{Top 10 Aloha Style}

Ryan and I got to go to Hawaii this last week. It was for the annual Armed Forces District meeting (aka a research conference). It was in Honolulu and our hotel was right on Waikiki beach!! It is the first time in our 10 year marriage where we have been able to get away by ourselves and just have fun. And boy did we have fun!! We stayed in the Hale Koa hotel which is the DOD's recreation center. We flew in on Friday and stayed until the next Thursday! As you can imagine I took SEVERAL pictures, oh say like over 500 so I thought instead of bore everyone with ALL of those I would give you a top 10 of the things we did while in Hawaii. So here it goes, in no particular order, my Top 10 aloha style!!

#1: Date Night

Getting to have date night EVERY night. Our life hasn't and still doesn't afford us the chance to always have a date night every week. I think we made up for that just a little. It took me a day or so to get use to not having four barnacles hanging from my appendages, but I got used to it quite quickly. Ryan and I could enjoy a dinner where there were no fights, meltdowns or messes!! We even went to dinner at a high class place, you know the kind where they draw on your plate with sauces, just for decoration. Of course that was the night the staff docs paid, it was really fun!! We spent one of our first afternoons just enjoying time on the beach and playing in the water. I didn't ever really get used to the salt water in my mouth, I kept expecting fresh water instead!!

#2: Attending church in Hawaii

We had passed this church on our way to our hotel and I thought it was beautiful. Well that was from the road and it didn't do it justice at all. My friend Heather and I walked to it Sunday morning to attend sacrament meeting. It is a building with a courtyard and all the rooms including the chapel come off of the courtyard. The chapel to me was breathtaking. The ceiling was two stories high and the chapel was one of the biggest I have ever seen. Imagine the chapel looking like a cross with a center section of pews that had the pulpit and the choir seats at the head of it. Then just off the pulpit there were two sections of pews perpendicular to the center section. I did take my camera to take pictures of the outside but once inside I wished that I could have taken pictures of the inside too. I think someone would have noticed that though darn it. There were double doors off each section of pews, I am assuming for in the warmer months to allow for the breeze to help cool things down. These doors were all painted a light lilac purple. I felt the spirit so strongly there with those saints. Plus there was the cutest little Hawaiian boy who was probably only 3, sitting in front of me flirting with me. I wanted to pack him in my luggage and bring him home, but I am sure his mama would have missed his sweet face.

#3: Pearl Harbor

One of my must do's while in Hawaii was going to Pearl Harbor. Ryan had been before when he made several trips to Hawaii for baseball. My maternal Grandfather fought in WWII and missed being at Pearl Harbor when it was attacked by a day. He was stationed on the USS Enterprise during the war. The USS Enterprise was suppose to have been coming into harbor before the attack but had been held up by weather. After the attack was over they came into the harbor under the cover of night to refuel and then snuck back out to sea before the sun came up. I was quite surprised at how emotional I found myself standing there where the attack took place. I was glad I had sunglasses on so that no one could see me blubber. We took a little boat out to the USS Arizona memorial, where over 1000 men are entombed. It was a simple, yet powerful tribute to those men and I loved getting to see it.
#4: A Room with a View

This was the sight I saw out my hotel balcony each day. Our room was suppose to be only a partial ocean view but I thought it was a pretty dang nice view. I was able to sit out and read, listen to the waves coming in and just slow down for a little while. #5: The Temple

While on our way to the North Shore to play on the beach we stopped at the Laei Temple. As always with the temples, the grounds are so beautiful and quiet. We were dressed ready for the beach and I felt a little awkward being there but I am glad we stopped anyway. The visitor's center was beautiful. The missionaries there were setting up all their Christmas trees, which seemed kinda funny, only because of the weather.

#6: Waimea Beach

While on the North Shore we stopped at Waimea beach and had the best time playing in the water. There was a large sand bar that jutted out into the ocean and so you could walk quite a ways before you were deep in water. It was perfect for trying to body surf the waves coming in and that is just what we TRIED to do. It would have been better if we had had boards but it was still a lot of fun.

#7: Playing in the sand

Playing in the sand was another fun thing to do. I got a natural pedicure from just walking on the beach. At one beach we saw these little sand crabs scurrying all over the place and Ryan tried catching some of them. They were too fast though and I only got a half way decent picture of one. The one down side of the sand was that it was hard to get off when you were done playing in it. I heart sandy beaches!!

#8: Snorkeling at Hanauma Bay

My other must do while in Hawaii was snorkeling. Hanauma Bay is one of the best places to go snorkeling. We payed for a guided tour and that was wonderful. They picked us up from our hotel, drove us out there, took us all around the coral reef, feed us snacks and brought us back to our hotel. All we had to worry about was having a good time. To say the bay is beautiful would be an understatement. It was gorgeous!! It was a beautiful day and the water was pretty clear. According to our guide it was a 6 or 7 on a scale of 1 to 10 for visibility. We saw 4 turtles and TONS of brightly colored fish. Some of which were so unique I couldn't keep my eyes off of them. I wish we could have snorkeled a little longer but we had such a good time. I got an underwater camera and I can't wait to get those pictures back. Hopefully some of them turned out. It is hard to see through your mask and then through a tiny little view hole. My kids are excited to see the pictures of the turtles.

#9: North Shore Shaved Ice with Ice Cream

While on the North Shore we stopped to get a shaved ice. We had heard of them and people said they were to die for. Come on shaved ice is just shaved ice right? Well they have a little secret weapon that will make you come back time and time again for their shaved ice. They put a scoop of vanilla ice cream at the bottom, then top it with shaved ice and your choice of flavoring. I know you might think "WEIRD", but it really is awesome. We tried the rainbow one, but after having it I think I would have liked to have tried the Root beer flavored one. A root beer float of sorts. We had these before dinner, and it was so worth it.

#10: Beautiful Sunsets

Last but not least, the sunsets were amazing. The first few nights were a little too cloudy to get a good sunset but I finally sat out on the beach for like an hour determined to get a picture of a Hawaiian sunset. I am glad I persevered. There isn't anything better than sitting on the beach next to your honey, while watching the sun set.

We had so much fun while in Hawaii. Ryan was successful with the research part of the trip, ya know the actual reason we went to Hawaii in the first place. One of his papers won an award for best research paper by a resident. He was pretty proud of that as he should be, he worked really hard on that project. I hope it isn't another 10 years before Ryan and I get to do that again. It was too much fun!!!