Nalo... Straight Nalo

Hola, bonjour, hallo, salaam alekum, shalom, and all that good stuff. We've missed you, millions of faithful blog readers! Lindsey graciously handed over the controls of the blog to me for just this one time (she's too tired to type), so here goes nothing. The last time that we checked in, we had just received a new member of the family in the form of The Red Bull, and since then SOOOO much has happened. After Julia left us (sigh...), we bummed around the apartment for a couple of days recovering from Julia's Going-Away Bash Week of activities. Last Thursday, we celebrated the joyous occasion of Kenj-Monster's Birthday!! Hurray, she's 16! Just kidding, but seriously...  Anyway, we began our day of celebrating by treating Kendra to some all-you-can-eat pancake breakfast. Then, we rented 4 Mopeds and began a road trip of the island (can you say tourists?).  It was a blast! We took them up the East Shore of the island and saw some beautiful beaches and mountain views including Waimanalo (Nalo~ nah-lo  adj. 1. the condition of being straight thug or gangster.  2. cool, fresh.  "T.I. is such a Nalo Hustla!"), Makapu'u beach where we bodysurfed, and Kailua. We even stuck it to the man and took the mopeds outside of boundaries set by the rental agency. I know what you're thinking, we're so Nalo. That night, sunburnt and happy, we went out to dinner at Senor Frog's, gave our Kendra her presents which included a calendar of exotic Men of the Islands and a pimp chalice which said "Kenj-Daddy" in rhinestones and aluminum foil, and tried to go clubbing which ended up being unsuccessful (due to Brendan's demolished ID), but in no way was it a let down to the ending of a wonderful day. Happy Birthday Kendra!  The next day began a little more disappointingly. We obviously hadn't been giving The Red Bull the attention he deserved, so he went and broke on us. Four days, a 4th of July spent at auto parts stores, and $250 later, a sketchy guy named Pat or Pete or something that Brendan and  I met in a parking lot had The Red Bull backing in fighting shape again.  The past few days have been kind of a whirlwind consisting of Club Zanzabar, some 5 AM bedtimes, some 8:30 AM wake-up calls, and several other adventures. Ah! I almost forgot about our visitors!  We have been blessed to be graced by the presences of Crosby and Pam Ruff for the past 3 days.  Needless to say, they are AWESOME.  Several family dinners, some oh-my-freak hilarious stories, a trip to the North Shore, and a CUTCO cutlery demonstration later, we had to say goodbye to the Ruff parents as they left this morning to head back to SC.  They were gracious enough let us crash in their air-conditioned and hot-tub bearing hotel suite for a few nights, so we've been living it up like kings and queens. Tomorrow, we head for the Hawaii DMV to take our written driving tests to get Hawaii Licenses and become legit locals (which way do I turn the wheels when I'm parked downhill on a curb again?). Wish us luck! Goodbye everybody, we miss yall and we'll blog again soon. Aloooooha!

-Will Phil