Hawaii Days 4-6

I finally got the pictures back from the water camera we used so now I can continue blogging about or trip.

On Monday we went on a hike to Maunawili falls, it is about a mile and a half to the falls through a pretty cool looking jungle. We had a ton of fun looking at all the vine covered trees, and the spectacular views of the mountain.


Maunawili Falls, there was a lot of people there cliff jumping, and there was really no place to sit down so we didn't stay for very long. This waterfall reminded me of the Grotto up Payson Canyon, the way the trail just ends right at the pool at the bottom of the falls.

That night was our first night in the Hotel, we stayed at the Hawaii Prince, which is right on the edge of Waikiki beach, between Waikiki and Honolulu. We had a spectacular view of the beach on one side, the boat harbor right in front of us and Magic Island the other way.

Our hotel was the tall one on the far left.

This is the view from our Hotel

Moroni at Waikiki beach

Tuesday we were supposed to meet Liz and Jamey to go Kayaking but there were a few problems and we didn't end up actually going Kayaking together, but we did end up having a really great time.

Cascade in the Kayak

This is Flat Island that we Kayaked out too

Moroni on Flat Island, it is a bird sanctuary so there was a bunch of birds nesting in the lava rock all around the island. The two Islands you can see on either side of Moroni are also Islands you can Kayak too, but the day we went there was too much rough water so we couldn't go out there.

We also Kayaked to beautiful Lanikai Beach

On the way back to our hotel we stopped a the Pali lookout. I about froze my butt off, because I was still wet and it was cloudy and rainy and the wind was blowing hard!


Wednesday we went to Pearl Harbor to visit the Arizona Memorial and the USS Missouri.

Moroni at the memorial looking toward the USS Missouri

The USS Missouri, the last Battleship used by the US Navy

Standing on the Missouri looking at the Arizona Memorial. You can't see it very well in this picture but there was also a rainbow off to the right, it was beautiful.

Afterward we stopped at the only Royal Palace on US soil.

The Royal Palace
This tree was just too cool I had to get a picture of it.

One of the things Moroni and I love is good food, so we were thinking we would try to find some really good Hawaiian food. NO LUCK. The only thing we both really loved was some Portuguese donuts called Malasadas.

Hawaii Days 1-3

I took so many pictures and we did so many fun things I decided to blog in several posts.

Day 1 Friday April 16th

We left at about 3:30pm on the plane but because of the time change we got into Hawaii at about 9:30pm and to Liz's house at 11:30 which is 3:30 Utah time so we were a little tired and cranky, especially after missing our turn and trying to find our way to her house for 1/2 an hour. If you have never driven in Hawaii let me tell you their roads are crazy. None of the roads are straight and all of them are some hard to remember really long Hawaiian word, and half the time you can't even see the name of the street because I think the purposely hide the street sign names so the tourists get lost and they sit back and laugh at us. Just kidding we only got lost a few times on our trip. Liz lent us her GPS :)

This was the sunset we got to see from the plane
it was even prettier in real life.

Day 2 Saturday April 17th

We woke up to the sounds of hundreds of birds chirping and apparently Gecko's as well, Liz said they make a chirping noise and she has some that like to live in her house. Liz has a really cute house, (I love the architecture) with the coolest tree ever outside.

Liz' house, notice all the steps

This tree would be the perfect climbing tree, my boys would love it.

Moroni and his little sister Liz

We kinda wanted to take it easy the first day so we just hung around the house in the morning and then decided to go for a drive up to the North shore. We stopped at the valley of the Temples on the way.

One of the TemplesCascade and Moroni in front of the Buddhist Temple
You were supposed to ring this bell before going into the temple

Buddha
Moroni bought the teachings of Buddha book and has been reading it

Kya and Maddox

Moroni and I in the Bamboo forest near the Buddist temple
The bamboo was making the coolest creaking noise, but I kept thinking some of the broken bamboo was going to fall on us.
Moroni, Liz, Kya, and Maddox looking at the Koi fish

After the Temples we stopped at a beach the was having a Woman's Pro Surfing competition. The waves were huge and it was really windy so we didn't stay for very long.

We accidentally found this when we were driving around, it is the remnants of an old Hawaiian temple from before the Christians came to the island.

Then we drove on up to a little town that reminded me of Lava Hot Springs with all its local shops selling surf stuff and lots of art, as well as really good snow cones with ice cream in the bottom.

On the way home we stopped at Waimea beach to watch the sunset and let the kids play in the sand and surf.Kya and Maddox

Cambrie

Day 3 Sunday April 18th

We went to church with Liz and the kids (Jamey ended up having to work the first weekend we were there) I got a Lei from one of the ladies in Relief Society, and met some really nice people.
We went for a walk around Liz's neighborhood, the houses there probably cost between 800,000 and 3 million dollars each, CRAZY expensive, they are nice houses but would only cost a fraction of that in Utah.
Jamey's cousin and his wife were in Hawaii at the same time so they came over that night for dinner and to hang out. We stayed up way to late that night talking and laughing and finding out about some crazy things Jamey has done in his life :)

Easter 2010

We had our Easter egg hunt at Aunt Kays house again this year, always a good time

Sarah still didn't understand the whole idea of putting the candy into the easter basket, she just wanted to eat it.

Conference this year on Easter weekend, so we got to spend time together listening to the words of the prophet. We always go to Moroni's parents house for Sunday conference, Mary and Shaye were there with their kids. Matt and James filled some plastic eggs with money, candy, and a scripture so the kids had a small egg hunt on sunday and then they read their scriptures to us. It was a really fun idea to incorparate the spirit into the more commercial side of Easter.

Exercise and being sick

I have been sick for the last 2 weeks and am finally feeling normal again, it is funny how you can actually miss working out when you are used to doing it all the time. I went to turbo kick/zumba today for the first time in almost 2 weeks and I felt so good afterward.
If you have never tried zumba before, it is one of the funnest workouts around, I love it. I also go to Kick boxing but I wouldn't call it fun, just super intense and it gives me an awesome work out.
Bowen was also sick for quite a while and when he gets a fever he always starts hallucinating at night. It is kind of freaky actually, he will just stare at the wall like he is seeing something seriously scary and then he will jump up and start running away. I actually had to hold him down to keep him from running out of the room every few minutes. He never remembers it in the morning and doesn't really believe me when I tell him what he was doing. Moroni used to have hallucinations like that when he was a kid to so hopefully he will grow out of it as well.

Before and after

Pictures from Santaquin biggest loser contest

Total weight loss 17.6 pounds in 12 weeks

Before

After

A day in the life of

Get up

Go to the Gym

Come home

Do school with the kids

Go for a walk with Moroni

More school with the kids

Figure out what to eat for Lunch/Dinner

Clean the house

Get the kids in bed

Spend alone time with Moroni

Go to bed

Sarah, Moroni's mom, and Moroni

I have decided that going out to eat is a good way to loose weight. Ha Ha you say! but I am not kidding. As long as you know where you are going in advance and look up how many calories will be in your meal (and obviously eat some where that has healthy food) it has been easier for me to stay within my aloted calories for the day. So say I know that I am going to eat at subway for lunch, I know that my sandwich that I always orders has 430 calories no need to figure it out everytime I go and no chance that I will serve myself too big of a portion. Now I can figure out how many calories to allow myself for breakfast and for my evening snack. (When I go out to eat I don't eat dinner on top of it, that is key) So I have lost about 20 pounds now since the first of December (I know my ticker only says 14 but that is only since mid January) and Moroni and I go out to eat about 3-4 days a week. Crazy Huh!?!

3 months in one post

It has been forever since I have blogged. After my camera broke last july, I didn't blog for a while and then I got a new camera for christmas but then I lost my charger so I still can't take any pictures, and for some reason I feel I can't blog unless I have pictures to post as well. But it is a Friday night and the kids (and Moroni) are playing with friends, and I actually have a little time for myself.
These last few months have been super busy. Moroni's sister moved in with us so now we have 9 people living in our house, and I am watching her kids a few days a week while she goes to school and work.
I also got really serious about loosing weight and have been going to the gym 5 days a week which takes 2 hours a day since I have to drive to Spanish Fork. I have also been counting calories, 1200 calories a day. It has been working really well and I have lost almost 15 pounds since thanksgiving. I joined the Santaquin biggest looser contest to help me stay motivated, and we are going to Hawaii about two weeks after the contest ends, so that is a big motivation as well.
On top of this I am still homeschooling the kids. Luckily we have all been really healthy this year (knock on wood) and I haven't had to deal with any sick kids. I think it helps that the kids don't go to school.
So now you know why I haven't blogged for months and I almost never leave my house or see anyone outside my family.