Easterz

We had the perfect Easter weekend. We both had Good Friday off, so we went to Pipeline and took advantage of one of the best beach day we've had in months, followed by dinner at Pizza Bob's in Haleiwa.

On Saturday we decided to paddle out to Chinaman's Hat. We hadn't done this since we were here in 2007, and it has been on our list. Tommy and Jozie joined for the excursion.

We traded between paddling two to a board, and the girls paddling and the boys snorkeling. Rumor has it that these waters are shark-infested! We didn't see any.

We made it past prickly bushes and up rock walls to the top of the hat, where we enjoyed 360 degree views of the bay.

When we got back to shore, we had a classy BBQ lunch. (Salt & Vinnies not pictured)

We played some cards . . .

We jumped off The Point (with umbrellas!)

Did some longboarding

And partied the night away (by which I mean we got personal pan pizzas and watched Country Strong, which wasn't that good.)

On Sunday we woke up to a surprise from the Easter Bunny. Sadly, our two favorites (Reeses Eggs and Cadburry Mini Eggs) were not a part of our basket. This is one of the many joys of living in a small town with one little grocery store.

We lazed around our house playing Words with Friends and catching up on our shows.

After church we had our friends back over for a traditional Easter feast. Deviled egg appeteasers, scalloped potatoes, asparagus, spinach salad, and the most amazing ham we've ever had. It was cooked perfectly with an orange glaze. Dessert was a pineapple upside-down cake.

Then we dyed Easter eggs.

Happy Spring!

R.I.P.

Yesterday something tragic happened.

I put a load of wash in and when I went to move it into the dryer I found that baby gecko had fallen into the wash and died.

I ran back into the house to tell Rod and as I was explaining what happened I burst into tears. I didn't expect to cry, but even now as I am typing this I want to cry. They are SO TINY! I just thought I needed to recognize this tiny lizard, Hernando on our blog.

Rest in peace little friend.

Goodbye Michael

This made me laugh and cry. Mostly cry.
I love Will Ferrell, but how will it be The Office without Michael Scott?
I guess we'll find out.

The Joz Turns 25

This past weekend we celebrated Jo Jo's birthday in Waikiki. There was shopping, surfing, swearing, more surfing, sunbathing, and tons of eating. Thanks for sharing your special day with us Joz! We're sure glad you got borned.

The guys surfed their brains out. Jozie and I hung out on shore chatting and swatting away pigeons and tourists all afternoon.


This is Phuket Thai. A Thai restaurant that makes all others seem like Panda Express in comparison (yes I know Panda Express is Chinese food, but you know what I mean). This food makes me way too excited for our trip in May.

Two thumbs up for this mini-vacay weekend.

Snap!

We finally did it.

We got our dream camera!

I'm already so in love with it. It's a Canon Rebel T3i.

We decided we need to be able to properly document our island home before we move back to Utah, as well as capture the beauty of Thailand.

I can't wait to learn how to use it. I'm thinking about taking a class over the summer.

If you have any photography tips please share them!

p.s. Thanks Rod for trying to make this a secret. I'm sorry I ruin everything! You're the best.

Cat Babies

They're back . . . it must be a summer thing.

When we first moved here, we started hearing what sounded like a perfect mixture between babies crying and a bag of felines being hit against a brick wall. We started investigating and found out that it was the stray cats that live under our house. Some say that they do it when they're in heat. Others speculate that they just get lonely when it rains.

Around October they left, possibly headed north for the Winter? However, this week they returned.

We've nicknamed them "cat babies" and at this point they're changing everything we ever thought we knew about them.

Scuba Steve

Becoming scuba certified is a high priority on my bucket list. Even though deep ocean water actually scares me pretty bad, I figure there is no better way to overcome that fear than diving right into it (no pun intended). The cost has always deterred me, but when there was a Honolulu Groupon for $99 certification I knew it was meant to be.

This past week I did all of my classes and dives. The homework made it seem so complicated, but it all came together once we started doing it. We had two days in the pool, and then two days in the ocean.

Our first ocean dives were at Electric Beach. This is the one that has hot water being pumped into it from the electric plant across the street. It was so fun! The water was incredibly clear and we got shot up by the hot water. There were so many fish, but unfortunately no dolphins (which this beach is famous for as well).

Our second day of ocean dives was at Magic Island. The water wasn't as clear but we got to explore little underwater canyons and a turtle snuck up right next to me!

Next stop: hopefully running into a whale shark off the coast of Thailand! 6 weeks . . .

Visitors

Last week some of my family came to visit. We stayed with them at Turtle Bay and it was so fun to be together.


We started our mini vacation watching Rod surf. I could do this for hours, he's getting really good!

There was some amazing snorkeling at Shark's Cove and Turtle Bay

Uncle Mark getting his snorkel on

Waimea Falls

On my birthday we went to Waimea Valley. It was gorgeous and so fun to just be together. My golden birthday (24 on the 24th) couldn't have been better.

Nerds

Somehow my Courtie grew a foot since Christmas. He's taller than me!

My darling Grammy

Dole Plantation - Yall'z

Jumping at Waimea

Chillaxing

I love you family. Miss you already!