fun in waikiki

One of my favorite evenings was spent out on a sailboat off of the Waikiki coast. My grandparents have friends that own the boat so we usually take a ride. We got on right at sunset, and it was beautiful. It was just nice being out on the water with the sun going down.

good friends.

Lots of our time is always spent with our good friends, J.J. and Ahu, and their 4 kiddos. They are tons of fun and their kids keep us laughing. They were so nice and had us over for dinner tons, saving us from our sandwiches and cereal. J.J. is Sam's best surfing partner and his kids LOVE Sam because he throws them into the waves over and over again.

merman

Can you believe he lets me do stuff like this to him? What a nice guy.

stairway to heaven

This hike is amazing. Thousands of stairs take you up to the top of the Pali Mountains, where you can see practically the whole island. It was very, very windy when we hiked it, making the parts where you are literally hiking straight up very freaky. It was well worth it though. The view was unreal.

kawika and pua

Sam first moved over to Hawaii with Kawika, his best friend from high school. Kawika married Pua, who is from Kaaawa. So the two of them are living in Kaaawa with two cute boys, and we love spending lots of time with them when we visit. Pua's comes from a HUGE Hawaiian/Samoan family who hold weekly dinners big enough to be called a luau. They always invite us in, and we love it. There are always little brown babies running around everywhere and more food than you can handle.

a month in paradise.

One month with nothing to do except go to the beach. It was amazing. At first it was weird to have nothing that we HAD to do, and nowhere that we HAD to be. But we got used to it pretty quickly. It was great being able to hang out with my best friend all day, every day.

pounders beach. ouch.

Plenty of our afternoons were spent at Pounder's Beach, one of the only places with waves on the North Shore during the summer. The beach was well named. The waves literally pounded you into the sand. Well more like pounded me into the sand. Sam seemed to do just fine. He had fun body surfing while I just tried to stay alive. think it is one of the most beautiful spots on the island. It's the kind of view that takes your breath away.

i love snorkeling.

Snorkeling was definitely the neatest part of the trip for me. We went to different beaches to snorkel almost everyday, but spent most of the time at Three Tables and Shark's Cove. I love to swim around aimlessly looking at all the cool fish and turtles, while Sam loves going through caves and making the turtles mad by trying to get free rides.

fun with brooke and cody!

My sister, Brooke, and her husband Cody were there for the first couple of days. It was a blast getting to hang out with them, and sad to see them go.

We had fun swimming in the waves at Sunset Beach, where Brooke and I got hammered over and over again. Brooke a little more than me :) Thanks to that day I had sand in my hair for the whole trip.

Brooke and I managed to talk the husbands into eating at our favorite restaurant, The Cheesecake Factory, TWICE. We are so alike in a lot of ways, one of them being that we always order the exact same meal, chicken stuffed tacos and white chocolate raspberry cheesecake.

Brooke's plane had problems so she got to stay an extra day. We tried to hike Stairway to heaven, where we had to sneak through and over a few fences.

Unfortunately, about 100 feet up the trail we got caught. We knew there was a security guard, and when we heard him coming on his 4 wheeler Brooke and I quickly hit the ground, where he wouldn't be able to see us. The boys stayed standing, leaving Brooke and I to awkwardly have to get out of the bushes when the guard pulled up. This picture is with the crazy guard, who was 65 years old, had purple and black hair, and was doing donuts on his four wheeler after he caught us.

coach k and sister k. genuinely good people.

I spent four years running for Coach K. Things I love about him: -He spoke to us in Hawaiian even though none of us understood it. -He started each practice with prayer. -He always made sure we noticed the rainbows. -He loved Denny's, and he loved buffets. On our trips we ate almost every meal at one or the other. -He dressed up for practice on Halloween as a thug. Imagine a 70 year old, dressed like a thug. -He cared more about he we were doing spiritually than how fast we ran. Every time I go back to Hawaii, I visit Coach K and Sister K. I don't think I have ever left their house without an armful of goods.