OMGosh!!!

Ok I am going to compile a post with all the Christmas and New Year's festivities and the Robinson's visit soon, but I just had to post this!! We were watching TV and saw this infomercial for 'Bumpits'...Oh my gosh I think this had to have been invented in Idaho and popularized in Utah!! I guess this is giving girls across the land all the more time to get fro-yo and scrapbook! ;)  

Oh and one more thing

I forgot to put up the video of the sharks! :)

My christmas gift to all...A new post ;)

Hi all!!
I am so sorry I haven't written in such a long time, but don't worry I am alive and things are still going fabtastic in H-town :) Lots has been going on! 
Kandi and Bill were in town so I went to dinner with them to celebrate Bill birthday and catch-up...it was so good seeing them! I wish I could have seen Karly and Kyle, sounds like they are doing great and growing up so fast. I can't believe Kyle is driving!! If they are reading this I love you both and miss you!!
My parents also came to visit, which was awesome. Sunday they cooked a big Thanksgiving dinner for my friends and I and it was spectacular! :) All who know me know my love for thanksgiving and it didn't disappoint! I felt so bad I had to work most of the time they were here, but luckily they are pretty self-sufficient and kept themselves entertained:) I did take one day off and we went to the Polynesian Cultural Center (PCC) for my mom's birthday (30th of course ;)) and my friend Mon totally hooked us up! He works there so he gave us a VIP tour of all the villages and back stage at the evening  show. That was about the only day we took pictures, my bad! Here they are:

Some other highlights of the trip included a University of Hawaii (UH) basketball game, the swap meet, and that is all I can remember right now haha. Honestly the whole trip went by way too fast and it is all a blur now!

I am still busy with the calling as FHE coordinator and am even more stressed since my partner got deployed to Iraq and I am flying solo! Luckily things have been working out great and we are having a lot of fun. We have written holiday letters to the troops, gone to a UH basketball game, decorated gingerbread houses, and gone on a trolley ride to look at the Christmas lights. Here are some pics of the branch:

Now what you all have been waiting for...pics from the shark encounter! Saturday morning we got up early and went over to the North Shore to catch a boat that took us out about 3 miles and dumped us into the ocean with sharks. Ok we had a cage to swim in and snorkel masks so I never felt I was in danger. We saw some awesome 10-12 ft. sharks that would come right up to the side of the cage and blink at us haha. Oh and I have to tell this story for Renae cuz she will freak! While we were in the cage swimming the water was really rough and we were getting thrown around pretty good. Well Jon got sick and threw up. Oh my gosh I flipped! We were snorkeling around and I could see it in the water so I jumped up and wanted to get out, but the cage had drifted about 10 ft. from the boat so I was trapped in the cage swimming in puke! Granted it was the ocean so it diluted pretty quickly but it was super nasty nonetheless! Happy ending though, we got back on the boat and they had a hot shower waiting for us...Hallelujah!!! On the way back in we saw a bunch of spinner dolphins that kept jumping up and doing tricks next to the boat , soo cool! And we also saw a whale! Totally worth every penny!

Lastly here is a compilation of some random stuff that has happened in the last month and a half:
Finally got the pics scanned from the Haunted Lagoon at PCC.
I got free tickets to the Symphony from a girl in the branch that play the violin for them and got to meet Bela Fleck, 18 time Grammy winning banjo player...Yee haw :) Really he is awesome though!
Also got free tickets to the Marine Forces Band concert and got to meet singer Anita Hall and Jake Shimabukuru, ukulele genius!! Seriously if you have never heard or seen him you-tube him, he will knock your socks off! And he is super super nice!
I found my favorite beach so far called Lanikai Beach...stunningly beautiful, soft sand, not very crowded, and some shade. Who could ask for more!
I got caught in a terenchal downpour coming home from mini golf one night-literally clear sky one second then snap a bucket of water thrown on my head. Surprisingly refreshing :)
I made festive crafts with my Kindergarten group...I promise it is work :)
And last but not least I finally tried SPAM and eggs from McDonalds. My review...not inedible, not incredible :)

Love you all so much and am sooo sad I won't be home for Christmas!! But, I will see the Robinson's in a week so I can handle it :) Best wishes to all and Mele kalikimaka!!!

Chinatown

Saturday we took the bus from Waikiki to Chinatown for some lunch and shopping. I went with Jon and some of his friends that go to school at BYU-Hawaii. They are originally from Thailand so they knew of all the good little places to eat and shop in Chinatown...lucky for me! :) We had dim sum at a place called Good Luck restaurant and it was so good! I had never had dim sum before and I was pleasantly surprised :) It is basically a variety of steamed dumplings with different fillings like shrimp and pork. They look a little scary at first, not gonna lie, but they are quite tasty and inexpensive! We got a whole table full of food for 6 of us for $35! After we went to lunch we wandered around the different shops and markets that have all sorts of fresh produce and ethnic ingredients. We bought some strange fruits, one was delish...the other was the complete opposite! The little red fruit is called Rambutan(?) and it is sweet and juicy. The big spikey fruit is called Durian. It smells so putrid and the taste is likewise...imagine the taste of rotten potato salad. But hey at least I can say I tried it right?! Here is the slideshow of pictures...enjoy :)

I'd Carve That!

So this week was filled with Halloween festivities. On Tuesday night we carved pumpkins with some of the girls I visit teach and had such a good time! We got the kit with patterns and tools so that we could make designs on the pumpkins, fancy style :) I made a vampire cat, Alena made a spider, and Mona made a ghost...so she says ;) Just kidding they all turned out great!

Then on Wednesday night we went to the Haunted Lagoon at the Polynesian Cultural Center over in Laie. They haunted the canoe ride and it was freaky! They had guys that would hide under the water and pop up and splash you as you rode past, they had people that would lean over the bridges or they dropped big hairy spiders down onto you. Seriously the best $8 scare you will ever get. Something that you just can't get on the mainland! :) We have some pictures from it but I haven't had time to scan them in yet sorry. 

On Thursday night I had some friends over to watch The Office and made a spooky dinner of spaghetti and 'eyeballs' with 'lady finger' french bread and dirt cups with worms for dessert. Yum-o! It turned out pretty good if I do say so myself ;) 

I forgot to take a picture at first so this is a half eaten version haha. 

 So little red riding hood, an angel, a witch, Superman, Batman, a New Kids on the Block fan, and a pimp  walk into a bar...

That pretty much describes Friday night:) I went with Mona and some friends from work to Moose Mcgillicutty's to dance and we had a blast! They loved there Jäger bombs but don't worry I just had some chocolate milk ;) Let me just say Mardi Gras is to New Orleans what Halloween is to Waikiki! There were thousands of people wandering the streets in anything and everything you could imagine. I didn't really take any pictures unfortunately but one of my co-workers got this nasty one of me after dancing...I was little red riding 'hood' ;) BUT you can't even see my bling or most of my costume for that matter...sad story! I will check with my other friend to see if she got any better ones.

Here is the rest of the group:

New Kids on the Block groupies: Jayme, Ali, Natalie, and Tricia

Venus and Serena? aka Ann Marie, Loretta, and Thea

Jijo, Mona, and Natalie

And here is some random goodness from around town:

Pants optional...

Moral of the story...best Halloween ever!! I would recommend it to anyone who is not faint of heart or easily scarred for life ;)

Fall Break Fun

So not this past week but the week before was Fall Break for the school district so I ended up getting about 10 days off! :) Derrek flew in on Friday and we had a good time exploring Waikiki that weekend. We went to the aquarium, got Mani-pedi's (he just got a pedicure), and had a picnic by the beach. Saturday night we celebrated my friend Christine's birthday and went out to sushi. I ate an unagi roll (which is eel!) and a spicy yellow fin roll and didn't spit it out haha I was so proud of myself!! Maybe this sushi thing isn't so bad :) Monday we hit up the north shore for some snorkeling at Shark's Cove, cliff jumping at Waimea Point, and acai bowls of course...mmm! Then Tuesday D-rock and I flew to Kauai with Christine and her friend also named Christine from Boston, and Jijo. We all stayed in an awesome 2 bedroom, 3 bathroom condo with full kitchen and 3 lanai's! It also had a sand bottom pool with 2 water slides, waterfall caves, and multiple hot tubs...fabulous! While we were there we hiked the first 2 miles of the Na Pali coastline to the private beach which was spectacular...seriously a beautiful hike! We swam in Queen's bath, visited Waimea Canyon which is also called the grand canyon of the pacific, amazing! We even saw a monk seal sleeping on the beach! Also, they have a BBQ place called Scotty's that is off the hook yummy! Honestly probably the best food I have had in hawaii thus far...almost worth the airfare over just to eat there ;) We flew back to Oahu on Friday and our flight was delayed by almost 2 hours :( That kind of threw a wrench in our plans so we did dinner and a movie that night. We saw Eagle Eye which I thought was good...but I like any thing with Shia LaBeouf :) Saturday we hiked Diamond Head and went to Pearl Harbor which was really neat. I had never been there and it was a really touching experience. I think everyone who has the chance should take the opportunity to see it. Derrek flew back to the mainland Sunday night...I guess all good things must come to an end. It was so fun to be a tourist again and explore more of the islands that I haven't seen. I thoroughly enjoyed the vacation and it was really hard to go back to work! But I think my bank account will be glad I went back :) Here are the pictures from Kauai, I will put up slide shows from the rest of the week as soon as I get the pics. 

Kauai Condo

Na Pali Coastline Hike

 Queen's Bath

Waimea Canyon and Poipu Beach

I can't wait for all the visitors that are coming in November and December, I am seriously anxious!! :) My 3 month mark is tomorrow can you believe it?!?! Time is zooming! Love you guys and honestly miss you sooo sooo much!

Surprise, surprise!!

Well I flew home to Utah last weekend to surprise everyone and I had a whirlwind of a trip! It was awesome :) I left Honolulu at 9:40 pm Wednesday, had a 30 minute lay over in San Francisco, and got into SLC at 9:05 am Thursday. My mom picked me up from the airport and we made the rounds to surprise everyone. We went to my dad's work, Costco to see Auntie and  Shawn, Overstock to see Renae, then over to my grandparents. After that we got ready and headed downtown to the temple for the main reason I was in town...Emily's wedding! She didn't think I was going to be able to make it (and neither did I until about 2 weeks ago) and I think her reaction was the best of anyone haha. She started screaming and crying then I started crying...totally worth no sleep on an overnight flight for that moment!! She was so beautiful and has never seemed so genuinely happy. Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Jake Bates...AHH that is so weird to say!! But I love it :) 

Between the time change and lack of sleep I didn't waking up on Friday until 1 pm...but hey that is only 9am Hawaii time! I went to the mall with my mom and Kim to hit up some stores they don't have in Hawaii and I got a new phone...Woo hoo! Anyone who saw my old one knows it needed a makeover and I was pretty proud of myself for going 2 years without getting a new one! 

On saturday I went out to Miller Motor Sports Park for the last big race of the season and it was great...I am not use to such wide open spaces and big roads anymore so it was a nice change haha.  While we were there we rode the kool bus which was freaking amazing!! Best $5 I have ever spent :)

Saturday night we had a BBQ for Tucker's birthday at Renae's house. Mo and I both brought our Wii's so we played Rockband and Mario Kart...very entertaining. We also had an intense round on Texas Hold 'Em going on. I was cleaning up, but decided to let the birthday boy have the win ;) His birthday was on September 19th which just happens to be national "Talk Like a Pirate Day" so needless to say we just had to have a pirate pinata! It made the rounds for photo ops...Thanks Mikey! And what kind of friend would I be if I didn't bring him back a surfing monkey carved out of wood ;)

Well the trip was WAY too short, but it sure was packed full of good times! It was so geat to see everyone again..I can't believe it has already been 2 months since I moved! Well I love you all and hope you come see me soon!