Maunawili Falls

A few posts back Ryan and I attempted a hike that we never completed because of the dang mud. This week, we finally finished that hike. It was a beautiful hike to a beautiful waterfall. Just look at that scenary. I think these boys below liked what they saw too.

And here is my best friend Karn. No she's not the girl in the red bikini. That girl kept striking a pose for her friend and Karn went out to join her. I think Karn pulls the look off more naturally don't you?

My brave soldier jumping to his death. His form would have scored very high in the olympics. I'm so proud of him.

Nose picker

Ryan and I got a calling in church. It's not official, we're just permanent subs for the sunbeams until we leave here. Our kids are the cutest. I do say that about every sunbeam class though. I just love them because they don't hold anything back. For example, last Sunday we were teaching our class, I was in the middle of talking when the girl yells "eeeeew" !! She then proceeds to point at Ryan and yell "HE JUST PICKED HIS NOSE!!!" The class all joins in to say EEWWWWW. I look at Ryan and his face his brught red and he denies it, of course, while laughing.

I learned two things that day.
1. Even though young kids pick their nose, if they see you do it, they will still think it's gross.
2. If you try to deny it they will keep going on and on saying "yes you did! I saw you! You picked your nose!" over and over until you admit it.

Aloha Run

My bestest friend Karn came to visit me this week. We started out her trip by participating in the Great Aloha Run. What better way to welcome someone to Hawaii than by having them wake up their first day at 5:00 am to go run 8.15 miles? It was well worth it. We were able to do our first race together and what better place than in Hawaii.

Waking up at 5. We don't look tired at all!

I'm not really sure what to say about this picture. I think it's the old cheerleader in me coming out that I've tried hard to leave in my past. Is there any other way to convey the message "bring it on" than a cheer stance? Didn't think so.

 We weren't able to stop and enoy the sunrise while running because it was behind us, but we were able to take it in before the start of the race.

I know what you're thinking. Is she really wearing a fanny pack? Yes i am. Only 1$ at the thrift store and one of the best things I've bought here. And not that anyone cares but fanny packs are really popular here.

Ryan got us best friend finish necklaces! YES!

a New DO

Most girls understand what a hassle long hair is. My hair is always tangled no matter how much conditioner I use. I figured it was something I had to deal with but I decided not to put up with it anymore. Especially being here.... something had to be done. So I went and cut it short. And no it wasn't that simple. Let me explain.

I know when my mother reads this she'll be upset and say to herself "i told you so", but I went to supercuts to get my hair cut. I've always gone to the cheap place to get my hair cut because i usually just go in for a trim. I'm not paying more than what I have to for someone to cut 1/2 inch off. (Man i miss the days of $5 hair cuts at the beauty schools in Rexburg.) 

Turns out the next day after getting my hair cut I noticed that my hair was REALLY uneven. I mean REALLY uneven like how could someone be so off... seriously. I asked Ryan what he thought and he said he noticed but didn't want to say anything. WHAT? YOU WERE GOING TO LET YOUR WIFE WALK AROUND WITH NOTICEABLY UNEVEN HAIR? ugh. I had to go back to get it fixed and guess what, she didn't even do it that well. So I had to go in ANOTHER time. So frustrating. I need to learn to cut my own hair.

Anyway. 2 appointments later (yes it took 2 more appointments for them to fix it ) my hair is finally even. YAY!
Maybe it's not THAT short for you all, but for me it's pretty short. I miss my long hair but it will grow back. For now, I will enjoy not having a nest in the back of my head. :)

Here is a picture I found that shows how long my hair was before.

You have to excuse the "wind-blown look" and it's not even "super-model-wind-blown" look either. But you catch the idea. Plus, don't I look so much happier with short hair? Maybe it's the amazing beach behind us that I'm happy with.

Something's not right here

Ryan and I went to the UH boys basketball game. The head couch is in our ward and we were able to score some tickets for Valentines. We found ourselves getting into the game but something kept holding us back. Could it be the fact we were shouting "GO RAINBOWS!!" ?? It just doesn't feel right.

Ryan is a Rainbow!

We were laughing because we saw the male cheerleaders doing this motion. Turns out they're paddling. So here we are paddling in front of the rainbow.

LET'S GO BOWS! LET'S GO BOWS!

I'm grateful for the ocean

She must be a tourist

I have to say, and Ryan would agree, that people here really are laid back and friendly. I have never seen in my life people be so nice when it comes to driving. They are almost too nice if you can imagine that. If you need to make a left hand turn and there are a row of cars coming your way, you will not have to wait long before the cars all stop to let you go before they carry on. And pedestrians- they have it sooo nice. You're not scared for your life and feel like you have to dodge cars here. I've gone for a walk and maybe I'll stop for a second and look back at the cars coming. They will stop and wave for me to run across the street. I'll have to let them know I'm not crossing or something because they will just stop and wait. No one is in a hurry here. I'm not even joking, but sometimes two cars will just be waving the other one on and they're like... "no you go ahead"... "no YOU go ahead"... "no no that's ok. I insist. You go ahead." It's crazy. Our neighbor has this bumper sticker which I thought was pretty hilarious and fitting for hawaiian driving.  

Another thing too, everyone is always saying hello. This morning, a friend and I were running down the beach and it seemed like we couldn't carry on a conversation because someone was saying good morning to us every 10 seconds. It was really funny because my friend said good morning to this girl as we were running by and she didn't say anything back. How rude! It was almost offensive. My friend looked at me and said, "She must be a tourist." Ha.

So two tips that I have for you when traveling to Hawaii, be a considerate driver and say hello to everyone. It's not a compliment when they think you're a tourist.

I swear, only in hawaii

Yesterday while I was at work, Ryan took a bus up to the north share to hangout with a friend. That night I get a call from him and I could tell he was in a panic. He said he just got off the bus and, being in a hurry to find a bathroom, left his backpack on the bus that had our camera on it. Great. So long camera.

Ryan tried calling the bus company to get a hold of the driver. They told him that they couldn't do anything until the bus driver calls it in to lost and found. Ryan suggested finding the route the bus was on and to track it down and see if his bag was still there. I hurry and pull up the website but unfortunately i have little to no experience navigating buses. All we could do was wait and hope someone turns it in.

I get another call from Ryan who tells me that someone turned it in and we can meet up at the same stop 30 minutes later! While he is telling me this, he finds a cell phone at the bus stop. When I pick him up he's calling people from the cell's phone book trying to locate the owner. We said we could bring the phone to them shortly. We headed over to meet the bus and the bus driver said Ryan was very lucky someone turned it in because he hadn't even seen it.

We then drove over to this persons apartment to drop off the lost cell phone. The lady kept saying thank you thank you. Little did she know we just had a similar experience of our own. As we were driving away she says, "I swear, only in Hawaii." I completely agree.

....And the Last of the Big Island

The week flew by too fast. We did so much and created long-lasting memories.... Ok. That's cheesy. But seriously, we had a great time. I just have to share a story before I move on to other entries. Ryan and I went over to meet up at their room and ended up going out on the balcony to hang out for awhile. Room service happened to come and as we are all having a nice conversation and they start vacuuming. What? Really? We're talking here! Anyway, Ryan closed the door so we could get back to your deep thought provoking conversation.
Time goes by, I'm starting to pit out and need to get in some shade, but wait! The door is locked?! But wait again! The room service is in there! Maybe they can save us!
We knocked on the door and tried looking inside to wave them over. They're gone! We are on the 3rd floor and don't have the number to call the front desk. So what did we do?
I saw a lady walking across the courtyard. "HEY!!!! UP HERE!!!! YES YOU! WE'RE LOCKED OUT OF OUR ROOM!!! CAN YOU GO TO THE FRONT DESK AND TELL THEM WE ARE LOCKED OUT ON OUR BALCONY? WE'RE IN ROOM 2012! THANK YOUUUUUU!"
Apparently, there is a security bar that had dropped down on it's own. Once the maid freed us from the balcony she made us feel better telling us it happens more often than we think. She told us that one guy, after he found out he was locked out, panicked and jumped off the balcony! That's supposed to make us feel better? Maybe it should because we didn't get hurt. Just our egos. Good times.

Well, we made it back into your room, talked about how funny that was, and then Marilyn and her adventerous nature suggested we go for a helicopter ride. Heck yes! Another first-time for us. It was so fun. We had a much better view from the helicopter than in our Kia mini van i must say.

 Anyone watch the  tv show 24? Ryan is my Jack Bauer! :)

Volcano

  Interesting story. We all talked about why people would have houses on a volcano and on our helicopter ride we saw what was left of a neighborhood after an eruption. If you look really closely, you can see ONE house that wasn't touched. It's called Jack's Place because the guy that lives there is Jack and it's his place. duh. He runs a B&B there. It's funny because the street he lives on leads to nowhere. When he goes to town he has to walk 3 hours!!!!! He can't drive across the volanic rock. What a life huh? We did see him walking down his street when we were overhead. Talk about major privacy though. You don't need to worry about any peeping toms that's for sure.

So many waterfalls right next to each other. I wish this picture could give it justice but it doens't.

Barry was able to sit up front with the pilot while Ryan was folded up in the back. Poor Barry, he said he had too much room!! Ha

We loved our helicopter ride, but it did feel good to be back on safe grounds! 

We had our picnic afterwards before heading to the Champions Golf Tournament at the Four Seasons. I'm not sure why I was so exicted for this picture. Maybe because I was hungry and was able to eat.

No cameras were allowed so this is the only shot Ryan was able to sneak in. This is at the 18th hole. Ryan watched the recap that night on tv and turns out we were on tv. We were also able to get a few autographs. I really think golf is super super boring and would never watch it on tv. But I thought it was pretty fun seeing it in person. Marilyn made it really fun too as she made fun of how serious everyone was there. It's true! No one smiles or laughs or anything. Tight wads.

Great week on the Big Island. Thank you Barry and Marilyn. Same time next year?

More of the Big Island

Luau

They taught us how to make fishes with palm tree leaves. Some of us had better luck than others. Barrry having the luck, me...not so much. If you were to ask me to make one now, I just might be able to do it.

                              Marilyn, being the natural born dancer, joined the hula class. She did a great job shaking those hips all seductive like.

 Now shimmy!



Here's something neat. They cooked our pig underground. They had us all gather round to watch the unveiling of the pig... ooooh aaaaah. Wait a second, we're about to eat a pig that was underground and covered with leaves and branches?? I think that's how you catch H1N1.