Girls Night!

Had a well over due girls night with one of my besties-Marie! It was so NICE just having the two of us be able to catch up, watch a chick flick and work on a craft together! :)

Nothing better than girl chat, a cute romantic and making something.

Play day and some.....randoms.

1. Had a play day with Carson!

We went to Dino Land at the mall. Painted Dinosaurs. Played Dinosaurs. Played trucks. Played with Sophie. Steve bought his first ever McDonald's happy meal-for Carson. Played hide and seek. Helped me cook sloppy joe's and "made cookies" with bread and cookie cutters.

We had so much fun with Carson! I can't believe how much he talks now. Wowzer. I SERIOUSLY can't believe how much energy a 2 year old can have. He kept us entertained and moving all day.

OKAY-To my friends and family who have a kid. Heck more than one kid. PROPS to you!!! I really haven't spent all day entertaining a little one for a long time, and they completely drain you! BUT Steve and I had a blast! We are still crossing our fingers for the day we have our own.

2. Watched Pirates of the Caribbean with Preston, Jason and Whit. We loved having Preston and Jason come visit from school. We missed Shannon though!

3. Finally got my IPHONE!! I'm sooo lovin' it!!

4. Figured out what was causing my sharp pains in my lower abdomen/back. - FINALLY!!! After three doctor visits!-I have an hemorrhagic ovarian cyst. Which is actually pretty dang common for women. So, nothing to worry about. Just hurts... I'm glad to finally know what was going on with my body!

5. Luncheon at Olive Garden with all my favorite people! All the Anderson side got together for auntie Pam's birthday! Great company and of course DELISH food! Nothing better than that.

P.s. Last night I had my beehives come over to make individual fondant cakes...the girls loved it! My kitchen looks like a bomb hit it. I'm so not in the mood to clean it.......Fondant is EVERYWHERE!!

Valentines Day!

Valentines fell on Monday this year. SO, we both had work and all the other busy-ness that happens during the week. Steve was a sweetie, and surprised me MULT. times! While I was at work, he came and delivered roses and balloons to me. Seriously. What a sweetheart!

When I came home, he had me close my eyes...as I opened my eyes I saw this way awesome V-day decoration. I've always wanted one these before. So I thought it was super thoughtful of him to buy me these. Boy, was I wrong. He actually MADE these! ALL by himself!! He said that every year I make him things, and this year he wanted to surprise me by making me something this year. Totally SHOCKED. It wasn't the fact that he gave me all these things, but that he really took the time to think of what he could do for me, and spend time making me this gift was really awesome.

I made us a pot roast and potato dinner, and then we watched CHUCK! :) We also went and the cleaned the temple for the first time together.

Even though this Vday was super busy, and we didn't get to spend as much time together. I'm just grateful that we spent the time we had with one another. I sure love Steve. He amazes me everyday. I love him more and more everyday.

Paradise Day#7

Friday was our official last full day in Hawaii. So like all the other days, we didn't want to waste any time. We went to Kailua, on the east coast and went ocean kayaking . We kayaked to the two bird refuge islands off the coast. It took 45-50min to kayak there. When we got there Steve and I started looking for seashells. We actually found a lot of really cool shells, but unfortunately all of them had a horrible smell to them. (the smell of poo-I know, gross right?) So, we quickly threw the shells back into the water. We first thought it was just in a certain area, but they all smelled around the entire island. When you were on the island it didn't smell bad, just the shells.

Okay, enough about the poo shells...

The island was really pretty. We all just laid out on the beach and enjoyed watching the other kayak's coming in.

This is the view from us standing on the Bird Sanctuary Island

I love this one of Bob just chillin' in the water

Our last official day in Hawaii we wanted to make sure we had plenty of beach time! So our next stop was going to Bello's Beach. This beach had perfect waves for Boogie Boarding. This was also a first for me. I LOVED it!!! I loved riding the waves.

We stayed here until it was starting to get dark. I don't think any of us wanted the day to end. I know I didn't want it to.

We brought our clothes to change into so we could just go to dinner right after we left the beach. I had sand in places that you wouldn't think could get there!

On our way to Waikiki, we stopped at the Pali Lookout. Soooo pretty.

Hawaii is so pretty. I still can't get over how gorgeous everything is.

To end our evening we ate at Cheesecake Factory and then Steve and I walked around the resort in the moonlight. So dang romantic. he he.

Steve and I didn't want to go to bed because we knew the morning would come oh so quick and we would be on a plane back home.-to the cold. :(

But like every other night, as soon as we got into bed we were out....still dreaming we were on the beach.

Thanks again Bob and Ellen for such an AMAZING trip! We loved it!!!! We seriously can't thank you enough.

Paradise Day#6

Thursday was probably one of our very favorite days. We LOVED everyday, of course. But this day was pretty dang awesome. In the morning we went on a catamaran. We found the perfect spot on the front of the boat. :) We saw humpback whales breaching in the water with their calfs. SO awesome!! The last time we did something like this was when we were living in Seattle.

We also just enjoyed the warm sun and the wind as we sailed in the ocean. We also went snorkeling at Electric Beach. I was a little nervous to go snorkeling in the middle of the ocean. But guess what?? I snorkeled just fine! I wouldn't of traded it for anything either. You know on animal planet and nature shows where the fish just swarm around you? That's what they did on this snorkel trip. This was SOO awesome!!! I couldn't believe all of the fish and the different kinds that there were.

After our awesome boat trip we found a secluded beach not to far from the resort. This secluded beach had turtles swimming everywhere!! I was SO happy. I love, love, LOVE sea turtles. A local there gave us handfuls of seaweed to feed the turtles. We didn't really feed them though, just threw the seaweed into the water so they would swim up by us.

Steve and I went snorkeling with the turtles too. Funny story. While we were snorkeling we saw one of the turtles and it was really close to us. So I squeezed Steve's hand letting him know we need to back up, well while he was backing up another turtle was right behind us and Steve practically sat on it's shell. I started laughing/choking in the water. It was super funny to see.

We also just laid around on the beach and Steve and I went searching for some seashells. :)

We had such a fun time at this beach! I was seriously so amazed at all the turtles just swimming around.

After our fun day in the sun we decided we would go to Waikiki and eat at Chuck's Cellar. Chuck's is an underground restaurant that was built in 1959. The food was all so delish. They serve steak, potatoes, veggies, salad bar etc... They even had a live band playing and the atmosphere was really nice.

After we ate we walked around the streets of Waikiki and had ice-cream and watched a one man band on the street. This guy is seriously so talented.

I don't really remember the drive home....I zonked out, and before I knew it I was passed out in bed. All of us were so tired from our fun filled day.

Paradise Day#5

Wednesday we headed to Pearl Harbor. This was definitely an all day event. We first got on a bus to take us to the USS Missouri Battleship. The bus driver was hilarious. He was this hawaiian guy and he had a walkie talkie radio that he talked into. He was supposed to say "And to the right is the tower..etc.etc.." like a tour guide, but instead he gives this long dreaded sound and then spits out his lines very quickly. Steve and I thought he was hilarious! we were laughing so hard. I so wish I had taken a picture of him. He made the ride really entertaining.

Anyway, the drive was only 10 min long and we got onto the USS Missouri. The Battleship was SO big. The tour guide on the ship reminded us a lot of Grandpa Ford. The tour guide was super knowledgeable and he told us history of the ship as we looked through it.

After the tour we went back onto the bus and it took us to the Airfield Museum. The museum was really awesome. It actually just barely opened a couple days prior to us getting there. We were able to see full size airplanes,read stories about true events,watch a documentary on Pearl Harbor and even go inside the airplane hanger that still had bullet holes in the glass windows from the attack of Pearl Harbor.

It was really awesome to see history in real life. All this made us really appreciate what our service men and women do for us.

In the museum we ate lunch at a cute airplane diner.

Before we knew it, it was already 2:00pm and we still wanted to go to Aloha Stadium before the swap meet closed. So we headed over there. Luckily, it's just across the street.

We got some really good deals there! I scored me some board shorts for only 10 bucks and then I got me some cute jewelry.:)

The swap meet closed an hour later, so we decided we would go back to the resort and switch into our swim gear so we could go to the beach!

We wanted to try and explore all the different beaches on the island, so we drove around looking for a good beach. As we were driving, Steve spotted some whales breaching in the ocean. Unfortunately, I missed it-but I'm glad Steve got to see it!

We found a park on the west coast, and I can't remember the real name of it. We all just called it Paradise Park. So that's what I'll call it. So we went to Paradise Park and we thought we would try boogie boarding there. The waves were 8-10ft high! There was NO WAY I was going to try boogie boarding my first time on waves that high. So we laid out our towels and watched the surfers and the young kids boogie board. It's pretty awesome how great of swimmers the natives are there. They would swim in those huge waves as if they were nothing. The ocean is seriously there playground. Steve thought it looked really fun, so he couldn't help himself and jumped right in! He was pounded into the sand a couple times, so he quickly came back in. :) He looked so cute though. He jumped right into the water just like a little kid and he was so excited!

We sat on the beach for a couple hours, just talking and laughing. Also watching the kids and the surfers. Before we knew it the sun was starting to slowly go down.

It was SO pretty. I just kept thinking, how lucky are we to be able to experience this right now. Heavenly Father created such a pretty place.

We jumped back into the car and made our way to Chili's for dinner. After we ate and went back to the resort Steve and I took a walk around the resort. Looking up at the night sky and hearing the ocean waves pounding. It was really nice. Holding hands with my best friend.

Paradise Day#4

Tuesday morning we woke up pretty early and wanted to pack as much into our day as possible.

We decided we would go to the North shore and check things out there. We stopped at one of the beaches and watched the waves crash. The north shore beaches have crazy big waves! (20-30 feet during the winter months)

As were saying how crazy it would be for someone to get into the waves we saw snorkelers in the water. Luckily for us they got out of the water and we were able to ask them what they were doing. The snorkelers were locals and they said that they were looking for Sunrise shells. They are really rare shells and the best time to find them is when the surf is really high. Some of these shells sale between $100-1,000 dollars depending on there color.

The locals were super friendly and it was nice getting some advice on where we should go and to be careful of Hawaiian borrowing. :)

We are loving it!

We also saw some sea turtles swimming in a near by cove.

Before we left the little surf town-(Haleiwa) we went to Matsumoto's famous shaved ice. This little shaved ice shop is in all the Hawaii books and that it's a must go to. So of course we had to test it out.

We were pleasantly impressed with it. It was SO good. It tasted great too with the warm sun beating down on us. We still had some time to kill before we went to the Polynesian Culture center so we went to Waimea Beach and watched surfers and boogie boarders ride the waves. Pretty dang impressive if you ask me.

Oh and then we also stopped at Giovanni's famous shrimp truck-Bob and Ellen heard great things about the truck so they wanted to eat there for lunch. Steve and I decided we would pass.

For one, I don't really trust meat or food coming from a truck that looks like that. And two, I hate shrimp or anything in the sea. So we passed eating with them, but while they were eating We shopped around some little tent shops. And I found the cutest shell bracelet. They actually sale the bracelets at Kohl's for at least $15-20 bucks and I got mine for only $4. :) That made my day right there.

Next stop-Polynesian Culture Center. Well almost. We of course wanted to stop and take a look at the Laie Temple. It's so pretty. I wish we would of had more time to be able to go into the temple, but we didn't. So, we took some pics. This temple really means a lot to me. My parent's were actually sealed there and the last time I went to Oahu was with my family. Everyone who was old enough all went and did baptisms together. It was awesome.

Okay, after that we went to the Polynesian Culture Center. The Polynesian Center is such an awesome place. Everyone is super up beat and we learned so much.

We watched the Canoe Parade and watched the different island dancers (Here's some of the canoe pics)

After the Canoe parade we "traveled" to the different islands and learned more about each one. Such as how they dance, what it means when they move and dance a certain way, how they break a coconut, climb a tree..etc.

The Samoan part was our all time favorite. The guy above shaving the coconut is HILARIOUS! Our favorite line that the guy said was "If the coconut is brown- it's ripe. (He pauses.) As you can see I'm ripe, and most of you are not." Me writing it down doesn't do it justice. It was really so dang funny.

We also went on a canoe ride and was able to look at all the villages from the water.

And to end our night we had dinner and a show. The show was AMAZING. It is called Ha: Breath of Life. It had a cast of over 100 islanders performing Polynesian songs and dancing.

We had a great day and of course we crashed on our ride back home.