Our Week With Lil' B

Last week Ry and I got to have Brandon come visit us for a little bit. Because he was here we wanted to do a lot of fun things in the mornings, so we definitely had a busy and fun week!

Saturday

Brandon got here Saturday night and Ry did not want to waste any time. We got home and put a little bit of food in him and then went shell hunting. We found a few cool ones :) they always end up being my most favorite souvenir. I don't have any pictures of them, but I have about a bajillion tiny ones and a good amount of big ones we're bringing home!

Sunday

Sunday we went to our family ward despite Lil B’s insisting that we should go to the singles ward. Sorry bud! Church was really good that week, so I’m glad we went to our ward!

Anywhoo, Sunday we just kind of hung around and showed B a few of the lagoons by our place and then barbequed hamburgers for dinner. With grilled pineapple of course! Mmm. 

We got pictures of B on his camera...and we got pictures of me and Ry on our camera...but we didn't get pictures of all of us on anyone's camera! Oops!

Monday

The adventures really began Monday morning. Waking Lil’ B up wasn’t too terrible, since it was 11am Utah time haha. We first headed to the Maunawilli waterfall hike. The hike went a lot better this year for me…I didn’t fall in any rivers and managed to fall only one time. Success! I got some fun videos of the boys jumping off the cliff.

Ry and B hanging out

This sign always makes me a little nervous to get in the water :) …but it never seems to stop us. Please note that this picture was taken AFTER the hike. 

After Maunawilli we cruised over to our favorite boogie boarding beach – Sherwood. I think B loved it too! We ended up going back again before he left for home. We got to play there for about an hour before we had to leave to get our banana macadamia nut pancakes from the famous Boots and Kimos. Mmm!

Tuesday

Tuesday we decided to take B to (in my opinion the best beach ever) Nanakuli. I didn’t get pictures of us there that day, but Ry and I went again this week and I got some fun videos of Ry skimming and goofing around…so I feel it appropriate to show you these so you can see why I love Nanakuli so dearly.

I do have to say though, that it also can be the most terrifying beach ever. When we went this week the waves were absolutely ginormous. They would hit the beach and then cause a wave to shoot back towards the ocean and then crash into another wave to make a gigantic wave…bah. So scary!

I stayed out of the water and watched most of the time until I got brave enough to go play in it when it calmed down – unfortunately I didn’t get out before a set came in and swam helplessly with Ryan by my side trying to keep me from having a panic attack so I wouldn’t drown. The videos don’t do justice.  I do have to add…you know it’s a rough wave day at the beach when the second you show up the lifeguard hops on his four-wheeler and comes to ask you if you’ve ever been to this beach before. Because you’re white. Gotta love it :)

Regardless, any day at Nanakuli is a good day.

After Nanaku we stopped at what we lovingly call the “turtle beach”. It’s a little lagoon in Ko’Olina that has definitely earned its name. Every time we go there is at least one turtle, and often there are two or three. When we go there we pick seaweed off the rocks and hand feed the turtles. Unfortunately the awesome pictures and videos are on Brandon’s camera. Hopefully I will get to update the blog with them soon!

Wednesday

Wednesday was a very good day. We woke up early and drove to Laie to go to the temple. Beautiful. We were especially excited to go because last year when we lived here the temple was closed for reconstruction. AND, when we went to visit the temple grounds last year Ry had thrown up in the car a couple times and I was super mad that the drivers did not turn around…so it was good to go back when everyone was feeling good and happy and we got to do a session, which is always extremely uplifting and rejuvenating. I love the temple!

After we did a session we walked around the temple grounds and across the street to temple beach. It is such a pretty beach! Ry and I had stopped by there last year at night so it was fun to see is during the day.

After temple beach we started to head home. We did make a couple picture stops and stopped in Haleiwa for lunch at a yummy burger joint that Ry loves.  

 Perfect day!

Thursday

Thursday was our Waikiki day. We did this a couple times last year and loved it so we wanted to make sure B got to do it too! B, Ry, and T-Rah each rented a board. Ry and I learned that it’s best to have someone off a board to help the others catch the waves :) We also learned that is can be dangerous.

This was 100% my fault. I do realize that. Ry warned me multiple times to make sure that the rope wasn’t caught around my ankle or arm. Oops! The crappy thing is…Tarah would have caught the wave had my arm not stopped her board. Dang.

I didn’t get pictures of us with the surfboards (of course), but here are a few Tarah and me with our matching sunglasses!

Take 1

Take 2

Take 3!

Surfing was definitely fun. I got up and rode a few waves all the way in!!

Friday

Friday we kind of slept in and didn’t make a huge effort to wake up early or drive anywhere far to do anything. And it was perfect. We all needed some sleep. We stayed close to home and went spear fishing at we so lovingly call “hidden beach” or “tree beach”. 

A while ago Ry had bought a waterproof bag meant for cameras or phones. Ry decided to use it when we went spear fishing. I’m not going to lie, I was skeptical about the zip lock-looking bag that Ryan was putting his phone into…but it worked great and kept his phone dry! Ry definitely got some awesome pictures and videos!

Can you see the eel?

Saturday 

 Brandon took the bus to Waikiki and Ry and I worked.

Sunday

Church, lounge, and barbeque!

Monday
Sherwood again in the morning and B left that night.


What a great week!

Dolphin Searching "Take 2"

If you've read my blog for a little while, you'll know that dolphin searching "Take 1" did not go so well for us. It resulted in us swimming across a huge bay and begging a tour boat to take us half way back so we didn't have to make that treacherous swim again. If you need a little refresher, please refer to the picture below.

Yes, we swam all the way to that little white dot at the top of the picture searching the water for dolphins that we thought we saw from a mile away. I've circled it in red for your convenience. 


We were utterly disappointed that we missed our one and only chance to swim with dolphins. Our dreams were crushed...


...for a short time until we heard that there were dolphins at Electric Beach! This was such a surprise for us. Last year we lived about five minutes away from Electric Beach and went there very often and had NO idea that dolphins are there frequently. How we never knew beats me. 


I am happy to say that our crushed dreams were uncrushed and we did finally get to swim with dolphins. 

It was SO cool! Some days I'm a little sad that we don't have a waterproof camera. That day would be one of them. The picture above is pretty much what we got to see though, and it was really neat. We swam with them for an hour or so and watched them jump out of the water and spin and play with each other. Absolutely loved it. 


Dolphin searching take 2 was definitely a success. 

The Great Debate

Last week I had a great debate going on inside my head…

                      THIS                    or                    THIS                                                               

                                                       

Last week for an outing our boss took the company sky diving. I have to be honest, I had the hardest time deciding whether or not I wanted to go. Not because I didn’t have a blast when I went last year, but because I have been before and I could have quite the shopping spree instead.

When I told Ry that I was thinking about going shopping instead of sky diving he told me that our grandchildren would be disappointed in me. He said that they would say, “Grandma, how come grandpa went skydiving so many times and you only went once?”

Todd, in my defense replied that our grandchildren would look at pictures of us and say, “Grandma, your clothes are sooooo cool!” He may or may not have said this sarcastically, I can’t be sure.

Ryan retaliated by saying that our grandchildren would say, “Grandma, you have a LOT of clothes you need to take to the D.I. Can we use some for our Halloween costumes?” Rude.

So long story short I debated about it for days. The morning of I still didn’t know. I had decided that whether or not I was going to jump I still wanted to go watch Ry. So I woke up, got ready, made sure I had tennis shoes on, and got in the car. By the time we got to the north shore I had made my decision. 

I did it! I jumped out of an airplane at 14,200 feet!  Last year we jumped at about 10,000 feet so the free fall this year was quite a bit longer. It was amazing. I’m not going to lie, I was pretty scared this time for some reason!  The airplane ride up seemed to take for-freaking-ever and they opened the side door and I was scared I was going to fall out…kind of ironic, huh?  I think my tandem guy could tell I was scared when I gripped the bench we were sitting on.

My tandem, aka Jo, and I jumped first. According to Ryan I looked pretty dang worried when I looked back at him one last time before I more or less fell out of the airplane.

It was amazing. I can’t even describe the beautiful view I saw or the feeling of free falling. I absolutely loooooooved it and I’m SO happy that I went. Ultimately, I chose sky diving over shopping because I knew I would end up regretting it.

Here are some of our fun pictures from that morning!

I guess my grandchildren won’t be disappointed in me after all.

Newsprint Nails

I don't remember how, but the other day I stumbled on a random blog and found this awesome idea! Newsprint nails! The first time it takes a little bit of time to get the hang of it and may take a bit of time, but it's easy as 1, 2, 3!

I had the hardest time trying to get a clear picture of them, but you get the idea, ya? I'll teach you how to do them :)

Supplies:

- ten pieces of newspaper (the newspaper should be paper with soy ink - supposedly this kind of ink is used on cheaper papers) cut into pieces big enough to cover your entire nail - my favorite nail was my thumb, I did a crossword on it. I've also seen people do a part of a comic on their thumb.

- rubbing alcohol and a small container to put it in (I used a shot glass that I found in the cupboard)

- a colored nail polish and a top coat

First paint your nails with the colored polish and wait for them to dry completely. Depending on how many coats you do, this may take a little bit of time. 

Second dip a piece of newspaper in the alcohol - make sure it is completely submerged and saturated - then place the piece of paper over one of your nails and push for about 30 seconds. The first nail I held it for two minutes thinking that the longer the better, right? Not true. 30 seconds is plenty of time and prevents the paper from sticking to your nail after you've taken it off. Repeat with all your nails. (I've also read that you can dip your nail in the alcohol instead of the newspaper - I've done both ways and dipping the newspaper eliminated the dilemma of the paper sticking to the nail.)

Third wait five minutes or so and paint your nails with the top coat. This really helps the letters show better. 

Kind of a fun idea :) I even did my toes! They're pretty difficult to see unless you're up close, but I still had fun with it.

The only complaint I would have is that I used cheaper nail polish and I went snorkeling the next day and half of my nails had chipped off :( I was pretty depressed about it. 

Overall, a fun idea!

So much to blog blog blog...

I have SO many things I want to blog about but I keep getting further and further behind!

So, I will try to catch up.

I would like to start with June 22 :) Yes, my birthday.

I lied. I would like to start with June 21. This would be my birthday celebration day thanks to my good friend Tarah (aka T-Rah).  We decided to go to Salvation Army to find legitimate Hawaiian tees. I have to say, I am pretty in love with mine. It’s a high school graduation shirt! I’m pretty excited about it too because it’s Class of 2011. It’s 2011 and school ended recently. I’m pretty sure this shirt has never been worn before. Anyways. After Salvation Army we cruised over to JAMBA juice. Tarah bought me a pink star. Mmmmmmm. Amazing. We then went to our favorite store, Ross. We found some adorable bright pink sweats that said LOVE down the leg in lime green. They were practically screaming my name. After shopping and playing we had to return to the real world of work.

Now, June 22…

The day started at 6am when I couldn’t sleep anymore because I was nervous I would wake up late (we were leaving at 7:30am to go golfing). I was getting ready when I heard Brandon and Ryan call my name. They told me to go sit on the bed. After a slight pause they changed their minds and insisted that I LAY down on the bed. They brought me breakfast in bed :) mmmmm. Sweet boys.

The drive to the golf course was interesting…to say the least. Brandon insisted that he break the law the WHOLE drive up (about a 45 minute drive). He accomplished this by not using his blinkers, speeding, crossing solid lines, texting and playing games on his phone, etc etc. Yup.

Golfing was a lot of fun! It was my first time so I technically didn’t play. Instead, I got to drive the golf cart and occasionally try (emphasis on ‘try’) to hit a few golf balls. I actually hit a couple pretty well! Most of them were quite ugly however. I had a ton of fun though and I would really like to learn how to golf! Ry played 9 holes and we took off while the other boys played the back 9. We went to the Volcano National Park and saw the crater of a volcano and walked through a lava tube and stopped by the museum. It was pretty neat :) I unfortunately was rushing out of the door and didn’t find my camera, so here is a Google image of a lava tube…

After golf we grabbed lunch from L&L, a yummy local place. We ate teriyaki beef and macaroni salad. Mmm. Hawaiians have a crazy obsession with macaroni salad. I’m starting to kind of like it a lot…we also stopped at Mc-eee-Dee’s to grab one of their new McFlurry’s, a rolo, ice cream, and caramel swirl of yumminess. We might have eaten dessert before lunch. Woops.

Then we got home and it was work time.

Tarah was super sweet and bought me a gourmet cupcake. Ry found a random candle in one of the drawers in the kitchen and wrapped the bottom of it in seran wrap and stuck it in my cupcake, lit it, and sang to me. Sweet boy, huh? You’d think that until as I wound up to blow the candle out he turned the fan behind me on.

 It blew out the candle for me.

Will my wish still come true?

After Tarah and I finished the things we needed to do we got bored and decided to do our hair. Tarah was kind enough to tell me that my curls weren’t that great. She gave me a brush and told me to brush them out and then re-curled them for me. She’s a good friend :)

When Ry got home I begged him to let me open at least one present; a lime green shirt I had been waiting to open for weeks and was especially excited for it now that I had awesome sweat pants to match it. He was disappointed in me for peaking in the suitcase earlier that day to make sure it was still there. He asked, “how would you like me to wrap it?” I answered, “grocery bags will do”.  I don’t think Ryan believes in wrapping paper or gift bags. He isn’t pleased when I purchase these items. So, grocery bags it was! and I was perfectly ok with it.

These three items I had shopped for and waited for and was super excited to finally have them be mine!

A while later before we went to bed Ry told me he had another present that was a surprise. He handed me two pieces of paper and said I could choose between A or B and that ‘none of the above’ was not an option.

A. Epilady. Weird, I know, but I have always wanted one! When I was in High School my good friend Emily had one and we would use it once in a while on our arms. Thanks to her, when I have a longer hair on my arm I pull at it until I get the dang thing out. So, and epilady would be handy.

B.  Laser hair removal on my lower legs. I couldn’t believe this was an option! I opened the piece of paper and immediately said, “no way”. Poor Ry, his face dropped and he said, “I worked hard on this…” I felt so bad! The only reason I said no so fast was because laser hair removal is expensive! I immediately told him sorry and that it is an awesome idea and that I love him so much and thank you so much for finding these for me, etc etc. I hope he feels better…it really was a really good idea…

I chose option A and it should be here next week!

Ry was super sweet and bought me a coconut crème pie so I could have a birthday pie. He’s so funny, he asked me if I liked coconut pie and told me he got that one because he remembered that earlier I had said that I wanted coconut something or other. I told him I wanted coconut curry. Such a funny kid. Love him to death! The coconut pie was very yummy nevertheless.

Ry went and got all the boys in the other house and brought them over to sing and have pie. Can I just say…most awkward 30 seconds of my life? NOW I understand why Ry hates people singing ‘happy birthday’ to him. I don’t remember ever feeling so utterly awkward and embarrassed while being sung to before! It was awful! 

Oh well. Maybe I’ll try to avoid it next year. Or maybe it won’t be so terrible because it will be family rather than a group of boys that I work with. Ah well.

As the group dispersed the boys went frog hunting.

Do I even need to say that some of them ended up inside my home?

My Husband

Sometimes Ryan does things that just make me laugh a little. I find him adorable!

This is what Ry does when he knows one sandwich won't fill him up, but when two sandwiches will put him overboard:

It's logical, ya? 

And this is what Ry does when he wants to lay out at the pool, but not IN the pool...

Very creative. And honestly, very comfortable!

I love Ry with all my heart. I love so many things about him, especially his quirkiness! I find it irresistible :) 

Reason #12 Why Hawaii is not America (according to Tarah)…

They allow a nude beach.

We were pretty sure that not wearing clothing in public places is illegal, are we incorrect?

Apparently it is allowed here.

The terrible part about this nude beach is that it is the ONLY beach on this side of the island. I’m being serious. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it, but Hilo does not have beaches! Rather, it has 15 foot cliffs that drop off into the ocean or “beaches” that consist of rocks and boulders, so you don’t dare get in the water just to be thrown onto a rock. Oh, I just remembered. We did find one beach one time. However, it took us an hour to hike to it and an hour to hike back from it, so it is not the most accessible beach ever.

I’ve gotten over the fact that there just aren’t good beaches here like there are on Oahu. I enjoy my one mile run followed by pool time each morning. It is the most relaxing thing to hang out in the pool for an hour or so and cool down while reading a book. I love it. However, it is also nice to get out and go do something fun once in a while too.

This is why we were excited to hear that there was a beach about a half hour away with BLACK sand. We packed our beach bags – snorkels, check…sunglasses, check…sunscreen, check…towels, check…tootsie pops…check. Six of us piled into Andy’s car. Because Ry and I are the only married ones, we get the privilege of squishing in one seat. No problem, we’ve got a system down.

A half hour later we arrived at the black sand beach.  We all got out of the car and started to stroll down the path to the sand. I’m grateful the terrain down to the beach was rocky so that I had to look down at my feet so I didn’t trip…because we were greeted by something most unpleasant....

Apparently (so I was told), when we reached the beach there was a gentlemen (needless to say he did not have clothing on) standing on the tallest rock with his arms folded, as if he were the “king of the rock”. His mannerism said, “I own this beach, if you don’t like it, leave”.

We left.

I never did get to see much of the beach. I was too scared to look up from my feet in fear that I would accidently see something I had no desire to see. BUT…I did get to see the awesome black sand and the most confusing tree I have ever seen. 

My eyes are closed in this picture...I REALLY didn't want to see the king of the rock

Go to a nude beach.

There, it is officially crossed off the bucket list. Just kidding :)


The end.

Zoo Day!

So we did a little research and found a FREE zoo! I have never ever heard of any Zoo that is free. The dang Hogle Zoo is kind of expensive…well not really, but coming from a cheap-wad it kinda is! Needless to say, we were kind of excited to find something to do…especially something free to do!  

We also wanted to stop at the Mauna Loa macadamia nut farm and it was on the way so we did that too…which was also free :) We even got free samples of the garlic macadamias and chocolate covered macadamias. Mmmmm.  However, as much as it tried to be like the Dole Pineapple Plantation, it just could not pull it off. Poor thing. It was the lamest self-guided tour I think…no, I know…that I have ever been on. It consisted of looking through windows and seeing a bunch of equipment that was not turned on and some videos of animated macadamias being cracked open. BUT! That is somewhat a lie. We did see six ladies hand-placing the nuts in the chocolate. Kind of cool! Then Ry burst my bubble and said that they probably only have those ladies do it for the self-guided tour…and that machines really probably do most of them :( Oh well. It was kind of cool anyways.  Well, after walking around the nature walk, AKA a field with a couple of local trees and plants, we took off to the free zoo.



watching the "awesome" video



We had read some reviews on the zoo.  Some were good, some were bad. There were a few that said the zoo was too small and there wasn’t much to it. However, we were pleasantly surprised! We saw some really pretty birds and adorable monkeys and a white Bengal tiger and we even saw an ant eater! I had never seen an ant eater before!  It was pretty awesome. We even saw a couple animals that we had never even heard of before. Lots of fun.

My favorite animal there was the umbrella cockatoo. We used to have one of those at one point in my childhood. I believe her name was Morgan. I kind of can’t remember. Morgan may have been the grey bird’s name? Anywhoo…this bird LOVED Ry’s hat. The second we walked up she was sticking her foot through the bars to try to get it. I love Ry’s expression in these pictures :)



I felt bad for the bird so I told Ry to let her have his hat. Umm. Not the greatest idea. I forgot how much of a death grip those beaks have! We were glad to get his hat back without putting a hole in it. 

All in all, the zoo was a success. I even got a magnet to add to our lovely collection. My only complaint would be that we had to rush. I hope we get to go back before we leave this island!



Pirates Cove

REWIND. Alright, this post is about a month late, but I promised Bryce it would get blogged, so here I go! Again, mostly pictures on this one with some explanations I think.  

So we randomly up and went to Vegas with our good friends Bryce and Ally. It was the Supercross Final so we were stoked to be able to go. We left late Thursday night and slept in St. George and then drove to Vegas the next morning. We didn’t really know where we were staying, but we knew we’d be able to share a room and work it out. Bryce surprised Ally by not telling her we were coming until he picked up…Bryce surprised us by not telling us where we were staying until we were there. It was by far the most amazing vacation home I have ever stayed at. Everywhere you looked there was something awesome to see. I can’t really explain it…and I didn’t get a picture of every detail, but I got a few :) I loved the pirates everywhere and pictures and pools and so many DETAILS. We ended up staying in the Egyptian room...I think is what they called it. It was perfect. There was a big hide-a-bed downstairs and a big bed upstairs. The room itself was amazing too! Tons of pictures and some books and a giant shower...loved it.

This is the pool that the waterslide fed into...you can't see it but there was a rope swing that people would  also play on and fall into the pool. Crazy boys would also jump off those platforms. Not me!

This isn't the greatest picture, but this is the pool from the other side. The waterslide is inside that ship. It was...a crazy slide. We went on it the first time without mats, not too bad. Then we saw mats and decided to go on them with two people per mat, a little scarier. The mats made us CRUISE and I think I screamed everytime. I'm pretty sure I have a scar on my knee from that slide :) it was worth it. Poor Ally would hit her head every time she went down it and ended up with a nasty goose egg and headache. Poor girl :( The absolute scariest time was when we went two people per mat in a train of 6 people...BAD idea. I think I saw my life flash before eyes when we lost control. Bryce luckily thought quick and let go of Ry and I and pushed us ahead of them so that no one got hurt. Regardless, I still love that slide :)

Details, details details.

So cool :) Friday we spent the rest of the day swimming, playing, and eating the unlimited icecream cones and slurpees! After we were all pooled out we went to the strip to get dinner and walk around. We went to an amazing Italian hole-in-the-wall restaurant...and there was an adorable older man playing the accordian for tips. He had to have been shorter than five feet tall. Loved him. He did amazing. After dinner we walked the strip and went to watch the fountain show. It was a lot of fun!

Saturday morning the guys left for the supercorss event so that they could set up the semi and do who-knows-what. Ally and I spent the morning at the pool until we met up with the boys at the event. I got fried. I was determined to not peel, so I lathered lotion on multiple times throughout the day. Ummm...is there anyone else that didn't know that putting lotion on right after you get burned traps the heat in? Oops. Needless to say, it HURT all day long. Especially when I had to walk in the sunlight. Ouch. And...I did peel anyways. I think I learned my lesson the hard way that day. Aloe vera, not lotion. At least for the first few days.

Anyways, I won't ramble much longer, but Saturday was a ton of fun at the Supercross event! We maybe kinda had to sneak in, which always scares me bad, but we didn't get caught! It was SO awesome. It was fun because we had been two weekends before in Salt Lake so we kind of knew some of the riders and knew who we wanted to win. All in all, fantastic weekend. Thank you so much Bryce!!