Aloha! Hawaii Part 1

Margie and Mike

So, remember when Parker and I flew to California in April? And remember how we volunteered our seats and got free Delta Vouchers in exchange? Well, we just cashed them in! I told myself that I was going to use those vouchers to buy tickets to Hawaii so I watched and waited for the rates to drop and then, BOOM! I transfered Parker's voucher to Tanner's name and we were in business!

We flew out of Las Vegas because we found the best deal through that airport. We dropped Parker off at Travis and Nicole's (which was no big deal for him but I totally lost it as we drove away...) and then headed down to Vegas to spend the night at Jeff and Andrea's house. What would we do without amazing friends? 

We almost missed our flight early the next morning. Tanner set his alarm for 4:30am but it didn't go off! I randomly woke up at like 4:45am and we rushed to get our butts to the airport. We rented a car in Salt Lake to get down to Vegas and got completely lost trying to find the rental car return. THEN, when we finally got to the airport, Tanner realized that he forgot his wallet in the car! So, we had to take the shuttle back to the rental car place and get the wallet. We were stressing big time. So much so that Tanner decided to take ALL of the metal off his body to get through security faster- just in case the detector happened to go off and he'd have to get searched or something. That included his wedding ring. 

Which he forgot. 

In the plastic bin. 

Sigh. Don't worry. They found it and it's on its way back to his finger. We BARELY made our flight but little angles were watching over us and we made it. With a brief stop in LA we were on our way to Oahu!

When we walked off the plane we were amazed at the warm, humid air. Everything smelled soooo good!

It took us forever to get our bags and car but we got upgraded to a jeep which made Tanner really happy! And we ran into my first friend at the car place which made ME really happy!

Our first stop was to our friend's house. Mike and Margie lived in my ward growing up. I remember her doing singing time when I was in nursery and she was my Mia Maid leader in Young Women. She and my mom are good friends and her older daughters are friends with my sisters. She graciously fed us lunch (we were starving) and then led the way for us to head up to the North Shore. Her sister in law, Sue, has some beach rentals and she really hooked us up! We stayed in this cute little cottage right on the beach.  It was perfect!

The beach in front of our little Cottage

Basically, the first thing we did when we got settled was take a walk along "our" beach. It was beautiful to say the least! Paradise!

Later, after running to the store for sun block and other things, we cruised on over to Waimea Bay. It was bitter sweet to be enjoying such a beautiful day- the night we arrived I got a call from my brother that my Dad was rushed into surgery due to a perforated esophagus. It was a near death experience and now, over a week later, he's still in the hospital but doing well. It will be a long recovery. It's trippy knowing my Dad is in the hospital hooked up to tubes and wires. I don't even have a memory of him being sick- let alone on heavy antibiotics and pain killers in the hospital. My brother says his stitches look like a shark bite. I'm so thankful I work with such amazing cardio thoracic surgeons who have answered any and all questions I had.

Thinking and praying for my Dad

Tanner's view of the beach

 Later that day we stopped by Sunset Beach and watched a surf competition for a few minutes. The waves haven't gotten too huge yet but it was still incredible to watch those amazing surfers out there!

View from our bedroom window

Tanner taking pictures on "our" beach

So stoked about our cool jeep with the top off!

Tanner taking pictures of the surfers

Waimea Bay

That evening we took a drive over to the center of the island and met up with 2 of my very best and long time friends.  Jana and I have known each other since birth and Wendy and I became best friends in 2nd grade. Wendy now lives on the island with her husband, son, and very new baby daughter. Jana lives in Washington with her husband and 1.5 daughters.

The drive along the outer edge of the island was so lush and green! I was obsessed with these trees!

 We drove through this tunnel and thought we were so cool that we were actually IN the island!

Jana, Brooklyn, Me, Nadia, Wendy, and Holden

BFF! It was so amazing that we could all meet up half way around the world and hang out like it was yesterday.

Jana, Jake, and Brookie

Holden, Jake, and Wendy (I think I'm still holding the baby- I didn't want to put her down!!!)

The first full day of Hawaii did NOT disappoint!!!