HAWAII!!!!

Here are all the great pictures we took in Hawaii. I feel like we did way more things, but this is most of what we did. It takes me longer to post these days, because I like to do the big photo size, it's just a bit more complicated.

We had an awesome direct flight out there from SLC. It was a big plane (which I love), big seats & each had it's own tv, with free everything. It was great. Not to mention I didn't have to entertain Luke for six hours. Here is the first thing I saw of Hawaii. Later on our trip we actually hiked into & to the peak of that huge crater, called Diamond Head. GORGEOUS!!!

After we got our rental car & to our hotel, the sun was just setting. We ran across the street from our hotel & watched the sun set on the beach. It was SO nice! We stayed in Waikiki.

Early the next morning we drove to Hanauma Bay to go snorkeling. The water was pretty darn cold, but thankfully we bought these great swim shirts (highly recommend). (Now, I know this picture below looks a little weird, but I was on the phone while editing it, so I know, it's weird looking).

It was my first time doing "real" snorkeling. I did it once on a cruise, but it was pretty lame. We brought our own snorkel gear, & the only bag we had to lug it down to the bay in was that lovely suitcase. I'm sure we didn't look like tourist at all, with that on the beach.

I wish we had an underwater camera, we saw beautiful fish. It was weird for me & it took me a while to get used to, but it was SO MUCH FUN! Plus, it was not very crowded, & I hear it's always crowded.

I love these flowers they use to make fresh lei. They gave me one at the Laie Temple, so I needed a picture.

After snorkeling, we basically drove all the way from the south side of the island up to the north side & stopped at beaches along the way. It was such a gorgeous day.

After about a 50 minute drive to the other side of the island (it's so small!) we stopped at the Laie Temple. Isn't it SO prettty? I just love it. It's always a good feeling when you see members, churches or temples when you are away on vacation.

We spent two days swimming on the north shore. Since it's winter there, the waves on the north shore can get huge. I mean up to 50 feet. While we were there they had the Big Eddie, a world-wide surfing competition. So, I, being the chicken I am sometimes, didn't dare go out very far in the waves. Matt was having a blast body surfing in though. We also saw huge turtles out there too.


The mountains on Oahu are HUGE. I couldn't believe it. They are so awesome looking. I mean they are just huge, jagged & soooo green. They look really cool.

These are all from the north side.

This is a view of the northern side.

Have you heard of beans & ice cream in your shaved ice? Well, they do it here at Motsumoto's on the northwest side of the island. Matt tried the beans. They were gross. I'm glad I just went with the ice cream & shaved ice. My favorite.

Saturday we drove up the island from the west side of the island, we stopped at the Dole Pineapple Plantation (overrated), got the shaved ice, saw some of Big-Eddie from the road (it was insanely crowded) & then spent the rest of the day at the Polynesian Cultural Center. We saw skits or whatever you want to call them from each of the villages & did a few fun things, ate dinner there & then saw HA The Breath of Life performance. It was really great. Something everyone should see if they go there. Here's a picture of one of the tribes dancing along the river.

Samoa's skit was the most entertaining.

They make coconut milk, started fire & from out of no where this guy shimmied up a palm tree.



It was pretty warm & humid that day, but so pretty! I love how green it is there.

Sunday we went to church at the Manoa ward in Honolulu. That was a great experience. Their church building was pretty much all outside. It was really cool. And later that day we went to Pearl Harbor. Matt being a history major, loved it.





Instead of buying a souvenir, he wanted to tour this submarine. Trust me, it wasn't very fun in a dress.





But he loved it.



And I mean, loved it.



As a part of the tour they take you out on a fairy over to the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial. It was really neat to see the ship sunken beneath. It was a beautiful memorial building. You can see parts of the ship sticking out of the water on the left side of the photo.



That night we headed back to the beach to have a picnic & watch the sunset (it goes down at like 5pm).

We played around a little with the camera.



I love this pic (below) with the sail boat & all the surfers out in the water. This is where we surfed at Waikiki. It was SO MUCH FUN! Probably one of the most fun things I have ever done before (besides the part were I got smacked in the forehead by the board). If we move here, I would definitely buy a surf board.



Monday morning we got up really early, drove to Diamond Head & hiked it before the sun came up. Apparently we weren't the only ones with the idea. There were about four bus loads of Asian's also hiking with us. It was so funny, they all had flash lights, it was like watch hundreds of ants going up an ant hill.
I know this picture looks fake, it's kinda funny looking huh. Plus, we were pretty sweaty.

From the top, we had a great view of Honolulu. It's really quite a big city. This is where Matt would work...well somewhere in there. And right along the beach there, by all those big buildings, that's where our hotel was.

This is a picture of all the valleys, or suburbs of Honolulu. Again, IF we move there, we would most likely live in the one on the far left, it's sunken down in a valley a little bit. But, you get the picture of how crammed this island is! I get a little bit of island fever.

Diamond Head was used in WWI & II, there are stairways & bunkers all over it.

One of the very last things we did before we left was stop at Kahuku High School. I know that seems weird, but this is where Matt's dad went to three years of high school. We bought him a Kahuku polo for Christmas. I'm pretty sure it was one of his favorite gifts this year.

A few other things we did were:
-shopping at the swap meet (that was fun).
-eat dinner at Sam's Club a few times (it was the cheapest place!)
-drive through Manoa valley & look at possible neighborhoods.
-obviously, Matt interviewed.
-we had dinner with other OB residents.
-sat on the beach, beach, beach.
-"window shopped" at the ritziest-most expensive mall I've ever seen.
-went to some really high peak (Matt can't remember the name), where you could see a huge chunk of the island.

Overall we had a fabulous time. It was a great opportunity (& excuse) to take a vacation. Matt liked the program. (I'm the one that needs a little more convincing). If Matt could, he'd rank it number 1. It is in our top 3, on our rank list. We'll see what happens.

Another HUUUUUGE THANK YOU to Anne & the girls for watching Luke & to my sister Jenny for watching him. There is no way we could have done all the things we did with him there. We partied non-stop, we were exhausted! Now that we're back to freezing, dark Cleveland, I'm really wishing we were back there.