Celebrating 4 years of Marriage

Happy Anniversary Cody! I love you.

Kona

Kona is known for it's coffee. It also has some pretty beaches and a temple. We snorkeled and shopped here, and visited the temple.

Kauai and back to Oahu

Last Stop: Kauai
I have to stay Kauai was my favorite island. It is beautiful. The prettiest place I have seen with my own eyes! The Na Pali coastline is an amazing site. I want to go back and do an 11 mile hike back in there and stay forever! The pictures don't do justice even! We spend a day and a half here in Kauai. The first day we drove the North and South sides of the island. We went boogie boarding, stopped off at a light house, caves and blow holes. Then we drove to the Grand Canyon of the Pacific- Waimea Canyon. It was amazing. The second day we took a helicopter ride to visit the Na Pali coast, the volcanoes, and the wettest spot on earth. That night our boat cruised up the side of the Na Pali to get another quick look. We saw a ton of whale! Then we celebrated Kathy's birthday- our waiter, Antonio was very fun and treated us well. It was a good way to finish out our trip. We had a great trip, so much together with both our parents, Gram and Pop, and Kyle. Until next time! Mahalo everyone! And ALOHA!

Hilo, HI and Volcanoes National Park

Active Volcanoes, Macadamia Nut trees, Lava tubes, 500 ft. waterfalls, black sand beaches, turtles and more... This was our visit to Hilo!

We saw Lava from active volcanoes from the ship!! Talk about once in a lifetime!!

My Dad loved the sandy beaches. Everywhere we went he collected small samples of sand. There were green, black and red sand beaches. We were so happy to find turtles basking in the sun.

It was rainy and cold- for Hawaii. Everyone had their swim towels to go swimming, but instead they were used as coats!

The Look- Looks better in Hawaii doesn't it!!

The Island of Maui

Easter Sunday we woke up in Maui! We got dressed and found a church we could walk to from the boat. It was fun to hear the members say ALOHA in church! We then picked up some cars and drove to Lahaina. The road to Lahaina is similar to the road to Hana- less extreme but beautiful and very fun! We stopped and whale watched some on our way out. We also beat up our rental cars a bit with some mild off roading. Cody had a good time. :o)
All the family!

Cody loved the Blowholes- we saw quite a few in Hawaii! Look close and you can see it!

Iao Valley Needle- up there in the clouds! Green and Pretty in this little valley- so of course it was going to be wet!

The Second day in Maui we attempted to find a local only snorkeling spot- but we were threatened with a $7,000 fine and summons to court for possible jail time. So instead we just found the next best spot and snorkeled there. We love our underwater camera! This huge fish kept swimming circles all around us and sneaking up on us-






Cody & Dad- "Hang Loose!"

Cody and I were treated to a special dinner on board as a part of our celebration- Cody has Escargot- I enjoyed lamb and fondue.

Next Stop- Hilo!

Hawaiian Style- Starting with OAHU

We finally got to take our trip to Hawaii- it felt like it was a long time coming! Both our parents and Cody's grandparents and Kyle came to celebrate with us. I was treated to several surprises as Cody went above and beyond to make this trip even more special. He ordered a party and a cake the first night we got there, a special dinner to celebrate our anniversary, flowers, chocolate covered strawberries and more. He is amazingly sweet and I loved spending almost 2 weeks in paradise with him! We said we would do this trip not long after I started school and as I would study and cram and work the last 2-1/2 years I would dream of being in Hawaii. It was everything I ever dreamed it would be.
We flew into Honolulu and stayed at the Marriott on Waikiki before the others joined us. The first night we celebrated an early anniversary at Ruth's Chris. Look at the hearts around the cake-it was perfect. We walked along the beach and watched the sun set into the ocean. It was clear and beautiful. The one thing I didn't expect was JET LAG! I am still suffering. That night we went to bed at 8 o'clock! But don't worry we were up by 4am the next day!




The first day there we planned to go scuba diving- we were really excited! It was very different than California. We dove at the YO-257 shipwreck. We went down 100 ft. and first saw a turtle, and not long after a SHARK!! And a pic of my good lookin' dive buddy~ Surrounded by tropical fish.




We weren't about to waste any time. We haven't ever been to Hawaii and we had to do all the touristy things. Next stop: Diamond Head! Beautiful view of Waikiki.



Pearl Harbor. Very cool to see this- Aircraft carriers and bombers- Cody was in heaven! The best part is to go see the USS Arizona beneath the water.

We rode a boat out the the Pearl Harbor Memorial. It felt very sombering to be there and hear of the tragedy.


Friday my parents came and we drove to Laie to the Polynesican Cultural Center. We stopped on the way at a Macadamia Nut farm. It was beautiful! We had lots of samples of different treats made from macadamia nuts. I remember my Mom always loved anything with macadamia nuts!

The Laie temple was closed and is closed for a year and a half! It was still cool just to be there.
PCC was awesome. One of our favorite parts of the trip. However, the weather couldn't have been worse! It downpoured!! Not just alittle rain- it came down for hours!


We finished the night off with the luau and the night show- they were great!

Saturday we boarded our cruise ship headed for our next destination- Maui!

Catalina Islands Scuba Trip

We took the courses to get scuba certified at the begining of this year. The dive shop offered a weekend course on a boat in CA with advanced dive training for a really good price so we decided to go. The boat left out of San Diego and traveled to Catalina and San Clemente islands. We were on a 50 ft. dive boat for 4 nights in a tiny bunk. I got prescription sea sickness prevention patches and boy was I glad!! There was some bad weather but we did get a warm day Saturday. For our advanced training we did dives off the boat and learned deep, navigation and night diving skills. This is John our instructor and dive friend.

I love starfish.

Deep dive- we went as deep as 96ft.

Here's a shot of the boat from the water. We jumped off the side to enter the water. Cody is about to take the plunge.

Look close and you can see a bat ray. Pretty orange garibaldi- we got an underwater case for our camera and enjoyed the underwater photography.

Lobster- anyone hungry? Kinda spooky- check out the eel.




This was our Chef. The last night he put this BBQ out the side of the boat and grilled us up some tri-tips. The food was one of the best parts of the whole trip.