Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Can We Rewind.......

Back to HAWAII ? =)

I've been a procrastinator when it came to writing this post.
#1 because it's going to be a big one.
#2 reality sets in that I'm not there anymore...
#3 It makes me want to go back RIGHT now!


But- Here it goes. March 4th, my family and I flew out early in the morning
with several layovers....
Our layover entertainment......:

The plane rides really weren't as bad as I was expecting on the way there. I think my excitement made up for the long boredom of the flights.
We got to Hawaii late that night and checked into a little hotel for the night until we could check into our other hotel the next day.
The next day we got up, had breakfast and went off to our hotel:
This was our view from the room. There was a pool, hot tub, and the ocean RIGHT THERE. Gorgeous views!


One of my new favorite things is snorkeling. We got snorkel gear and practiced in our hotel pool, and then took it out to the ocean. There's so many neat fish and creatures in the ocean. You also float so easily that it's kind of relaxing to just float and look at fish!


The boys all went body surfing a lot. They would go to some wild beaches with HUGE waves. I stayed back and only went a couple times where it wasn't quite so dangerous for me. Waves sure can take you away!!



We went to church on Sunday and it was such a fun meeting. There's just as many visitors as there are members of their ward so they start off by saying "Aloha" and we repeat it back. The members talked a lot about their recent temple trip. Man, living in Utah you sure do take the many temples around for granite. They talked about the money they had to save up for a temple trip. They have to buy a plane ticket to get to the other island. They have to pay for food, and a hotel room. There's so much to this trip, and lucky us can get to a temple 20 mins ANY direction of us. (And soon one right in town!) We sure are lucky.

My mom, dad, Blake, and I went on the road to Hana one day. It was gorgeous! That is what I had really pictured Hawaii to be. Everything was so green and pretty. We would stop to see waterfalls and take little walks to pretty views. There were the cutest fruit stands and shops along the way too!





Brooke and Aaron took us on a great boat ride "Aqua Adventures" and it took us out to Molokini Island where we were able to go snorkeling and snuba diving. Snuba is in between snorkeling and scuba diving. You are connected to your air tank that stays up above the water. It only allows you to go about 15-20 feet under the water. It's perfect. It really plays with your mind though. Blake and I were connected to the same air tank and we both started struggling. Pretty soon Blake took off and was able to stay under, but I still struggled. Then eventually I was able to make it down, too. (Coming up occasionally because I would start to freak out a little!) But soon I was able to get down and STAY down, and it was awesome!! Once again there were so many things to see, and just the fact of being under water like that was so fun!








The turtles are SOO cute. Brooke would always talk about how cute they are, and you really can't even imagine in full, till you are able to get up close to one and REALLY see just how cute they are. They are so peaceful and big and fun to watch =)


One night we went to a Luau at our Hotel. The food was delicious and it was great entertainment! My favorites were the little tiny girls (They sure can shake!) and the New Zealand dancers. Blake went to New Zealand on his mission, so we all have a soft spot for New Zealand. Their Haka dance was really neat!!


There is SO much more I'd love to write about but this is one huge post. We had so much fun ALL the time! Just playing around on the beach, laying out by the pool, going to dinner (we had some really good dinners and desserts!) Lahaina was my favorite place. Great food, and awesome shopping! The mall was fun, just simply EVERYTHING! One last thing that was really awesome were the whales. March is a good time to go because the whales are everywhere. There were so many whales all the time. Every time you looked out at the ocean, you could spot atleast 2 whales breaching close by. On our boat ride we were able to get up REALLY close to them. It was so neat. They are HUGE!


Last but not least, we decided to do some family pictures before we left. Here are a few!




Needless to say.....This was SUCH a fun trip and I wish I could still be there! (Especially as it is snowing as I type....in APRIL!)
Thanks to my awesome family, for taking me and making it SO much fun =)