Hawaiian Cruise! 1/16-1/26

Ed and I planned a Hawaiian Cruise this year for a couple of reasons:

-Pre-5 year anniversary trip (May 21st)

-Pre-trip for before we plan to have another baby this year. 

-We haven't been on a long, relaxing, warm vacation together since our honeymoon.

Since my flight had a layover in SLC, we dropped off Sarah to be taken care of by both of our parents. It was sad to leave her, but she did great! 

Day 1: traveling to Honolulu starting at 6am!!! Note: Do not take a shuttle to your hotel if you go to Hawaii after traveling all day! Take a taxi! We were the last of about 15 stops and didn't get to our hotel until 11pm! Exhausting!!

Note: Pictures are kind of backwards (nights then days). Also, I only posted pics of Ed and I. To see Ed's wonderful scenic pics from Hawaii click here.

ALOHA!!

Day 2: Honolulu and leave for cruise. 

^Our first night on the cruise ship

^Getting on the cruise ship after a day on the beach

^Beautiful view of Waikiki beach (besides all the hotels in the way. :) )

Day 3: Maui- Road to Hana

^On our way back from the Road to Hana we hiked in an old Lava tube. Yes that is a creepy bone. Come to find out an old slaughter house used to wash bones down the tube. Pitch Black with bones everywhere... very creepy.  At least they're not human bones!

^ In the pitch black hole

^Good thing we had flashlights!!

^When we got to Hana we stopped for lunch

^Ed of course opted to rent a jeep for the Road to Hana. It was fun to have the top down.

^The road scenery was beautiful and jungle-like. Lots of windy turns!

^ Welcome to our cabin on the ship. Do you love our ocean view with the life boat in the way? 

Day 4: Maui- Snorkeling Molokini, whale watching, and swimming with sea turtles.

^At night we tried one of the Asian Cuisine restaurants. The food was okay.

^Breaching whales! Very cool to see!

^Snorkel gear. Hot!

^ More whales dive.

Day 5: Big Island- Hilo- Tour of Hilo and volcano.

^Leaving Hilo getting ready to view Lava flow into the ocean

^Lava flow view from the ship

^Dinner

^Our tour stopped at all sorts of pointless shops :), but it was still fun. A flower in your left ear symbolizes that you are married.

^ Another stop on the Hilo tour took us to another lava tube and jungle land.

^In another dark hole.

^ This part of the tour took us above the volcano where it smelled like sulfur gas. Smelly!

^We also saw this sign

^The beginning of the tour took us to a black sand beach caused by all the lava.

Day 6: Kona- Beach & Kayaking and cruise ship

^Dinner while leaving Kona. No beach or kayaking pics sorry. 

Later tonight Ed gets the cruise virus and ends up spending the night with the toilet from 11:30pm- 5:30am every half hour! Poor guy!

Day 7: Kauai- Ed is quarantined to our cabin for 24 hours from the time he felt symptoms. There goes Kauai day #1. Lindsey brings Ed meals and spends the day at the pool, taking naps and watching movies with Ed. 

^This is what Kauai looked like day #1.

Day 8: Kauai- Scooters and waterfalls 

^For dinner we went to a steakhouse. Our favorite! The cruise ship was really nice.

^Viewing the Ka'anapali coastline while leaving Kauai. Gorgeous!

^Renting scooters was one of my favorite parts of the trip!

^We rode the scooters to 3 different waterfalls.

^We look hot! It rained off and on during our scooter trips. We were soaked!

^If we had more time we may have jumped in the water. There was a rope swing and all sorts of fun stuff.

Day 9: Honolulu- North Shore and the Polynesian Cultural Center Luau

^ Canoe ride through the PCC

During the Tonga show Ed got called up to participate and play the drums.

^Wish I had the video camera. It was hilarious!!

^Unfortunately for us/fortunately the HI temple is being remodeled so we at least went to the grounds. We try to make it to a new temple every anniversary.

Day 10: Honolulu- Pearl Harbor, beach time, bye bye Hawaii.

We spent our last day in Hawaii at Pearl Harbor Memorial and our last sunset on the beach. Hawaii was good to us. After dinner we headed to the airport to fly through the night.

All in all the cruise was good! Food was okay, location was great, a little longer than we're used to, and although we had a great time together... a cruise of this duration would have been fun with some friends/family.

Day 11: My birthday- I met up with my family at the airport for breakfast and picked up Sarah after 10 days! She warmed up quick. We missed her lots even though we talked to her almost every day. :) Then we headed back to Cali for a relaxing day/night. Ed cooked me dinner and the Katz brought us some yummy pie! Thanks!

Thanks to our friends for rides/kitty watching. ;) Special thanks to our parents for taking Sarah and making this trip possible! We love you! Mahalo!

Rock-Band Lives Again!!!

Just a quick post. We played Rock-Band recently. Here are some highlight pics.





...Then it got CRAZY!!!





Lucky for Ed, he was behind the camera.

2008 Christmas Holidays

Our month of December...

^Decorating our tree to welcome the Christmas season. :)

^Although the Santa costume (at our ward Christmas party) is somewhat creepy, Sarah looks pretty cute. 

^ Right before our trip to Utah Ed took me on a surprise date to dinner and Phantom of the Opera at The Orpheum Theater in San Fran. It was amazing! One of the reasons I fell in love with Ed is because we went on cool dates to artsy stuff. :) Just keepin' the romance alive! Love you babe!

To start the trip we got all of our shopping done! Throughout the trip I met up with some friends. Some I haven't seen for quite some time! Lauren, Angie, Tara and Wades! Ed did some snowboarding a couple times, I did some hair, and there was lots of snow! We loved it!

Before Christmas my family got together for a family tradition of going to the Scrooge play! It was as good as ever!

 

^Mostly Christmas Eve with the Harmans! We had dinner, Rice Almond (sp?), and gift exchange.

^Christmas Eve pics

^Christmas morning

^Sarah got some books, puzzles, clothes and toys.

Ed and I got each other shoes...and a cruise in a week :)

^Christmas night was spent with the Johnson family.  We had dinner, gift exchange and played Christmas Bells (so far the video wont load- sorry).

After Christmas Ed and I went with his parents and niece to the Octapella concert. They sounded great! After we met up for dessert with Stew and Nicole!

Sunday before we left we were able to go to Avery's baby blessing!

^This was Sarah's means of transportation at the airport. Worked like a charm!

Going to UT for Christmas was SO great! Baby Einsteins was great for Sarah on the plane ride home. :)

Sarah's 15th month

Who's daddy loves taking pictures of her?

She's talking up a storm! Down to one nap! Eating mostly anything! Has 10 teeth! Cute as ever! We love you baby girl!

Cal Marathon 12/7/08

It's been a goal of mine to run a marathon in between each child in order to stay in tip-top shape. :) Hence the reason why I signed up for the Cal Marathon in Sacramento, California this December. Runners include: Kathy(full), Molly(1/2), Rebecca(relay leg).

^The night before, Rebecca, Molly and I headed up to Sacramento for the expo...some shopping (matching shoes)

...and some dinner. :)

^Kathy and I met up in the morning right before the race began, or right after I should say. :) After a quick picture we started with the pace group between 4:15 and 4:30. 4:30 was our flexible goal. :)
^The first 8 miles seemed to fly by! We were feeling good and keeping close to the 4:15.
^ We took LOTS of much needed stretching breaks and aid station breaks! No fuel belt felt awesome, and the oranges, bananas, food, jolly ranchers, roadside cheerers, friends and family were life savers!

^Rebecca and Molly were such great supporters and always the breath of fresh air we needed to keep us moving! They met us at mile 8 with drinks, gu's and power bars. Then at 14  miles where Molly joined us for the remainder of the race.

^After seeing Rebecca at 18 miles and then Kathy's family at mile 20 where Kathy's mother-in-law joined us, I think we both lost a little fire. This is where the 4:30 pace group passed us. We caught it and lost it for a few miles. I had some calf cramping and we were pooped!! 

^Then I saw my Ed and Sarah at mile 22!! I definitely needed that boost! It was so helpful to see family/friends so frequently for the last 6 miles of the race. It took me 4 miles to catch the 4:30 pace sign, but I was determined!! I caught it at mile 26 with .2 miles to go! After seeing Ed right after mile 26 I sprinted to the end and finished at 4 hours 29 minutes and 25 seconds. My fastest marathon! Yay for my new PR! I was #207 for my division and 3820 overall.

^ Pleasure to run with you Kathy! I loved training and running with you! Such a great memory! Kathy did awesome and it was her first marathon.

^Couldn't have done it without you ladies! (and all others who joined for training runs)

^Couldn't have done it without my hottie Ed and cutie pie Sarah! Love you!! 

Next marathon post baby #2- St. George 2010! You in? 

Ed's b-day activities

I never posted about Ed's 3 birthday activities on 3 days for his 33rd bday.

-Activity 1- buy something in 3 stores of his choice

-Activity 2- race car driving

-Activity 3- Dinner and movie with me! :)

Thanksgiving with Friendsx2

Maybe it's just me, but I love lots of pics! We started off Thanksgiving with the kid crowd.  The food was wonderful of course and so was the company. (Not pictured McPhies and Atherleys).

^Katz

^Laytons

^Andersons

^Kings

After celebrating with one party we headed over to Kaylynn's for an adult setting. It was a great set up! The food was delicious and Rebecca brought some yummy apple grape cider! Try it...it's good.

After we filled ourselves (for the second time) we tryed to entertain Sarah and played Catch Phrase.

vSarah has lots of baby mamas/daddy's^

Thanks for hosting McPhies and Burllisters. :)