The Princess and the Frog

In true Disney Geek fashion... I am drooling over this.
Stacy and Pierce... I'm counting on you to see this with us. Moved or not.

The Dole Plantation (Hawaii Pt. 5)

The Dole Pineapple Plantation!

On our way to the Polynesian Cultural Center (PCC) we stopped to get some yummy pineapple ice cream. It was really good! We even saw how you grow your own pineapples. So good.

Yummy Treat! More like sherbet than ice cream!

Pineapples grow out of the ground! Did you know that? I didn't.

Hanama Bay (Hawaii Pt. 4)

Beautiful Hanama Bay

We finally went snorkeling on Thursday morning. The place was so amazing! You have to watch a little movie about not touching certain things and not to feed the fishes. There's even a catchy song about it. "Food I have plenty, please don't feed me!" It's not as catchy when you don't know the melody... so just imagine. Ben and I adventured out first together, then he took off with Jared. About an hour later when he didn't return, I decided to go out with Mel. It was wonderful and we realized that we got a little sun. It wasn't until later that 'a little sun' actually turned out to be ALOT of sun. I couldn't sit down with out wincing, my butt was so burned, and Ben's leg swelled up! I felt so bad for him.

Ben overlooking the bay

Just about ready to go home! Don't realize we're so badly burned yet...
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After our first venture out! We saw the coolest fish and GIANT sea turtles!
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Mel and Kirk Laying Out...

Ouch! That looks like it hurts... (my thoughts when taking this picture!)


Oh honey... I'm so sorry....

Pearl Harbor (Hawaii Pt. 3)

Pearl Harbor: The Arizona Memorial

By day Three Ben and I decided that we are different vacation type people. We enjoy relaxing at night to a movie or a hot tub, but during the day... we like to be busy! We want to be adventurous and explore things that we don't get to at home. So on Wednesday we took off to Pearl Harbor. Being a former History major, and my father's daughter, I already knew a lot about Pearl Harbor. But we wanted to see it first hand. It was amazing and sad all together. Let's just say Ben Affleck left some things wanting...

The Arizona Memorial was so amazing. It's technically a National Park, so it's free too. Ben commented that the other "attraction" for lack of a better word, was a tour or a battle ship where kids could turn knobs and that sort of thing, was not what we wanted to see and the Arizona was, so why was it free. I said that I didn't think people probably didn't feel right charging you to see what is basically a gravesite. Kind of wrong ya know?The Oringinal anchor from the Arizona. Ben wanted it to be all rusty and rotting, but they painted it to look pretty. Sorry Ben.

All the names of the people who died and many who are still inside the ship to this day. So sad.

Some of the ship under the water. There was still oil coming up from it into the water.

The memorial in the background. They build a white building, staddleing the sunken ship.

The marker of the sunken ship

The Sky-view of Pearl Harbor

Infront of a torpedo. I felt weird smiling... Yeah, a weapon of mass destruction! I found one!

Infront of a battle ship and the markers all represent the ships that were docked at Pearl Harbor and the names of the people who died.

The name of a ship that sank. We were feeling sentimental...

A Closer Look at the Torpedo

Ben's Lesson Learned from this picture: Hot day+ Sun+ Metal+Black= burning hand while taking picture!

That night we enjoyed a walk on our beach and enjoyed the warm evening. So nice...

More to come... off to work. Bleh.

Birthday Dinner (Hawaii Pt. 2)

HAPPY 27th BIRTHDAY BEN!!

After we went to the beach, we all went down to Waikiki and ate at a restaurant called Duke's, named for a local surf legend. The table was ocean view and the food very good. I love my husband and can't believe he's getting so old! Correction: We're getting so old!Yummy Ice Cream Birthday Cake! It was huge!
Starting to relax... It took both Ben and I a couple of days to really let go of the stresses of work and school.
These are Poi rolls (pronounced POY) They are brown on the outside and PURPLE on the inside!
It's just so weird!!!

The Beginning (Hawaii Pt. 1)

I don't like to fly. I'm confined into a little chair, that does not really recline, despite the button that I furiously push, and there is no leg room if you are over 5'5". However, I HATE to drive. So my options are 1.) Don't travel or 2.) Suck it up. Also, I cannot drive to Hawaii, so option two is the given. Our flight to Hawaii was VERY long, and early (Thank you Tania and Derek for the ride). We took off from cold, sometimes snowing Utah and headed for two hours to LA. I think, we're halfway there right? No. 5 hours later... we're in Hawaii. The thing that kind of sucked about the flight was that United does not give you food for free. No inflight meal, no PEANUTS! I mean, what is that about. So we starved ourselves to Hawaii.

Once we got there, we met up with Mel and Kirk, picked up our rental car and headed for Taco Bell. Yes, not what I imagined my first meal in Hawaii to be. The odd thing about Hawaii is, that you feel like you are in another country, yet you are not. You are in the US. This becomes more evident as we see Safeway, McDonalds, KFC, A&W and Chili's. It's kind of weird.

Our hotel was amazing. You know, you think that hotels look like the picture that they post online, which they never do. It's kind of like food pictures at McDonalds. It never really looks that good. Not true here. Our villa was two bedrooms, a living room that opened up onto a balcony, two bathrooms with tubs that were deeper than you can imagine and a kitchen. I couldn't believe it. The first day we set our bag in our room and headed out for a walk on our beach. It was amazing.

The Dining RoomThe Kitchen

We got in the pool and just swam in our relaxation. It was wonderful. That night, we picked up Mel and Kirks friends, Rachel and Jared who would stay with us for a few days, and that night, enjoyed the hot tub that had little sand pebbles at the bottom it was amazing.

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On our balcony, ready to go exploring!

The next day ,we decided to go across to Hanama Bay, a reef that you snorkle at. Ben and I were very excited for that. However, the bay was closed one day a week. On Tuesday. The day that we were there. Suck! So... we went over to this other little beach and thought to explore and layout for the tan that we all wanted.

Here are some pictures.

Mel and Kirk doing what they do best: Laying out in the sun!

Ben on the beach

Us in the water (we found a little stone statue in the water)

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Next... Ben celebrates his 27th birthday in Hawaii!

Hawaii

Things are a little crazy right now, we ran about a million errands today and we have a new puppy. I promise to update ASAP with pictures of our new dog Maybe (yes, it's a little weird) and pictures of our wonderful vacation! Love to you all!