A hui hou Hawaii

We’ve know since last fall that moving back to WI this spring/ summer would be a strong possibility.  Hawaii is great for so many reasons but it’s literally on the other side of the world from loved ones. The 9+ hours on the plane plus 2 more travel hours is NO JOKE! This decision hands down has been one of the toughest decisions we’ve had to make in a LONG time. On one hand Hawaii is our dream. We’ve spent our entire marriage almost 5 years either honeymooning, planing our move or living in Hawaii. To say it’s special is an understatement. It’s our home and our life. It’s all Luke has ever known. There’s something about the islands that calls to us.. But the one vital thing that’s missing- family (and friends that are family). Since we first started this blog four years ago, this was the one sacrifice that we always found it terribly hard to cope with. Not seeing the little ones in the family grow, attend holiday celebrations, summer bon fires, Christmas festivities... we could go on. We have missed a LOT and our family has missed a lot of our lives. Our life in Hawaii for the most part has been almost perfect on the surface. But under that layer it’s hard. It’s been hard having no help, no home cooked meals, no babysitting.. We both found great jobs, had amazing coworkers, made life long friends but sometimes having one piece missing from the puzzle can throw the whole thing out of whack.

It’s after four amazing, beautiful, difficult, stressful years we are finally caving in and moving back to the mainland. Initially, we thought this adventure  might only last a few months as a fun break from reality, or even a temporary home before we moved to Australia, or Japan. With our first son being born last year we decided that at this time in our life family is what we need and what Luke needs. He needs to see his grandparents regularly, grow up knowing his cousins, spending holidays with his family and having a back yard to run around in. We literally sat down and wrote the pros and cons of WI and HI because it was one of the hardest decisions we’ve made.

Hawaii will ALWAYS be our home and have our hearts. After all, it’s Luke’s birthplace. Our entire pregnancy, labor and almost the entire first year of Luke’s life were spent here. Those memories don’t just fade away. We look forward to bringing Luke back often when he’s older and showing him everything again. It’s the little things we’ll miss like driving past Luke’s hospital and admiring the valley in the back, or the one specific tree we dedicated as “our tree” four years ago on a bus tour and our morning family coffee dates drinking Honolulu Coffee company. We  joke that if we have more kids we’ll have to create new memories so they’re not to jealous of Luke, Haha. As a couple we have endured so much good (and bad) together and it’s amazing how strong we are and how our faith has grown with us.

Even though it breaks our hearts to close this door, the new door awaiting us in WI to be opened is equally exciting! We can’t wait to attend holidays, birthday celebrations and little moments with those we love (even if that means snow and freezing temps)! We’ve made so many amazing memories with many of our loves ones and feel so thankful to those that have made the journey to visit us (and even those who wanted to, but weren’t able). It’s crazy to think our decision to move here created yearly family vacation memories.

The planing to get home has been even more difficult than coming out here. While there’s a ton ahead yet to do, we’ve knocked a ton out. Between shipping our car, our pets, cleaning out stuff from 4 years all while taking care of baby has been rough but exciting. To say we are thankful to our parents is an understatement. They’ve not only come to Hawaii to have FUN with us, they’ve also been our storage centers for all our junk, property managers for our condo at home, and helped with millions of other things. Even just listening to us vent (or cry) about the stress at times. We are endlessly grateful for the support and help and hope they know how much we love and appreciate them.

This blog has been our diary in a sense for the past four years and it’s almost sad in a way looking back to 2014 because time flies. Everything was new..that was both so exciting, by the terrifying a time the same time. Everyday has been an adventure.  These years seem in many ways like a blur, almost like one long summer. It’s amazing looking at our pictures how blessed we are to have been able to travel to the other island so often and to explore our own island. We thought we would loose weight being so active (we have been way more active exploring) but actually ended up gaining weight because the food is just so good. We could eat our 3x a day and there would always be something new to try. Hawaii opened our eyes to new foods, people, culture, religions... a new life. We BOTH are new people because of it. It’s a different world that we’ve made ours. Looking back about about this time (March) I’m so thankful we were so nieve coming here because if we knew how hard even little things would be (housing with pets, jobs, transportation etc) I don’t know if we would’ve had the courage to go through with it. We only saw the positives and dealt with obstacles as they happened instead of worrying about the possibilities.

We’ve learned so much over our time here both about ourselves, our marriage, and now as parents, but also about Hawaii and it history,  as well as met so many wonderful people. You won’t find any more genuine kind people than those in Hawaii. The hospitality here is so genuine and welcoming unlike anywhere else in the world. We hope that Hawaii would welcome us back with open hearts if that allowed in the future. We will try our best to bring the amazing aloha spirit with us forever. Every goodbye has been heartbreaking; from the amazing people, to our favorite coffee spots, to our favorite park-EVERYTHING. We look forward to the journey ahead and are bringing back the most priceless souvenir from our dream in Hawaii, our son! We buried Luke's umbical cord stump at our favorite spot at our favorite park so there will always be a piece of us as well as Luke in Hawaii. Our last day in Hawaii (today) we spent the morning celebrating our five year wedding anniversary by renewing our vows in a Hawaiian wedding ceremony.

first set of keys-April 2014

handing over keys-April 2018

Our blog will continue on as we document our final time in Hawaii, our road trip from LA TO WI,  as well as our transition as a family and future travels.
A hou hoi Hawaii

Mark, Jen, Luke Christiansen

Grand Wisconsin Adventure

This past October Mark, Luke and I traveled all the way from Honolulu airport to Chicago O'Hare and then to Wisconsin to celebrate Luke's baptism! It was an intense journey and obviously stressful at times but so worth it! We left Friday morning at 5:30am Hawaii time and arrived in Chicago at 3am Saturday (11pm Hawaii time). It was a loooog day but our little dude was so much fun. He would throughout the flights look for the attention of the flight attendants as they walked by and flash his smile to get their focus. We were obviously so nervous for his first flight (he was 4 months old) but now being EIGHT MONTHS old it will be so much harder because he never sits still and I feel like he never sleeps, Haha. One of the sacrifices of us living in Hawaii is that we couldn’t fully share our pregnancy with our family as much as we would have liked and more importantly
show Luke off when he was born. It was indescribable introducing him to much of family for the first time!

His baptism was awesome! Arch bishop Jeff Haines baptized Luke, which was so special because he was our priest when we attended mass at the Cathedral (also the same church we were married at). Luke did great during the mass but when it came time to be baptized he screamed and cried until they blessed him with the water. We couldn’t blame him for being cranky because we had just taken him on a grand journey only 30 some hours prior. Luke's godparents are his uncle Craig and aunt Katie. We are so honored to have both of them in Luke's life and to help him spiritually. After mass our moms hosted a beautiful baptism party for Luke at the clubhouse at our condo. The food trays were all decorated in the shapes of crosses and my mom even picked up a Danish layer cake for Luke (the flavor was per my request haha). It was so special to have so many of the people we love in one place celebrating Luke's special day! We are so proud of this little boy and loved showing him off to everyone. We are so appreciative of the love and support everyone showed our family by traveling to support Luke.

The night before the grand journey! 

During our week home we visited a pumpkin farm! It was FREEZING that day, but so much fun dressing warm and drinking hot apple cider! Luke was dressed up as stitch from Disney's Lilo and stitch for his first Halloween. Hawaii has a few pumpkin farms on Oahu, but they're not the same as the ones in Wisconsin- something we really miss! Later in the week my mom and I took Luke out to a country farm and had warm apple cider donuts (sooooo delicious) and chicken pot pie! The leaves were changing colors around the time we were home so we made it a priority to drive through Pets park and see all the trees. Mark and I always say that growing up in Wisconsin we took so many things for granted and it takes leaving to really see what you miss.  Our trip home was extra special because we were able to meet THREE new babies! Our niece Grace was born just days before our trip, our best friend's the Van Treecks welcomed their baby boy in March and my friend since I was six years old welcomed a baby girl two days before Luke was born! It was so wonderful seeing all the babies together.

While we were home Mark's grandpa Ruetz was inducted into the Racine county sports hall of fame! All the family was there to see him get honored, and Mark's uncle Joe gave a speech remembering him.

We loved, loved, loved spending so much time with our friends and family and showing off Luke to everyone. The trip flew by and before you knew- it was over. This fall we moved into a smaller apartment to save money and welcomed Mark's mom and brother Craig in November for three weeks over Thanksgiving. My mom then came right after they left to spend 8 weeks with us over Christmas. Having family here was so important because I went back to work full time early November. Knowing our babes was safe with family made it so much easier leaving him for both Mark and I. Plus it's always the best thing in the world to share our Hawaii life with our family. Totally like having the best of two worlds. We went to Kauai in November with Kathy and Craig. Luke got to swim in his first pool. It actually happened in one of our favorites at the Kauai Marriott. He loved watching us splash and being pushed around in his baby floatie. He was an awesome little traveler for us.

Yummy lilikoi pie for Thanksgiving!

Delicious homemade meal with family! 

Korean BBQ. Yum!

 Christmas in Hawaii has always been my favorite time of year. The hotels are decorated extravagantly, there's holiday decorations everywhere you look (including sculptures made out of sand) and tourists from around the world singing Mele Kalikimaka on Waikiki beach. Plus the fact that it's warm is pretty awesome as well. Spending most of our Christmas' in Wisconsin it's pretty hilarious to see Santa arriving to shore in an outrigger. 

Luke loved every minute until the "elf" made a LOUD ringing noise, haha! 

Christmas morning! 

There was something pretty special about taking our first family Christmas card photo on the beach! We picked the perfect night to go as the sunset was amazing. Props to my mom for taking a great photo! 

Next blog we will be talking about our looming move back to the mainland. :/
Aloha----

Mark, Jen & Luke