Mele Kalikimaka 2011, December 23

We had a cultural day on December 23. Our first stop was to the Buddhist temple that was built during the early 20th century.

 Isn't it beautiful?

 We're not sure...

 Thanks Dallin

 We were only supposed to ring the bell once...

  We're so cute, doing it together.

 Freaking big koi.

 

We looked around BYU-Hawaii, and saw some of the sights.

 Next it was on to the Polynesian Cultural Center.
The PCC had to have been one of the highlights of our trip out there. Everyone loved it. So let's take a quick tour through it.

 For some reason I thought this was really cute and squealed when I saw it. Who knows.

Samoan exhibit.

Demonstrator... he was also a fire dancer.

Climbing a coconut tree.

 Parade of Nations (or whatever it was called)

These guys were CRAZY!

Austin and Tommy love Alyse.

If you look closely, you can see Cole is on the backswing of hitting Austin and Mom's chastising Austin for teasing Cole.

Brandon loves my frowns.

Tongan demonstration... I have some videos that I will try and upload they were pretty funny.

 Demonstration of a peace ceremony.

 Teaching us traditional dances

 Luau!

Matchie Matchie, we're super cute aren't we?

 Austin tried to kiss the roasted pig on a spit.

 Poi rolls, soooooo good. So much fat in there, but totally worth it!

 Pig!

 Sick.

 Bethany and Cole stole our camera...

 Nice guys.

 hahaha yeahhhhhhhh

 Just before we saw "Ha: Breath of Life".

Cool firedancing scene.

It was SUCH a cool experience! I'm not sure when I'm going to go back, but for now I have all of those great pictures. But don't worry, the sets of posts aren't done yet!

Bazz's Wedding!

(Bow ties. Perfect.)

I had the opportunity to go to Bennett and Jazz's wedding on December 17. It was so fun, and so crazy to get to. I had to leave Friday night (which was sad, because I had never left Brandon for more than 12 hours before pretty much), and drive down to Orem with Stuart and Heidi, two of Brandon's cousins. My flight was at 8:30 AM on Saturday morning (luckily the wedding wasn't until 3 PM that day), and I had to get a shuttle up to the airport. Well, the shuttle said to be ready between 4:30 and 5 in the morning. Which was terrible. I got about 2 hours of sleep, and made it through security before 6:30. So I just hung out at the gate, and got to talk to Brandon while he was driving home from work. I don't think I can emphasize enough how guilty I felt for leaving Brandon for the weekend while he was working hard and I was just chilling in the California Sun. But, it was Southern California. Luckily I had time to get ready back at home, so I didn't have to get ready in the airport bathroom.

The wedding was beautiful. For everyone who doesn't know, weddings in the LDS temples are sacred and not to be reported on outside of it. I had never been to another one besides my own, and I don't remember much from my own because all I was thinking was "MARRIED MARRIED MARRIED MARRIED". I cried through much of this one because it was so sweet to watch... I wonder if that will keep up.

Here are some of the pictures. Who can't love this?

 This sums up their personalities to a T. And how happy everyone should feel when they've been married for 5 minutes.

The Myres family, minus the large presence of Grant.

I loved their paper flowers... so creative!

I was so happy to be part of this wedding. There aren't too many people that I would get up at 4 in the morning to go see get married. I love Bennett, and I can't wait to get to know Jazz better. That was also the first wedding that I had been to since my own, so it was so nice to see just how happy it makes people. Overall, so cute!

Mele Kalikimaka 2011, December 22

Ok so part 2... Starting December 22.

 Rocking the BYUI shorts.
Dad, Austin, and Dallin went scuba diving that morning, so we decided to go have fun without them. We went on a hike to find what turned out to be the world's smallest lighthouse. But the view was unbelievable.

(The wind was blowing, I do brush my hair in the mornings.)

And now you see why people want to live in Hawaii.
The hike was harder than I thought it would be. I don't know if it was the humidity, or the fact that I was way out of shape. Probably the first.

 Three peas in a pod.

The lighthouse was probably 10 feet tall.

Bugs in Hawaii are bigger.

Our next adventure took us to the "Blow Hole", which was a crevice in the rock that made water from the waves shoot up out of it... like a blow hole from a whale.

We also got a sneak peek of Hanauma Bay, where we were going to snorkel another day.

The other highlight of the day was seeing the Coast Guard and Secret Service setting up camp outside our house... they were across the canal from our house because of Mista President staying right around the corner.

Next part was such a big part of our day it deserves its own blog post. Next stop, Polynesian Cultural Center!

Mele Kalikimaka 2011, December 20-21

So if you've read Alyse's blog, this may sound familiar.
So when Brandon and I were together in July, my parents pulled us aside and asked if we were comfortable spending Christmas in Hawaii with my side of the family. It took about .0000000001 seconds to decide... And it was so great. Like Alyse said, we won't all have Christmas together for a long time, if ever. Austin's turning in his mission papers (guesses?) like this week which is totally freaking us out. And Dallin will be gone before that Christmas after Austin gets back, so at least 4 years. And then there could be grandkids by then (not an announcement) and stuff.
So, Brandon and I ohhhh so reluctantly packed for Hawaii when our semester ended. I was more than happy to pack all my shorts and a bunch of t shirts, and pull my beloved Rainbows out of their corner in the closet. Here is a day by day list of what we did (with a brief description of each activity):

December 20th:

Pretty much just the beach. It was SO nice and the warmest, clearest water I had seen in an ocean ever.

December 21:

We went to Pearl Harbor. It was a beautiful and sad thing to see, but I'm so glad we got to witness it and see how it was a part of our nation's history. (Even though Hawaii wasn't a state at the time, just a territory. Like Puerto Rico.)
Some more pictures of that:

(part of the USS Arizona... that's how shallow the water was when it sank.)

Again, just how shallow the boat was when it sank.

Oil from the tanker still leaks up into the water... makes it so much more real.

In front of another battleship.

The weather was so nice... thanks Brandon.

Tired.
I have to say, one of the things that I liked so much about the Pearl Harbor memorials was that it did not just say "These Japanese monsters killed our totally innocent soldiers" etc. etc. etc. They told the story from both sides, and really made you feel for everyone involved. Japan was at their wits' end, and while that does not justify what they did, they did realize that what they had just done was wrong. It just made the Japanese soldiers look so much more human than our history textbooks ever have. It was very moving and sobering to see.

 then we went to the swap meet at the Aloha Stadium, and bought little souvenirs to our heart's content.

Afterwards we went to Giovanni's Shrimp Truck... I wish we had Sharpies with us to write on it. But it made the BEST garlic shrimp I've ever had. Brandon was excited for the hot dogs.

After that it was off to the world famous Banzai-Pipeline beach. Again, I've been spoiled by these beaches and I don't know if I can ever like California beaches again.

Gorgeous rainbow!

This is too classic... because of the rainbow. Nice abs Dallin.
After that, we had the opportunity to go to the Laie Hawaii Temple and do a session. It was there that I decided we were going to make a scrapbook of all the temples that Brandon and I attend together... so we're up to 3!

As you can see, we have had so many adventures that I've decided to break up the posts to a few days at a time. It was a beautiful trip, and none of these pictures do it justice!