Halloween

Halloween is fast approaching! I really have such a hard time coming up with costume ideas. I feel a lot of pressure to have a good costume. Not sure why I just do! So this year rather than going out to the stores and spending countless hours roaming isles and trying to decide- I went first to the internet! I simply typed in Halloween Costume Ideas. I found a website that had some very clever ideas. Most were fairly simple and did not require me to go out and buy all kinds of things. I decided to be a plastic surgeon. I already had a pair of scrubs and colleen is letting me borrow a face mask, her stethoscope, and gloves. We already had plastic wrap in the kitchen drawer. So I show up to work in some very comfortable scrubs and then when asked "What are you?" I simply pull out my plastic wrap and begin doing plastic surgery! I thought it was funny. We'll see how it goes at work tomorrow! Hopefully I don't run out of plastic wrap! Here is a picture of me in my costume.

I will post more pics after all the festivities!

Hawaiin Getaway Part 2

We flew into Honolulu from Maui. I was shocked to see how big Honolulu was compared to Maui. It was a huge city! The entire population of Maui could probably fit in Honolulu! We took this picture from the plane.

We picked up our rental car ( a nice new one this time) and drove straight to Laie. The drive was really pretty.

We found our vacation rental studio. It was called the Gecko Studio at Honu Hale (which means turtle house). It was across the street from the south entrance to the Polynesian Cultural Center.

This is a picture of our room. It was pretty small but had everything that we needed.

That first night we got settled in, went grocery shopping, and went to the Laie Temple to take some pictures. The temple is beautiful! It is a landmark in the town as well. One of the beaches is called Temple Beach because it is at the bottom of the road the temple is on. Manda's friend Lauren goes to BYU Hawaii and she invited us to meet her on the lawn in front of the library to play night games. We were pretty tired but decided to go anyways. We had so much fun! We played a tag game that involves jumping and tagging with your feet, Red Rover, and a game called Lap Tag. This last one was a blast! Everyone except one person has a partner. You sit on the ground spread out in a big circle. Partners sit one in front of the other. The person who does not have a partner is "IT" They call out 2 names of people sitting in front of their partner. Those two people then have to try to get away from their partner and be the first to touch the person that is it. So basically it turns into a wrestling, clinging, dragging, frenzy. We were laughing so hard! Here are just a few of the many many pictures we took of this game! I had a few bruises and both Manda and I were pretty sore afterwards!

Thursday morning we went to the beach and then picked Lauren up from school to go to the Temple. It is beautiful on the outside and the inside! That was the smallest group I have ever been a part of too! There were 5 women (so 2 besides the 3 of us) and 1 man.

After changing our clothes we headed to Sunset Beach to watch the sunset. I have to admit I was quite disappointed after the amazing sunset that last night on Maui but it was still pretty.

After the sun had set we headed to Ted's Bakery. This place is famous for it's cream pies! The pumpkin haupia was Divine! (haupia means coconut- Becky I'm telling you, you would have LOVED it!) They had new extended hours which meant they were still open after the sunset- thank goodness!

Friday morning we again went to the beach. The crabs had freaked us out a bit on Temple Beach the day before so we headed to Hukilau Beach instead. It was a nice beach. The beaches on Oahu are not nearly as clean and pretty as on Maui though! We met up with Lauren and her roommate at the Polynesian Cultural Center at noon. Lauren's roommate was able to get us in for $5 each! We were able to see the presentations we wanted to before the canoe parade. My favorite was this guy. He was funny- cracking jokes. He started fire by rubbing two sticks together and then put it out by stepping on it with his bare foot!

He shredded a coconut and then crushed it into coconut milk right in front of us! It was amazing! ( I have lots more pictures but I am a bit of an idiot because I deleted them off my camera before uploading them to my computer- Manda is going to send me some though!) After we left the PCC we drove to a town I can't remember the name of to browse the local surf shops. It was really fun and we found some cool stuff. We bought these shoes that are so comfortable! I have worn them almost every day since I bought them!
The owner of the surf shop we bought them from gave us 10% off! They were designed by sufers and are called sidewalk surfers. They have a sandal bottom and canvas tops. They are super lightweight and are designed to help you walk as if you had no shoes on so the way your feet were designed to move. That's what the tags said anyways! All I know is they are my new favorite pair of shoes! We headed back to Laie to see Lauren and some of her friends perform in students with guitars on campus. They did a great job! Lauren sang and played her tamborine while her friend Shem sang, played guitar, and played the Harmonica. They also had a drummer and this guy shooting noisy laser guns. Some of the other performances were pretty amazing too! We left the performance early to go to Lauren's ward activity. It was a Hukilau at Hukilau Beach! It was a really cool experience. They put a fishing net out into the ocean at night very slowly and quietly. Then on one man's signal a bunch of people who are lined up on the beach rush into the water screaming and splashing the water and run towards the net. The fish are then scared into the net and caught. The net is then gathered into an innertube and brought back to shore. The group caught about 19 fish of all different kinds and sizes. They then served chili and rice ( a cheap meal that is a student favorite) and grilled the fish. I did not eat the fish but was surprised at how much I liked the chili and rice! Lauren and Manda helped carry the fish in ( I didnt' even want to touch them!)

After the Hukilau we went to a friend of Lauren's birthday party which was a carnival. It was pretty much over by the time we got there but they had some fun toys to play with! Here is Lauren and I with silly glasses on.

Manda won a game of paddle ball!

Saturday morning we got up early to get packed and check out of Gecko Studio. We then picked Lauren up and went to a local favorite the Hukilau Cafe. They had some delicous coconut pancakes! I just wished they had added some chocolate chips too! After a delicous breakfast we headed to Honolulu to go to Pearl Harbor and then on to the swap meet at Aloha Stadium! Pearl Harbor was a very neat place. They have a beautiful museum and memorial built. I was surprised at how busy it was. We were given ticket for the ferry to take us out to the memorial about an hour and 45 minutes from the time we got there. We decided we didnt' have time to wait so we toured the museum and gift shop, took some pictures of the Harbor and were on our way to the swap meet. ( The pictures I took of this were also not uploaded to my computer before I deleted them so I will have to add them later!)

The swap meet was pretty cool. I was surprised at how repetetive it was with so many booths selling the same things but we did find some good deals! We left the swap meet and headed straight for the airport. We got the car turned in on time to not be charged another full day. After getting all checked out we were waiting for the shuttle when I remembered that I had not been to the gas station to top off the tank! I went inside to tell them I would prepay for them to fill it up for us and the man was very friendly and nice and told me that it was our lucky day! When I assured him that I could pay, he asked if I was leaving a happy customer and I said yes of course. Then he said, then don't worry about it, it's your lucky day! We made it to the airport 4 hours before our flight was scheduled to leave. We went to check in and asked if there was an earlier flight we could take. They said Yes and got us on the 4 o'clock flight instead of waiting for the 6 o'clock. This was a blessing as we were going to be cutting it close making our other flight in Maui. We had called Delta to see if we could change our flight and fly out of Oahu direct to Salt Lake instead. It would have cost us $800 to make that change! (we only paid $600 for the round trip). We decided it wasn't worth it! So we had plenty of time in Maui to get our baggage, go through the agricultural check station, recheck our baggage, and go through security. We spent the time at the airport exchaning pictures. I got the ones from Manda's camera and she got the ones from mine ( this is why she is going to be able to give me mine that I deleted without putting on my computer first-- thank you Manda!!)

We made it to Salt Lake where Colleen was waiting for us and had a delicious dinner at Grandma's house before taking Manda back to the airport to check in for her flight to Denver! That was a really long time to be in airports or in airplanes and with the time difference it made for 2 very long days!

Although, it was hard to go back to work- it's good to be home again. And just in time for snow to fall at our house!

Next adventure- snowboarding!!

Hawaiin Getaway Part 1

Aloha! The epic vacation has been just that, epic thus far! It all started Saturday morning when I got a phone call from a number I didn't realize and it was a recording tell me that my flight for that day had been cancelled. I was a bit confused and immediately called Manda who was in Heber City and getting ready to come to Provo to meet me before Colleen took us to the airport. She had heard nothing. I then encouraged her to come ASAP and called the airline. Our flight had indeed been cancelled from Salt Lake to LA due to the landing gear not working. The customer service agent immediately began looking into flights and options for us. She looked up Manda's information and she had not been rebooked like I had for the next morning. The flight was now full and she was too far down on the list. So Colleen and I packed my bags in a rush and raced to the airport. Colleen called Manda with her phone and asked her to go straight to the airport instead of coming to Provo first. I meanwhile was still on hold. The options were not looking too good. She was able to book Manda and I both on another flight the next day on a different airline so we could travel together. She was also looking for other options for us to get there that day. The problem was that they all left Salt Lake too late and we would not make our connecting flight. She was finally able to put us on a stand-by list for a 1pm flight. if we were able to get on we would make our connection if we were not able to get on then we would have to take the sunday flights. Manda and I got to the airport pretty close to the same time, checked our luggage and began to pray we would make this flight. We went to airport security, and Manda got right through, I was unable to pass through because my boarding pass had the wrong date on it... it was for the flight on sunday not on saturday. I had to turn around and go back downstairs to get the correct boarding pass. I was able to do so after waiting in a growing line for the Delta gates. I got through security and Manda and I checked in at the gate. We asked how the flight looked and if we would get on. He was not too confident and said there were others in line ahead of us..... so we waited, and waited. then he called us up and said he could get one of us on but not both. did we want to split up? We said no we had to go together to catch our connecting flight in LA. so he said he would see what he could do. They began boarding the plane and we were so worried. Finally, they called our names and handed us boarding passes and we got on! This is the Miracle flight that got us to LA in time for our connection.
So we arrived in Hawaii on time and on the schedule we had planned on. We got a taxi to take us to our Hostel and got checked in without further incident. As we settled into our room, I went to step on the bed to reach higher and almost fell as the bed sank to the floor. The mattress was sooooooo soft! The room was sooo hot and stuffy with no outside windows. We made do and settled in before walking to the grocery store to get some groceries.

Sunday morning we woke up early to get showered and ready for church. We had to wear shoes in the showers but enjoyed having 4 bathroom options for us to get ready in. We were pretty sure it was about 3 miles to church and the walk would take us about an hour. We left a little late than planned (church started at 8am). The walk was a long one! We both had dressier sandals on that were not made for walking- ouch. Can you say blisters? We were sweating and so hot and thirsty by the time we got there 15 minutes late. We walked in and sat in the back. Immediately after Sacrament Meeting, we were apporoached by a woman asking if we were visiting and our names and all that. We explained we were on vacation, had arrived last night, and had walked to church this morning. She immediately promised to give us a ride back to our hostel and expressed some concern at where we were staying. She was the sunday school teacher and had us introduce ourselves and say the opening and closing prayers. Several of the other members welcomed us and explained they had seen us walking down the street and wondered if we were members and where we were headed. They had wanted to stop but didn't. The lesson was great and then it was time for Relief Society. We again introduced ourselves as visitors and got a few more comments from ladies that had not been in sunday school about seeing us walking here and then feeling bad when they saw us walk in late that they had not stopped to offer us rides. We were promised that we would not be walking back and would have a ride.

Monique and her mother Monika gave us a ride back to the Banana Bungalow and invited us over Wednesday night to play a game called PIT. We exchanged phone numbers and said goodbye.

The Hostel ended up being really fun. We got used to the heat and slept well every night due to exhaustion of playing so hard every day. The free tours were amazing and we were able to see some things and do some things we never would have done on our own. We met people from England, France, Germany, and New Zealand. Two girls were also traveling together and they had been gone from home 11 months. They had gone to Austraila to work for 6 months and then had been traveling ever since. After Maui they were headed to Las Vegas, LA, San Francisco and then home one year after they left. We exchanged facebook info to keep in touch. We did a tour to Makena State Park and enjoyed this sunset at Big Beach. We also went to Iao Valley and saw the Iao Needle, drove the road to Hana which included a hike through a bamboo forest and rain forest to a waterfall that had 5 falls cascading down the cliffs due to the heavy rains. This was the main waterfall and the biggest of them all.We also were able to visit the famous Red Sands Beach! This is Manda and I at that beach. It is pretty speical to the Hawaiins and if you ask a local for directions they will not give you directions to this beach. The Banana Bungalow has been taking tours there for 10 years and the locals tend to stay away every Tuesday night so we had the place to ourselves.

On Wednesday we picked up our rental car from Maui Cruisers and thought we had entered a junkyard. Our rental car well.... has character! It runs and gets us where we need to go though. The locals would wave to us and let us into traffic. We were not your typical tourists in a fancy convertable!
We did some shopping and then went to a beach nearby. It was so windy, we couldn't stand to stay on the beach with all the sand blowing in our faces so we read our books in a sand volleyball pit that was sheltered from the wind by a bunch of trees.

Wednesday night we took Monique up on her offer and went to her sister's house for dinner and to play PIT. We met some great people and I was shocked to see one of my coworkers there. We laughed so hard my stomach was hurting! This is the PIT crew! I highly recommend this game for anyone looking to have a good time and a good laugh.

Manda and I were surprisingly sad to be leaving the Banana bungalow and the friends we had met.

But excited to go to a bit of luxury at the same time.

Friday we checked out and ate at a restaurant called the Tasty Crust that was famous for it's Banana Pancakes ( and boy were they Good!) Then on to Lahaina for some shopping and to Napili Kai to check in. We were very greatful to have nice solid beds to sleep in with a breeze coming off the ocean and beautiful clean bathrooms! We have enjoyed relaxing by the pool and staying out of the sand while soaking up the sun and reading books. This is me taking a break from a delicous book about vampires.

I read 5 and a half books and loved every minute of my vacation!

We rented snorkeling gear and did a lot of snorkeling in Napili Bay and in Kapalua Bay. We saw 5 sea turtles in one day! It was the coolest thing! Kapalua Bay was also the setting for 6 weddings that we saw on 2 different nights. We were the unidentified snorkelers in their wedding photos.

The last night we were there we saw the most amazing sunset!

The sky literally transformed so many times right before our eyes!

This one looks like it could be a postcard or a painting!

No, we are not standing in front of a painted backdrop- this is the real thing!

So we packed our bags again and things didn't seem to fit as well this time! I think I bought too many presents! I was so grateful I had bought new luggage for this trip though! At every airport, waiting at the baggage claim it was super easy to find. It is also very sturdy and well built luggage that let me cram everything in! The limit is 50 pounds and in my big suitcase, I fit everything except for the souveneirs and it weighed 49.6 lbs at check in. How's that for cutting it close?

We had a marvelous time in Maui and are looking forward to some new adventures in Oahu!