Hawaii 2012: part 1

Eric and I had airmiles burning holes in our pockets so we collaborated with our traveling companions, Micah & Rachel, and decided to take a trip to Oahu at the end of May.  It was both mine and Eric's first times to Hawaii.

Eric's cousin, Seth, and his family are living in Laie right now so we hung out with them a lot. It was great! Because of them we got to experience a lot more of Hawaii and its culture than we would have otherwise.

 Micah found us a sweet rental home in Punalu'u. It was seriously way nice and super neat looking. Eric and I got to stay in the "honeymoon suite" on the lower floor and it was so cool!

The uncool part was the hideously large spiders we found. Micah caught this one in a glass and it stayed strong the rest of the 8 or so days we were there.

 One thing that we got to experience that we wouldn't have otherwise was a Hukilau. It is a tradition way of fishing where they use leaves to scare the fish into a net. Eric and Micah both participated in the fishing by following the net and making sure it didn't snag on anything on the ocean floor.

 Mr. Adventure loved it of course!!

 The dole plantation didn't disappoint. I didn't realize how good the dole whip was going to be. I will be trying to make a copycat of that one soon!

 While there we got to do a session in the newly remodeled Laie LDS temple. It is neat to be able to serve in the temples all over the world.

Seth and Amy had friends from Seattle in town for part of the time we were there as well. They were a super nice and fun couple and we enjoyed spending some time with them.

  Beautiful sunset!

Vegas and Solar Eclipse 2012

Eric's sister, Kristen, had her baby this month so we planned a weekend getaway to meet our new little nephew. It was a fun trip. We hung out with the Sundells, Eric's mom and Amber, celebrated Bryan's birthday eating the most delicious tacos EVER poolside, experienced being the dunked on a dunk tank for the first time,  mountain biked (Eric), walked the strip [Eric got to take part in a magic act], visited and swam with my parents at The Tropicana, and drove home at a leisurely pace to experience the Solar Eclipse near Kanarraville, UT.

We took Amber to our favorite little hike near St. George, at Red Cliffs Recreation area.

 It was crazy to see all the contraptions people had made to view the eclipse. Some homemade, some store-bought. We didn't buy anything fancy, but had 3 pairs of sunglasses in the car, and that worked well enough.

 Even crazier than the contraptions were the insane amounts of vehicles parked within 15 miles of Kanarraville. In the middle of nowhere, cemeteries were filled, roads were lined with cars and cars and more cars with people sitting out looking at the sun!

MAY

I've always loved May. Mostly because May was always the end of school and beginning of summer break, which meant lots of school days full of parties, not a lot of homework, and classroom time spent visiting with your classmates and cleaning out your desks. Another reason is because both me and my sister have our birthdays in May!! Our May so far has been a good one.

I ran a 5k. Good since I've ran maybe 5 times since Ivan was born, 3 of those times being about a year ago. Rachel got me excited about signing up for it, but as soon as I started to train for it my "bad" ankle started hurting so I decided to stop. I still had intentions of going to the race but just walking. However, my ankle felt better the week of the race so the night before I decided I was going to run it. Eric and I went out and found me a new pair of running shoes and in the morning Eric dropped me and the kids off.

 Reese woke up 15 minutes before we left and Ivan had to be pulled out of bed, hence the sleepy faces. I did good at the race. I was able to run the whole way, and I actually finished quicker than I had planned.

We had our annual friends Cinco de Mayo party

And I turned 26!!! I thankfully remembered to renew my drivers license that morning, I read a good portion of a book I'm really into right now, "Heaven is Here", and then when Eric got home he took me and the kids to an Italian restaurant for a divine dinner and then to the Park City outlets to do some shopping. Eric themed my birthday gifts around survival this year. I got a gun and a filtering water bottle. VERY excited about both!!

Micah is good to be our photographer most the time. He always has his iPhone with him so when he takes pics he instantly emails them to me. Thanks Micah!! They came up for dinner and a walk last month. I love the picture of Reese asleep and Ivan snickering.