Hawaii Trip

At the end of August we took a trip to my home sweet home. It was sooo much fun! I so wish, and Ben is starting to wish, that we could afford to live there. I don't know how anyone wouldn't want to live in Hawaii. It is the greatest state ever! Anyway back to our trip, like I said it was a lot of fun. We were only there for about 6 days, which is not enough but we took what we could take. I was able to show Ben some of my favorite things about the island and some of the tourist things. We weren't the best at remembering to bring our camera everywhere we went, but we still got some great photos. When we landed we went to Costco and Walmart with my mom and didn't get home until 6pm, but we were still able to give Ben a little tour of the North Shore and around Laie, my home town. By the time we were done with dinner we were tired and ready to go to bed because we had been up for 20 hours and flying. The next day we just hung out and went swimming in my pool and the beach by my house. I got stung by a blue bubble, but it wasn't too bad. For those of you don't know what a blue bubble is here is a picture of one out on the sand for you,

The bubble is harmless but the tail is what gets you and it can wrap around you and for some people it really hurts. Luckily it doesn't hurt me and it also only brushed past my fingers. Also that morning I had a doctor appointment and then took him for an acai bowl and fell in love with them. They taste so good! I need to find some acai on the mainland so I can make em for him.
The next day I took ben to do the touristy stuff. We first went to the swap meet and got everyone in his family some presents and he loved driving through the tunnels to get there because they don't have a whole lot of those in Idaho. He took a bunch of pictures of them but i will only upload one :)

After the swap meet we went to Pearl Harbor and luckily got in really fast. Here are some pics of it,






yes the oil is still leaking out of the Arizona. It's pretty crazy. On the way home we stopped by the Dole Plantation. We didn't go inside because there isn't too much to do so we just took pictures of the outside pretending that we did go in.



After Dole we went to "Turtle Beach" and we were really lucky because there were quite a few turtles up on the beach and a bunch of them in the water. It is illegal to touch sea turtles so they rope them off when they go up on the sand so no tourists will try to touch them.


Thursday night I was able to go to the temple and take out my endowments in the Laie Temple. It was an awesome experience and it made me more excited to marry Ben. It was dark wehn we came out of the temple so we didn't get a picture but here is a picture of the beautiful temple,

Friday was our day of crazy fun. We went to my favorite beach ever, Waimea, and yes we forgot the camera. It was a lot of fun and Ben and I both got fried, Ben much worse then me. I felt bad for him. His shoulders were BRIGHT RED. Then we got home and got ready for our engagement party. The party was so much fun. I got to see a lot of old friends and Ben was able to meet them. We went swimming, had pizza and cake, and got to talk to a bunch of people. My mom put together an awesome party and I can't thank her enough. Here are some pics of the party. The cake was done by my friend Kamealani. It was really pretty. The bottom tier was a pool and the top tier was a diving board. The cake toppers were Mr. & Mrs. Potato head done by my friend's, Sarah Lowe, mom. The center pieces were done by the cake makers mom. They all did an awesome job!



Everyone partying!



After the party and spending the day at the beach Ben and I were TIRED! So we spent the next morning being lazy bums and then my dad wanted to go show him a few places around the north shore. We introduced him to Ted's Bakery, my dad's favorite place. My mom and I are not huge fans but my dad had to have him try the famous chocolate haupia pie. We also showed Ben what a banyon tree was and around the famous Turtle Bay.







Sunday was our last day there. We just went to church and relaxed and went home that night. It was definately too short of a stay and we can't wait to go back! We are hoping to go back next year to help my parents paint there house. Sorry this is such a long post, but hope you all enjoy!