Aloha Utah!

We returned to Utah on Saturday, June 11, 2011. Once we opened our doors, we were overwhelmed by the St. George heat! We had forgotten how hot it gets here and it was definitely something to get used to. It was so great to see my family and be home again! While in Hawaii, I bought my nieces and sister some cover-ups at the International Market and they just looked SO cute, I had to get photos. The next two days I babysat my nieces and nephew while Mike and Ness were in Europe which was so fun to spend time with them as I missed them while I was gone. It's great to be back home amongst family and friends and to have a routine again; however, I do miss Hawaii and find myself wishing I was still there. Hopefully I'll go back someday soon!

Things to remember

Flowers outside our condo

Red-headed bird

Snail at the temple

An abundance of frogs!

The Bus

Blueberry streusel

Dang egg!

Our Hawaii trip was such a blast! There are a few things that I wanted to note so that I'll always remember how much fun we had and what it was like during our stay. Turtle Bay was such an amazing place for us to stay! We were so grateful to be staying there as it's so beautiful and we felt very safe there--minus the SECURITY issue one of the nights. The grounds within Turtle Bay are immaculate, just like the temple grounds. Every morning, we'd wake up to people outside sweeping, mowing, and cleaning. It is such a beautiful place! We were so central to everything from Laie to Hale'iwa and the beach was within walking distance. A couple of mornings we woke up and walked to the fruit market where we got pineapple, mango, coconut, etc which was the most delicious fruit I've ever tasted! Now that I'm home, I wish we'd have gone more.

Our condo was absolutely perfect for us and I would go back there in a heartbeat! Jen and I roomed upstairs while Shellee and Tahna roomed together downstairs. It was such a great growing experience for me as I was able to get to know the girls a lot better and we were able to experience something so new and different. The culture is so different from Utah as everyone just kinda bums around and kicks back. Everyone seems so stress-free and just out to relax. We often saw homeless people and many younger people (as in 16-25ish) who just never got ready. Mostly everyone there lives at the beach and they look like it!

One highlight of our trip that made it very unique and personal to us was watching Gilmore Girls. Now, some would say that that's such a waste of time since we were in Hawaii; however, we don't view it that way. Our purpose was to go out, relax, and just do whatever we wanted to. We had a whole month there so that allowed us to do and see most everything we wanted as well as watch Gillies. Throughout our stay, we would watch Gilmore Girls during breakfast, at random breaks in the day, and during dinner. We ate it up and I have great memories of watching it with the girls! Our Gilmore watching is something I'll never forget!

After being in Hawaii for about a day, we were all craving treats and that started the downhill for us on healthy eating. We hadn't bought many ingredients for treats as we didn't think we'd care too much for them--WOAH were we wrong! We ended up going to the store multiple times to buy ingredients for cookies, blueberry muffin mix, monkey bread (i.e. sticky buns), and to buy peanut butter and pretzel M&M's. Shellee made us coconut cake one night which was delicious and we also had popcorn dipped in condensed milk which was quite yummy!  Jen found a yummy streusel recipe on the internet and thought that it would be good on the blueberry muffin mix so we tried it and...she was right! It was heaven! We had so many treats! We all giggled about our sweet's addiction and it grew to be a topic of laughter on a daily basis!

As mentioned in previous posts, The Bus was one of our most favorite experiences in Hawaii! We had so many times where we were laughing hysterically on the bus which is something that I'll always remember. The most strange people ride the bus, some normal, many not. There were people who seemed to be schizophrenic, bums, fights broke out, insane bus drivers, etc. You name it, it happened on the bus!

One thing that was very new to us was the craze of insects and reptiles at night. There are huge frogs jumping around everywhere at night which is cool, but also a little creepy because they get super close to you. We could hear them all around as we walked to the pools. Another things that was just crazy to us was the size of the snails there. GINORMOUS! We saw a snail with the most beautiful shell! The shell was about the size of a lemon and it was white with brown designs all over it. I've never seen anything like it! There were many slugs roaming around as well as geckos that get inside the house which was not my cup of tea. We ended up having two baby geckos in the condo and cocroaches are just inevitable. Luckily we were on the top floor so we didn't have as many, but I still never really got used to them. I had many nights where I would wake up on the hour to check for bugs on the walls or in my bed. That is something I don't miss at all! Each night before getting in bed, I would pull my covers up and check in my pillows for centipede's as we heard that they light to nestle up in the wrinkles on blankets. Lucky for me I never found one, but I'd hate to think of what would've happened if I had! Whenever there was a cocroach we had a system. Shellee would kill it, then Jen would scoop it up and flush it, while I stood far away and observed like a big coward. Thanks girls!

Some funny events to remember...On about  the second morning that we were in Hawaii, I woke up at about 6:00 am and went down to exercise. A while later, Jen and Shellee got up and decided to go for a run so by the time they returned, we were all finished with our exercising. Shellee started trying to do man push-ups so Jen decided to see if she could do one as well. As she's getting into position--WHAM! She smacks her head hard on the tile floor which sounded awful! Shellee and I just busted! We laughed so hard I couldn't even get it together. Jen luckily wasn't too hurt and started cracking up as well and we got a laugh out of that the entire trip. Another funny moment we had was on the bus where this guy stands up to get off at a stop and a girl about our age stops him and hands him a piece of paper. He took it with the most confused look on his face, seeming a little hesitant, and the girl said, "It's my sisters number". The guy still seemed thoroughly confused and just said, "Thanks" and then walked off the bus. You probably had to be there to think it was funny, but we got a kick out of it!

One of our other laughing moments was when we were making cookie dough and I lightly cracked an egg--ONCE! All of a sudden a tiny part on the top of the egg fell off and the whole egg came running out onto the counter. It happened so fast and was so bizar! We got into a laughing fit with that one! Also, the first Sunday we went to church, we were sitting in Relief Society and the RS presidency stands up to sing a hymn for us. At first we thought it was sweet, but then one of the girls in the presidency starts beat boxing to the hymn! We were shocked! You would never see that in a ward in Utah that's for sure! That was quite hilarious, but also something that we didn't really agree with. We just got through it and luckily never experienced it again.

There were many moments of laughter on our trip which made it so fun! Some of our highlights were shave ice, Dole whip ice cream, Pearl Harbor (moreso one of my favorites), the fruit stand, Zumba, Gilmore Girls, reading books on the beach (I read Worth Dying For by Lee Child and started 1776 by David McCullough), the Huki Lau Cafe, The Bus, our good friend Susan (Grant is something to remember I guess), the Laie temple, and many other things. My two cravings while in Hawaii were pizza and Starbursts which is weird because I never care about starbursts normally. Jen and Shellee seemed to like coconut m&m's and Shellee was also craving pizza.

We saw many red-headed birds both big and small. Jen really took a liking to the small ones which we mostly saw on our walk to the Turtle Bay beach. They were definitely interesting birds! One other thing that we enjoyed was watching everyone do the Shocka (not sure how to spell that?) to each other. The Shocka is what people in Utah would call the "Hang loose" sign. The Hawaiians don't do the sign while wiggling their hand like people in Utah; rather, they just hold it up as they go by. It was fun to see what a big part of the culture that was. Also, the word Aina means "the spirit of the land" or the feeling of the culture type deal (i.e. things specific to that culture).

What a wonderful experience for us to go over and be in Hawaii for so long. The North Shore is beautiful and fun and I would love to go back some day. I'm very grateful for Jen, Shellee, and Tahna. They're great friends and so much fun to vacation with. It was great to get to know them and share these fun memories together. Thanks girls!

Water camera!

Shellee, Jelisa, and Jen

Jelisa

Haha, Jen!!!

Jelisa and Shellee with Plumerias:)

Shellee and Jen

Shellee and Jelisa

Look at those hops!

Jelisa and Shellee

Jelisa

Snorkeling at Turtle Bay

Jen snorkeling

Jelisa snorkeling

Fish at Turtle Bay

Haha, Jen with her goofy snorkel mask:)

Jelisa with her goofy goggles:)

Jen catching a wave!

These photos were taken throughout our vacation in Hawaii. Many are from our pool at Turtle Bay where we swam often while others are from our snorkeling and beach experiences.

The Gilmore Girls craze!

The night we finished the Gillies!

7 seasons of Gilmore Girls

This is how many discs we watched throughout our stay in Hawaii

Before heading out to Hawaii, we had all decided that we were Gilmore Girls fans. We agreed that I would bring all seven seasons to Hawaii and that we'd watch them since we had so much free time. Well, I'm happy to report that although it was quite the stretch, we were able to watch all seven seasons of Gilmore Girls before leaving Hawaii. We finished the final two episodes the night before we left and gave each other kudos for our amazing accomplishment! We determined that there are 153 episodes in all, each lasting about 45 minutes meaning that we watched 6,884 minutes or 115 hours of Gillies while we were in Hawaii. It definitely put a unique twist on our vacation--one that we will never forget.

Basically every day, we would watch an episode while eating breakfast, at any breaks during the day, and during dinner. We loved every minute of our Gillies (the name Shellee gave it)! Although Jen and I had already seen all seven seasons, we would anxiously await our chance to watch the next episode. We timed it perfectly ending the night before departure and it made the trip very personalized and fun! Can't believe we watched that many episodes in a month--that's pretty extraordinary!

Our final days in Hawaii

Beach by Hale'iwa

Beach by Hale'iwa

Jen and I hiking out to the lookout at Turtle Bay

Jen and Jelisa

Jelisa and Shellee--last snow cone:(

Jen and Shellee sitting on our new ride

Our amazing rental car--2011 Jeep Patriot

Inside our rental car

Dropping off our rental car at Enterprise

Jen at the airport with our ridiculous amount of luggage

It was sad to come to the close of our vacation as we walked up to Turtle Bay Resort to pick up our rental car. We were very pleased with the car we were given which was a 2011 Jeep Patriot--brand new! It had 777 miles on it when we checked it out and we died over the new freedom we experienced having a car. For the first time ever, we were able to park in our parking spot within Turtle Bay which was quite the accomplishment for us! We drove into Hale'iwa to get our last shave ice and were so sad to think that we wouldn't have another one so delicious in quite some time. For our last time, we decided to go to Matsumoto's because Shellee loves the coconut cream flavor there and because we had gone to Aoki's a couple days before.

It was exciting to be coming home to see our family and friends, but also sad to think that this place we had began to call home was soon to be distant from us--a very bittersweet moment. I woke up the morning after getting our car around 7 am to take a video of our condo. Jen and Shellee woke up soon afterwards and we got to work packing the rest of our stuff and cleaning here and there. Shellee had a great idea to take all of our leftover food to Susan as it was going to go to waste. We cleaned out the fridge, swept the floors, packed our bags, and loaded the car. It was sad to look back at our condo for the last time as we drove out of the parking lot to Susan's house. We didn't have our key anymore so I had to drop Shellee and Jen off to take the food in while I drove around killing time. Finally, Shellee and Jen came out and were so pleased with our decision to take our food to Susan as she apparently is going through financial difficulties and really needed it. Glad Shellee pursued the idea to do that!

We drove to Kahuku for the last time and looked around a little shop on the side of the road, then took off to Hale'iwa to do a few things for the last time. We ate at Kua Aina, picked up shave ice juice to take back to the mainland, then went to the Dole Plantation for Dole whip ice cream. After going to Dole, we headed for the Honolulu airport and found that we arrived sooner than anticipated which we didn't want because we had a lot of time to kill before our flight boarded. We decided to drive into Waikiki so that we could stop somewhere and walk around, but soon found that there wasn't a place to park anywhere! That started getting super frustrating as we had soon made an entire circle around Waikiki without stopping anywhere. Soon we were headed back to the airport and arrived again, way before we had to return our car so we headed back to Waikiki to find a California Pizza Kitchen that Shellee had seen. Once we drove back into town, we couldn't find it anywhere and yet again, there was nowhere to pull off so we turned around, got gas, then headed back to the airport which took us a ton of time! We were finally hitting about 4:45 pm and the car had to be back by 5 pm so we dropped the car off and took a shuttle back to the airport.

Once we were at the airport, we checked in and weighed our luggage and found out that one of Shellee's suitcases was too heavy. Shellee transferred some of her stuff to Jen's suitcase and we were good to go so we checked our luggage in. We were hungry and still had about four hours until we could board so we asked for directions to restaurants within walking distance and soon found ourselves in a goose chase. We decided to forget that idea and just go through the gates to eat at one of the restaurants in the airport.

Our flight boarded around 9:30 pm and we were soon off for a six hour flight back home. We arrived in Las Vegas at about 7:15 am and the Hoopes were there to pick us up which we were very grateful for! Shellee's brother Travis and his wife Lindsey also came along and we all went to Mimi's Cafe for breakfast. It was so delicious! Thank you SO much to the Hoopes for all of your work and efforts to make this trip happen--we sure appreciate it!

Hukilau Beach and baptisms at the Temple

Jen and Jelisa at Hukilau beach

Jelisa and Shellee at Hukilau beach

Shellee, Jen, Jelisa

Hukilau beach

Jen at the Laie Temple

Jelisa and Shellee at the temple

Laie Temple

On Tuesday we got up and went to breakfast at the Hukilau Cafe since it has become one of our favorite places to eat. I ordered macadamia nut pancakes again while Shellee got coconut pancakes and Jen got french toast. After eating at the Cafe, we walked up to Hukilau beach just to lay out and enjoy the ocean as the weather was less than inviting. While we were there, we saw some cute boys that we had seen earlier at Hukilau Cafe and one of them seemed to take an interest in us which was fun! He chatted with Jen a bit about the book she was reading which was cute of him we thought! After about two hours of laying out in overcast skies, the sun came out and we stayed for another hour and a half, taking in the lovely weather and beautiful sounds of the ocean.

We got on the bus around 3:30 pm and headed back to Turtle Bay where we went swimming for a bit. We had realized at that point that Jen and I were just toasted! We could feel the sunburn without even seeing it and we soon decided to come back to the condo to get ready for baptisms for the dead at the temple. We got ready, then back on the 55 to go to the temple. There was a little walk from the bus stop to the temple so we started our trek down the way and found it to be an absolutely beautiful evening--perfect time of the day in Hawaii (which is around 6:30 pm). We walked around to the back of the temple where the baptismal entrance is and rang the door bell, then the door opened and we walked inside to find an amazing, beautiful temple! I was so impressed at how amazing the church is! I can't believe such that such a beautiful building can be built--it was so nice to be able to do baptisms while we were here.

Our sunburns really came out at the temple when we were in our white clothes. It was just absolutely embarrassing and everyone was making comments about it which made the situation even more funny. We were so red that when I looked at Jen my eyes would start watering which I'm sure was the same for her when she looked at me! Oh the dumb things we do! Baptisms turned out to be a wonderful experience and the Hawaii temple is now one of my top favorites beauty-wise.

After baptisms, we walked back to the bus stop and since the bus comes less frequently after 6 pm, we waited there for an hour (from 8:30-9:30)! Oh by the time the bus came we were starting to get irritated so it's a good thing it finally decided to show up! We got home and watched Gilmore Girls, then went to bed and slept amazingly!

Snorkeling and Nachos!

Drinking mango pina colada and POG--SO good!

Jen's strawberry pina colada

Eating at Ola

Nachos--the most delicious nachos I've ever tasted

On Monday we decided to go snorkeling since we had to keep rescheduling due to the rain. As we were waiting for the bus, Grant pulled up with his mom and asked if we wanted him to take us out so we decided to go with him. We hurried back to Grant's house (because he was letting us borrow his snorkeling stuff) and got what we needed, then headed out to Shark's Cove. When we got there, the waves were pretty big and there were signs up saying that we weren't allowed to swim--we were SO bummed!

Grant drove us to Turtle beach which is apparently a place where turtles are often seen and we thought we could go snorkeling there. When we got there the waves were big so we walked around looking for turtles in the water and a few minutes later, a turtle poked his little head out of the water and I fell in love with him! It was so fun to see turtles! Grant ended up leaving and we walked up to the bus stop where we waited for what seemed like eternity! Finally, the 52 came around the corner which we were overjoyed about--halleluiah! We stopped at Foodland to pick up a couple of groceries, then headed back to Turtle Bay where we dropped our groceries off, then headed up to the beach.

Once we got there, Shellee laid out and watched our stuff (she didn't want to snorkel) while Jen and I took to the sea! Jen and I got laughing hysterically about how ridiculous we looked with our gear on--we were laughing so hard that we couldn't even swim. I told Jen not to leave me alone, then we took off swimming and I had no idea where she went? After swimming around for a bit, I started freaking out a little because the coral was so close to me. I've never had a panic attack, but started feeling like I was going to have one so I started swimming in a little where I found Jen swimming around. I saw some really cool fish that were spotted and striped and some other interesting things that I didn't know how to classify? Although the experience was really interesting, I've decided that snorkeling isn't really my thing. Jen and I got out of the water and laid out for a bit, then we decided to go to Ola (a restaurant on the beach).

We decided to get drinks--I got a mango pina colada, Jen got a strawberry pina colada, and Shellee got some POG with a twist. The drinks were heavenly--just completely delicious! We had heard from many locals that the nachos are really good so we each ordered a plate which we laughed about because the menu said that there are three per plate and we were like, "Oh yeah, three chips per plate haha!" When we got our nachos, there really were three chips per plate which are show in the photo above. Oh they were the most heavenly nachos I've ever tasted--spectacular! They had guacamole, ginger, goat cheese, sour cream, pork, etc and were just out of this world!

After eating at Ola, we walked home and went swimming which turned out to be hilarious! Jen brought a water camera and we were trying to take pictures, but struggling because we were trying to get the timing right with our eyes open and all go down in sync. We laughed hysterically and it took us about ten minutes to finally snap a shot because we couldn't even get a breath to go under water. After swimming, we came in and ate, then watched Gilmore Girls (as Shellee calls them "Gillies") and went to bed. It was a lovely day in Hawaii!!!