Weddingbee Blog

Remember this picture?

A long time ago, way back in May of last year, I posted a picture of myself in a little red bikini on Waikiki Beach. At first glance, it may have appeared that I was super bloated from too much room service and fruity drinks, but upon closer inspection, hopefully you noticed my belly was growing a teeny tiny Baby Dumpling.

I can’t tell you how much all of the love and support (and 212 comments!) that I received from the Weddingbee community helped me feel. I was 4 1/2 months pregnant at our wedding and almost 6 months pregnant on our honeymoon, so putting on a bathing suit was the last thing I wanted to do. However, with a little encouragement from my husband, I just went for it and enjoyed our last trip as just the two of us. By the way, Baby Dumpling is almost 9 months old now and I would rather die than put that bikini—let alone ANY bathing suit—back on. Baby fat is hard to lose and I don’t like scaring children.

We decided to go to Hawaii for a few reasons. Most importantly, I was pregnant and wouldn’t be able to handle a long flight to a far away tropical paradise or my first choice, London. I was also extremely ill during my pregnancy thus far, so the thought of leaving the country really scared me. It was so bad that I had to have my doctor prescribe anti-nausea pills for me while I was in Hawaii. The other reason we decided on Hawaii was because our good friends were getting married on the Big Island 3 weeks after our wedding, and we wouldn’t have been able to afford a honeymoon, and then another trip to Hawaii. So we just postponed it 3 weeks. No biggie.

We stayed at a gorgeous hotel, Sheraton Waikiki, and we had a fantastic time. The pool was pure bliss, and even though I wore a sun hat and SPF 200, I was relaxed for the first time in a few months.

As soon as we got there, I put on my old lady maternity dress and made Mr. Dumpling take me for Hawaiian Shave Ice. No, not shaved ice. It’s called Shave Ice, braaaaa. I had two. I had the first one while Mr. Dumpling was in line for some strange canned meat, and then I grabbed another one when he wasn’t looking. I was a piggy piggy when I was pregnant and gained 60 pounds.

Then we walked the beach…..

And I chased pigeons. There were a lot of those damn birds in Hawaii. This one was tired of my shenanigans and decided to play dead.

The next day, we tried to find the Holy Grail of local food, also known as the shrimp trucks. We thought they were only in the North Shore, but we found one about a mile from our hotel. We got there at 10AM ad had shrimp for breakfast. We’re champs. Aaaaand here’s another shot of my enormous belly.

In the hotel lobby, holding my belly. I remember really having to pee and running to the bathroom, only to find that it was closed for maintenance and arguing with the cleaning staff to let me in now. They didn’t let me in, and I had a tiny accident. Ooops. I think Mr. Dumpling felt bad for me, so he shelled out $50 for that lei I’m wearing.

Next, we took a road trip to Leonard’s Bakery, home of the most wonderful thing I have ever put in my mouth, ever: MALASADAS. It’s a Portuguese doughnut and it is heaven in a bag. I ate 5 of them for a snack and then made Mr. Dumpling drive me back for more. There was a line, kids. This place is the shizz.

This is us at the Healing Stones, praying for my little Dumpling and all of the other people in our lives that needed prayers.

There was a weird parade that night, and I was feeling goofy, apparently.

I don’t know what we’re sitting on, but it looked like a Buddha statue and I was always joking that I had a Buddha belly…. so we sat on it and took a cheesy picture.

The next morning we woke up and went to Pearl Harbor. Very interesting, and not at all what I thought it was going to be. You wait in line for HOURS to get on a little ferry shuttle that takes you to this big white memorial place.

And when you get inside, you are not allowed to talk. Like, at all. This is me not talking. I was about to puke, but I held it in since I was supposed to be quiet.

I have to admit…it was sorta scary inside the memorial. All the names on the wall, and the ship still underwater….trippy.

That afternoon we wanted to eat real, local Hawaiian food so we settled on ONO Hawaiian Foods.

I ate something with my fingers… I did not enjoy… not at all.

So I made Mr. Dumpling take me to a fancy restaurant that night to make up for the silly things he made me eat for lunch. We went to Halekulani Hotel, and ate at House Without a Key. DUDE. It was expensive. I think our bill was over $200 and I didn’t even have any booze. We are usually $5 Footlong type of people, so we had a little bit of sticker shock when we saw the menu. Whatever though… it was awesome and it came with hula dancers.

And one of them agreed to pose in a picture with me.

This is not where the story ends though, my friends. We were there for 5 days and I decided to leave. I left the hubs behind to attend that wedding I told you about and I hopped on a plane back to Vegas to see another man, the second love of my life…

THIS GUY

Sir Paul McCartney.

I waited in line for 5 hours a month prior to our trip—AFTER we booked it—and had to pay a gazillion dollars to change my flights… not to mention the ticket costing me a very pretty penny… but it was HECKA WORTH IT. I was FINALLY getting to realize my dream of seeing a Beatle in person. Amazing.

Baby Dumpling kicked me the whole night. I think she was dancing. She’s a Beatles fan.

This is my crazy baby now:

Photo by Mrs. Cherry Pie

And I’m not quite sure why she’s giving me this look… ?

So there it is. Our honeymoon. Also known as “The Last Vacation Without a Little One Ever For a Long Time”…

We’re going back in July. This time, as a family.