More from Hawaii

Tuesday morning we woke up early and headed over to Pearl Harbor. We had a two hour wait until we could go to the U.S.S. Arizona so we went to the Aviation Museum to see some of the planes that were flown during WWII. The planes were cool to see, but it was a little disappointing considering what we paid and how small the museum was.

We watched a little movie explaining exactly what happened the day Pearl Harbor was attacked. It's sobering to think about all of the lives that were lost that day.

We then went out to the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial. It was a beautiful day and it was neat to look up and see our flag waving over the spot where so many men were buried under the sea.

Jon was very intrigued by the oil that is still leaking from the sunken ship. They said that around 2 gallons leaks everyday. Jon thinks that it symbolizes a living memory to all of those that sacrificed for us.

After Pearl Harbor we were starving so we stopped by Leonard's Bakery and got half a dozen Malasadas which are a delicious donut type pastry filled with custard and creams. I'm not usually a fan of donuts, but these were so good. We had no problem eating all 6 for lunch!

We were both really tired from getting up so early so we went back to the hotel and took a nap! Now when would that ever happen back at home- definitely a perk of being on vacation! Whenever we would get back to our room, the first thing we would do was go out on the balcony and just take in how beautiful the view was.

After we were well rested, we drove across the island over to Diamond Head and hiked to the top. It was a pretty easy hike until the very end where we had to walk through a steep tunnel and then up several steep stairways. I think someone counted that there were over a hundred steps! Good thing after eating all of those Malasadas!

It was well worth it once we got to the top. The view was amazing.

We made it back down and drove to Waikiki beach where we threw the football around and then went to Teddy's Bigger Burgers for dinner. Wow, writing this is making me realize why we both gained weight throughout the week! I don't think we could have eaten any worse than we did, but it was so worth it!

Wednesday we slept in and then went running down the beach. It was a little hot and humid, but I still managed to have a pretty good run. We then drove back to Waikiki and went parasailing!

I was a little nervous at first, but quickly realized that there was nothing to be afraid of. You just stand on the back of the boat and as it starts going you go up in the air. For some reason I was thinking that you had to start in the water and I'm not a fan of swimming in the open ocean with the sharks!

Our driver thought it would be funny to dip us into the water and get us a little wet. It actually felt pretty good!

After an 8 minute ride we made it back to the boat safely. It ended up being really fun and we were glad that we decided to do it.

Once we made it back to land we were hungry so we stopped at Zippy's and got a Zip Pack, something that Jon was told he had to try. It was okay, but nothing to brag about. We then headed over to Hanauma Bay to go snorkeling. I have never been skorkeling and was a little worried about not being able to stay afloat very long and sinking! I know, I have problems! Jon reassured me that we were going to be in salt water and have fins on and that it would be fine. I was suprised to find out that he was right- you really do just float on top of the water. The only time I would sink was when I came up to clear my mask!

Snorkeling was really fun! Jon spotted a sea turtle and we saw lots of fish, but just swimming out there together was the best part!

When we got this picture back from our water camera we laughed so hard we were almost crying! Gotta love a good snorkel gear shot!!!

We walked back to the top of the bay and changed our clothes since we were soaking wet. It was St. Patrick's Day so we had to sport our St. Patty's attire. Jon actually had a shirt with a shamrock on it as well, but he spilled ketchup all over it at Zippy's (I don't think he was that sad about it)! Luckily, he had a backup green shirt in the car!

The traffic through Honolulu was always bad, so Jon had the idea that we should drive around the East side of the island up through North Shore and back around to get back to our hotel. It was a beautiful drive- we loved that side of the island- and after 3 hours we made it back! It took a little longer than we thought, but was well worth it. We were getting pretty hungry when we got to North Shore so we decided to make a stop at Ted's Barkley for the 2nd time on our trip. It was actually called Ted's Bakery, but when the concierge lady was telling us about it she tried to write it down and couldn't figure out how to spell bakery, so after looking at it for a while she was satisfied with 'Barkley'. Jon and I of course had to call it that the rest of the trip!

Ted's Barkley had the BEST garlic shrimp. They catch it fresh and then cook it in butter and garlic and put parmesan cheese all over the top. We couldn't get enough of it!

We eventually made it back to the hotel and went swimming and sat in the hot tub. It was a great ending to a really fun day!

Stay tuned...

Island Fever

I was warned that when you go to Hawaii you come back with 'island brain' and you're not the same for a while! Let me just say that I am feeling it. I just keep thinking about how fun our trip was and when we can go back. I need to blog about it while everything is still fresh on my mind. I will probably break these posts down into a couple days at a time since there are so many pictures I want to post and write about.

We have been talking about going to Hawaii ever since we got married and Jon promised me that he would take me before our ten year anniversary which is this December. Everything fell into place and we were able to spend eight days in Oahu last week.

We flew in on a Sunday afternoon and headed over to the Punch Bowl which is the military cemetary where a lot of veterans are buried.

The walls on the sides of this monument had the names of all of the soldiers whose bodies were never recovered. At the top they had mosaics of all of the major battles in the Pacific during WWII.

We spent a lot of time walking around the cemetary and looking at everything. It was really humbling to see how many people have sacrificed for our freedom. We are truly grateful.

We then made it over to our hotel. We stayed at the JW Marriott at Ko Olina over on the west side of the island. The hotel was really nice and we liked being more secluded and away from the busy city of Honolulu. This was the view from our room. We watched this sunset our first night and then went to dinner at the hotel. We were starving!

After dinner we found a Target just a couple miles from our hotel. This made the trip complete! We bought cereal and milk and some snacks and lots of chocolate covered macadamia nuts. I think we ate 10 boxes of those throughout the week which may or may not have contributed to each of our five pound weight gains!

Monday morning I woke up early and couldn't go back to sleep, so I just layed out on the balcony and read my book while I listened to the ocean. It was so peaceful and I knew right there that this was going to be a great trip! Once Jon got up we headed over to the Dole Plantation and got some delicious fresh fruit and pinaeapple Dole whips. I get them at Disneyland a lot, but there's something better about eating them in Hawaii!

We then walked through the largest maze in the world (or so they say). Notice the excitement on my face- I really love mazes! Nathan shares my excitement and has been talking about going to the 'Hawaii maze' ever since we told him about it. We told him we'll take him when he is 10 years old!

We then headed up to the North Shore and took a beautiful walk through the Waimea Valley which ended at this waterfall. (For those of you Lost fans, this is the waterfall that Kate and Hurley were found in when they came back to the island!)

We were able to swim out to the waterfall which was one of my favorite things that we did. There's just something cool about swimming in a waterfall! It was pretty cold, though!

Not sure what Jon's towel is doing in this picture!

Jon loved these trees that are all over the island.

We then went over to the beach up at North Shore and watched the surfers surfing the huge waves. It's pretty amazing to watch how good- and crazy- they are.

On our way home from Waimea Bay we stopped in a little town called Haleiwa and got some of their famous shaved ice. I'm not usually a shaved ice fan, but it was really good. They put vanilla ice cream on the bottom and you can never go wrong with ice cream!

I loved the cute containers they put them in!

That night we walked around our hotel and then headed into Waikiki for dinner. We thought this statue was interesting- we could see it from our balcony, but we never figured out the story behind it. I guess it will remain a mystery!

We ate at a pretty good restaurant on the beach in Waikiki. I started liking the taste of coconut a little more while we were there and actually liked it in my smoothies and shaved ice. I still can't handle the texture of it, though. So gross!

After dinner we walked around some of the shops and then headed back to our hotel and went to bed early. We still hadn't adjusted to the time change and so at 10:00 there it was like 1:00 in the morning for us and we were tired!

Stay tuned for more...

Let It Snow!

A few weeks ago we headed up to Brian Head for a weekend in the snow. We met Jon's parents in Cedar City and gave them the kids so that they could hang out with them in Delta. Jon and I then met my parents up at Brian Head for a fun day of snow skiing!

My mom really wanted to go to Vancouver for the Olympics and go skiing there, but since that didn't pan out she was just excited to be going skiing at all. It had been a while for all of us!

While getting on the chair lift one of the times, my pole dropped and as I was trying to get it the chair lift knocked me over and went right over me! They had to stop the lift and help me up- it was so embarassing! I then dropped my glove while we were on the chair lift so Jon gave me his and skiied down and got mine. I swear you can't take me anywhere!

Notice the elevation sign behind us! It was really snowy and FREEZING cold the whole weekend. After about an hour my hands and feet were so numb I had to go in and buy warmers. That helped a little, but they were still so cold. I was definitely not meant to live in cold weather!

After our day of skiing we went back to the lodge and went to dinner and then just sat in the lounge and watched the Olympics while listening to live country music. It was very relaxing!

The next morning we drove through the snow to pick the kids up and headed back up the mountain to go tubing. Brian Head had this really cool tubing hill that we knew the kids would love.

I forgot to bring my boots so my shoes were soaking wet and FREEZING cold (again)!

Nathan loved tubing! He literally kept going and going for the full 2 hours. He even tried the bumpy slope and thought it was so much fun!

Jake wasn't so sure. He went several times, but he didn't quite have the smile on his face that Nathan had!

You could only go down if you could go by yourself so Max just played down at the bottom. He kept getting in the tube and acting like he wanted to go so finally we let him! The workers said that they've had 18 month olds go before so we felt pretty safe. Even at that I had Jon go on the slope next to him so that he could jump off and help him if he fell out. My mom met him at the bottom and said he looked a little traumatized so we didn't make him go again!

Notice my dad video taping Jon as they went down!

Jon and my dad found out after this that you are supposed to drag your feet at the end so that you don't hit the tires! Whoops!

We finally convinced my mom to go down and she loved it, though one time was good enough for her!

There's one happy kid!

My parents looked awesome in their matching hats! They were pretty excited about them and said they were really warm. I can imagine!

While Nathan and Jon continued to tube, Max and Jake had fun just playing in the snow. Unfortunately the snow was too powdery to make a snowman or a snowball, but Jake had fun picking it up and throwing it on everyone. Max just wanted to play with the tube!

After tubing we ate pizza and went back to the lodge and took the boys swimming. I forgot to take the camera, but I took a picture after we got back to our room. I bought bathing suits for Jake and Nathan in the hotel lobby, but they didn't have anything for Max so he had to swim in his sweat pants! It didn't seem to bother him!

We capped off the day with a little Ben and Jerry's ice cream and watched the Olympics in bed. It was the perfect ending to a really fun weekend!

The next morning the kids enjoyed eating Apple Jacks in bed and watching cartoons while Jon and I got packed up.

We stayed at the Grand Lodge at Brian Head. It was really nice, but the boys could care less about that- they just love any time they get to stay in a hotel!

The boys were really excited when we walked down and saw that the car was covered in snow!

And a huge thank you goes out to whoever invented headphones so that the kids can watch their movies and Jon and I don't have to listen to them!

We had such a fun weekend but are glad to be back in warm weather!!!