Hawaii: Day 2

Day two started at the crack of dawn.  4am hit and it seemed like everyone in the house began to stir at once. Our internal alarm clocks were very much still on Utah time. As soon as Preston and I opened the door to our bedroom, my little four year old nephew was right in the doorway waiting to play.  I've realized that since we don't provide any cousins for our cute nieces and nephews to play with, they treat us like their cousins. That's okay because we love it!

The first thing we all did was head right outside to start playing in the water and watch the sunrise. I really wish we always could have stayed on that schedule of waking up at 4am because the first few days we were there, we were able to get a whole days worth of activities in by 10am. It was great! But we slowly stayed up later and woke up later and before we knew it we were programmed to Hawaii time. 

 

There was the best little running trail that went right behind the house we stayed in and went along the beach for miles. My older sister and cute little niece got out and ran on it that first morning there. Since we woke up so early it wasn't too hot yet and was such a beautiful time of day to run.  Definitely the prettiest run I've been on to date. We ran past the Bonzai Pipeline where they hold the big surfing competitions but unfortunately the waves aren't very big this time of year.

 

 

My adventurous husband retrieved a coconut from a tree, cracked it open and drank it for breakfast.  If anyone knows how to enjoy a vacation, it's definitely him. He always makes the most out of any and every situation. I love that about him.

 

Later in the day we hit up the Swap Meet at the Aloha Stadium.  This was definitely the place to go for cheap souvenirs.  Everything was way more reasonably priced here than any gift shop we ever went to. I would highly recommend going here if you are wanting any sort of knick knacks. 

 

 

After the swap meet, we went to Pearl Harbor.  It's close to the swap meet so it works well to do these two things on the same day.  I loved Pearl Harbor.  Watching the little film in the visitors center was my favorite part. It was so neat to see actual footage from the attack.  I couldn't help but imagine the chaos that had to have broken loose on that day.  Just thinking about it breaks my heart. It makes me very grateful for all the men and women that defend our beautiful country and keep us safe.

 

We were able to go out to the USS Arizona Memorial while we were there. There is such a reverence there that I can't even begin to put into words.  You can't help but imagine all of the innocent lives that were taken in that very place and the repercussions of that event.  It was definitely a very humbling experience. 

 

While the boys (& Emily) went to tour an actual battle ship ^, the rest of us girls and kiddos escaped the heat at Jamba Juice. 

 

Apparently the color of the day was pink. :) ^

^ One of the only shots I have of our house and this is from the back. It doesn't do our location justice one bit!  Literally right behind this is the ocean!!

It was Stephen's (my bro in law) birthday that day and we celebrated by going out to dinner at a yummy mexican restaurant called Cholo's.  Soooo good! Out waitress was on the ball with the chips and salsa, which is always a bonus in my book. Seriously, each time it emptied she was right there to give us a refill. And the salsa was delish.  I got the Spinach and Cheese Enchilada and I loved it! I had never thought to put spinach in an enchilada but I really liked it. Everything was reasonably priced too - like $8-$15 a plate. Which in Hawaii is pretty rare so I considered it a good find.  I know most everyone else liked what they go too so I would highly recommend it. 

We finished our night off with an ice cream cake from Cold Stone (!!!!!) and hit the sack early again since we still hadn't quite adjust to Hawaii time. 

 

And that was day 2! Go here to see Day 1.

xoxo, Syd

Hawaii: Day 1

At the end of May, Preston and I went to to Hawaii with my family.  It was both of our first times and we had an absolute blast.  We were there for a total of 10 days.  To make things a bit easier on myself, I'm going to break our trip down by day instead of trying to cram everything into one long post. 

 

We landed in Honolulu, Hawaii on Friday, May 23rd after a six hour flight.  Call me crazy but I sort of love long flights.  It gives me an excuse to sit and do NOTHING.  I absolutely live for time that can be devoted to just sitting and catching up on reading.  So that's what I did.  I read the whole way there and finally was able to finish the Divergent series.  Soooo glad to have that out of the way for the trip.  In case you haven't noticed by my previous posts, I wasn't a huge fan of that series.

 

My parents and Emily flew out to Hawaii a few days before us so they picked us up from the airport.  They surprised us with leis which was one of the things I was most excited about.  It seems like every movie I have ever seen about Hawaii has always shown the characters getting leis upon their arrival.  Thanks to Emily, those dreams of mine came true. :)

 

 

We arrived around 2pm Hawaii time so the first thing we did was head on up to the Dole Pineapple Plantation.  It was a little overcast and rainy so we didn't spend a whole lot of time there but we did take the train ride.  It was so fun to see everything they grow there besides just pineapples.  By far my favorite part of the Pineapple Plantation were the Dole Whips.  I wasn't sure if they would really be all that good.  I mean, I've heard people love them but I just wasn't sure.  But, OH. MY. GOSH.  They are the best thing EVER!  I could eat them everyday.  They were worth the money.  Unlike everything else in the gift shop that was incredibly overpriced. 

 

 

Pretty trees and red pineapples!

 

 After the Dole Plantation, we checked into our beach house.  The whole family (14 altogether!) stayed together in the beach house which was a lot of fun.  We were literally right on the beach! We stayed in Pupukea.  It's on the North Shore right by the Banzai Pipleline, Waimeia Bay, and the cute

little town of Haleiwa.  I could not have picked a more perfect location. 

 

We didn't do a whole lot that first day because of the jet lag that most of us were feeling.  We ordered pizza from Bob's Pizza in Haleiwa for dinner.  By the way, I don't recommend that place at all.  It was like $30 for one pizza and it was nothing special.  Our frozen Costco pizzas were WAY better and like half the price. Anyway, by 7pm most all of us were ready for bed.  It was the craziest thing! But I guess that's what happens with a four hour time difference.  Speaking of bed, I LOVED being able to hear the crashing of the waves every night as a lay in bed.  It was so relaxing.  Most nights we had thunderstorms as well.  So that, combined with the sound of the ocean, was the best thing ever!  I loved it.

Well, that was our first day!  Stay tuned for the rest of our trip!

xoxo, Syd

THE BEST Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate Chip Cookies

>> 2/3 cup shortening
>> 1/2 cup granulated sugar
>> 1/2 cup brown sugar
>> 1 egg
>> 1 teaspoon vanilla
>> 1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
>> 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
>> 1/2 teaspoon salt
>> 1 package (1 cup) semi sweet chocolate chips

1.  Heat oven to 375 degrees.
2.  Mix shortening, sugars, eggs, and vanilla thoroughly.
3.  Measure flour and sift dry ingredients.  Add to cream mixture.
4.  Mix in chocolate pieces.  Drop rounded teaspoonfuls of dough about 2" apart on ungreased cookie sheet.
5.  Bake 8-10 minutes or until light browned.  Makes 4-5 dozen 2" cookies.

ENJOY!
xoxo, Syd

4th of July

Our Fourth of July wasn't relaxing by any means but we enjoyed ourselves nonetheless. 

Preston's parents stayed with us and on the morning of the 4th, we got up bright and early and headed down to Provo's Balloonfest. It started at 630am (!!!!!!!) and we got there just a little after it started because of how far away we had to park. I am so glad we went.  Hot air balloons are just so incredible. I love them! But when I think about actually riding in one, I get anxiety so I think I'll just stick to admiring them from the ground for now. :)

My attempt at a Fourth of July breakfast. I intended on adding blueberries and just forgot. So just imagine how much prettier that breakfast would be with blueberries sprinkled on top. The cutest, I tell ya.

The rest of the day was spent making cute Fourth of July treats for our BBQ that night.  I'm one of those people that finds joy in cute food and cute parties. (Especially cute Fourth of July parties. See here) Not saying I actually pulled it off but it was fun. Preston didn't help out in the kitchen but he did extract two gallons of honey from our beehives. TWO GALLONS! Let's just say are food storage is good to go in the honey department.  We keep throwing the idea around of selling some but we'll see.

Me and my not so patriotic but incredibly handsome, husband. :)

And the cute treats.

Just look how cute I cut the watermelon. :) 

Just kidding, here's the actually cute cut watermelon.

And my personal favorite of the evening, red white and blue ice cream sandwiches. I used my all time favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe found here but instead of using semisweet chocolate chips, replaced them with white chocolate ghiradelli chips and dyed 1/2 of the dough blue and the other half red. So easy and so scrumptious!

We finished the night off by watching the stadium of fire fireworks in the Rec Center parking lot.  It was a great Independence Day. Hope you all had a great one too!

xoxo, Syd