Hawaii

We're back to the real world and I've been racking my brains how to figure out how to get back and live in the tropics somehow. Here are the highlights.

Friday- 2:45 am. We board the plane from Las Vegas to Hawaii. I was so worried about falling asleep so that I could play all day when we got there that I couldn't go to sleep. We get to Hawaii about 6 am and find our way to Ryan's cousin house on the North Shore. We're all so exhausted that we have to sleep for a couple of hours before we can start to enjoy the sun and ocean that on high tide hits the beach house. This is our first beach day.

After playing and body boarding at the beach most of the day we go to the grocery store on our way back to pick up some groceries. After putting them in the car we decide to order a pizza and grabbed an ice cream and sat out side eating it while we waited for our pizza. When we got back to the house we went to get the groceries out of the trunk. And there were no groceries. They had been stolen along with a few other things. So, from that time forward no one left anything in the trunk anywhere. Lesson learned. I had been warned about the theft problem but I didn't think it applied to groceries.

Saturday- We randomly stopped at this beach on our way to Waikki beach and it was by far my favorite beach. It was gorgeous and the waves were awesome. Like a little scary because they were so big and of all the signs posted saying strong current and the life guards making announc ments to only swim if you're a strong swimmer. But we had a blast playing in the waves and the water was really pretty and the moutains in the background and light house.

Afterwards we stopped by this cool place where Ryan's cousin said he had been a week before and seen cameras there filming for Lost. So, I can't wait for the new season to start so I can see if I recognize it.

We finally made it to Waikki and ate here at Cheese Burgers in Paradise. I was never really sure it actually existed as it was always the office joke to eat there when we were thinking about where to go to lunch. And it was definitly paradise.

Then we walked along the boardwalk, watched the sunset and saw all the crazy Halloween costumes.

Sunday- We checked out the temple, relaxed, walked along the beach played some cards.

Monday- We hiked the Sacred Falls hike, which has actually been closed for 10 years because of a rock slide that killed 7 people. The only way we knew we were on the right trail or not was by following the warning, area closed due to dangerous conditions signs along the way. It was a pretty crazy hike, pretty jungly and we had to climb over rocks across the river, but really amazing.

Later that day we went on the tour where they filmed some scenes in Jurassic Park & Lost, not as cool as I was expecting but still fun. Here's ryan trying to be like Jack (from Lost).

Here's the group at dinner that night.

Tuesday- We went to the famous surfing beach Pipe Line, no swimming allowed, you can't see from the pic but the wave were big.

And got some yummy pastries at this popular bakery everyone goes after surfing.

Afterwards we were off to the PCC. (Polynesian Cultural Center)

We learned the Hula

Got lei'd

Ate an authentic luau dinner.

And me and Ryan got to dance up on the stage in front of everyone because they were celebrating Nov. anniversaries. Unfortunatley the pic is a little dark.

Wed. - We totally got hooked on the shaved ice. Its not just shaved ice it has ice cream at the bottom and they drizzle the shaved ice with sweetened condensed milk. I think we had one almost every day. But this place was the coolest place, there's all sorts of pics of celebrities eating here and it was the coolest little surf town.

We went to the Swap meet, thought it was great, like a big flea market where you can buy a bunch of cheap stuff and Pearl Harbor.

Also, Ryan and Josh thought it would be cool to catch crabs on the beach. Crabs are so creepy looking.

Thurs- Went snorkeling at Sharks Cove, really fun. And then more swimming at Waimea Bay.

Friday- Our last day. We did some more body boarding, went to Chinaman's hat, started paddling out to the little island there and then realized how long it would take.

Then decided to head back to our favorite beach and stayed until got dark.

And then took our final pic in Hawaii before heading to the air port.

Vacation Time

This month flew by. I don't know what we've done. We went to St. George for a weekend trip, watched scary movies, went to a Haunted House, decorated Halloween cookies, work of course, and now its snowing here and we're going to Hawaii tomorrow!! Yea! I think its going to be really hard when we get back and have to deal with the fact that there is no more escaping the winter. I don't expect anybody to feel sorry for me since I will be in Hawaii for a full 7 days. Ok, I think i've rubbed it enough. I was just at the library so I'd thought I'd take advantage of the internet and say good bye:)

"Wicked" Seattle Trip

Well we had a really fun trip to Seattle last weekend. I think most everyone who reads this was there but for the few who weren't... We went to see the play Wicked in Seattle with my family and all my cousins. We all got dressed up and took the ferry over to Seattle. We met up with everyone at the Cheese Cake Factory and had a delicious fun dinner with everyone. After dinner we walked a block over to the theatre. The theatre was beautiful inside and we loved the play it was a really, really fun night. The next day was beautiful day which is rare in Washington. So, we went to Poulsbo, a cute town on the water and on our way stopped by the Submarine Museum. Addie refused to pose for my picture taking. We walked along the waterfront of Poulsbo looking at all the sail boats and ate lunch at a yummy fish restaraunt. After we walked along and shopped at the antique and little boutique stores. That night we had fun doing our usual family past time... cards.. and hanging out in to the wee hours of the morning talking with my aunt and cousin. The next day it was already time to go home. My mom and Penny took me and Ryan on the ferry to Seattle where we ate at our favorite Seattle Thai restaruant and walked around Pike's Place market that we bought some flowers from to take with us home, they actually made me put them through the scanner thing at the air port. All in all we had a really fun trip, we had good weather, good food, awesome play, and of course seeing and hanging out with my awesome family:)

Labor Day

I love 3 day weekends, as I know everyone does and this Labor Day was such a nice day. Sunny and warm but not hot. We've talked all summer about hiking up to the Timp caves but the last time we tried it was a 2 hour wait (you have to buy a ticket and go in with a tour guide) and this time it was completely sold out. But we decided to hike the trail up to the caves even though we couldn't go in. It was a really nice hike, the weather was perfect, good exercise, cool views so nice to be in natue for a little while a change from just walking/jogging around our neighborhood. After the hike we ate lunch at Kneaders bakery, very yummy.

After going home and showering and relaxing for a bit we headed up to SLC to do some shopping and then went to our friends house for a yummy dinner and bowling. Believe it or not, me and Ryan have never been bowling together so, of course I was a bit rusty and didn't even break a hundered, actually didn't even come close to, course I think may have only done that one time in my life, bowling is not my strong suit but I still think its fun, I'm much better on the Wii.

Music Man

I have not been able to blog very much because I can't get on to the blogging web site at work anymore and since we don't have internet at our house it makes blogging and feeling connected to the rest of the world hard. I might have to actually break down and buy internet for our house.

Ryan's band played in Provo at this place called Velour which also happens to be the location of our first date. I realized I had never taken any pictures of him playing before. He got so into his performance that he actually injured his thumb on his keyboard because he was playing so hard


Also, here is the finished video of the commercial we did where we got to drive the mustang around town.... You have to watch very closely, no blinking or you might miss us. Also, look for the Jazz basketball player with the huge biceps (its Ryan).
Click Here

Gaming, vacay plans & more...

My bro, Orson, little sis Penny stayed at our house last night after a long drive from Seattle. Orson is on his way to law school in Houston and Penny is along for the ride and to visit Annaliese and Addie in New Orleans. They taught me and Ryan Canasta. Ryan and Orson don’t look terribly happy in this picture seeing as how me and penny totally beat them.

We have also after months, many months actually, of researching a bunch of different places, (mostly in the carribean) and trying to decide where to go and when, we have finally planned (and bought our airfare- so its official) our vacation. Ryan’s cousin who(m?) he roomed with for a couple of years in college is moving with his wife and newborn baby to Hawaii to teach for a semester at BYU Hawaii in September. They invited us to come visit them and so we are. October 30th- Nov 6th. This is the beach house we will be staying at. Its right on the beach on the North Shore of Hawaii right by the Polynesian cultural center, 10 min from where they filmed Jurassic Park and the tv show Lost. Yea!! Its so nice to have a vacation to look forward to, I had forgotten, the last real vacation we went on was our honeymoon. I may be jumping the gun a little bit but I am already starting to shop for our trip and bought a cute dress for Hawaii.

http://www.vrbo.com/194918 - This is the link to the cool place we are staying...

Also, my sister Annaliese and Spencer and Addie were here for a couple of weeks and I thought i'd post a few pics that she didn't....

Addie has the cutest frowns.... I swear I think she likes me although this pic would suggest otherwise.

Here are Annaliese and Addie looking a little TC (too cool:))

The Big One

I can’t believe it, I am now 30. I don’t think it has quite sunk in yet that next time some body asks how old I am I have to say 30. I’m no longer in my 20’s. It’s weird, It seems like I should feel more adultish because there is no denying once you hit 30 you’re an adult. When you are younger you envision that you will feel differently when you are at certain ages like 30 or be different, I don’t know but you’re always you I guess, you just have had more experiences that have you taught you more things… k, enough ponderings about growing up.

I actually had a pretty fun day. I took a half day off work, Ryan took me to Tucanos (brazillion restraunt) for lunch. After stuffing myself with lots of garlic sirloin the best steak ever (and I’m not a big steak eater) we went to the city pool by our house and worked on our tans and read our books. Then got home and got ready and opened up my presents from Ryan. A GPS for my car, which I have been wanting for a while (sorry Orson), a really cute (too expensive) black dress from Express & hot pink roses. Then we met up with some friends and Ryan’s family at the cheese cake factory for dinner and ate outside on the patio.

All in all a pretty good for my first day as being 30:)

Also, I hadn't gotten around to posting our 4th of July Festivities, Amber and Christian pictured above asked us to go on a impromptu trip to Vegas with them. We stayed at the Mandalay Bay hotel, which has a fun beach/wave pool, did some shopping and saw the cirque de solei show Ka.