February – 2014 – Wanderings and Ponderings

Hawai'i

Tuesday Morning

25 February 2014

It’s Tuesday. I think I need to listen to the book Tuesdays with Morrie again soon. I remember my mom always listening to it on tape.

I used to always listen to Harry Potter on tape. Oh I do love Harry Potter.

So each Tuesday morning I have a work meeting at 6:30 am. That hour is the only time that works for all 10 of us to meet together. When I came back home, my Chris boy was still in bed, which was great. It’s a chilly rainy day here in Laie, and so on my bike ride home, I got a bit wet and chilly. It’s so nice to have Christopher around all the time to cuddle with me and keep my warm. :)

On this cold, gray morning, I haven’t felt like doing too much but staying cozy in bed and watching something. So I chose to watch Magic Beyond Words. :) It’s the story of Joanne (J.K.) Rowling. It was great to watch and made me love Harry Potter even more.

Harry Potter is completely magical.

I really really want to go to Harry Potter World.

But I want to go to Brasil even more.

Hawai'i

date night

20 February 2014

Boy: “What are plans for tonight?”

Girl: “I was thinking maybe Boston’s pizza and a movie in Kaneohe.”

Boy: “Me too!”

So that’s what we did. And it was really lovely.

Chris and I don’t have a car here on the island, but my dear old roommate Taylor let’s us use hers when we need. So when we were done with work and school stuffs, we headed east, to Kaneohe.

On the drive we listened to a great, helpful audiobook.

It was beautiful cruising along the shore. I love this island.

However with all the windy turns I do tend to get car sick all the time,

especially on the bus… da bus…

We found Boston’s Pizza on yelp. Yelp has helped us find lots of great food.

They have great thin crust, not too much cheese, and I usually have them add fresh pineapple on top of mine. So good. Yum, I want some now.

We stopped at the store for some movie treats – cadbury mini eggs for me of course, which I just learned right now that they sell on amazon!

And we watched the Monuments Men at the lovely theater, Ko’olau 10.

I really enjoyed watching the movie. Thought it was great. It was nice and historical and well done, not too heavy, not too light, plenty of funny parts, good little background music, good characters.

I used to not really watch or even like movies. Chris loves movies. He has pulled me to his side on this one. Yay movies. Hooray netflix!

On the drive home we listened to lots of good ol’ jams.

My all time favorite – Glycerine by Bush.

And then some Metallica to take husband back to his drummer days. :)

There’s nothing like singing in the car with your favorite boy with the lovely Hawaiian night breeze coming through the windows.

When we came home we some motivation to run (probably from sugar overload) so we went on a really great run in the dark under the stars. We ran this road that goes behind the Polynesian Cultural Center and BYUH campus, and it’s just a dark gravel road, in the middle of Hawaiian jungle. :) It was really great just listening to good music, running under the stars, and hearing Chris’s feet by me.

Well I haven’t run two miles in a while. When I do run it’s on our beach and it’s not quite 1.5 miles. And after having eaten pizza and too much chocolate and running harder than I normally do, I wanted to throw up. :) I guess that’s not too bad of a thing. It’s great to exercise well and work out hard. We gots to take care of oursmelves.

Anyway, I’m just kind of rambling on about feelings and moments that I don’t want to forget. We got back from our run and went on a great cool down walk on the beach. It was nice and dark and starry. I did stub my toes on a big piece of coral and that was dumb. Made me swear in my head. It happens. :) Then I jumped in the ocean and all was well!

Hawai'i

omg dolphins!

14 February 2014

Chris and Taylor and I went and played on the west side of the island for most of the day today.

MAGICAL.

We went snorkeling at Electric Beach. I had only been there once before, 6 years ago when I was getting my scuba diver certification.

Wow, today it was so great.

The water, sooooo blue. Like the bluest water I’ve ever seen.

Lots of super cool fishes too.

And there were a couple honu, sea turtles!

The best part, the dolphins!!!

I’m still so happy and excited about it. It was crazy.

We had to swim out pretty far to find them. The dolphins usually hang out around Electric Beach and Taylor had swam with them a few times and showed us the ropes today.

We had snorkels and fins and boogie or surf boards. And we swam swam swam in the DEEP BLUE SEA after the dolphins. They kept swimming farther away though and we could only see them from a distance.

So we waited around. The water was probably like 60 feet deep maybe, a nice sandy bottom.

And then we saw their fins coming.

So we put our snorkels and masks back on and it was so sunny and blue and amazing.

I was in the water and looked down and saw probably like 30 below me.

And there were lots of baby dolphins too. So cute!!

And then I turned to the other side and pretty close to me were a bunch more dolphins swimming from the surface of the water down to the bottom.

It was an amazing moment.

And then I was just swimming along watching them and they kept coming from behind me and there were dolphins all around! And the sun was hitting the water and there were lots of magical sun rays in the water shining around.

Wowie. It was so great.

And this went on for quite awhile. We just cruised around with them and watched them. We didn’t ever get close enough to touch them, but got quite a few pictures that happened to turn out!

Overall, the day was full of blue water, sunshine, dolphins, laughs, and so many great things! Feeling great right now. Just a little sunburned. :) But all is well. We love the dolphins (of Miami and Electric Beach)!

Hawai'i

Everything is Awesome!

13 February 2014

The Lego Movie was a hit for us.
Lots of random funnies.
It took me back to so many great, lego filled days.

Chris and I decided three minutes ago that this would be our theme song.
Here’s to awesome!

Tegan and Sara feat. the Lonely Island

Everything is Awesome!!!

Everything is awesome
Everything is cool when you’re part of a team
Everything is awesome, when we’re living our dream

Everything is better when we stick together
Side by side, you and I gonna win forever, let’s party forever
We’re the same, I’m like you, you’re like me, we’re all working in harmony

Everything is awesome
Everything is cool when you’re part of a team
Everything is awesome, when we’re living our dream

(Wooo)
3, 2, 1. GO

Have you heard the news, everyone’s talking
Life is good ’cause everything’s awesome
Lost my job, it’s a new opportunity
More free time for my awesome community

I feel more awesome than an awesome opossum
Dip my body in chocolate frostin’
Three years later, washed out the frostin’
Smellin’ like a blossom, everything is awesome
Stepped in mud, got new brown shoes
It’s awesome to win, and it’s awesome to lose (it’s awesome to lose)

Everything is better when we stick together
Side by side, you and I, gonna win forever, let’s party forever
We’re the same, I’m like you, you’re like me, we’re all working in harmony

Everything is awesome
Everything is cool when you’re part of a team
Everything is awesome, when we’re living our dream

Blue skies, bouncy springs
We just named you awesome things
A nobel prize, a piece of string
You know what’s awesome, EVERYTHING

Dogs and fleas, allergies, a book of Greek antiquities
Brand new pants, a very old vest
Awesome items are the best

Trees, frogs, clogs
They’re awesome
Rocks, clocks, and socks
They’re awesome
Figs, and jigs, and twigs
That’s awesome
Everything you see, or think, or say
Is awesome

Everything is awesome
Everything is cool when you’re part of a team
Everything is awesome, when we’re living our dream

Hawai'i

Saturday.

9 February 2014

A rainy, gray day. Again.

Slept in.

Went to temple for initiatories.

Watched hours of Cake Boss.

Watched hours of Call the Midwife.

Gave Chris a haircut.

Sipped hot chocolate.

With cinnamon toast.

And fell asleep.

Hawai'i

Nilton and duolingo

7 February 2014

My favorite Christopher boy is working on learning português with the app Duolingo.

It makes me really happy.

If you want a great way to work on some foreign language skills, go to duolingo.com.

So I love Potuguese. And I love Brazil.

So grateful I was able to serve my mission there.

Chris and I watched a couple episodes of Call the Midwife last night. And there was this sweet cute little old man in the episode, and it reminded me of Nilton. He’s the cute sweet little old man in the front left of this picture.

I love Nilton.

There are so many great people in the world and I’m grateful to know so many of them.

Cheers!

Hawai'i

Thomas came!

5 February 2014

Aloha. It’s Tuesday. I had a work meeting this morning at 6:30 am, and other than that, I just have a sewing class for a few hours tonight. I’m loving learning how to sew!

Last week we had a visitor! Thomas used to work for Chris and Angle of Attack and had some extra airline miles so he flew out for an extended weekend. It was pretty grand and good to adventure around our lovely island paradise and show great things to Thomas.

We rode the bus to town to meet Thomas at the airport and pick up a rental car. Three hours and a total of 35 miles later, we made it to the airport.

Waiting at a bus stop in Honolulu, we checked out a cool Catholic church.

Outside the church was a statue of Jesus doing the Robot. ;)

Chris and I wore the best sandals ever. What a dream.

We’re glad we live far out of the city.

After we got Thomas, we stopped at the infamous Matsumoto’s for some shave ice.

Tom Hanks stopped there too. Like 30 years ago.

And 20 years ago, some POGS stopped in.

We took Thomas to our favorite sea turtle spotting beach in Haleiwa.

Hi Mr. (or Mrs.) Turtle!

The next morning, I looked out my door and took this picture.

And this picture from our other door! The rental car was a precious little fiat 500.

Luna and Simba had a good time too.

On Sunday we went to the Pro Bowl. It was an experience.

I had two $6 cobs of corn at the Pro Bowl. Funny.

Thomas slept in this tent and braved the elements of Hawaii.

Another day we headed to costco and the dole pineapple plantation, and for the first time ever I stopped at the Brazil food truck. Yay it was so fun to speak portuguese to a brasileiro and to drink guaraná and eat a pastel. So I’m not a soda fan at all, but drinking guaraná took me back. So lovely.

We took Thomas to Kawela Bay, where some of Lost was filmed apparently.

Chris and I also took our engagement pictures there. :)

We’re glad Thomas boy came! He’s a gem. Everyone’s smiling with smiley face smoothie bowls. :)

Hawai'i

Charge like Kirk.

3 February 2014

Chris and I have gotten some fantastico pictures lately, but alas, none of them are super accessible at the moment. Chris took these pictures a couple months ago at a paddle out for a dear friend named Kirk.

So Taylor girl, my surfalicious roommate from the past post, met this boy named Kirk (often referred to as ‘Kirk boy’) over a year ago. Kirk was a hardcore surfer too, like as hardcore and super good as you can get without being a pro surfer. But he did surf with the pros and was a super tall, red headed dude, often referred to as Fanta. Kirk was a champ. He was a person that made you feel good, and when he was talking with you, he was present and and there for you. He was super honest, hard working, and looked out for others. Kirk boy and Taylor girl fell in love and had lots of great times together.

But on the morning of 13 November 2013, Kirk surfed his final wave. Pictures of his last ride are found here. And here’s a video of that wave. Pretty incredible. Kirk moved to the next life doing what he loved and he’s basically a full on legend now. Really, a 40 foot wave? That’s huge!