Mini Vacay

Brent's semester ended last friday (hallelujah) so this week we've been partying it up; taking advantage of Brent's mini break before Spring Term starts next Monday. Yesterday, we started the day out with some Leondard Jr's Malasadas. Delish. Then we made our way over to Hanauma Bay, stopping at the Halona Blow Hole.

Hanauma Bay is a nature preserve and one of the prime tourist/snorkeling spots on the island. It's beautiful.

I love how the wind is blowing Brent's shirt in this picture. Makes me laugh every time.

After a few good hours in the sun, we made it over to downtown Honolulu to the Ala Moana mall. The biggest, most beautiful mall I've ever been to. It's chock full of stores, including Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Tiffany's, Harry Winston, Prada, etc. I got myself my first pair of Crocs to wear to work where I'm on my feet all day. They're pretty cute ones if I do say so myself. I'll have to get a picture someday.

We finished off the day at the Cheesecake Factory on Waikiki. Humongous, busy restaurant. We left at 10pm and people were still being seated. Craziness.

Today, we borrowed some surfboards from friends and walked to temple beach. It's a beautiful, 5-minute walk from our house to my favorite beach on the island. I was talked into surfing because I was offered a cute pink surfboard; I couldn't refuse.

I mainly just floated and balanced on my board; didn't go after any waves. But my ankle band made me feel really cool. So I took a picture.

Then I caught some good pictures of Brent out battling the waves. And he got up today! Success!

And here I am looking cool carrying my surfboard. It's all about looks, isn't it?:) Just kidding. But I did feel cool today.

Lost in the Lights

Last Thursday was the night of the BYU-Hawaii Winter Ball; the dance that Brent has spent all semester planning and putting together. On Thursday morning, Brent woke me up and told me to come eat breakfast. I told him I wasn't done sleeping yet (always my response when someone wakes me up). He told me I could go back to sleep after breakfast. So I walked out to the table and found this waiting for me.

In my oatmeal, there was a token with "Brent?" written on it. Ah, sweet boy! Then he headed off to school while I ate my delicious breakfast. He even set out jam for me to eat with my toasted bread letters:)

When he came home later that afternoon, I had this waiting on the table for him.

It may not make perfect sense, but my main concern was purchasing yummy candy:) I was going to buy some markers and a posterboard to make a full on candy bar poster for him like I would have in high school, but the one store in Laie charges a ridiculous amount of money for things like that since they have a monopoly on the whole town. So I had to settle for a piece of paper, a pen, and few pieces of candy that sounded really good to me at the moment.

The ball was held in Hale Aloha at the PCC. The theme was "Lost in the Lights" (like that scene in Tangled). There were lanterns and twinkle lights everywhere. It looked beautiful. The band was amazing. The dinner (kalbi steak, grilled chicken with tropical salsa, macadamia nut rice, grilled asparagus, caesar salad, and fruit and chocolate tarts for dessert) was beyond delicious. Over 700 students came and everyone seemed to be having an amazing time. Besides just dinner and dancing, there was also karaoke over by the villages and "Just Like Heaven" was playing in the PCC's IMAX theater. The winter ball was a huge success and I was proud to be the date of the handsome man in charge.

NCAA Basketball

From the title of this post, you may think I'm blogging about the Cougar's sad loss today, or Jimmer's amazingness, or maybe even my failing bracket. While all of those things are important to me (my current ringtone is even "Teach Me How To Jimmer"), this post is about the fact that BYU-Hawaii's men's basketball team is headed to the NCAA Division II Championship Game. That's right, they made it into the Sweet 16, the Elite 8, the Final 4, and just beat West Liberty and are headed to the Championship Game! And no one even knows about it. I know Division II isn't as big a deal as Division I, but still, our team is going to the championship. And I thought they deserved some recognition. So there you go. Go Seasiders!

Work Work Work

After a couple months of searching, I'm very pleased with the job I've found. My search was mainly centered around the stipulation of being close to home and I can happily say that it's less than a ten minute drive to work (vs. the two hour bus ride for my internship). I work at Kahuku Farms. Most the time, I'm working in the country store. Sometimes I'm working in the office on various projects. But the country store is where I get to wear my cute apron.

Basically, I make delicious smoothies and paninis and scoop ice creams all made from farm fresh ingredients. And a lot of the time I get to eat the treats myself. It's a pretty great situation.

The country store is a relatively new project for Kahuku Farms, but the family has been farming in the area for three generations and have a beautiful, well-established farm on hundreds of acres where they grow vanilla beans, lilikoi (passionfruit), lemons and limes, papayas, mangoes, watermelon, eggplant, and numerous other things. They ship their produce all over the country and also use it to make delicious jams, jellies, butters, teas, soaps, lotions, and more. My favorite thing they make with their fresh produce is the ice creams. You wouldn't believe how good ice cream tastes when it's made locally with fresh ingredients right off the farm. And we've got people coming from all over the island for a taste of our grilled vegetable panini.

I really enjoy working with the family. They are so kind and take care of me as if I'm a member of the fam. Besides that, I work on beautiful farmland where my view is filled tropical fruit trees and flowers. Within the month, we'll be starting up farm tours and tractor rides where I'll get to drive a tractor and talk to people about the beautiful lusciousness of Hawaii. Does it get better than that? I don't think so.

Visit the website here to read the farm story.

Johnny Tsunami

Allow me to document, if only for myself:

Thursday evening, Brent and I drove into town to do our grocery shopping at Costco and Walmart. We decided it was a good time to start building up our food supply and food storage so we bought a few extra items. Turns out it was a GREAT time to stock up. Around 9pm, right as we got home, Brent received a text from a faculty member he works with telling us of a tsunami advisory. Brent immediately jumped online and started reading all he could. Within an hour or two, the advisory became a tsunami warning, everyone had heard about it, and the warning sirens all over the island started going off. The first wave was going to hit at 3:07am. The bishopric came around to all the apartments, told us to get prepared, and told the people on the first floor to come upstairs around 3. We are just far enough from the ocean to be out of the evacuation areas, but people on first floor apartments immediately began nailing boards to the bottoms of their doors, trying to guard against flooding.

We gathered together some food (all that extra stuff gave us great piece of mind), clothes and living essentials for a couple days, and filled up all our water jugs. We also thanked Heavenly Father that we had just put gas in the car. We continued to watch the news and think of anything else we might need to prepare. We invited some friends over who live off campus right next to the beach. They said that all of their neighbors were packing up trailers and heading up to higher ground. Our friends had gone to Foodland to buy food and water as soon as they heard the warning. They said the cashier lines were 45 minutes long and the gas station ran out of gasoline. They came over around 11:30pm and set up camp on our living room floor. Kind of like a sleepover; too bad we were all too nervous to make it a party. Then, we waited. After midnight, we decided to try to catch some sleep until 3am. It wasn't the most peaceful sleep I've ever had.

Around 3, Brent woke up and watched the live news feed. The first wave hadn't been too bad. The ocean had only risen one to two feet. Around 4am, we started getting calls and texts from family and friends (thank you all for your love and concern!) and Brent stayed up most the night to watch the live feed and see what happened with the subsequent waves. The tsunami sirens went off all night; about once an hour for five minutes each time.

We woke up at 7am and everything seemed to be okay. Brent said campus felt ghostly quiet on Friday. We opened up at work a few hours late in order to give all the craziness time to settle down. And to give everyone a few hours to catch up on sleep. We feel so blessed to have been protected from that catastrophe and also better prepared for the next time a tsunami warning comes. We know how it all works now. Our constant prayers are with those in Japan and everywhere else affected by the tsunami. Mo- I'm so glad your family is safe! I'm sure Friday morning was even scarier for you than it was for us. Love you all. And thanks again for your concern and prayers.

The Big Move

We spent last weekend packing up, deep cleaning, and moving boxes over to our new apartment on campus. Saturday night was our first night in the new place, then Sunday evening we went back over to Hauula to finish cleaning and get the rest of our stuff. We walked in the door of our old apartment and I saw something huge scatter across the wall.

I've never seen such a big spider in my life, and here it was crawling around the apartment I've lived in for the last 6 months. Luckily, I had Brent there who, being a little jumpy, was still brave enough to track down the beast and kill it for me.

Now, it's legs curled under when it was killed, so extend those legs about an inch and a half and you have the real size of the beast. All I can say is, I'm glad I hadn't spent the previous night in that apartment and I'm glad I'm never going back.

On a prettier note, we now live on the second floor of Building K in Temple View Apartments. I haven't seen a cockroach since we moved in! It's so nice to be able to walk to campus, walk to church, jump on the internet at home, and live ten minutes closer to work. We're loving it. I took some pix to help you all (especially my family) visualize where we live now.

Brent's busy making Argentine gnocchis (dumplings) to take to a potluck birthday celebration tonight. Yum!

And there's a bathroom too, but it's nothing special so I'll spare you the pictures. While we're still waiting for our decor and pictures to arrive from Boise (thanks Mom!), it's become home very fast and we love it. So here's to another 1.5 - 2 years in Hawaii!

And, just a sidenote, now we have way more room for all of you to come visit!

The Honeymooners

My best friend, Alison, got married to Ben a couple weekends ago. Being in Hawaii, I couldn't make it to the wedding or reception. Sadness. But while all my other friends got to be there with Al on her special day, I got to hang out with Al on her honeymoon in Paradise! It was great to meet Ben for the first time and see what a cute couple they are. They came out to Laie to spend the day at the PCC and I was able to join them on their trek to the different Polynesian villages.

Then Brent pulled some strings and we were able to join Al and Ben for their traditional Hawaiian Luau in the evening. Here's the cute couple.

And us. We're cute too.

Here lies our kalua pig. It's been slow cooking in the ground all day. Now it's ready to be uncovered and served.

Yum!

Then the honeymooners got called up to show everyone how cute and in love they are. They got to dance in front of everyone with all the old people who were celebrating their anniversaries.

Look how cute she is!

It was so great to see Al! It made me feel close to home and all my friends. Love you 202 girls! Miss you all. Maybe someday soon the rest of you can come and visit me too:)