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!!

Waterfall Adventures

This week we went on a waterfall adventure! I’m not in the mood to write a ton about it, so this will be a mostly picture post :) It was a lot of fun though to get out and see these beautiful waterfalls!

The first waterfall we stopped at was called Rainbow Falls. I think we were supposed to see a rainbow in the mist...but I didn’t see one. Even though we saw no rainbow, it was still very pretty!

After we saw it from one angle we walked around and up some stairs and saw it from another. We started to walk around a little bit and found an AWESOME tree. Picture is posted below.

Our next stop was the Botanical Gardens. When we got there we found out it would cost $15 a person to go inside so rather than pay we found a trail right next to where the official Botanical Gardens was and started to hike down it. We came across a vine. Needless to say, the guys were entertained for a bit :)

We kept going and found where a river connected to the ocean. Some of the guys were in swimsuits so they were jumping off cliffs into the water and riding down a natural waterslide. So cool. The video we got was after everyone had already gone once or twice so the moss on the rocks was worn off…so it was painful for poor Brandon.

Our last stop was Akaka Falls. This waterfall was amazing. If I remember correctly, Rainbow was about 80 feet high? Akaka was 442 feet high. SO cool. It started to rain on us while we hiked to this one, but I don’t think a single one of us minded. Definitely worth it.

 It was a "torrential" (according to Ry) downpour. Those little white specks in the picture are rain drops :) We got SOAKED.

                                                              

The end.