Hawaii Trip

After hearing that everyone thinks I fell off the face of the blog world I decided I'm way overdue for a post! For Christmas my mom and dad gave our family a trip to Hawaii for 10 days! We left January 4th and flew back just in time for Tyler's little brother Jon's farewell on the 13th. I went to BYU-Hawaii for a summer semester and had the time of my life so it was so fun to spend the whole vacation on the island of Oahu and show Tyler everything I did and people I met. We have about 300 pics between my mom, sister, and I so here are a few....

*Leaving friday morning and flying Delta straight through to Oahu. I look really tired and pasty white! AHH!

*We had so much fun visiting all the Polynesian islands and the Polynesian Cultral Center. New Zealand was Tyler's favorite because he got a fake tatoo on his right leg. It was my favorite because I got to see Tyler get up and learn a dance! He did great! :o)

*Sunset beach is my favorite beach! It has great sand, great waves to play in, and of course...the most beautiful sunsets!

I lived with a Samoan family named the Manumaleuna's for a few weeks while I was going to school in Laie. They invited us over for a wonderful polynesian feast after church. It was so fun to introduce Tyler and my family to them!
*Tyler is such a beach bum! He loves just lounging on the beach. We spent a lot of days at different lagoon's and beaches just snorkeling, boogie boarding, and body surfing. Tyler got tired from kicking out in the ocean on his boogie board so he loved lounging in his chair and eating pringles to get his energy back to go catch another wave!

*The famous Matsumoto's is always a highlight of the trip. It is a shaved ice shop that tastes just like powdered snow! They even have soft ice cream in the bottom and are so refreshing! They are my dad's favorite! Jeff was the only one that paid the extra quarter for the cool cup that Annika's holding :o)

*The Laie temple is one of the most beautiful temples I've seen! It has palm trees lined up clear down the street leading up to this beautiful temple. There is a little gazebo on the mountain behind the temple that looks over all of Laie. It is quite the look out spot!
In the pic below we were wondering if maternity meant something different in this sculpture??

*We went to church with the Manumaleuna's and 2 of their little grandkids came back after the sacrament and placed a lei on each of my parents and kissed their cheek to welcome them. It was so sweet!

*I lived in a house out on "the point" which is a little piece of island that jets out and has the ocean on each side of it. I lived in a big house called the "Quiet House" I had 10 roomates on my floor but there were 30 of us in the house. Such a blast! I met some great friends that I still hang out with that were from Utah. Tyler was videoing the whales we saw jumping! It was so awesome. There was a big one and a baby one.

*The hukilau cafe has the best banana pancakes in the world! If any of you are Jack Johnson fans this is the cafe he wrote his song about. :o)

The Aloha Stadium swap meet is so awesome! We all came home with so much stuff! I had a blast!

Ty and I in downtown Waikiki

*At the Dole Plantation pinapple factory we ate the best chocolate pineapple I've ever had (not that I've ever had one) but it was so good!

*We had the opportunity to attend a very special wedding reception. Tyler's "greenie" on his mission, Kyle Kunioka, is from Hawaii and married one of the members on their mission in Korea named Boram. They were married the week before we arrived then had their reception the night we flew home. We were able to spend some time with them out there and had some fun memories. Tyler actually introduced them in Korea so he was an honored guest and got to wear a lei and say the prayer for their wedding dinner. This is them in their Korean wedding attire. Half way through the reception they changed into their Hawaiian wedding attire which was really beautiful as well. Congrats to the Kunioka's! *So I could sit and blog about 20 other events we did but since my post is really long and I need to get to bed I better end it! We went to Pearl Harbor, Bubba Gumps, and lots of other fun places. We stayed in a beautiful condo in Ko'olina and this picture is of us on our last day on the condo balcony. Thanks to mom and dad for a wonderful trip! We can't wait to go back! Mahalo :o)