we LOVE vacations!!!!!

Konrad and I had a great time on the Big Island of Hawaii this past week. We enjoyed spending time with each other, soaking up some sun (all though not as much as we had planned on), and playing in the ocean.

We stayed in Kona, with our friends Aaron and Melody and their daughter Kaya. The condo was great and had plenty of room for us all. It had a kitchen, a big dining/family room as well. Plus two bedrooms and two bathrooms. It even had a washer and dryer...perfect for those swimsuits you wear almost all day long in the salt water and/or chlorine!

Wednesday

Our first morning there we did some snorkeling. We saw some pretty fish and some really big sea turtles.

We then did some touristy shopping and had some shaved ice. I bought a nice "vacation" purse/bag that will hold all those things you need while on vacation (sunscreen, books, camera, water bottle, etc) but that has a shoulder strap...for some reason I never want to use my normal purses while on vacation, so this is perfect. I'm sure it will be pictured at some point in this post.

We also taught Aaron and Melody how to play Settlers...oh how I like that game. We hadn't played it in forever.

Thursday
Thursday morning we rented kayaks and kayaked to the spot where Captain Cook was killed. On the way over we saw a dolphin...seriously! The dolphin was just swimming around. We knew that they typically hung out in that area of the ocean, but I really didn't think we'd see any. I was absolutely amazed. See I'm the kind of person that while watching Survivor (they are in Africa this season) freaks out when they show an elephant...I'm just so amazed to see "zoo-type" animals in real life! We had an underwater camera with us, so I'm hoping I at least got a picture or two of the dolphin.



Once we reached the shore we put on our snorkel gear (thanks again Dad for letting us borrow your stuff) and headed out. Talk about amazing. We saw so many fish...it's amazing how many different colors and types there are. And to think they all have different names...Heavenly Father is amazing! We also saw another sea turtle, which was almost as exciting to me as the dolphin...as long as he stayed more than 2 or 3 feet from me, when he started floating closer I'd get a little nervous.



I got pretty tired snorkeling...I must need more air than the snorkel allows me. I consider myself to be in pretty good shape, but Konrad ended up snorkeling for at least an hour longer than I did...and he wasn't even tired. Crazy! So anyways I got tired of snorkeling and decided to sit on the shore for awhile and take a break. While sitting near the Captain Cook monument I realized I should go back to the spot where we "docked" our kayaks b/c Melody and Kaya were over there. So I started walking on a little trail in that direction. I'm not a huge fan of walking in the woods (is that what you call groups of palm trees???) by myself, I could hear the crazy ferrets running around (they are like squirrels in the Northwest...everywhere!), so I decided to head out onto the shore and walk on the rocks instead...BAD CHOICE. That decision effected the rest of my (our) trip. While walking on the very slippery rocks...without shoes...I sliced my foot open. I felt it when it happened, but just kept going, and forgot about it. Eventually I made it back to Melody and Kaya and was there for a few minutes before Mel noticed blood pouring out of my foot. Pretty nasty cut. I went to the doctor the next morning and they just cleaned it up a little and gave me a bunch of iodine swabs, ointment, and band aids. I also got an antibiotic prescription as well, so I don't get a staff infection from the rock/corral that I stepped on. The guys from the kayak place had dumped iodine on it for me when we returned the kayaks, the nurse and doctor both said that was the best thing we could have done.

So, for the rest of the vacation I was limping. I couldn't put any pressure on it at all until our last hour or so in Hawaii. We had plans to hike to waterfalls, play tennis, and just spend time walking through town or on the beach. I could only walk so far before my calf would totally cramp up...oh well...we still had a great time!




Back to the kayaking trip...

We saw the dolphin again on the way back. Konrad tried to jump in and "swim" with it, but it took him too long to make that decision, plus put on his snorkel gear. The dolphin was gone by the time he got in. He did swim around for awhile hoping it would come back. That would have been even more exciting!

Us at a cute little cafe

Friday

We drove up north Friday morning to go to a beach that claims to be one of the top 5 in the world. I'm not sure it was worthy of that title, but it was nice. It didn't have big waves like we were hoping (Konrad wanted to boogie board), but it wasn't very crowded, the water was gorgeous, but most importantly there was SUN.

One the way up we noticed names "written" all over the lava fields...we decided to stop and add some "graffiti" of our own...

Back to the beach...

My second complaint about this trip (the first being that I hurt my foot) was the lack of sun. It was warm all day everyday, but the sun was only there until 11 or 12 in the morning, if at all. Then it was completely overcast. How was I supposed to work on my tan if there wasn't any sun. I'd been to Hawaii 3 times before and it was ALWAYS sunny (as far as I can remember). I was not expecting all the clouds. See for me, the swimming pool is for laying in the sun and maybe sticking my foot in to cool off...the ocean is more for swimming in just b/c it's more fun than a pool with the waves and all, but still the main reason I go to the beach is to tan. We did realize that we still had a great time, and though I'm not sure we'll go back to Kona, we survived without the sun. In fact, on Sunday, our last day there, it was sunny the whole day...and since we weren't in the water in the afternoon, we were wishing for some clouds...go figure! :)

Back to the sunny beach...see while it was sunny up where we were, Aaron said it was cloudy in Kona....interesting, huh?

Konrad reading on the beach, we had interested sunburn/tan lines from how we were holding our books.

That afternoon we hung out by the pool, reading our books while the Molens (Aaron and Mel and Kaya) swam in the pool.



That night we went into Kona and had dinner at a fun restaurant right by the ocean. I love that kind of atmosphere!

Saturday
On Saturday the Molens headed back to Washington, so we were on our own. We checked out of the condo that we "really-weren't-staying-in" (only Aaron's dad is supposed to use the condo, so Aaron had to pretend to be him and we had to pretend to "visit"...we "visited" often :) )

It was cloudy when we woke up, not a good sign, so we decided to drive up north and see if it was better up there. We also had plans to drive to Hilo (on the opposite side of the island) to see waterfalls and then down to the active volcano as well. Since we were heading up north, we decided to just drive the entire island...what an adventure. The Big Island has so many different parts to it...the lava fields, the pasture land, the rain forest, the volcano, pine trees, cliffs, valley's. beaches, etc...each turn you were seeing something different. It ended up being a long day, but it was really fun in the end. I think we left at 9:45ish and got to our new condo that night at 8:00 or so. But we can say we drove the whole island. We saw some amazing waves. One of the big-wave-beaches had local teenagers out there riding the waves. Konrad would have loved to try it out, but there were way to many rocks and unless you know what you are doing, I'm pretty sure you'd die. The boys were riding along the top of the wave, sideways like you do if you are surfing...it must take time to learn that skill.

Me soaking up the only sun we saw throughout the day...

We saw some waves that were happening in teal blue water...normally the waves are with dark blue water and have white caps...not these ones...it was so cool.


We saw two very lame waterfalls...we'll blame it on my foot that we couldn't see any amazing ones. We went to the volcano and saw the steam coming out...really weird and slightly scary. We didn't see any actual lava flow, but Aaron and Melody did on their helicopter tour...they saw the lava overtake a tree and then the tree burst into flames...amazing!

Lost fans: Do you think the "others" live here???

By this time it was getting dark, but we still had one more spot to stop...the black sand beach. By the time we go there it was pretty much dark, so it wasn't as cool as if we could see the beach and see that the sand really was black. We did steal some in a bag (don't tell the black-sand-beach-police) so that we could see what it really looked like. The black sand is made from lava somehow, but still feels like normal sand..maybe a little 'sharper'.

Sunday
Our last day in paradise was great. We spent time on White Sands Beach where some good sized waves were coming in. The kind that throw you around and tear off your swimsuit...Konrad had something running out of his nose for hours afterwards...way too much water up the nose for me! I got tossed a couple times, both time almost losing the bottom piece of my suit. One time I grabbed it just before it was pulled off my feet...how do you deal with that? "Um, excuse me all you swimmers...can you help me find the bottom of my swimsuit???" I would have died! Plus I'm sure with the water rushing in and out like it does, it would all rush out and I'd be sitting there with nothing on! Scary! :)

riding the wave...

Konrad getting tossed...you can see the blue boogie board popping upWe then headed back to shower before we had to check out of our condo at 12. Since it was still sunny we headed out to spend a few more hours in the sun by the pool. Boy was it hot!!! So much for showering, we were sweating like crazy.

I was reading by the edge of the pool when I heard a plop...this little guy, well not really little, decided he needed a swim

We lasted about an hour and then headed back into town for lunch and last minute vacation enjoying.

The Kona Temple

We ended up at the airport WAAAAYYY too early...note to self 'the Kona airport is tiny, it will not take anytime at all to check in---spend your extra time on the beach'...but we pulled out Settlers and played a couple of games (yes I said a couple, we were very early!)
I find walking on/off the plane this way sooo exciting! if only they handed out leis like they do on TV!

All in all it was a wonderful trip. We had a great time with each other and with the Molens. Thanks guys, for letting us crash your vacation!

one of my favorite parts of Hawaii...beautiful flowers!

A Ride in Kallie's Car

My cousin Kallie was in town for work a week or so ago...now she's on the same cruise we went on last February, how fun!....anyways she had a "cool" rental car and gave the girls a quick ride. It was sprinkling, but they still enjoyed it.

I think Alli thought the roof would squish her..she was a tad nervous!

Alli was also a little nervous while we were driving and kept saying "Go slow! Go slow!"



Sam at one point said "Go faster Kallie" to which Alli answered "Sam, if she goes faster then I'll cry"

Thanks Kallie for making us smile.

Ode To Tami

My friend Tami turned the big 3-0 on Friday. To celebrate Darcy and I went on a midnight adventure. Look what we did....


The above pictures were all in her front yard...the one below was hidden on the busy street in back of her house. She couldn't figure out why people were honking all day long! (we are SOOO funny Darcy!)
I was hoping she wouldn't find the sign for days, but one of her neighbors filled her in on our secret. At least she heard the honking though.

Then to top off the day, we arranged for 30 people to drop of birthday cake candles to her, one at a time from 9-4:30. That is 30 knocks on the door. It was great. The first few people got the priceless look at her confused face. Later on in the day she just tried to find out what the deal was.

No one spoiled the fun though. At 5:30 about 15 or so of us went back to her house with a couple of cakes, to sing to her and put all those candles to good use.

Happy Birthday Tami!

Love,

(notice our black clothing and the TP behind us...wow did that bring back memories! we even had to duck and cover once :) )

Two Field Trips

I went on two field trips this past week.

My class went to Thommason Family Farm and the day after Kimber's class went to Thommason Family Farm.

Here are some pictures of the girls doing the same things on different days!

Alli's version:

(alli was a little nervous around the animals, she wouldn't get any closer to the goats..who were very friendly)

Kimber's version:

(only my daughter and her friends would turn the hay into a "catwalk")

Thommason Family Farm rocks! It's in Enumclaw, about 15-20 minutes from my house. Perfect for preschoolers and 2nd graders!

Kimber is 8!

I still can't believe she is 8. That's just crazy! But I guess since we've been married for 9 years, she has to be 8 since she was born on our 1 year anniversary!

She had her first party a few weeks ago. We had a combined party for Alli and Kimber and all our family members.

Today she took cookies in to school, had an early dismissal, opened presents from the fam, went to see Wall-E, ate a quick drive-thru dinner at Wendy's and .......GOT HER EARS PIERCED! She finally did it. She's been wanting them done for 2-3 years. Every year on her birthday we'd take her in to Claire's and walk right back out. Today she did it. She even made it more exciting by fainting...that's my girl! I really wish I would have had my camera in there...I could have shown you what a little girl sprawled out on the floor of Claire's looks like. It wasn't her worst fainting spell, so she seemed to recover quicker. Poor child.

She still has a friend birthday party coming up this Saturday. Fun, Fun, Fun.

Here are some pictures of her birthday celebrations so far this year...

all she wanted was green cupcakes with big diamonds in them...

her "zany black" bed spread and sheets from gma and gpa Crabtree

She seriously makes the best faces when opening presents. If you want to feel good about what you buy for someone, give it to Kimber, she ALWAYS looks excited and is so happy to open anything!

The newly pierced girl. She chose green ones of course (her favorite color of the month...all though hopefully it lasts at least 6 weeks...we can't take them out before then)

Happy Birthday Kimber!

Happy Anniversary to Us --9 years---

So we've made it 9 years!

Look how young we looked...

It was so windy the day we got married...my veil was flying on it's own. The picture below shows the wind as well. After taking this picture we moved to the other side of the Temple and it was much better.

I wore tennis shoes, which everyone thought was great/odd/funny. All throughout our wedding day, the open house, and reception we had people randomly coming up and lifting up my dress just to see my shoes. Can't a girl be comfortable???

Our bridal party...Brian (Konrad's bro), Steph (my sis), Clare (friend), me, Konrad, Lisa (friend and long lost twin sister), Michelle (sis) and Todd (Konrad's bro) (Konrad's brother Doug was on a mission and Konrad's friend Aaron missed his plane b/c he was too busy kissing his fiance :) so he wasn't there for pictures. :)

I guess for journaling purposes I'll write about our wedding day.

We got married on October 15, 1999, in the Mt. Timpanogus Temple. Even though we are both from the Seattle area, b/c it was the middle of the semester we decided to get married in Utah. We had a lot of extended family in Utah, so it meant less people traveling for the wedding. Mainly our parents, my siblings, and Konrad's grandparents had to come from Washington. Everyone else was already there.

I had stayed at my grandparents the night before and slept on the floor of my parents bedroom, with my sisters. I got up an hour or two before the wedding, did my hair, got dressed and headed to the temple.

On the way there I realized I didn't have my temple recommend on me. Konrad had put it in his suit pocket (it wasn't the last time I did that!) and I had forgotten to get it from him. Luckily we caught him before he left for the temple (before everyone had cell phones...we had to actually call him at his grandmas), so his dad was waiting outside the temple to give it to me.

It was a great feeling walking into the Celestial room to wait until it was time to be sealed. We sat on a couch, silent for the most part, both excited and nervous (I don't know why we were nervous). It was great knowing that we had made the right choice to be married in the temple and that we deserved to be there.

We walked into our sealing room and saw all of our family there. How fun to see so many of our family and friends there to support us. I guess I didn't say "yes" very loudly, my father-in-law teased me about it for quite awhile.

After the sealing we took a bunch of pictures. Luckily the sun was shining but it was SOOO windy. Good thing my hair was basically just in a pony tail, can't really mess that up!

We had a luncheon at a banquet hall in Lehi, Utah. More pictures. Yummy food. Great family and friends.

Later that evening we had a open house at my mom's cousin's house in Provo. Many old friends (from when I had lived in Utah...up until age 9), many college friends, and many family members came. It was a pretty laid back affair. I got a bloody nose and almost bled on my dress, luckily I didn't. Konrad sat on my bouquet and broke it. Our car was covered in TP and oreos.

We then, for some odd reason, turned down a night at a nice hotel, paid for by Konrad's parents, to go back to our 200 square foot house for the night. Why oh why? Oh well, it was fine. Todd and Tiff (K's bro and sister-in-law) had decorated it all fancy...candles, rose petals, yummy snacks and breakfast foods. They also left what became known as the "basket-o-fun". No details needed on that one! :)

The next morning we headed over to my grandparents to open presents and spend some more time with family. After opening all our great gifts we headed to St. George where we spent 2 nights before having to get back for midterms. We actually took our books and stuff with us on our honeymoon. I don't think we actually did any homework though.

My dad seems to remember me crying my eyes out before we left for St. George. He thought maybe the night before hadn't gone to well...I'm thinking I was just sad to see them all go home. Who knows???? :)

So that was day one and two of our 9 year journey. Now we've got 3 kids, a great house, great friends, a good job, and the hope of eternity!

We're celebrating in Hawaii next week...can't wait. Today is also Kimber's birthday so we try to make it her day. I'm sure I'll be doing her birthday post in a few hours.