Catch Up: Summer Trip to Hawaii

This post is a catch up from our amazing trip to Hawaii during the summer...yes, I know it is a little late. I guess the 8 inches of snow (!) we have gotten here in YOUgene has me pining away for white sand beaches and sunshine. Ahhh, a season for everything, right?

Anyway, bear with me while I relive some warm memories, huddled up on my couch with my peppermint tea and fuzzy blankets... 

...It all started when James and I were trying to plan out a grand adventure for our three-year anniversary. I'm not sure who suggested it, but I am pretty sure it came up at first just as a crazy suggestion right in line with "Oh, maybe we could do a Caribbean cruise...". (We are, after all, still poor, starving college students...) But James thought it was a really good idea - plus Allegiant Air had flights straight from Eugene to Honolulu for $99 one way. Our justification was that we would probably never live this close to Hawaii for years to come (Ha - more on that later...like in a future post), so we really shouldn't, couldn't, pass up such a great opportunity.

Well, apparently stinky Allegiant Air apparently only flies to Honolulu from Eugene seasonally. And our anniversary (and the most convenient time to travel) was considered out of season. But by the time we figured that out, we were already completely sold on the idea and (I) would have been devastated if we hadn't been able to make it work out. Luckily, we found a pretty awesome deal anyway and were able to make it happen.

We stayed in Hawaii (Oahu) for a week. We had grand plans to travel around the island and have fun adventures hiking and snorkeling all over, but when we got to the North Shore and Laie, we were home. We didn't even go to the beach that first day - we spent it catching up with adopted family and friends. I can't express the sense of belonging and home (is there any other word for it?!) that I felt when we stepped foot back into that community. I have a suspicion that it may always feel that way.

So we basically stayed on the North Shore for almost the entire vacation, visiting with people we love, eating at restaurants we used to frequent, and soaking up the sun on familiar beaches.

Here is a quick photo overview of our trip, in completely random order because I can't for the life of me find an efficient way to rearrange these photos (I have a love-hate relationship with Blogger).

Ha - Jess would appreciate that the first picture of our anniversary trip features HER. The sis was there, getting settled in for her first semester at BYU-Hawaii, and agreed to tag along with us. We were thrilled that she was there.

Jess's festive decorations for our three-year anniversary. Such a talented young woman. We expect great things from her. I hope you are reading this, sis.

The place where it all started...as RAs in good old Hale 2. So nostalgic to go back and relive memories.

We stayed with our family/friends the Rams. Trysta thinks she is all grown up and that it's ok to go to college or something. Love this girl.

Baking bread...just like old times. Except now I can get away with stuff like carving Trysta's name into the bread. I probably would have gotten swatted for that five years ago.

More of Jess's creative genius. She wouldn't let us look for a long time and I really thought she was just secretly scarfing the entire chocolate haupia pie by herself. This was a pleasant surprise.

"Happy 3 YRS" 

Airplane games...guess what time it will be when we are exactly halfway to Hawaii. For the record, I was within minutes...but didn't win.

The office. More like The Closet. The place where they thought James and I could get any work done as a newly engaged couple sharing a cubicle.

Aww...you have to know us pretty well to understand how significant this is. But it made us pretty happy to see.

One of the men who had a huge impact on both me and James during our time at BYU-Hawaii. He oversaw some of the most formative experiences I had during my time as a student there. So great to catch up with him.

Korean BBQ with sis.

Early morning run on the beach with Jess. Looks like great weather, right?

Well, that is not sweat drenching Jess's hair and clothes - we got caught in a crazy downpour that lasted about 30 feet. Sun still shining, waterfall pouring on our heads. Welcome to Hawaii. 

Welcome to Hawaii again. Milk for $5.20/gallon.

Shopping for college stuff! So fun.

There were two really sad aspects of our trip. One was that we didn't get to connect with a professor that we were hoping to see (that has since been remedied). The second was that Haleiwa Eats Thai food was closed. I will continue to mourn this fact until we go back to Hawaii next time. Best. Food. Ever. We went there WAY too often when we lived in Hawaii.

We buried Jess in the sand so she couldn't move and then took this picture so her head looked twice as big as ours.

Ted's Bakery. James is absolutely speechless with delight here. He had been talking about chocolate haupia pie ever since we left.

Nom nom nom...

I love that I captured this moment. This is how Sister Ram tells stories - even her feet are off the floor!

Laie Temple. James and I used to serve here every week. It brought back tender memories to be inside. 

The anniversary morning. We went to Hukilau Cafe for breakfast and got chocolate chip pancakes as big as your head...among other things.

Snorkeling at Shark's Cove. 

This is how Jess snorkels. She is so brave and daring.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE having an underwater camera. Hours of entertainment taking and looking through pictures. Plus also - can you see how clear that water is??? Ah, Hawaii, I love you.

Oh, this? Well, I'm not choking my husband, whatever you say.

Jess was so cute to do a mini photo shoot for us on our anniversary.

The pictures were all real gems, for one reason or another. James's face just makes this one irreplaceable.

Laie Point. Can you say ocean? And sky? Wow.

Smoochin' on the beach. Love this one. Good work, sis.

Not sure why I couldn't get this one to flip...

"I am a beautiful butterfly!"

Sand art. 

It's a good thing Jess and I live an ocean apart. Otherwise, I might get strangled for this picture.

Maybe this will make her feel better...

Bishop and his awesome roti-flipping skills.

This is totally one of my happy places - in the kitchen with Sister Ram. I admire this woman almost as much as my own flesh-and-blood mom. And that is saying something. 

Looking back through these photos almost makes me tear up. This place is such a sacred place to me. It stands as a witness in my life that God loves me. He led me there and inspired me to take advantage of opportunities that have brought me joy I could never have found on my own. Joy that my 17-year-old self couldn't even conceive of when I first stepped foot on that island. What a tremendous blessing, both to go there the first time and also to have a chance to go back and be reminded of God's perfect plan. Praise Him.

These are the only words that have ever truly captured my feelings about Laie and BYU-Hawaii:

"...the place of Mormon, the waters of Mormon, the forest of Mormon, how beautiful are they to the eyes of them who there came to the knowledge of their Redeemer; and how blessed are they, for they shall sing to his praise forever."

Mosiah 18:30

I Hate It When This Happens...

It's too hard to decide where to start for this week's adventures, but I guess the beginning would make sense. I had my last class with my other elementary school this week and it was sad. The school system in Japan is slightly different than the school system in America. First of all, the school year starts in April and finishes in March; that's why I'm finishing a lot of my schools right now. There is a pre-school/kindergarten type school that kids can go to followed by six years of elementary school (grades 1-6). After elementary school, there are three years in junior high school (they call them junior high 1, 2, and 3) and three years in high school (they call them high school 1, 2, and 3). In Japanese it's pretty easy to follow, but I still like the whole K-12 names a lot better. Anyways, the last grade of each school has a special graduation; Emily spoke about how they do things in high school in last week's post. I'll speak about some of the other graduations as I experience them. Just before the school year ends, the last grade hosts a meeting called a "shionkai," which is a special meeting where the last grade students (elementary sixth year, junior high third year, and high school third year students) give thanks to all of the teachers at the school. I had the opportunity to go to one of these shionkais at one of my elementary schools because I taught the sixth year students. Here are some highlights...

Each class prepared a game or activity. This video has the losers (5 teachers) and some students (to make the teachers feel better) dancing and lip-syncing to a famous girl band's song. It was pretty funny to watch, and I'm glad I didn't lose.

The first thing we did was eat. It may not look very appetizing because it's all still wrapped up in saran wrap, but it was awesome! We had fried chicken, oinari sushi, melon flavored bread (melon pan), fried potatoes, fried shrimp, yummy salad, fruit salad, and some other stuff. My table was the only table that ate all of their food including all of the parsley. We had a kid at our table that loved parsley... and it wasn't me. :P

These are some of my kids. They are so cute! Anyways, part of the game this class did was hold up a picture of the back of someone's head and we had to guess who's head it was out of two kids. One of the teachers who was almost bald stood up to answer and said, "that was me when I was in elementary school!"

Every Friday the missionaries hold a Family Home Evening at the Church for anyone that wants to come (members, investigators, etc.). We would go every week, but sometimes it conflicts with date night. :) Anyways, this past Friday they held a special Musical Family Home Evening which ended up being a musical talent show. Emily and I were asked to perform something. We played a really short song that was pretty goofy. Although our gig wasn't that great, Emily accompanied two of the other performances. It was a really fun night!

This is Emily accompanying Papa Haga. He played "I Know That My Redeemer Lives" on the sax. 

This is Emily accompanying a quartet singing "Nearer My God to Thee."

This was the last act in the Musical Talent Show. Steve played conductor and split up the crowd into three parts; the drums (clickity-clack-clack), the sopranos (m'm-toot-toot), and the basses (m'm-beef-stew). If you watch the video, you'll understand. ;)

We had some spare time on Saturday, so we decided to go window shopping. One of the shops we went to was a pet shop. We were walking around and I heard a voice say "ohaio" (means good morning). I looked around and the only person around was Emily and I know she didn't say anything. I told Emily, "I think this bird just said ohaio to me." She came over and we tried talking to it. It eventually responded "arigato." Emily was cracking up. (Emily's note: I swear that bird spoke better Japanese than I do...ridiculous.) We should have taken a video of it, but for some reason it escaped our minds. How cool would it be to own a bird that speaks Japanese?

This has nothing to do with our window shopping adventures, but I'm going to put it here anyways. This is March's bulletin board that Emily put together. She changes it every month at school. So pretty!

Today marks a year from the time Japan had the major earthquake and tsunami that devastated the Tohoku area of Japan. Since we live in the Tohoku area, we are constantly hearing about it. Today we were invited to a special Hawaiian and Hula Concert that was put on to help ease people's minds and hearts. As the concert started, we had a minute of silence for those that had passed on from the disaster a year ago. Here are some pictures and videos from the concert (sorry for the poor quality).

No, this is not Emily with an awesome tan. Just outside the concert hall were a bunch of booths set up with Hawaiian gear. This was one of the dresses that Emily really liked. 

The concert was about 2.5 hours long and featured local hula groups as well as some people from Hawaii like Makaha Sons, Jeri-Lynn Koko, Shadow Koko, and Anthony Kawenaulaokala Mann.

Short video of almost all the pros performing together. It's hard to see, but the Makaha Sons are singing and playing while Shadow and Jeri-Lynn Koko are dancing.

On the way home, it started hailing/sleeting/raining pretty heavily. We decided to bike home anyways holding our umbrellas in one hand. Although we were still getting a little wet and getting really cold, we hung in there... until... the wind destroyed Emily's beautiful umbrella. I tried offering my umbrella, but she said she was already soaked. By the time she answered, I was already soaked too, so we just rode home in the sleet and got drenched. I would say that it was fun, but it wasn't... :P We did make it home safely and all of our clothes are hanging up in front of the heater trying to dry.

I hate it when this happens... 

We love you all very much and hope that you will have a good week! Stay tuned for our upcoming adventures at the slopes!