Is there such a thing as too much sun?

Most days here have had cloudy moments, usually some rain, but we have had two gloriously sunny beach days in a row this week. I have a red back and shoulders to prove it! Yesterday we spent the day at Waimea Bay. Our first day there was fun, but the water was a bit cloudy. This time, though, the water was clearer than any water we've been in so far. We were out pretty deep and you could see the bottom perfectly. It was hot, the water felt perfect, we snorkeled for almost an hour and saw so many amazing fish. We even got to swim with a sea turtle!

I borrowed this picture from a travel website, but it seriously looks like this!

Today we walked out to Goat Island during low tide. The walk out there was pretty tricky--lots of uneven coral, slippery rocks, and strong currents--but it was worth it! Poking around in the coral we found some cool shells, saw crabs, lots of little fish, even an EEL.

All ready for our walk out to the island



This is how we're tanning these days...

Crouching Lion

We went on the craziest hike today! After a few failed attempts at finding a trail head, we found ourselves looking up at a trail that literally went straight up the mountain. It was funny, as we were standing there looking at it a couple of people came by to give us their input. First was a woman who tried to convince us not to do it and gave us a couple of alternate hikes that were "so much better." She seemed pretty worried about us. Then an old guy introduced himself and after about 30 seconds of small talk asked if we had made our last will and testament. It was a rather ominous introduction to our hike, but we decided to be brave. And we made it! The trail up was insane, but random old guy was watching us the whole time. Creepy, but comforting in a way. It was definitely more of a climb and he'd be able to call 911 quicker than we would. Plus he looked like Santa, which made me feel better. We felt like real adventurers and I kind of loved it. The view from the top was amazing!


This is halfway up the trail.
No switchbacks here, my friends.
STRAIGHT UP THE MOUNTAIN!

 

Hawaii Part 1

We're here! After months and months of waiting (7 to be exact) we are in Hawaii to spend the next 4 weeks with my family. They moved here last summer when my dad was hired as an accounting professor at BYU Hawaii. They love it here, but we haven't seen most of them since the move. It was about time!

The trip over was so long. We dealt with a cancelled flight, being rejected on standby, and at one point Matt and I were going to have to take seperate flights from San Francisco to Honolulu, but it all worked out and we made it one piece. I won't bore you all with too many words, but I'll be posting a few pictures just to make you all jealous :) This place is paradise!

On our 7th hour in the San Francisco airport . . .

Together again! (Missing Johnny and Michael on their missions)

Hiking Haulla Loop



"Sponging" at Hukilau Beach






Waiting for the canoe parade at the PCC

Rowing our boat

Our awesome tats...they washed off in the rain about five minutes
after this picture was taken.

Lanikai Beach

Shave ice at Matsumotos--the standard that all other shave ices are
measured against. Pretty darn good!

Garlic shrimp at Giovanni's. We'll be tasting garlic for days.

Amazing Banyan forest. There are about 14 trees here, all connected.

Haleiwa Harbor

Haleiwa Canal

Me jumping off Waimea Rock. Terrifying.

Matt and Stephen jumping.

We hiked to the western tip of the island--Kaena Point

Almost to Kaena Point!



More to come!

Mesa Verde



Can you tell I was excited?



So I finished teaching on Friday May 25th. Where were Matt and I by 3 pm that afternoon? On the road to Mesa Verde of course! We decided to squeeze in this trip before Hawaii and it was so worth it. The drive is pretty long, about 6 hrs, but it went by faster than I expected. We went straight to the campground when we arrived on Friday night, but Saturday morning we were up with the sun (after a looong, windy night) and ready to see some cliff dwellings. By Sunday afternoon we had seen pretty much all there was to see--cliff dwellings, hikes, various sites and ruins, lots of deer and wild turkey--and had treated ourselves to an amazing dinner at the lodge. We highly recommend this trip, especially for those of you with little kiddos in tow. The ranger's presentations were actually entertaining, the cliff dwellings are amazing, and the trails were very well kept. We give this place a two thumbs up.                                                                                                               



This is Cliff Palace. They estimate that about 100 people lived here, and they think it also served as a gathering place for residents of the other communities.



These next few pictures were taken at Balcony House. This place was one of our favorites!

We liked crawling through the tunnels . . .

Seeing all the "kivas". . .

And climbing ladders!



Matt at Long House.



Hoorah for camping trips and national parks!

Pizza Night

Tonight's culinary adventure proved to me, once and for all, that any leftover can be made into a deliciously inventive pizza. Matt is the mastermind here--he planned out the toppings, different combinations, and the meticulous order of pizza assembly. I was skeptical at first, but I was wrong. I shouldn't have doubted. We made three different kinds and they were all SO GOOD. So good that I decided to blog about them.

Now, I'm no food photographer and our camera is mediocre at best, but here they are. In all their glory.



On the top left-ish we have the classic mozzarella, tomato, basil, pizza with a bit of pesto spread on the crust for an extra kick. This was our backup pizza in case the other two failed.

Top right-ish is probably the most creative of the three. A turkey chili, sour cream, baked potato pizza. We mixed together the chili and sour cream, spread that on as a sauce, and topped it with seasoned baked potato pieces. The sour cream looked a little funny after baking, but the flavors in this one were pretty delicous.

The bottom one was my favorite. Mexican pizza with refried beans, taco meat, corn, kidney beans, hot sauce, green salsa, diced tomatoes, and cheddar cheese. I think I'll call this one Taco pizza from now on. Or maybe Burrito pizza? Anyways, it was spectacular.

Anyone have pizza breakthroughs of their own to share? I'm all ears!

A Book List

I've tried to read as much of the popular YA lit as I could this year so that I could get my students all pumped about reading. I'll be honest, some of them were totally obnoxious, but these are the ones I enjoyed more than I'd like to admit...

Top Ten YA Books That Grown Ups Should Read Too (in no particular order)

1. House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer
2. Lost Hero by Rick Riordan
3. The Maze Runner by James Dashner
4. Divergent by Virginia Roth
5. Matched by Ally Condie
6. Crossed by Ally Condie
7. Shifting by Bethany Wiggins
8. Michael Vey: Prisoner of Cell 25 by Richard Paul Evans
9. Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
10. Everlost by Neal Shustermann

Update: We Graduated!

The last few months have actually been fairly eventful over here. Matt and I graduated in April, which was very exciting and a little surreal. I thought it was pretty awesome that we got to graduate and walk together. It feels like I just graduated from High School. Has it really been 5 years since I obsessed over how to make that weird little hat look somewhat normal? And now I'm graduating college? With a husband? Awesome.
Anyways, Matt graduated with a degree in Math and I graduated with a degree in English Education. My mom came over from Hawaii to join in the festivities, and we also got Michael in on the fun before he entered the MTC a couple weeks later. The Scotts were all there, Grammie and Grandpa came, it was a party!

In other news, I'm still teaching 8th grade. It's great, I love it, but I'm really excited for summer. Possibly even more so than my students. Why? Because on May 30th we'll be boarding a plane for Hawaii! And this isn't just any vacation, my friends. This is a month-long vacation in paradise with my family who I haven't seen since last July. Can you blame me for counting down the days?

Matt is spending his "vacation" doing manual labor around our house and his parents' house. I'm still loving yoga, teaching the young women, and cooking random stuff.

Life is good!