover the mysteries of old age. The Assistant part means that I am officially a junior faculty member, not an adjunct or lecturer. The Visiting part means that I am not on the tenure-track: i have a 1-2 year contract, after which I am free to pursue other jobs in other regions of the world. This could not be more perfect considering that Matt has another 2 years in his Ph.D program, so we will be done at the same time! The only down side to this dream of a job is that MHC is located near Springfield, MA which is a solid 1.5 hours away from our home in Waltham. Therefore, I will be living like a bachelorette three days a week- hopefully we'll both be too busy with work to really notice my absence!

Anyways, in partial celebration of my newly acquired status of "piled high and deeper," we took a cross country road trip to California. The first leg of the trip was a whirlwind- who drives 3,000 miles in 3 days? We do. We bombed out, partied like rockstars at our friends Kelly & Victor's wedding, then immediately got back in the car (at 6am the following morning) and drove to Portland OR to celebrate Matt's parents' 40th wedding anniversary! Needless to say, by the time we arrived we were exhausted. We spent a great week in the Portland area, visiting Mt. Hood, drinking Portland microbrews, and experiencing what the Pacific Northwest has to offer (hint: lots of rain!)

we spent the remainder of the summer teaching courses at the California Maritime Academy. (see Kate's posts about our wine tour and Mimi's funeral to fill in some of the gaps!)

During the rest of our stay in California we also visited Yosemite National Park ....



Pinnacles National Monument ....

and spent some amazing quality time with friends Nuno....














and the Lockett family (sadly, no pictures of our time with them...)

Our summer program ended in the first week of August, at which time we packed up the car and began the trek back across the country. This time however, we took our sweet sweet time....

Some highlights of the trip back:

Yellowstone ....























North Dakota (and Father Steve!!)










Chicago (Hey, it's cousin Maureen!) ...


















Michigan (with the Dunn's and my new Goddaughter Lorelai!)...













and finally, Annapolis (our last destination before heading home)...where of course we ate and drank with reckless abandon with Kate, and celebrating the wedding of our friends Cristina and Greg (which was a perfect way to ring in our one-year anniversary!)







All in all, it was an epic journey- This was the cliffs notes version :).

BEHIND ON THE BLOGGAGE.....

Kate here: A quick update on what we've all been up to...
I will rewind to March 7, and my second snowboarding accident of the 2009-2010 season. It's July folks, and yes, it's still an issue. A broken humerus is no joke (pun intended: cheesy joke jeers relished).

Here's the original X-ray shot:


Here's the current state of my "healing apparatus" (I thankfully have no pictures of the awful sling, pillow, straps situation I was in for 2 months). Note: the formal black dress is because we were at a black tie event in DC, not just how we roll, but it's a good picture of the plastic arm clamp.


I still may need surgery, but that decision will be made at the end of August....I WILL live to snowboard another day!!!

Meghan and I got together in June with some of Grandma Alma's girls (Linda, Barbara, Kelly and Nora) to celebrate cousin Maureen's big design project presentation at the Chicago Art Institute. Here are a few pictures from that fun weekend....



Nora's quote of the weekend: "I feel a celebration coming on!" We agree Nora :)


Eileen and I took an amazing vacation at the end of June to Napa Valley to do some awesome wine tasting, relaxing and hanging out with good friend Paul Asikainen (Paul? Paul the wine guy?!) and roadtripped our way down the coast to LA to visit my friends Matt and Misti and their new baby Mattison. I will post more pictures from that trip soon. Here are some of the best ones:






And we heart....


Okay, well, I guess this post had very little to do with Lisa...she's been at home in KC working at a theater camp, just doing her thing....She'll have to fill us in soon!

Kate's Kitchen project

Fabulous Kitchen product ORRRRR.....pictures of all my muscular totally handy-man friends (haha).

Here is how the kitchen looked when I bought the house (I know):




So I decided that it needed some improving, after a year of deciding.....Kelly, Little and I spend a Saturday at Ikea (yes, Ikea, leave me alone) and put together a FABULOUS new design!! (The hardwood floors went in a year ago, just for reference)

First step: I invited my most handy and manly (and super awesome) guy friends over for Demolition Derby 2010. It is amazing the amount of manual labor you can get out of 20-30 something guys with the promise of beer, pizza and Crowne Royal as thank you gifts...they will swing a sledgehammer at anything it turns out.
I snapped a few pics and ended up with an alarming number of butt shots...(I have NO IDEA how that happened, insert innocent angelic smile here) Enjoy.....










The next step was mending the holes in the wall from the old cabinets and tile. Shane is a genius with drywall. Then we had to assemble the cabinets.





Gavin helped.... :):)


Shane and Pinot became fast friends



SO CUTE ;)

Dan Proulx is 100% my hero...in the course of 2 days he singlehandedly hung and leveled every cabinet. To be fair, I was the one doing it SINGLE-handedly, DAN had the luxury of TWO hands! I was effectively no help in the lifting, sawing or drilling department with a cast on my arm, but I maintained positive control of all the hardware and handed it all to Dan on request....except for the illusive tape measure that we kept losing.




I can't beleive Dan and I got everything hung in 2 days....the countertops and toe kicks went in shortly after, we got the room painted (OKAY, I hired painters....).


(That's our friend Nick)
My other hero, Cousin Greg, came over Sunday to hook up the sink and dishwasher (THANK GOODNESS!) and now the very last steps are purely cosmetic... the glass tile backsplash and doorknobs...huge thanks in advance to my last hero Shane Todd for his master craftsmanship!


Final product unveiling very soon!!