Beauty and the Beach

The Beach is more than just a place where the ocean meets the land, it is a place of relaxation where you can go to escape from the rest of the world.  As Beth says, you just watch your worries float away with the waves.  That is the main reason I love the beach.  I have always thought the rhythmic sound of each wave falling against the shore was relaxing and a little mesmerizing.  Being able to sit and let the waves overtake me is a wonderful blessing.  I think many different aspects of the outdoors have the same effect, that is one thing that I have always been very aware of.  I have the opportunity of experiencing one more aspect of the great creations that are here for us and I am loving every minute of it.  

It is such a peaceful day when Matt and I go to the beach together and enjoy the sun, the waves, and each others company.  Getting a little bit of a tan isn't bad either!  I have made a goal for this semester to make it to the beach hopefully 3 days a week (with my books and homework of course).  I want to be a few shades darker before going back to Alaska for the summer.  

The feeling of warm sunshine on my skin is one of my favorite sensations.  I can feel it sinking into my skin and healing my soul, giving me joy and happiness.  I have been realizing the importance of Mental Wellness and taking the time to ensure I do not go insane.  I think the two correlate very well!

There is something fun about writing your name in the sand.  Especially on our beach because we always have to try to race the waves, so when we are able to do it well we are pretty happy with ourselves.  Matt found a stick that he was using in place of a sword.  He seemed to be enjoying himself very much.  With that sword he scrawled our names in the sand as I splashed in the water behind him.  

We were able to go to the temple again this week.  This time there were a couple who were both going through for the first time and then were going to be married.  It was neat to be able to be there with them even though we had no idea who they were.  The girl sat by me and was crying almost the whole time.  It was cute.  The guy sat by Matt, and Matt said that he kept looking over at her and just smiling and being happy that they were able to be there together.  It was cute!  

This is the view looking our from the temple.  The road extends straight out and then in the distance you can see the blue ocean (maybe not in this picture because my phone doesn't have the best camera in the world). There are palm trees and plants that make a line from the highway that point toward the temple.  The white buildings you can see in the distance are part of the Visitors Center.  There are beautiful water pools and fountains everywhere.  The color contrasts of the vibrant green plants, blue water, and colored flowers against the white temple is gorgeous.  

Peacocks & Sing Alongs

This week has been full of wonderful relaxation.  Every morning I have woken up when my body wanted to, not when the alarm went off.  It has been amazing.  Of course I really enjoy being busy so I would not be okay with this lasting forever; however, for now it has been such a blessing to be able to relax a little bit and spend some time with my wonderful husband, Matt.  I think that has been my favorite part of the whole week, being able to spend my time with people I love rather than spending all my time with my textbooks and my laptop.  

On Wednesday Matt and I went with our friends Natalie and her son Christian on a little trip.  The whole point of the trip was to pick up Natalie's husband, Chase, but we decided to make it a leisure trip and stop whenever we saw things of interest.  

Here we are in the car having a great time.  Christian is the cutest little kid.  Not to mention he likes to watch one of my favorite movie, Tangled.  There was a portable DVD player in the back of the car for entertainment, guess what we are watching?  There was one point that all of us were singing along and anyone else listening would have thought they had suddenly stepped into a Musical.  It was Oh So Fun.  

On the way we saw this awesome house on the side of the road, it has a beach view and is gorgeous.  I like the hint of Asian architecture that it has.  I heard it is just used as a Vacation home that people can rent when they come to visit Paradise.  It is easily a multi-million dollar home.  Beautiful.  

This is a statue that was on the balcony of the house.  Kind of random... definitely memorable though.  There are so many beautiful homes around the island.  I can't even imagine how much some of them cost!  I appreciate that other people have the money to create something beautiful for me to enjoy!  

So as we kept driving we came to a turn off that Natalie said she always wanted to check out but never has.  Obviously stopping fit perfectly into our agenda for the day, so we did!  As soon as we turned off the road we started talking about how it is around the area where Jurassic Park was filmed.  I guess there are tours that you can take that will take you to and show you places where Jurassic Park, Lost and many other movies were filmed.  Pretty Cool.  I think we might try going on it when we come back in the Fall! 

As soon as we drove into the parking lot there was a Peacock wandering around.  The attraction is actually a preserve type thing, they have botanical gardens and there is a trail that leads up to a waterfall area where you can go swimming.  We are planning on going back there too!  We entered and looked around a little more and realized there are both a male and female peacocks that live there.  Unfortunately he didn't spread his wings and show off for us, but look at those amazing colors.  We were very tempted to pull out a feather to take home with us.  

I honestly don't know what this little building is... I guess its like a Hawaiian hut or something, there were lots of weird face carvings and stuff.  More or Less I thought it was a little Creepy...  Apparently Christian was freaked out too judging by his face.  

It was nice to get out and see a little more of what Hawaii has to offer.  Play the part of a Tourist.  The plants are so beautiful and there is always something new waiting around the corner.  We saw an awesome beach that we are going to be going to as well.  We also saw the one that they filmed part of Soul Surfer on (I think...)  

We don't have much time left before we go back to Alaska for the summer, we are going to miss this place. I am very happy we will be coming back and get to have another chance to see some amazing things.  We truly have been blessed with the opportunity to be here, especially with the people we have met and become friends with.  I can't believe how amazing they are and how much they have already blessed our lives.  We can only hope that they will stay in our lives for many years to come.

Spring is in the Air!

Spring is definitely here!  With last week being Easter, spring had a very nice welcome.  As someone in our ward mentioned in church on Sunday, here in Hawaii we hardly notice the change in seasons because everyday is pretty much the same when it comes to the weather, it takes away the feeling that comes when spring is in the air.  Fortunately, the semester officially ended as of April 14th and has brought with it a week of relaxation and the opportunity to truly enjoy the beauty that is all around us.  

First, to focus on Easter.  As in many households, it is our tradition on Easter to dye eggs; however, this year I didn't make it to the store, and honestly forgot all together about dying eggs until the day of...  Opps.  Instead, I found a recipe for cupcakes that look very much like flowers.  The original recipe can be found here.  I found it, fell in love with them, and decided I had to try it out.  It turned out to be much easier than I thought it would be.  After making them and eating one, I decided I didn't love the actual cake recipe but decorating the top was fun and turned out so good that I didn't really care about eating them.  

We went over to our friends house for dinner along with another couple.  They are awesome people.  I took the cupcakes over, cooked but not decorated, and after dinner we had a cupcake decorating party!  We found that some of us are naturally more artistic while others of us...well... umm... are slightly less artistic.  Guess who ended up making the prettiest ones of the night?  Matt.  No surprise there, if it has anything to do with making a piece of art look wonderful he does a great job.  I ended up having him finish the rest of the cupcakes because his were the best.  It was fun though, we enjoyed ourselves.  

Easter Day was the calm before the storm...  Finals came and went and somehow I survived!  Now I'm just waiting for final grades to be posted.  In the mean time, I have a week of sweet bliss to thoroughly enjoy doing nothing and having close to no responsibilities... at least for now!  On Saturday we went down to Kaneohe to have fun.  On the way Matt looked up and said, "I love that Mountain."   He loves how the cliffs just shoot up out of nowhere.  That was a beautiful day, the water was clear, the sun was shining, and every beach we passed seemed to be packed with people enjoying the Saturday.  

I was in a glorious mood!  It was a great day, Matt and I went out and just enjoyed each others company, something we haven't been able to do for too long.  We ended up being out all day and missed going to the beach, not that it was necessarily a bad thing, it a little too crowded anyway.  

Today we did have the opportunity to go to the beach.  We went with one of our friends and her 2 year old boy.  He is So cute!  Watching him play in the water and in the waves was so fun!  We also attempted to make a sand castle today... but 2 year olds don't really understand why it is cool to build something when destroying it is so much more fun!  Needless to say, we didn't get very far with that... played with a lot of sand though.  The saddest part of the whole day was that I forgot to take pictues...  I know, I am awful.  I will try to do better, this week my goal will be to take pictures everyday.  Whether we are doing something crazy or just hanging out and enjoying life, pictures will be coming!  

Speaking of being crazy and just hanging out... Matt was doing both at the time...

One last thing before we go...  Matt and I went to a BALL!!  It was held at PCC and married people were invited too!  We met up with some friends once we got there and had a dance party.  We also went on a romantic canoe ride that was dimly lit and had soft music playing in the background.  Definitely enjoyable.  We walked away with a tummy full of food, a nice aerobic exercise, a lovely evening with friends, and not to mention, this Awesome picture!  

Just another Day in Paradise

Well, I feel like journaling more than anything today and I realized a while back that I don't think I even brought my journal with me here to Hawaii.  I hated the current one I had (because it didn't have a spiral edge) and so I never wrote in it anyway.  I think I just left it there because I figured I hadn't used in recently anyway.  My Mistake.  Who knew I might want to document my life now and again...?

I think I might give a quick run down of my current position in school.  I seem to do that with each and every new person I meet but it always seems to come up time and time again.  The top questions asked are "What's your major?"  "When do you graduate?"  "How's school going for you?"

First, I'm majoring in Accounting, with a minor in Music.  I just decided on the minor in music part this last semester so I haven't actually done much with it yet, but I am excited!  The main reason I am doing it is because I want to learn to play the piano better and I know it just takes practice but it will be much easier to practice if I have to for class.  Not to mention Matt's family is totally amazing when it comes to music and I want to attempt to contribute a little.

I will graduate in 2013.  I will walk in April and then I will have just a couple classes I have to take during the first session of the summer, which is 6 weeks long, so it won't be a big deal at all.  I would be able to graduate earlier, I have enough credits, but I am getting 150 credits so that I qualify for my CPA license.  That has added more time to my school, not to mention I took last semester off, but it will work out in the end.  I will also graduate and take a certification exam, I forgot exactly what it is called but it's an info system type thing.  This is something my advisor offered that I do because I needed a few more classes anyway and it looks good on resumes and does actually give some knowledge to programs that are used in the Real World.

School is going well right now.  Busy, busy, busy!  The semester is coming to an end.  Only 2 weeks left!  The last week is finals so it doesn't really count and only about half of my classes actually have a final anyway.    I just talked to my advisor recently to finish mapping out what classes I am going to be taking until I graduate and I am going to be a very busy girl.  The plan is to take 18 credits both in the fall and the spring.  I also talked to one of my teachers the other day about working as their TA (teachers assistant) because they one he currently has is graduating soon and seems to be preoccupied right now... ie: doesn't do anything to help the class run smoother.  I also thought about auditing a dance class in the fall because I miss it so much!  If you put all of that together I don't know if I will have time to sleep, but right now it seems so worth it!  I am sure in the middle of the semester when I finally realize what I have done to myself I will think again but right now it sounds like a good plan.

Another commitment that I do not always think about trying to schedule into my week is our church callings.  Right now Matt and I teach Sunday School; we teach the Gospel Principles class along with another couple, we take turns teaching each week.  It has actually ended up working out very nicely.  Gospel Principles is a smaller class and so it is more of a discussion rather than us just talking at them.  We have some awesome people in our ward, they have great insights and it has been a great blessing and learning experience to be able to teach with Matt and work together as a team.  The smaller group setting has also made it so we can actually get to know one another a little better and build friendships as well.  It is a great opportunity for us.

I am also the Visiting Teaching Coordinator... which reminds me... I need to get the report put together for this month!  Matt was also recently called to be the Assistant Ward Clerk, I guess the current one is moving so they want him to be the assistant and then end up taking over when the current guy leaves.  Matt will do great, although it is going to be something very different than he is used to.  Great learning experience though, I can feel it!

Well that is about all with our ongoing lives at the moment, we have gone to a couple of performances lately that are worth noting.  A while back The Piano Guys came to BYU-H to perform for us.  They were awesome!  Jon Schmidt and Steven Sharp Nelson are pretty much amazing at what they do.  We absolutely loved the concert!

We took a picture with Steven Sharp Nelson but Jon Schmidt kind of disappeared and we didn't want to wait around for him, so no picture with Jon Sorry!  However, while they were here they they shot one of their songs on the beach.  If you want to see the finished product and a beach that is literally right down the road from my house go ahead and check it out Here.

We also went to a play the school put on, The Sound of Music.  They did a great job!  The nuns had some extra singing parts than in the movie and it was beautiful!  Matt was drinking it in, he loves good music and amazing chords, which were both present that night.  The girl that played Maria was great, she was the highlight of the show.  It was very nice.

We are looking forward to the future, however busy it may be!  Wish me luck on finals!  I hope your enjoying the conference weekend.  I'd just like to mention that here in Hawaii the second session of conference, formerly referred to as the afternoon session, is broadcast at 10:00am... same time as the morning session starts in Utah.  You do the math.