Sorry!

I am sorry for lack of posts lately. There is a reason I promise. WE MOVED! We are still in Hilo. We moved a whole .28 miles around the corner. We made the move to get out of the apartment complex where we were to get into a rental house. It has been a great move for us! These are a few of the views from our windows!

We have an avocado tree in our backyard!

A banana tree in our neighbors yard!

A Coconut tree in our yard! (Marcus wants to put Christmas lights on it for the Holidays)

Carefree from our Labors

Happy Labor Day! We headed over to the sunny side in Kona to celebrate Labor Day. We spent the day at the beach with the Navas family. We had a blast playing with their two adorable kids. Marcus and I were kids at heart with them. We built sandcastles, played in the waves, and just had fun! (We were able to do all those things that we always want to do at the beach but don't because we don't have kids.)Marcus played with their son in the ocean for hours. It was so cute to watch the two of them. Marcus is going to be an awesome dad! (Sorry, no this is not a hint of anything to come in the next nine months!) Another highlight we were able to watch four turtles come ashore to spend the afternoon just yards away from us. Thanks Navas family for sharing a fun-filled day together!

Home Sweet Home

We went back to Utah to visit home sweet home. It was wonderful to be able to spend time with family. I didn't realize how much I missed the mountains until we were back. Some highlights of the trip were....

• Being with family
  

• Yellowstone





• Seeing niece for the first time
• Visiting grandparents

• Getting haircut and colored
  

After.......................... Before.......

• Mom's cooking




• Celebrating my birthday all over again




• Hanging out with high school friends

Happy Birthday to ME!

Marcus helped make my birthday a wonderful one! When I came home from work I was suprised to find these beautiful tropical flowers on the kitchen table. He is so thoughtful and sweet. Then for that evening he had made dinner reservations at a sucrumptious restraunt, Hilo Bay Cafe. I always am impressed with there presentation of the food. I had to take pictures because it was just so picture perfect. Thank you Marcus for a wonderful birthday!

4th of July Weekend in Hawaii

Marcus and I got out of Hilo and headed to Kona for the 4th of July weekend. We stopped on our way over to Kona at Waipio Valley. This valley is incredible. The road down to the valley is also incredible. It is a 25% grade hill which means it drops over 900 ft in less than a mile!! It is so steep that they will not allow "normal" cars down. You must have 4-wheel drive low. It was a pretty tough on the knees going down and quite the cardio workout coming back up. It was what was at the bottom of the valley that made it all worth it.

We got to see an incredible waterfall, it was falling from the top of the valley, down the sheer sea cliff and into the ocean. There was taro fields, a black sand beach, a river flowing through the valley, and a little further into the valley there was these twin falls that are over 1400 feet tall.
Waipio Valley was the highlight of the trip. We also went snorkeling, to the temple, swimming, watched fireworks over the ocean, and just relaxed at the beach!

Hawaiian Trek

Marcus and I had the opportunity to be a Ma and Pa for our Youth Conference Pioneer Trek. We were the "parents" of 6 youth and one handcart. Actually, seven youth if you count the unhusked coconut that we were instructed was our infant child and must be carried the entire trek. (It was approx 20 lbs!) Our children really took our coconut baby very seriously. They named him Wallie. They carved a face for him. They each took turns carrying it.
It was a great opportunity. It was hard work but a wonderful experience. It was a 6 mile trek each way. We trekked into a beautiful site known as Kings Landing. It had an awesome black sand beach.

I am so grateful for my pioneer heritage, what great sacrifices they made. They went through all that they did because of their faith. This opportunity has strengthened my faith and made me want to all that I can to continue the great legacy that our pioneers started

“We need so very, very much a strong burning of that faith in the living God and in his living, resurrected Son, for this was the great, moving faith of our gospel forebears” -President Gordon B. Hinckley

Happy Anniversary

Marcus and I recently had our 3rd anniversary! It came and went during finals week. Marcus felt really bad that we did not celebrate! So, recently he splurged and booked a room for us at the Hilton Waikoloa to celebrate! We had a great time! I am so blessed to have such a great hubby! I resort was amazing it was so huge! It is on 63 acres! This the pic from our front door of our room! You get around the resort on those boats or on a tram because this place is so huge!

This is the view from our balcony

My favorite moment was when Marcus and I watched the sunset then sat in a hammock next to the ocean with the waves crashing the stars and palm trees above us with the flicker of the tiki torches all around! It was so romantic and relaxing! It was truly paradise!

Thank you Marcus for a great time and most of all thanks for being such a wonderful husband! I love you!

Second Semester Pau!

We went over to Kona to celebrate another semester done (one year down)!! I am so proud of Marcus he is learning so much and doing so well in all of his classes! I am jealous of all that he gets to learn! This sounds crazy I know! I miss learning! It has taken me two years of being done with school to have this feeling but it is true!

Anyways, we had a great time in Kona! Here are a few pictures of our quick overnight trip! We had a great time relaxing and spending time together! (Whenever we are in Kona and the temple is open we try to stop in for a session)

Happy 26th Birthday

Cupcakes for the future best pharmacist!

This was the view from our condo.

This the Place of Refuge

Grrr!
Happy birthday to you!
We celebrated Marcus's birthday by going to Kona. It worked out great because his birthday was over spring break. We had a wonderful time. We went to the Place of Refuge while in Kona. It is an ancient sacred ground. It was great to be able to spend time together.

Aloha oi Shannon

Congrats to Shannon! She has completed the massage therapy program and is soon to be licensed! It has been so much fun having Shannon live with us while she has attended school. It was so hard to let here go back to Utah! She has been awesome about running errands with me, doing laundry with me, going visiting teaching with me, cooking dinner with me, laughing with me, going to cub scouts with me, hanging with me. She is the best sis that I could ever ask for! Marcus stays busy with school and has many late night cram sessions. It has been wonderful to have Shannon here to keep me company and best of all be an awesome lil' sis. Good luck to you Shan!

Lava

What an awesome experience it was to see the lava! We were so fortunate that we went down to the flow the first day that they opened it to the public because the very next day the flow basically stopped and is now on a different path! It was so hot! Just standing next to it it felt like I was going to melt! We had to walk 10 miles round trip to be able to see the flow. (Four miles of that 10 were just walking past parked cars along the side of the road. There were a lot of people there to see it!)

Sunset at the Beach

After spending the afternoon at the beach we went to get lunch and have some time out of the sun. Then, we went and found this beautiful place to watch the waves crash and the sunset!

Day at the Beach

We all had the day off so we headed to the beach! We found this wonderful beach. The only thing is that it is not too easy to get to. You have to 4WD 2 miles across the lava field and then hike 30 minutes across the lava to get there! On our hike there we got to see a few wild goats! It was worth it to have a nice day at the beach!