Aloha 'Oe

We're back! We got home from out trip to Oahu on Tuesday morning. We had so much fun, but the 4 hour time difference was a lot easier to adjust to when we were there than when we got back. I'm still not back on Utah time completely. It probably doesn't help that my incentive to get up here is going to work, when my incentive to wake up in Hawaii was this.

This was the view from the balcony of our hotel room. It was so beautiful there. I miss it. I have so many pictures so I'll start from the beginning of the trip and hope you guys don't get too bored. Here is a picture that I took from the plane. I'd never flow over the ocean before or been to Hawaii so I this was a whole new experience for me.

We went straight to the hotel to check in once we got to Oahu. This is a view from the lobby of the hotel. I'm sure Ryan was a bit embarrassed when I pulled out the camera to start taking pictures in the lobby, but look how beautiful it was. I loved everything about our hotel. It was amazing.

This is a picture of the Hotel from our beach. We were on the 17th floor, the top floor. You can see our room from here. It's the third balcony from the left.

Next we went hiking at Diamond Head. Here is a picture that Ryan took from the top. That's Honolulu in the background.

Then we went snorkeling at Hanauma Bay. We had a lot of fun and we saw a ton of fish. The coral and the fish were so close to the beach that you barely had to make any effort at all to see them. While I was exploring I ran into two sea turtles. We borrowed an under water camera from one of Ryan's friends so we got some really fun pictures of the fish and us. Here we are trying to take a picture of both of us underwater. It was a lot more difficult that it looks.


There were some really brightly colored fish. I wish we could have gotten a better picture of these two. They were beautiful.

And here are the sea turtles. If you look closely you can see the second one in the background.

Friday night was Ryan's parent's 40th anniversary so we took them to out to dinner to celebrate. The food was delicious.

We all had the chocolate souffle for dessert. I was so full from dinner that I didn't think I'd be able to eat dessert but when I saw this I couldn't help myself. It was so yummy!

We went to the Dole Plantation and ate yummy fresh pineapple and pineapple soft serve ice cream. Apparently a lot of our trip revolved around eating. Oh well, it was good. We rode the Pineapple Express train and got to see the pineapple fields.

Then we walked through the gardens they have there. It was really pretty. I want to landscape my backyard to look like these gardens some day. And if I have to live in Hawaii for the plants to survive, I guess that's a sacrifice I'll have to make.

Next we went to the Polynesian Cultural Center. There were a lot of cool things to see. That night we had dinner at the Luau there. Here we are getting our picture taken with our pretty leis.

This was one of the guys that danced in the evening show. He was a fire dancer and he was really cool so we wanted to get our picture taken with him. He was kinda gross and sweaty.

We also went to Pearl Harbor while we were there. It was very interesting and humbling to see. I wish I could have seen more of the ship. You could also see oil on the water that was leaking from the ship. Apparently there are thousands of gallons of oil still in the ship. Here we are on the boat ride over there.

We went ATV riding at Kualoa Ranch. They filmed a lot of movies there including parts of Jurassic Park, Godzilla, 50 First Dates, and are still filming Lost there. It was so much fun. We rode our ATV's around and got to see a lot of things that the bus tour couldn't get to. There was one spot where we drove up part way on our ATV's and then got out and hiked for a few more minutes till we got to this cliff that overlooked the ocean and part of the ranch. It was stunning. Here is Ryan on his ATV.

Here we are at the over look.

And here is the whole group. On ATV's...

And off ATV's...

And we took a picture hiding under the same log they hid under on Jurassic park when the stampede of dinosaurs came after them.

The last thing we did while we were in Hawaii was Parasailing. We've been wanting to go ever since we got married. We tried to go on our honeymoon but the stop got canceled because of the weather. This time we finally got to go. It was a lot of fun. It was exhilarating to be that high up off the ground with only a parachute holding you up. It was a windy day so Ryan got a bit sea sick but all in all we had a good time.

Now we're back in Utah and I miss the perfect warm weather and the beach and the sun. I even miss the humidity, I noticed that my skin didn't get very dry there and I didn't have to put lotion on my hands every time I washed them. Most of all I miss being on vacation and not having to make dinner. We're so thankful that we had the opportunity to go to Hawaii and spend time with family and do all those fun things. We really appreciate all that you do for us, Cheryl and Jim, and we can't thank you enough for taking us.