A real post will be here soon, I promise. But in the meantime...

i could complain about the way he made the bed

and then re-do it the way I like it

sheets tucked in and all

but i'm just grateful he made the bed

and that he always gives me a reason to laugh

:)

Is it too soon...

to put up Halloween decorations?

*This is serious. If you came to my house this weekend and I was all ready for Halloween, would you think I was crazy?

Kyle...

See Kyle

Kyle is ready to go tubing

Get on the tube Kyle

Where's Kyle?

A Couple of Things

I am always afraid to recommend books or movies to other people, in fear that they will hate what I have come to love. But everyone is different and I couldn't let this one slip by....

I loved this movie. Kyle loved this movie.

Loved Zooey Deschanel. Loved Joseph-Gordon-Levitt. Loved the music. Loved the story. Loved laughing the whole hour and a half. Loved everything about it.

Go see it.

Or don't.

Just know that we loved it.

On another note: It is official. Kyle and I are both full time students again. We always knew Kyle would continue his education in order to support our family. What we didn't know is that I would be continuing my education as well. In a matter of days I have gone from not planning to go to school ever again to applied, accepted, and registered for full time school at the U. Not sure how it happened or why but we are very excited and happy about it.

Never thought I would actually be excited for school, but two years without it really made me miss it.

So here we go. Bring on the tests, assignments, stress, books, last minute papers, and tuition.

We are ready.

...I hope.

Aloha and Mahalo!

Are you ready for our travel log? Because that is what this is going to be. My blog is my journal. I don't want to leave anything out.

WEDNESDAY:

We headed out for the airport early Wednesday morning. We had a short 3 hour layover in LA and then were off to HAWAII!

We arrived on the island of Oahu about 2:30, rented a car and vacation officially began.

We stayed in Waikiki which, for those of you who don't know, is really crowded, busy, touristy, dirty...it's basically the LA of Hawaii. I was pretty much shocked by how much I did not like Waikiki. I have only been to Kauai before this and Kauai is small, old fashioned, beautiful, and clean. I was definitely disappointed on our first day. But, it is Hawaii and really, can anything be truly wrong with that place?

We found our hotel, a place to eat, and then headed out on the streets of Waikiki to explore the beach and the shops.

A beautiful picture of Waikiki Beach

Us with the ocean

Touching the warm water for the first time.

The coolest part about our hotel is it was right across the street from the International Market Place, which had fun shops and places to eat. A quick walk through there and we were at the beach.

We did our tourist duty and bought some Hawaiian apparel for the week and were in bed and asleep by 9 that night. The four hour time difference is tough.

THURSDAY:

We woke up bright and early and rented some snorkeling gear. We got a great deal for a weeks worth of snorkel gear, two beach chairs, a cooler, and umbrella (which got zero use...who goes to Hawaii to sit in the shade?).

We headed off to the North Shore, which was about an hour drive. Upon arriving to the North Shore, we both immediately fell in love with it. It is the exact opposite of Waikiki. Clean, beautiful, small towns, less crowds, gorgeous beaches, etc...

Thursday was pretty much our explore the island day. We stopped at Sunset Beach for a little bit then continued to drive around.

Found us some shrimp from a street vendor,

and then settled on snorkeling at Turtle Bay. Snorkeling quickly became our favorite thing to do. We were both in the water for at least an hour, exploring the sea life and getting freaked out(mostly just me)by the weird fish we saw.

After some time spent at Turtle Bay we headed out again to see what else we could find. We eventually came upon the Laie Hawaii Temple.

Wow, it is beautiful! The temple itself, and the surrounding scenery was breathtaking. We were greeted by the sweetest sister missionary, who gave me a flower for my ear and taught me that if you are married it follows the path of your ring to your left ear (I originally had it over my right ear). We took pictures and then toured the visitors center.

We continued our drive around the East side of the island. Driving, sight-seeing, and looking for something fun to do. We came upon the Halona Blow Hole lookout and took some pictures there. It really was so cool to watch the waves crashing on the rocks.

Driving around nearly the whole island had taken up most of our day, so we went to the hotel, showered and headed out to the International Market Place to explore some more and find some food.

And once again, that night we were both out by 9:30.

FRIDAY:

We were once again up and ready to go bright and early. Today we decided to check out Pearl Harbor.

Wow, we are so glad we went there. We chose to do the free tour out to the USS Arizona memorial. It was such a humbling experience to see the ship resting at its underwater grave and to think about the people who lost their lives on that day.

Such a neat experience.

We then headed off to the North Shore again and stopped at the famous DOLE PLANTATION on our way.

Oh my their pineapple juice and ice cream is to die for!

Next was a stop at Waiamea Bay for our snorkeling fix of the day. This bay was one of our favorite spots of the week. Beautiful, not the best snorkeling but such a great place to relax and have fun swimming and such. We stayed for quite awhile.

We had been told by several people that we needed to stop in this quaint town on the north shore and visit MATSUMOTOS SHAVED ICE, so we did. And boy was it worth it. No shaved ice will ever compare to the deliciousness that was Matsumotos. Heaven on a snow cone right there.

Our last activity for that day was a delicious crab and shrimp dinner for me and steak and lobster for Kyle. MMMM....

SATURDAY:

Our first activity of the day was a hike up a crater called Diamond Head. It was actually a very fun, but tough hike. Once you got higher it was all stairs....steep, twisty, crowded, stairs. It was pretty tough but well worth it when we saw the view from the top. I braved it in flip flops (which was not smart) so I felt extremely accomplished when I finished!

We then, once again headed up to the North Shore for some..yes, more snorkeling. We ended up at Turtle Bay yet again and had a fabulous time taking pictures underwater(most didn't turn out as we hoped) and seeing the beautiful creatures that live under the sea.

That night was our first late night on the town. We were shocked to see so many people bustling about the streets of Waikiki after 10:00....we were usually fast asleep by that time. Who knew the city came to life at that time? Not us.

One of the locals at a store we shopped in told us the Cheesecake Factory was actually really cheap and had some great food relative to where we were so we thought we would give it a try. We both tried out an island dish and were happy with our picks!

We took a late night stroll along the beach...so romantic.

And then headed to bed.

SUNDAY:

We woke up very early and headed to Hanuama Bay, which is a famous snorkeling spot that quickly became our favorite part of the trip. It cost money and you had to watch an instructional video before they set you loose in the bay. Wow. It was gorgeous! We spent hours just skimming the surface of the bay, swimming over corals and seeing some incredibly beautiful fish and other creatures. It is such a beautiful place. Unfortunately, that day the tide was high and we weren't able to go out past a certain point. I am sure we would have seen a lot more amazing things had we been able to go out farther.

Still incredible.

After a few hours and a few bad sunburns we decided to hang out around Waikiki. We took a trolley ride around town and then did some shopping at the International Market Place. It was a nice evening since it was the first night we agreed to just take it easy and do whatever.

Which is what we did....

Tattoos:

Parrots:

Tiki's:

Beach:

MONDAY:

The only day we did not go to the beach.

We had a slow morning (for the first time in a week) getting ready and headed off to the North Shore. We decided we couldn't pass Matsumotos without stopping so we did and got another one. SOOO worth it.

Then we visited this scenic lookout in Laie. It was beautiful.

Our next stop was the Polynesian Cultrual Center. We both feel pretty wishy-washy about that experience. It was cool to go and experience all the different cultures and such, but quite possibly not worth the money we payed to do so.

The best part about the PCC was the luau we were able to attend. It was so much fun, we got lei'd, the food was delicious and the entertainment was even better. Kyle and I even got to go up and dance on the stage. So fun!

Afterwards we attended the night show which was incredible. Each island represented does their cultures dances and chants and wore their native clothing. It was awesome! A late night but well worth it.

TUESDAY:

Our last day

:(

We spent the morning packing and checked out of our hotel. The plan was to head to Hanauma Bay for some more snorkeling. Upon arriving there, we discovered it was CLOSED ON TUESDAYS. Of all the random days, Tuesday had to be it. We were pretty bummed to say the least. We had a good 6 hours before we had to turn in our car and head to the airport so we decided to go on a hunt to find a good snorkeling beach on the East side of the island. Unfortunately, we didn't find any good spots. So we "settled" on hanging out on a beach and trying out some body surfing...which really just turned into us getting pummeled by huge waves.

It was a lot of fun!

And unfortunately that was the end of our amazing vacation to Hawaii... I mean, I could tell you about our 5 hour wait at the airport....or our red-eye flight home that neither of us slept through... but that would just depress me. So I won't.

Thank you for reading about our vacation....writing this for the past hour took me back, if only for a little bit, to our perfect vacation in Hawaii.

I can't wait to go back again someday.

Hopefully soon.

TWO

July 31, 2007

Today our marriage is Two.

Where has the time gone?

I feel like it was just yesterday.

I hope it's always that way,

that 10, 20, 50 years down the line

I can remember that day

like it was yesterday.

Bad News and Good News

This morning, two days before we were to leave for Puerto Vallarta Mexico, we found out a big tropical storm/possible hurricane was hitting our vacation destination right when we were going to be there. What are the odds? Seriously, Mexico was not meant to be. The day after we booked it, the Swine Flu breakout happens. A week before we go we both come down with the (supposed)Swine Flu, fearing we won't get better in time. And two days before we leave, a hurricane hits. Could it be anymore obvious that we are not supposed to go to Mexico? With tears in my eyes I sadly had to call and cancel our vacation. No more beach. No sun tan. No need for my brand new passport. No swimming with dolphins. No relaxing. No much needed vacation. I was heart broken.

But we weren't going to just call it quits. Kyle worked too hard to get his shifts covered at work. We had to go on vacation. We searched online for hours looking for something to replace it. Everywhere we looked had a forecast of cloudy, rainy skies the whole week. Except Hawaii. But Hawaii is too expensive. That's why we picked Mexico in the first place. We looked anyways. And to make a long story short. We are going to Oahu. Wednesday! We found a deal that we couldn't pass up. A longer, better vacation for a small price increase? Yes, please!