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By Amanda Tanigawa

Life in Kauai – 8 month update!


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We have been living in Kauai now for 8 months, so I wanted to give everyone an update on how life is going for our family and share some of the things we have been up to! This move has been a completely different lifestyle change for us. Life in Vegas is nothing like life in Kauai. It took a little bit of time to get adjusted and settled in, but we couldn’t be happier with our decision and watching how much Mia loves her home here in Kauai just confirms that this is where we were meant to be. I even love watching how excited our dogs get running around freely on the beach!

 

This was right after we stepped off the plane and arrived in Kauai back in December, we went straight to see our new house!

 

This was Mia’s first time on the beach! She was only 8 months here, I cant believe how much she has grown since then!!

 

We feel so blessed to finally be surrounded by family. Cijay’s whole family is living here in Kauai and once my parents heard we were moving here they surprisingly decided to pack up from Napa Valley and move here too (and they only live a few streets down from us now!). I am an only child and Mia is my parents first grand baby, so they couldn’t stand to be away from us, so now Mia is lucky enough to grow up surrounded by her whole family!

 

Mia was 9 months old here, these are all of her cousins, Ian, Evan, and Marie.

 

Mia’s whole family at her First Birthday Party!

 

Cijay and I were lucky enough to fall right into jobs that we both really enjoy. He has been working a long side his dad in their construction company and doing a great job at it. I started teaching barre fitness classes and ballet classes at a studio called Barre and Soul, right down the street from where we live. We may be making less money than what we made in Vegas, but we are finally doing something we both love and it feels so good! We have great schedules so we are both able to spend a lot of quality time with Mia and we barely need a sitter. The few times we do need someone to watch Mia, our families are always there for us.

We are constantly spending our time outdoors, whether it’s going to the beach, hiking, or just a walk down the beautiful bike path in Kapaa. I love living somewhere that we can spend majority of our time outside! Cijay and I usually have the weekends off together so that’s when we spend our quality family time outdoors. I definitely think going to the beach is Mia’s favorite. She could seriously spend all day in the sand and water if we let her. I love the beach myself, but I do like venturing out out to different areas of the island and going up the mountains. There is something magical about living in a place where you can drive one way down your street and sit on one of the most beautiful beaches and then drive down the same street in the other direction and hike up a beautiful wooded mountain to get a breathtaking view at the top.

Our first family hike! We hiked up the small trail right behind his parents house to sleeping giant.

 

It’s so much fun taking our dogs to the beach, they are still a little afraid of the waves but they love the sand!

 

We are currently living on the East Side of the island in Wailua. Our whole family lives on this side of the island and this is where Cijay was raised, so we knew we wanted to be in this area when we moved here. Not only is it beautiful in Wailua (okay, it’s beautiful everywhere in Kauai) but it’s close to great shops, food, and multiple beaches just seconds from our neighborhood!

 

This is the bike path in Kapaa, right down the street from our house! Beautiful view and perfect place to walk your babies!

 

This is one of our favorite beaches to take Mia to, its right at the end of our neighborhood and it has the best little pond area for the babies to play in!

 

Seriously, there are beautiful beaches around every corner!

 

Overall I’m loving our new lives here in Kauai. This lifestyle change has been so refreshing.  I never thought I would love waking up early and going to bed before midnight, but it feels so good! We may be making less money than what were making in Vegas, but our quality of life is so much better out here! We are getting more quality family time together, constantly spending time outdoors in the most beautiful landscape, we just started our own garden of fruits and veggies (which not only gives you fresh food, but it saves money), and so many more reasons! I seriously could go on forever on the reasons why I love it here and why this island makes me feel so happy about life. Stay tuned for more updates on our lives here in Kauai! We are constantly going on new adventures and experiencing new milestones with Mia, so I can’t wait to share all of those moments with you!

 

 

 

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8 Comments

Comments

  1. Diane says

    August 18, 2017 at 8:59 pm

    Thavk you for sharing. I follow you on Snapchat ((domesticdee)) is me. I have a family of 4 and we live in New York. The winters are beginning to take a serious toll on me and my husband. i was born an amputee so physically I’m limited. My husband Our 2 children are “normal” but we are seriously thinking about moving to a place where there’s no snow HAHaha when he retires. We are in our mid to late 40’s. Would like to wait until our kids are through high school before we move. Both of our families live in NY. Anyway thank you for sharing

    Reply
    • Amanda Tanigawa says

      August 19, 2017 at 8:34 pm

      Hi Diane! Thank you so much for following along, it means a lot to me! Maybe one day you and your family can come enjoy the beautiful beaches here in Hawaii and escape the snow! 🙂

      Reply
  2. Mary says

    August 19, 2017 at 12:04 am

    Love it and so happy you are finally doing this! Love watching you and Mia grow and seeing you so happy.

    Congrats mama, I know it’s a lot of work but keep pursuing what you love!

    Reply
    • Amanda Tanigawa says

      August 19, 2017 at 8:34 pm

      Thanks momma! 🙂

      Reply
  3. Jessica says

    August 24, 2017 at 6:55 am

    These pictures are all so gorgeous! Which camera do you use?

    Reply
  4. Jessica says

    August 25, 2017 at 10:08 am

    I’d love more updates on growing your first garden! I’m sure everything grows like crazy out there, but I’m a sucker for before and after developments!

    Reply
  5. daniel jimenez says

    January 8, 2019 at 3:22 pm

    What a great story. Thank you for the insights and sharing the courage to uproot yourselves to anotber environment. Cheers! Dan

    Reply
    • Amanda Tanigawa says

      January 24, 2019 at 10:22 pm

      Thank you so much!! I appreciate that!

      Reply

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Welcome to my happily ever after life in Kauai! This site is a little peek into my life as a wife, mom, barre & ballet instructor and island adventurer. I’m not only here to share my life with you, but to hopefully inspire everyone to become better people; better to one another, better to the planet, and better to themselves. Thank you for joining me on this journey!

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