L & S

So its been a while...

but I'm back home in Hawai'i nei. Actually I've been back for about a week now. I would have posted something but I got some crazy food poisoning on my first day back and I've been out this entire week. It was absolutely horrible and haven't been able to eat any REAL food all week. Today was the first day that I felt good enough to get out of the house and I celebrated by eating everything in sight! And I'm not exaggerating either. It feels good to eat again.

Anyway, I really haven't posted anything we've been up to since like, November (other than graduation). I've kind of been putting it off because I knew it would take a while, but oh well---I can get it done and move past it to do some real blog posting.

So lets see if I can even remember that far back...starting with Thanksgiving.

Seth and I spent Thanksgiving on the Big Island this year...sadly our first time without Nate and Camille.

We stayed in Kona so we could be near the temple because we had an early morning session.

**We almost didn't make our flight (we got there 10 minutes before the plane took off) and had to wait standby. It ended up working out in our favor because we were able to sit first class instead of the coach seats we had originally booked. And guess who we ended up sitting by...Hurley from "Lost."

Crazy! I never said anything to him though (he was with his family)---it was Thanksgiving and I felt lame bothering him with an autograph or something. Oh well. I'm not the type to get all starstruck or anything. Plus I'm not that big of a fan of the show [gasp!]. Don't hate me.

Kona was such a cute little town. I loved it there. They had a Costco and Walmart down the street, and the temple around the corner. What's not to love? We ate some great food at a little place called Splasher's Grill. (10 pts if you can find Seth in the picture!) I'd post pictures of the food but my little sister Jordan told me I take to many pictures of food. (??)

Somehow they ran out of the type of car we were supposed to rent, so they upgraded us to a convertible. Can you say, TOURIST? Can't really say I hated it though---it was fun and I've never driven one before!

Here's Seth in our sweet ride:

We also drove to a lot of resorts along to coast to explore! Some of them had some amazing beaches and places to stay. We watched some gorgeous sunsets as well.

And who could forget the turtles?

We happened to be the on Black Friday. Seth was sick that day so I ended up cruising over to Target. Surprisingly, there was no one there! I ended up picking up some amazing deals on all sorts of things. It was great! I heart Target.

We brought our snorkel gear because we heard of the gorgeous reef over at Kealakekua Bay. It turned out that you could only snorkel at the Captain Cook Monument, and the only way to get there was to kayak all the way to the other side of the bay.

We happened to have a little cash, so we rented a kayak for the day! Poor Seth was sick, but he was a trooper and went out with me. So nice of him! :) The water was so blue that day.

This is me working really hard:

The actual monument:

The snorkeling was amazing. Better than on Oahu. The reef was so untouched and natural, something that is hard to find on touristy Oahu. I loved it.

We also went to Waipio valley on the country side of the island. I love it over there. It's so gorgeous. Sometimes it feels like you're on the mainland.

The valley was gorgeous. We ended up hiking down to the bottom (such a steep hike) and relaxing for a bit. Then we built our version of a Hawaiian Christmas tree.

On the way out we stumbled on a place called Tex's drive-in in Honoka'a on the way out of Waipio. We found out they made some malasadas and decided to give them a try. Turns out, THEY PUT LEONARD'S MALASADAS TO SHAME. No joke. They were deeeeelicious! I can't eat Leonard's without thinking how I'm having a lower-grade malasada. Someday I will eat them again. Someday.

Annnnnnddd, our temple trip. Save the most important for last right? Seth was really sick this day. I didn't think he could make it through a session, but he did and I'm so happy that he went. We had an amazing experience and I absolutely love it there. Such a cute temple too! It was tiny!

Aaaannnd that was our Thanksgiving trip! And I just realized that this was the longest post ever. Sorry, it was more for journaling purposes rather than an update. It will take me a few more posts, but I'll get it done!