So, Sarah and Mike are finally getting married?
Well, how did it all happen?
We first met in Hawaii while working on the Hawaii Hawksbill Sea Turtle Monitoring Project.
Mike was returning for his second year with the project and he was helping to train in Sarah who was brand new to the project.
Actually. . . the very first day that we met was the day that Mike and Jimmy drove down to Hilo, from Volcanoes National Park, to pick up Lucass and Sarah to go jumping off water falls.
Seven waterfalls and a waterlogged guava fight later,
it was love.
Since that fateful day, we've been living together in Mike's house in Pahoa on the Big Island. The house is a fixer-upper that is slowly evolving into our home.
Kitchen: After removal of yucky old counters with ant nest inside and leaky sink
Kitchen after new cabinets and counter top and fancy sink (with water that you can drink!)
After a while, we decided that we wanted to share the house with some roommates (Jackaroo and Reuben). They are much more fond of cardboard boxes and Mike than they are of the house, but it has been working out well.
There have been many different jobs between us since 2004, but we have both settled into our current jobs for a while now.
Mike is working with UH Manoa on a climate change project. He spends much of his time hiking heavy equipment around the rain forest in Laupahoehoe and Hakalau.
And, when he's not doing that, he can still be found playing Frisbee at the bay front fields in Hilo.
(Or whatever it is that he does down there)
Sarah is working for CSU / CEMML to manage endangered species on federal land.
She spends most of her time waking up at 4:00 am to commute up Mauna Kea to Pohakuloa, in the saddle of the big island, where she spends quality time with a'a rocks and remote bat detection equipment.
When Sarah is not playing with the wildlife, she is usually playing with Mike and the rest of their Big Island friends on their many adventures around Hawaii.
Overall, we are still the same big dorks that we were when we met each other (talk nerdy to me baby!), except now it is even more extreme because there are two of us -and being friends with a bunch of biology dorks doesn't help
(you know who you are, don't try to deny it)!
So, we live together, we managed to find and keep fairly stable jobs in Hawaii and we dork-out with our friends. . . I guess that just leaves getting engaged to complete the story.
It' a romantic tear jerk-er, so get the tissue box ready. . .
It all began one romantic evening in October, 2009. Mike was headed to the university library to study for his upcoming GRE test and Sarah was dressed in her finest pink spandex and blue wig to attend a super hero party. (Warning: those sensitive to bright colors and inappropriately tight ensembles should stop scrolling down at this point)
As luck would have it, the timing was just right to allow the couple to carpool to their respective events.
After an evening of studying, Mike returned to the super hero party to play the role of Designated Driver Man (the best real super hero that there is).
We don't know for sure if it was the pink spandex pants, the blue wig, the beer bong thong, or the half hour of laughing the whole drive home, but one of those things, or a combination of several, caused Mike to realize that this was the type of shenanigans he wanted to secure for the rest of his life.
When Sarah asked Mike, after they got home, "Don't you want to be with me forever?" he responded by asking back "Will you be with me forever?" And that was how we got engaged.
(Just imagine what the wedding is going to be like!)
Check out our other blog pages to find out more details about the weddings and honeymoon.
And then we lived happily ever after. . .
Love and Aloha,
Sarah and Mike
