Hawaii 2011

Greg has impressed the heck out of me lately. We have always talked about going to Hawaii. Even before we were married. That is where we planned to honeymoon, but you know how it goes. School gets in the way, then you plan for a first year anniversary, but once again that pesky school business poked out its little head, and we forked over the money for tuition, and there wasn't enough left over for a trip. This went on and on for years, and when he wasn't in school, I was, and then when we were both graduated, he always had to work over our anniversary. While we were living in Delta, our anniversary came around again, but remember we were tethered to Millard County. The farthest we could really go was Fillmore, and if he felt like he could push his 20 minute radius from the hospital, we would hurry over to Nephi and get a frosty at the Wendy's. This particular anniversary he really razzled dazzled me at the Arby's in Fillmore. If any of you have been to the Arby's in Fillmore you know darn well that it is located inside the Chevron gas station. We pulled up to the Chevron and he walked around to open the door for me and he found me in tears. When he asked what was wrong, in between sobs I said,

"This used to be a pit stop for me when we were traveling down to St. George and now we are going to dinner here."

I know he wanted to laugh, and laugh hard too, but he saw that I was in no mood, so he hugged me tight and lead me in to eat my roast beef sandwich with a big sobby face, and he even let me finish the chocolate shake we ordered for dessert. Such a gentleman, even at a gas station restaurant. Then we had to drive like mad back to Delta because he got called in to the hospital for an epidural. Story of our lives there, but not this year. Although Greg really did have to work over our anniversary again, we were married on September 3rd, we post- poned it until October.
He surprised me with this way fun trip. Never in a million years did I think that I would ever go to Hawaii, I thought my world travels would consist of California, Utah, Idaho, Arizona, and sometimes Colorado, but only if the highway I was on crossed over there at times. The top picture was the view from my hotel room. Not so shabby, although we slept in Waikiki, we didn't spend more then 15 minutes there during the day, we opted for the other side of the island where it was absolutely gorgeous. So, we jumped in the rental jeep and explored every single part of that island. We had so much fun.

Greg is always making me laugh, I know this isn't a very flattering picture of me, but I just loved the sunsets, each and every one. Living in Utah, we have beautiful sunsets every night too, but there is just something about the sun dipping itself into the ocean every night that I will never get sick of, and obviously I will never get sick of taking pictures of it either.


You want to know a little secret. The Dole Pineapple Plantation serves a soft serve pineapple yogurt that everyone goes cuckoo for, me included, but you don't have to go all the way to Hawaii to get it. I keep telling them that it is called the Dole pineapple whip and you can get it at Disneyland in front of the Tiki room, but my real secret is, Krave, a local yogurt shop sells it too. The Dole pineapple whip, and I can get it anytime I want, and I do. The owner recognizes me now, and he knows that he better always have it well stocked, or he gets the angry fist from me. You have to be careful of impostors though, there is a flavor called pineapple tart, or pineapple delight, these are not the same thing. It has to say DOLE PINEAPPLE WHIP. If you come across this flavor, and you dig pineapple like I do, get it, you will not be disappointed.










Greg and I got pretty good at taking self portraits everywhere we went. Not that I didn't trust anyone to take my picture, I just don't speak Japanese, because that is the second language you are going to need while visiting here. Greg's Korean was no good to me here, but the more I think of it, Greg's Korean has never been any good to me anywhere.

We were fortunate enough to visit the Temple why we were there. The Temple and the BYU campus are right next to each other, and if I turned around and took a picture the other way you would see ocean, not so shabby. It is absolutely breathtaking.

The flowers! Don't even get me started. They are so beautiful. I hope that heaven is filled with them. I have seen pictures of the flowers before, but I have never seen them in person, and I do not have the words to describe them. Before we we went I was telling Greg what trees and shrubs we need to pull out of front yard, because I would like to have something with a flower on it, but after seeing what Hawaii has in compared to what I could actually get to grow here in the desert, I may as well be one of those people that have rocks for a front yard, because there is no way that I could ever get anything this beautiful. I took hundreds of pictures of the flowers, all different kinds, and the sunsets, it drove Greg bonkers.

We had such a wonderful time. The kids stayed with my parents in Salt Lake and they had a wonderful time as well, but honestly a week was a little long for me, I was ready to come home, living on a small island kind of gave me the creeps and I missed my kids. I need someplace to go, a long open highway that I can go hundreds of miles on, or I start to feel tethered like I did in Delta. Not that I need to go anywhere, I just like to have the option if I so choose.

And a sappy sunset picture to end my post. Just for you Greg!