Our sweet trip to Hawaii!

Oahu, Hawaii-

The view from our backyard after a rain storm



 

March 3-March 9

Last year for my birthday we were brainstorming different things I might want for a present, and I was racking my brain and was coming up short.  Brent was more than willing to get me a gun for my birthday, so I knew I needed to come up with something, or else I would be getting a new gun.

We started throwing around the idea of going on a trip somewhere and at the same time there was a sweet deal on direct airline tickets from Boise to Honolulu. It was so hard to decide it we should go, because a trip is a lot of money and neither of us are big travelers.  After talking it through with almost everyone I knew, we decided to move forward.  We bought the tickets in August but our trip wasn’t until the first of March 2013 so we had a lot of time to plan our trip and that helped spacing out the big items we needed to purchase so it didn’t hurt the bank so much.

It was so nice having a direct flight to Honolulu.  Being a direct flight, it was still 6.5 hours.  That is a long time to be cramped in an airplane.  I was a little worried to be flying over the ocean, but it was not bad at all.  We even got to see a few boats way down in the water so that was fun.  We were sitting together so we just watched movies most of the way.  A couple days before our trip I started to get sick so I was able to sleep a lot on the plane with the help of some niquill cough drops.

For some reason Brent made me drive, and that was a mistake.  I got us lost in the ghettos of Honolulu. That was definitely not where we were trying to go.  We stopped at Walmart and grabbed a few groceries and a few other things that we were not able to bring in our luggage because we traveled super light (light=cheap).  Everyone always comments about how expensive food is in Hawaii, but the only thing I noticed to be super expensive was the milk.  Everything else was like paying for grocery’s at Albertson’s while paying full price.  Not the end of the world, and it was definitely cheaper than eating out every single meal.

After our first shopping trip we headed to the North Shore to our beach cottage we rented.  We opted not to stay in Honolulu of Waikiki and I am so glad for that decision!!  There are so many people there, it was ridiculous. Our little cottage we stayed in was super small, but we didn’t need much. We were right across the street from the ocean and we woke up to roosters every morning.  It was cool the first morning, but by the end of the week it was not that exciting anymore (and I might go so far as to say it was pretty annoying). 

 We had a lot of things planned that we wanted to do but they were not set to a certain day.  It was nice to be laid back and do what we wanted, when we wanted.  We did a lot of driving around the island checking out different local places and eating at every shrimp stand that Brent could find.  Unfortunately my cold did not get better like I was hoping.  The first day I felt fine and we went snorkeling Sharks Cove on the North shore.  It was AWESOME!!! It is winter time so the waves were really high, which made snorkeling a bit of a challenge sometimes.  When we first got into the water it was always a shock at how salty the water was.  The last time I was in the ocean was about 9 years ago, so I had forgotten just how salty the ocean really is.  The first adventure of our trip was snorkeling.  I am an amateur traveler.  I accidently rubbed my eye getting salty water in my eyes and I lost my contact.  Yeah, I didn’t bring my glasses or an extra pair of contacts.  I thought I would try to wear just one contact because I hear your eyes would compensate for the difference, but that just got ridiculous, so for the rest of the week I did not wear contacts. Thankfully my eye site is not that bad, but it would have been a little clearer if I thought ahead to bring a back up pair.  Now it just means I have to go back to I can see what Hawaii is really like!

The first day we also we to the Polynesian Cultural Center.  We had no idea what that was, but many people said we should go, so we did.  It was quite spectacular.  It reminded me of a zoo with all the different Polynesian cultural exhibits.  It was such a neat experience to learn all about the different Polynesian cultures.

By day two of our trip I was really starting to not feel well.  I had a fever and I couldn’t stop shivering.  It was quite a bummer deal because I would take a shower and then I would be so cold to get out of the shower, even though it was a perfect 80’ outside.  We had a few things planned that I was hoping to do that did not happen do to the fact that I couldn’t get out of bed as early as I wanted.  Me being sick made our trip more like a vacation than traveling.  I went with the mentality that I needed to maximize all of our time while there because we might not ever make it back, but it ended up being more of a relaxing trip where I slept in most days (not always by choice.) I feel like I had bronchitis because I had such an intense cough with a fever and a sinus infection.  By the time I got home and went to the doctor, it was only a sinus infection, but that was definitely enough to mess up our trip. We also planned this trip back in August before Brent was going to school, so we did not plan this during Spring Break so Brent had homework to do a few days. 

Even with our roadblocks we still had a wonderful time.  We did a lot of snorkeling and I am utterly amazed at all of the different types of fish and other amazing creations in the ocean.  I am so grateful that it was just me and Brent on this trip.  Snorkeling was so much fun with him because we were out there together and we would get excited underwater seeing the schools of different fish.  There were other people we met on the plane that had babies they brought.  I have often thought about traveling with young kids and I am all for still living your life even though you have kids, but I think snorkeling would not have been the same if I was out swimming by myself. 

We spent a full day at Pearl Harbor and we went to all of the museums there.  That was a pretty neat experience.  I was surprised at the number of Asians and especially Japanese that were there.  I would wonder what there point of view of the whole event of Pearl Harbor, but all of the museums and videos were very factual and not hateful at all, which I was very grateful for.  The events of Pearl Harbor were very intense and aweful, but I am very impressed with the Japanese plan and I had a great time learning about it.  I didn’t think that we would be able to be on Oahu and not see Pearl Harbor and visit the sunken USS Arizona battleship.  There was such a reference that can be felt as we visited the memorial.  On a more awesome note, the battleship Missouri was huge and awesome! I would never stay on a battleship like that and sleep in those tiny bunks, but I guess that is better than a submarine.  One thing that I loved about being at Pearl Harbor was seeing so many different people in uniform who are serving our Country.  I see people here in Boise, but most of them are in the Guard, and there I saw sailor and many more.

We spent some time in Waikiki but not very much time. Just enough time to make me grateful that we did not stay there.  One day while Brent was working on a school speech I went to the Temple to take pictures.  It was great because we were staying about 10 minutes away.  There were so many other things that we had planned that we were not able to do with me being sick, and I try not to think of those things because it just makes me sad.  The weather while we were there was phenomenal.  We had a couple of rainstorms, but that was towards the end of the week and it did not mess up any of our plans.

We were scheduled to fly home on Saturday but after we dropped off our rental car and checked in at the airport we found out that our flight was delayed.  We had talked about how awesome it would be if our flight was delayed the night before, but it is only awesome if we know about it ahead of time.  We were scheduled to leave at 12:30 but our airplane was having mechanical issues.  I was okay with waiting because I did not want to be flying over the pacific ocean and having mechanical issues.  At 6:30pm they decided to put us up in a hotel in Honolulu because the plane was still not fixed.  Throughout this day at the airport some of the other people that were on the flight were super rude.  I guess they did not read the reviews of the airline before they bought their super cheat tickets.  You get what you pay for.  It was not worth it for us to get angry because nothing could be done.  Brent and I didn’t have kids or any responsibilities waiting for us so we were okay with the delay.  It was not optimal at all, but I wasn’t going to let that ruin our trip.  We were finally able to leave on Sunday afternoon at 4:30 after another long day of waiting at the airport.  Thankfully we had lots of movies to watch to keep us entertained.  We would definitely like to go back someday.  I was not sure how Brent would feel about Hawaii, but surprisingly enough, he had a great time so that means I had a great time!!

 

Pictures of the LDS Temple in Laie

 

 

 

 

I loved watching the waves come in and the bubbles that would come with them.

Unfortunately 1 of 2 pictures of us in Hawaii...and this is our better option

 

Real Coconut Trees :)

After a rain storm

 The mountain view we saw everyday

 

The Polynesian Cultural Center

 

Pearl Harbor

 

USS Arizona Memorial

Oil from the USS Arizona

USS Missouri (Battleship)

 

 

Going Back to School

It is official, Brent is going to school full time at Boise State studying Mechanical Engineering and I am super excited! Maybe it is because I am living through Brent and I loved going to school, or maybe because I am excited for him and the opportunities that this will bring him.  This is a decision that has been in the works for a long time, I would say ever since we got married. I have always been of the mind set to quit work and drop everything so we (Brent) can go to school.  I would often get frustrated because Brent does not think the same way as me.  Going to school was easy for me.  I don’t mean that the classes were easy but that the whole concept of registering, financial aid, going to class, ect was comfortable for me.  I just got it.  Brent didn’t. He is super smart, but it had been almost 10 years since he last attended college, so going back to school was a scary new adventure and something that he was not familiar with. 

Fall of 2012 Brent started going back to school and he was hoping to take a couple of classes and go part time, but we were only able to fit one class in his schedule because he was traveling a lot for work. It was an English class that Brent hated, but at least it was a step in the right direction.  In late Brent came to the understanding for himself that we were on the 20 year plan and that if we kept up at this rate, the odds of Brent actually finishing school were very slim.  We crunched some numbers and we realized that we could survive off my income alone and that would allow Brent to quit his job and go back to school full time.  As soon as we came to that understanding, things started moving forward so fast.  Brent is currently taking 15 credits and only working part time.  It is such a great feeling to be moving forward.  I am very excited for Brent to be getting a degree in something that he loves so he can go to work everyday and do what he wants too.  I work at a company in the technology field and I get to work with the engineers and see just how nerdy and excited they are about work and their projects.  I want that so badly for Brent, because he is such a nerd!  I want him to be able to go to work every day and love it (well, most days that is).

I am grateful that we are no longer on the 20 year plan, but we are actually on a 4 year plan!!  Miracle!  I remember talking to Christie one day and being frustrated because Brent was not willing to just quit his job and go back to school.  It made perfect sense in my mind.  I didn’t know how it would work necessarily, but I knew that it would work. I am grateful that Christie helped me put some things into perspective for me by helping me see that Brent takes his responsibility as provider of our family seriously and he was not willing to just throw that away.  Brent had a good job and he had a hard time moving away from that.  I am so grateful for that perspective because it helped me have greater love and respect for Brent and the person he wanted to be and to see things through his eyes and not just mine all the time.  So here we are 15 credits down with many many more to go!

Boise Train Depot

Merry Christmas!

I have attempted to take HDR photo's in the past, but not having a reliable tripod has created some difficulty with that.  Brent got me a carbon fiber tripod this year for Christmas so I can start taking more pictures.  This morning I went out and took some pictures at the Boise Train Depot, but it was COLD!!! it was 21 degrees when I left the house at 10:00 am.  A positive thing about that is no one was out. I hate taking picture around other people because I feel like a weirdo.  Here are a couple pictures that I took today.

Enjoy-

Vanilla Christmas gifts

Last year around Christmas time we decided it would be awesome to give out gifts of Vanilla.  We did a little bit of research and realized that in order to make “good” Vanilla we would need to take a few more months to prepare.  On February 3, 2012 we started working on our Christmas presents for 2012.  Beat that!! Our gifts have been 10 months in the making, and I have loved every minute of it!

We took pictures throughout the process of making the Vanilla, but I never did anything with them, so here goes.

A lot of research went into making our Vanilla. I read on Pinterest that you just stick a vanilla bean in vodka and viola, you have Vanilla.  Brent does not work that way.  He needs precision and it needs to be the best, and most pure Vanilla possible.  People online stated that making yourself Vanilla extract is cheaper than buying vanilla…I am pretty sure that was not the case with us.  After getting the best quality beans we could afford (or couldn't) with not the cheapest vodka we could fine, I think we might be breaking even.  So for the price of a nice dinner and a movie date, we had a blast one Friday night mixing our Vanilla and it was totally worth it!

Did you know that FDA regulations state that pure Vanilla extract contains 13.35 oz vanilla bean per gallon of alcohol (70 proof/35%alcohol). So when I read all over the web that you just add one bean to a cup of alcohol…that is indeed not the case.  We needed about 6 beans per one cup of alcohol to make FDA grade vanilla.

There are so many different types of vanilla beans out there! We had no idea which beans to buy, so after some research we decided to buy Madagascar and Tahitian vanilla beans.  We got them from two different sources on the internet. From first glance, the Madagascar beans looked better. They were moist and looked like they would be better…(we had no idea what they were supposed to look like so our ideas in our mind could be completely wrong J). The Tahitian beans seemed to be a little on the dry side, but that would work for our project.

After my very first experience of going to a liquor store, we were ready to start our project.

1.       Procure ingredients

2.       Clean kitchen and organize

3.       Find the plastic gloves so Brent didn't smell girly for days :)

4.       Measure vanilla beans to .834 oz piles (this will go into 1 cup vodka)

5.       Cut down the center of the bean and scrap the vanilla beans out the inside (not sure if this is necessary, but we did it anyways)

.       Put vanilla beans in jar

7.       Measure 1 cup of vodka

8.       Pour excess vodka back into container…(some people might just swig the difference, but considering we don’t drink, this step was more work for us :))

9.       Seal jars and shake up the vanilla

10.   Step back and admire your work

11.   Store the vanilla in a dark place

12.   Shake the vanilla every day for the first 2 week, then every couple of weeks after that

13.   Strain the vanilla

14.   Enjoy delicious homemade vanilla!! (both Vanilla’s turned out great.  In the end I like the Tihitian vanilla better.  We had a taste test with homemade Vanilla Ice cream and Brent was not able to tell a difference.  Both are great and we have used both of them in cooking.  It all just depends on your preference.)

15.   Share with friends

a.       Find ity bity bottles

b.      Confuse people by buying so many bottles

c.       Debate what we should name our vanilla

d.      Do nothing for a week because we can’t decide on a name

e.      Gaylene make labels

f.        Brent come home and laugh at Gaylene’s labels and make new ones

g.       Brent glue labels onto every bottle

h.      Debate what type of a box to make for the bottles

i.         Cut and fold by hand way too many little triangle boxes

j.        Give to friends

k.       Explain how to open the box

l.         Ahh we made it to the end

      16.   Start brainstorming next year’s gifts

Summer lessons: Sailing

I wanted to give an update about our Sailboat and some of the many adventures that we have been having this summer.  We have grown a lot since the last time that I wrote about our boat.  I remember quite a few terrifying times on the water, and I also remember quite a few times I was angry because Brent wanted to go around the lake one more time real quick before we were going in and then the wind would die and we would be stuck on the opposite side of the lake as the dock.  That seemed to happen on many different occasions unfortunately! I think we eventually learned our lesson and turned in before we were exhausted so it made for an easier time getting to the dock. 

Not only have I learned how to sail a boat (kinda) I also learned a great deal about communication.  I remember one experience in particular that I was so irritated with Brent.  As we were learning about sailing there were a few different times that I got yelled at, because there was no time to be a pansy when there were things that needed to be done.  I am not the best at raising and lowering the sails, but it seemed like that was always my job.  From my view Brent was just giving commands while I had to do everything.  He likes to call that skippering and steering :).  This is one of those times when we had a fantastic time sailing.  We were able to launch successfully and the wind was just perfect. When it came time to going back in to the dock we decided that we were going to sail into the dock.  Normally we take the sails down and row in, but we were feeling better about our skills and decided to sail in.  Well we missed the dock so in a panic I had to take the sails down, and catch the dock before we went past it with the wind.  I was not a fan of the situation at hand. I was so angry and ticked at Brent, because clearly he was playing the part of Skipper and he didn’t take my advice to take the sails down earlier and I had to correct our situation.  Blah blah blah drama drama drama.  I was pretty upset.  We got the boat out without too much trouble (thanks to my mad skills) and as we were driving back home Brent made a comment how that was our best sailing experience yet.  Hearing him say that made me stop and think. It really was our best sail, even if we had a bit of a mishap at the end.  It was up to me to be upset about the finish and let that ruin my whole trip or I could remember the awesome sailing trip that we had.  I chose to enjoy the whole trip instead of focus on how angry Brent made me.

 I have thought a lot about the different things that Brent and I do together.  We do challenging things; things that challenge us physically, but also things that challenge us together as a couple.  It is a great opportunity for us to grow and work together as a team. As I have thought about this, it seems like every summer is a new adventure and a new opportunity for growth.  Two years ago was rock climbing, last year was getting married and this year has been our sail boat.  I really have come to love sailing.  I am not a champ, by any stretch of the imagination, but I love to see how far we have come.  We have learned how to sail, but there is so much more than that.  We have learned to trust, communicate, and so much more. 

Back to Life!

There have been many things that I have wanted to blog about recently but two months ago my 3 year old, ghetto laptop made a weird clicking sound, went black and was not turned on again since…or at least that was until today.  It has been on its death bed for quite some time, so this came as no surprise to us. I asked Brent to look at it, but it fell in the same category as the broken car, dryer, and probably a few other things I have tried to put in the back of my mind. I finally got frustrated and tried to resurrect my computer today while I was listening to General Conference, because I miss my laptop.  Brent has an Ipad, but it is not the same, and you definitely cannot type on it to save your life!! We tried to turn it on before we opened it up, but nothing happened, so before Brent let me throw it off of the balcony he said we should open it because if might be a simple fix.  He did not think it would be, but it was worth a shot anyways.  Well we know the story ends well because here I am typing away on my long lost friend that is so slow and has a black blob of dead pixels that is slowly taking over the screen where Brent attempted to grab the laptop that he knocked off the table (didn’t work J). We opened up my laptop and didn’t see any burn marks.  That was the first thing we looked for because it often over heats, but there were no marks to be seen.  Everything looked okay so we re-hooked all the important parts (I call them parts because I don’t even know what they are…) and viola it worked! I have no idea what happened, but that doesn't matter anymore because I now have my laptop back and I have so many things to write about.

My personal roadtrip

In the beginning of June I had the opportunity to go to Utah to go with Dynae to the temple.  What a amazing weekend!! Unfortunately Brent was not able to come with me because I went down Thursday night.  I was sad he couldn't come, but jumped on the opportunity to do whatever I wanted for the whole weekend woot woot! I got to catch up with some friends that are still in Utah and it was nice to not have to worry about how incredibly bored Brent was while I was reminiscing with my friends.

I took Lizzie and Abby down with me and dropped them off at their Aunt Carrie's house and it was nice to have company in the car.  I always get a rental car if we are going on any trip over 4 hours because it saves on gas to get an economical car and it save on the wear and tear (and because my car is sick, that was my only option.) I got a brand new Hyundai accent that only had 8 miles on it when I got it. I don't know if I will ever drive that new of a car again so it was fun for the weekend.

I stayed with Michelle and Derrick while I was down there and we went to Lagoon.  I have never been to Lagoon before and Brent hates roller coasters and all sorts of rides so I had a blast without him!  So scary too!! I somehow managed to be in the front of every single rollercoaster/ride that I went on.  By the end of the night I was a little terrified, but at least I can say I have been to Lagoon.

Big Scary ride

My excited face (this was before any rides...it might have been different after my screaming)

I was able to see lots of people while I was away, but I had a few minutes of down time to myself too.  After going to the temple with Dynae I hung out for a while and took some pictures of the Timpanogos temple.  Michelle and Derrick live in Bountiful now so I stopped and took some pictures of the Bountiful temple too.  The last time I was there was for Jenn and Kasey's wedding but the weather was much better this time of year.

What a wonderful weekend to visit the temples!!