Hawaiian 10th anniversary celebration

So, one nice thing about Rob's job and all of his traveling, is that if I want to come with him it makes it a lot cheaper. Since our 10th anniversary will be this Feb (and that is when I am due) we decided to do our anniversary early and go to Hawaii!! My dad was going anyways and invited us to join him. So, we left mid November for our trip.

The first couple of days we stayed in Maui. The first thing Dad took us to was "Mama's Fish House". It was the coolest! It was an open air restaurant about 50 feet from the shore. I had never seen anything like it, and the food was the best! There were pics of a bunch of celebrities that had gone there too like Frank Sinatra, Elvis, Billy Joel and more.This was the view from our table.
The next day we did "The road to Hana". We were basically driving through rain forest and some really cool scenery. These are some Eucalyptus trees that actually change colors when the bark peels off!This picture makes me think of bug bites...!
Places like these reminded me, Holy Cow, Hawaii is formed because of Volcanoes! These are all Lava rocks by the shore.Look at the roots on these trees, so cool! Yes, Rob is being funny too...:)
We found lots of fun coral to bring home to the kids here.I was amazed to see places like these on the side of the road. This was right in front of someone's house, basically in their front yard. People really do live like this! How cool.We also went to this really cool place with a black sand beach!These plants were all over by any beach we went to.
I was getting pretty tired by the end.These trees with the orange blooms were all over on the road to Hana. Rob loved them.The next day we went snorkeling at Turtle Bay.
I couldn't believe it, but we got to see about 11 dolphins swimming out at the front of our boat. I was getting so excited with the Japanese lady standing next to me who couldn't speak any English.We got to see like 6 huge turtles on our tour. This was absolutely my favorite part of the trip! I could have done this every day!
Our tour guide found all sorts of cool things to show us.There was also a spotted manta ray out there.

Rob and I held hands almost the whole time we were snorkeling. I loved that too! Now this is an anniversary!That night we went to a magic show that included dinner.This piano was played by a "ghost" and we got to request songs. It didn't know Jon Schmidt. But we did get to have it play "Almost Like Being in Love"- that is our song. Rob even got to sing to me (He had the microphone and everything).They asked if we would be in the show, and we said we would. We got to sit on the front row right by the magicians and participate.
Rob took this pic of me.Then the magician stopped the show and offered to take this picture of Rob and I.Then he had us take a picture of him!
There was a Bubba Gump Shrimp place in Hawaii.Rob and Dad took surfing lessons the next day.
Dad liked to stand straight up on his surf board.
Rob liked to point at us.Janice and I went kayaking while the boys were surfing, but it got a little too windy to stay out long.

After surfing we checked out the pool. The water was colder than the ocean water!! The ocean water was actually really warm the whole time!!


In the middle of town there was one of the biggest Banyan trees in the world. You see those things hanging down, those are roots that form more trunks and make the tree continue to grow outwards.The surf instructor suggested we eat at "Aloha Mixed Plate" for a good local spot.
The next day we went to Oahu (Rob had to go there for his business trip). We spent the afternoon at the swap meet running to get souveniers and presents.

I learned from Bryan that this island is called "The China Man's Hat".

We went to the Polynesian Cultural Center that night and went to a luau and show.
They sang to anyone who had a b-day in November (so I stood up for this) then they called down anyone celebrating their anniversary and all of us couples got to dance on stage. It was so fun!The show featured a pregnant woman and talked about the "Breath of Life" within her. I felt so in place! Unlike when I would walk the beaches with tiny bikini babes.
This guys was awesome, he literally had hot fire directly on his feet for like a minute!The next day we did the PCC tour of the "villages".
At one of the villages Rob got picked to play the drums. The black guy was from Missouri, and there was another white guy from Russia. All three were so funny! They were hilarious to watch.They gave him this funny hat afterwards for participating.We watched a canoe show. The best part was when the Samoan canoe knocked their own rower into the water, on purpose. :)

We got to see the BYU Hawaii Campus.And the temple, isn't it beautiful? I wanted to do a session, but it is closed for the whole year for complete interior renovations. It was built in 1919, I think it was the 4th temple ever built.In the morning, Dad and Janice had to fly home. Rob had to work, so I decided to go to the Pearl Harbor, USS Arizona Memorial.I am on the USS Arizona here and you can see part of the ship still sticking out of the water. The memorial was built right over the top of the ship! It was sad knowing what happened right where I was standing.I really liked this plaque they put up. It also reminded me that just a couple decades ago, they weren't afraid to acknowledge God in all things, including government, military....If you are still reading this, I am impressed. Don't you have anything else to do? J/K.
For our flight home, we were supposed to have a night flight and get back to Portland around 6 or 7am. Instead, there were tons of problems with the plane, they had to fix the GPS on the engine, and a flat tire and we didn't leave until about 8 hours after we were suppose to have left. At least we made it home safe and our ride could still pick us up!!

THE END!