Hawaii

 Peter and I went to Hawaii about a week ago, to celebrate his graduation from Grad school.  We left the kids with G and G Corier and set off for 5 days of relaxation.  This is the first trip we have been on alone since we have been married and we realized that it was the first time we had ever flown together.  After about 8 hours total of travel...some ridiculously expensive airport food, 10 sudoku puzzles and a small stack of gossip magazines we finally arrived in Hawaii.  We stayed at Turtle Bay resort on the north shore of Oahu.  we loved it so much.  I can't wait to go back! The picture above is Peter in the Parking lot of our hotel.

 This is the view from our room.

 Hawaiian sunrise.  We saw all the sunrises while we were there because Hawaii is 3 hours behind Washington so it felt like 8:30 to us.

 We were able to do a session at the Laie temple.  The temple is small but beautiful.  The grounds are gorgeous.  It was pretty hot though, so it took a lot of self control to not take a dip in that beautiful fountain ;)  Later that afternoon we went snorkeling in the bay by our hotel, so we had plenty of time to cool down, free from our church clothes! I am not very good at snorkeling.  My instinct as a swimmer is to blow out through my nose, which of course messes up my snorkel mask and I have to pop out the water and fix the whole thing.  I took me about 10 minutes to overcome this instinct and actually enjoy it.  We saw some neat fish as we snorkeled around the coral in the bay.  I can't wait to do it again.

 Lunch at the shrimp truck.  Food trucks are the way to go in Hawaii.  The food was delicious.

 The sun set on the other side of the resort.  It is a matter of walking across the parking lot to see either the sun rise or set.  It was really weird to look out and realize there was nothing out that direction until you hit Japan.

 The resort had a lot of great trails.  Peter and I got up early and took a nice walk one morning.  We found a nice quiet beach.  I saw a turtle swimming and Peter saw a seal.

 I had to get in.  It was like 8 am and the water was warm.

 The destination on this trail was this massive Banyan tree.  Supposedly this is the tree in the Show LOST.  It was huge and so cool to see up close.

 inside the tree

 The plants in hawaii are insane!  This was a typical fern or whatever this thing is.

 The next destination on our walk was a world war two bunker.  I would never want to need to take shelter in this thing.  It was tiny and you couldn't see out very well.

the bunker was only about a foot taller than me.  And it was basically square, so this picture gives you an idea of how small it actually is.

 We went to a nearby town called Hale' iwa.  We had lunch, and shopped in some of the tourist shops and had some great shave ice at matsumoto shave ice.  Mine was guava, pina colda and coconut with ice cream in the bottom.  They were awesome, and worth the line :)

 Sun starting to set by the pool.

 Hula at the pool bar.  There was live entertainment at the pool every night around sunset and it was a really nice way to wind down the day.  The sun is only up for about 12 ish hours.  It rises just before 6 and sets around 7, so everyone is outside all day long to take advantage.

 The surfing isn't that great this time of year.  I would love to come back in November to see the surfers.

 Sunset

Fire dancing Champion.  This kid was amazing and he was only 13.

 We went to a great botanical garden called Waimea Valley.  We have a ton of pictures from the garden, that are on my facebook page.  This was our favorite activity.  It was so beautiful.

 Again...what is it with Hawaii and Giant plants?  So cool.  A lot of movies and TV shows have been filmed in this garden.  It is a gorgeous location.

 At the end of the garden path is a waterfall that we took a swim in.  They make you wear a life jacket so it was really just a float, with the waterfall pushing us around.  But it was cold and wonderful...especially since I had been attacked by a swarm of mosquitoes.

 This was my favorite part of the day.  I could have just floated there all day.

 After the garden and the water fall, we had a huge lunch at the Pupukea Grill food truck. Again...foodtrucks in Hawaii are awesome!

 The ocean and a good surf beach is right across that highway, so most people come straight from the beach, grab lunch and go back to the ocean.

 Those smoothies were awesome.

 Last sunrise.

 Byodo-in Temple.  This is a Buddhist temple in a huge cemetery.  We really enjoyed walking around here and then we drove through the whole cemetery.  It was really interesting, and beautiful.

 Our cute little rental car...very nice to park....but totally gutless.

 Punchbowl cemetery and Memorial of the pacific.  This is a huge memorial for all the wars fought in the pacific.  It was a really interesting place to visit and there were detailed maps of all the major battles.  This is supposed to be like Arlington National Cemetery but for the pacific.

 China town in downtown Honolulu.  We had a great lunch at this Golden Palace restaraunt.  The menu was completely in Chinese with some english subtitles.  We weren't able to communicate with our waitress very well so she just started handing us some dim sum dishes and filled our table until we surrendered.  She just kept telling us this is good, people like this. you will like this. Another lady came around and gave us a plate of what she called the special and that everyone liked.  I'm not really sure what it all was, but it was good and we left full and grateful for elastic waistbands!

 Fish market in Chinatown.

 Clock tower in Chinese.

it was an interesting place to visit.

Well that about sums up our trip.  I have a ton of pictures on my facebook wall if you are so inclined to check them out.

We had a wonderful trip, I am so glad that we went, it was exactly what we needed to end a long and stressful year and to celebrate all of Peter's hard work.

Since we have been back, the girls started a soccer clinic and they love it.

  I ran a women's 4k, started summer quarter (business law and middle eastern studies), I'm working with the YW to get them ready for their Virtue run 5k (blah we are running it in August...we are going to melt) and beginning training for the RS triathlon.

Peter is reading books for fun, catching up on some video game time and applying for new jobs.  He has found a few to apply for that he is really interested in.  So if you have any prayers to give, send some for Peter's job search.  A new job is part of our plan for this year and we are really excited about what it could mean for our family.

Hope everyone is well and having a great summer.  Love you all!