So feel free to add me. My user name is Orangeturtle.

And to entice you to add me…here’s a few pictures that I took and shared on Instagram recently.  :)

USS Missouri.

USS Arizona Memorial.

At some point of our vacation, we swung by the Tantalus drive to catch some scenic view of the island.

We are so grateful to had the chance to relax and enjoy being with each other at Oahu! It was a really fun and memorable trip.  Oahu – we shall see you again…hopefully not too far off in the future!

see part one here.

This past week Daniel and I took a trip to Oahu, Hawaii! :) We have been married for almost 6 years now and since we went to Hawaii (Big Island) for our honeymoon, this trip is sort of our ‘second honeymoon’. Although Daniel and I traveled a lot in the past year, we mainly traveled for work and for visiting family.  So a relaxing vacation was very much needed!! :)  We picked Oahu as our destination because 1. we have never been there and 2. it’s cheaper than going to other Islands! HAHA.  I feel like Oahu has a lot of bad reputation of being overly commercialized and crowded. But since I’m a city girl, I figured I would actually like it.  And I did! I LOVE OAHU!  I love the fact that we can go explore all day and come back to the comfort of the hustle and bustle of the ‘city’ (we stayed at Waikiki).  I love that our hotel is right on the beach so no matter what we chose to do during the day, we could always come back to the hotel and chill on the beach.  It was awesome!

So here’s part one of our vacation. :) Some pictures are taken with our Canon 5D with our 50mm f/1.2 lens, and some other pictures are taken with our iphones (should be pretty obvious which ones those are)!

We kayaked out to Sunken Island.  I was hoping that the tide would be low enough so that a beach would surface. But all the sand is below the water.  It was still pretty cool though – we were able to walk around in the middle of the ocean.

For a couple of days we rented two mopeds as our mode of transportation. It was really fun to ride around Waikiki area. But it’s kinda scary once you have to get on the real roads where cars are going fast and you’re afraid that you’ll get hit! But thankfully all the Hawaiian drivers are so kind and nice!

The first time we rode our mopeds out to Hanauma Bay, it was on a Tuesday. And we didn’t realize that Hanauma Bay is closed on Tuesday!! Imagine our disappointment when we got there only to find out that we can’t go in. But it was an overcast day anyway. We went back to Hanauma Bay 2 days later and it was a GORGEOUS day.  I snapped this picture of the bay when we were leaving (after we snorkeled).  We were really lucky (I think) – we stayed on the left side of the bay where we found tons of fishes (and not a whole lot of people)! The snorkeling was surprisingly decent since a lot of people have told us that Hanauma Bay is getting ‘snorkeled out’.  I really wanted to go back to Hanauma Bay later that week but we didn’t get a chance to. We had too many things we wanted to do.

Another highlight of the trip – possibly my favorite moment – watching a pod of spin dolphins swimming around our boat!

A picture of us on the excursion. :) I love the Hawaiian sun in this pic!

Oahu is so crazy beautiful (not that you don’t already know that)! One one side of the road is the beach where as on the other side of the road you can find a view like this:

We went to Turtle Beach at North Shore to get a glimpse of the sea turtles. When we first got there, there was no turtles in sight on land and in the water! I was really disappointed.  We stayed there for close to an hour before we left to visit other places at North Shore.

We came back a couple of hours later….and there was one turtle on the shore, with two more in the water!

We brought our snorkel gears so we could get into the water to swim with these guys! It was really fun.  The visibility of the water was really bad though, so unfortunately I have to say it wasn’t good as when we snorkel with sea turtles at Big Island.

And an obligatory photo with the turtle that was basking in the sun. :)

Back at Waikik, our very own orange turtle Daniel was also basking in the sun.

to be continued…

Wow.  I can’t believe it’s 2012 already! We are so thankful that God blessed us with an incredible year of 2011.  There were good times and there were difficult times. But we made it through the year alive and healthy and still be in love with each other – that’s all that we could ask for! As we are venturing into another year, we want to take this time to say thank you to everyone for your constant support and encouraging words – whether you said it on our blog, on our facebook page or in person. :)

I know this is a few days late but – Happy New Year!

Watch out for June the bunzilla, terrorizing the city with her cuteness.

Here’s a behind-the-scene-ish pic that daniel took as I took the costume off of her! :) She went hiding in her strawberry house as soon as I put her down on the floor! lol!

Which photo of June the bunzilla do you like best?

I miss her so much.

My friends have the cutest kids!
After we were done, we went into ‘town’ for lunch, a little stroll and ate some amazing apple pie. :)

Many of you (who follow my blog) know that I have three bunnies – Bun Buns, Hops and June.  Many of you have probably seen a lot of pictures of them on this blog. This past Saturday, Bun Buns, our very first bunny girl passed away.  She was close to 10 years old and had lived with us for 7.5 years.  I adopted her when Daniel and I were dating.  She was the sweetest bunny that you’ll ever met. She loves to give out bunny kisses and getting petted.  She was litter trained and for awhile she didn’t even live in a cage. She shared the room with me and slept on the floor (like a cat would). In the morning she would jump onto my bed and lick my face in order to wake me up.  She was my constant companion whenever I was home.  One of my roommates was a pianist and piano teacher.  As she practiced her piano 4-8 hours/day, Bun Buns would sit at the foot of her feet listening to her practicing. Everyone who has met her would know how sweet and amazing of a bunny she is. Many of my friends have mistaken her for a puppy!

Through the years she experienced a lot of health issues. There were several times when we thought that we would lose her but she always bounced back again.  She knew that she was loved – and I think that why she held on for so long despite her physical condition. Everyday, she showed me that she wanted to be there. She is one spunky, spirited, brave rabbit who fought against all kinds of odds and remained with us until the very end.

Daniel and I were so sad when we found out that she’s gone.  Although we knew that her time with us is limited, it still came as a shock.  She was herself even the night before.  She even licked Daniel as he gave her the daily butt bath.  We really couldn’t tell that it was her last night with us.

Luckily, we didn’t have  a wedding on Saturday. It was our first free Saturday since July.  It was clearly God’s timing.

Hops is Bun Buns’ companion rabbit and Bun Buns means the world to him.  He was sitting by Bun Buns side when we found her in the morning.  He then groomed her for the longest time – a way for him to show her love one last time and say goodbye.

Bun Buns’s skinny little paws.

June knew, too. She was also really sad.

We put Bun Buns in a box and took her to the pet cemetery, where we had a little memorial service with her. We sang and said a couple of prayers – our way of saying goodbye.

Her fur is still as soft as usual. And she still smelled like herself (like a stuffed animal).

That’s Daniel petting her.

She is going to get cremated so we had to leave her in the box.  That was my last sight of her as we were leaving.

Bun Buns was with us for a long time. She was with me when I was still an software engineer. She was with me when I quit engineering.  She was there when I started grad school. She was there when Daniel and I got married.  She was there when we started Orange Turtle Photography.  She has been there basically ever since I graduated from college.  With her gone, I feel like an era of my life has ended.  A hole is left in my heart.

Bun Buns, I will love you always. You have touched our lives in ways I couldn’t have imagined. You were the best bunny I could ever have.  You were a sweet, spirited, spunky and brave rabbit.  We were so lucky to have you! I will miss spending time with you, petting you, feeding your favorite treats, kissing you and having you lick me back!  I miss having you around the house, listening to your snoring while I work.  Although I am so sad that you are gone, I am happy that now you’ll get to run around happily, groom yourself to keep yourself extremely clean, scratch your ear when they are itchy, and give bunny kisses to everyone that you’ll meet in heaven.

I will see you someday again.

Daniel also wrote a tribute to Bun Buns on facebook.

While we were waiting for a table, I snapped a few photos of the surrounding area. :)

I ordered a custard soaked french toast with fresh fruit and cinnamon whipped cream.

Daniel ordered a baja crab omelet. So good!