A Day of Love

It is the day full of pink, red, flowers, and heart-shaped chocolates. Many people would say that Valentine's Day isn't up on there as one of their favorite holidays but I for one love it! I think that it is a day with a lot of emphasis put on couples when really it is just a day to tell anyone whether it be your family, best friend, dog, or a special someone that you love them. It is a day to remind us of the importance of Love and how if there wasn't love then we really wouldn't have much of anything. So a Happy Valentine's Day to everyone in my life, I love you all!

The Heart of LIfe is Good

This week Lohren and I were working on a presentation for english and I was trying to find a scripture that went with our theme. I came across a talk by President Monson titled "Finding Joy in the Journey" well this didn't really relate to our topic but I found myself reading it anyways. He gave a quote from one of my favorite musicals, The Music Man. Professor Harold Hill states, "You pile up enough tomorrow, and you'll find you've collected a lot of empty yesterdays." This quote has stuck with me all week and I realized that this semester is flying by and I want to live up this experience as much as I can. Well, I became reassured that I was doing just that when a friend that went home after last semester came back to visit and while we were talking he looked at me and said you do everything, you are living life up here and doing this experience right. So on that note, I soon realized we only have 7 weekends left on this beautiful island which motivated Egan, Jess, and I to start making a list of the things we want to do before our time is up. So far this is what we came up with:
1. Hiking Diamond Head Volcano
2. Walking China Man's Hat
3. Getting up on a surf board (just long enough to get a picture)
4. Go to Hanama Bay
5. Go to an actual camp site instead of just 5 minutes down the road
6. Go snorkeling
I realize that many of you reading this blog don't know what some of these things are but once we do them I will make sure to blog all about them.

We've had a couple exciting things happen in the past couple weeks. Garrett Price has been called to serve in the Joao Pessoa Brazil mission and Walker Jensen was called to Paris, France. We are so excited and proud of both of them! In the meantime we have been doing much of the regular stuff. There was another surf competition a couple weeks ago we went to that was a lot of fun. Yesterday, Egan, Jess and I spent the day at Haleiwa beach where we saw 4 turtles and played paddle ball and then went to Matsumoto's for some shaved ice before heading home.

This semester is definitely a lot different, and there is a lot more school happening then play which is a good thing. I am keeping busy and continuing my new year's resolution of working out every day (I've only missed one day since being back!) and Jess and I also started diet coke/coke fridays which means I am only drinking my Diet Coke on Fridays, I am going strong so far! So overall I can say that life is pretty good right now, I just keep reminding myself of all the things I have to be grateful for, and there are a lot!!

A Maui Wowie Weekend

It was my mom's big 50th birthday on January 31st, and what a birthday she had! To celebrate my parents and the Richard's came over to Maui for 10 days which meant that I got to escape for a few days over there. To my mom's surprise my dad had Kacey and Allie flown out the same day I came so our family was able to all be together for the weekend. It was such a nice break from school to be able to just lounge at the pool and beach, it turned Hawaii back into a vacation for me instead of just where I live. It was definitely hard to say goodbye at the end and get on a different plane then them but it was very worth it. I am so lucky to have such a great dad that makes things like this possible. Another bonus was being able to get away from the cafeteria and eat good food for a few days :)

Lost in "Lost"

I realize it has been a really long time since I have blogged which means there is a lot to catch up on so here I go. A few weeks ago, Lohren, Kelsey, and I were asked out on a triple date. Now since being here none of us have been asked out so this was a pretty big deal. The boys wouldn't tell us what we were doing so we were pretty excited to find out where they were taking us. We went into town and headed towards Waikiki Beach where the season premier of "Lost" was being shown. None of us watch Lost, but it was pretty fun to be able to be the first ones to see the season opener. We were confused through the whole hour and had no clue what was happening in the show but it made it worth it when we were getting up to leave and the stars of the show came out and started signing autographs. After that we found a cute little diner for dinner and then a delicious homemade ice cream shop. We all had a great time!

"It's not called gym-NICE-tics"

You know it is going to be a good week when you have Monday off from school. We wanted to keep our adventures going, so for Martin Luther King Day the girls headed to Waikiki to check out the Zoo. For starters, we can say that the Honolulu Zoo is definitely interesting. It is located right across the street from the beach which was definitely different than what we were expecting.

It had all your typical zoo animals; giraffes, elephants, rhinos, tigers, bears, monkeys,lizards, and birds of all kinds, but it was also missing a few of my favorites such as the lions, penguins, and gorillas. The weirdest part of the Zoo was the fact that the animals weren't exactly fenced in. Those rhino's could've charged right at us at any second and been free and on their way but no one seemed to concerned about it. Going to the zoo wasn't something I would've guessed I would be doing in Hawaii, that's for sure.

We were there for just a couple hours and then walked across the street to spend the rest of our day on Waikiki beach, the tourist hot spot. It turned out to be a beautiful day which we were excited about because we haven't seen many good beach days lately. It was a nice girl's day with music, paddle ball, and our inner-tubes to cool off in the ocean and get sun at the same time. We then went strolling down the streets to check out some stores and had an amazing dinner at Wolfgang Puck. Let's just say, we weren't missing the boys too much!

We have noticed that we are beginning to watch a lot of t.v at night, so we decided to change that. It turned into a night of gymnastics; first starting in our hallway, and then moving to the field in front of the school. We were trying all sorts of things-backbends, round-offs, stalls, headstands, and even a two-person cartwheel.

 By the end, we were all exhausted! We started getting the hang of it all but we still have much more work to do before the semester is finished!

Walking on Sunshine!

It was so nice to get back to all of my friends here in Hawaii, the warm weather isn't bad either! Our goal for this semester was to do a little more exploring of this beautiful island we are on. One of our first stops was Hanauma Bay Preserve. We were so excited to see this beautiful beach we had heard so much about. We went and bought snorkeling gear and then drove an hour to get there only to discover it had been closed for the day due to jelly fish!


Luckily, we were still able to go through the building that talks about all the different kind of fish that are there and the Volcano it was made from. Well we wanted to do something productive from our day and the drive over had been so beautiful that we decided to start heading back and then just stop when we wanted to on the way back. We found a cool little beach that you could go down on these rocks and climb around. After that, we kept on driving and found a trail that we were pretty sure led to a lighthouse. We parked and began the walk. We got a little nervous when someone finishing up the hike told us that it gets pretty steep and hard but we soon found it wasn't as bad as he had told us. It led to this spectacular lookout of the ocean.

Right below where we stood, was the lighthouse we had seen from the road. It was also exciting because it is whale season right now and there were a bunch of whales out playing. It turned out to be a spontaneous and fun day!

School has definitely started. I am getting homework but I am absolutely loving my classes and my schedule. I have plenty of time in the day to catch up on homework or some much needed beach time. I am so excited because I am going to be  doing after school tutoring at Laie Elementary school on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I think it is going to be such a great experience for me. It will also help me to being more productive. I have definitely learned after last semester that even though I am in Hawaii, life still goes on and as much as you want to believe it, I actually am not on a permanent vacation over here-just on the weekends!

                                         

We love this weekend especially because we have an extra long weekend! On Friday night there was a dance on campus that turned out to be a lot of fun and good exercise! We were dancing for a good 3 hours straight! Saturday we woke up early, got sack lunches from the Cafeteria and headed to the town of Kailua for a hike and then to the beach. The hike was called Maunawili Falls and took us about 3 hours to do. It was actually quite crowded with people and tourists but still so fun. It was gorgeous, difficult at parts, but we made it.

At the end of the hike was a waterfall and you could go jump off a cliff into the pool of water at the bottom. It was the perfect way to start out our day. We then headed over to one of our favorite beaches we have discovered on the island, only to realize after an hour of sitting in the overcast that the sun wouldn't be coming out. So we packed up our things and headed back for a quiet night on campus!

White Christmas

I realize it has been a really really long time since I have updated my blog, and for that I apologize. With finals and the anticipation of finally being able to go home things got a little hectic the last couple weeks of Fall semester, but now I am back on track!
The week before I got home I went to the hair salon and cut off 8 inches of hair! I can honestly say it is one of the craziest things I've done in my life, it is even up there with skydiving, pathetic I know. But my hair was a definite trademark of mine, and it felt incredible to cut it off. I decided to keep it a secret from all the people at home so when I got off the plane and saw my mom and Kacey, they were speechless. Everyone loved the new change, it took my mom a little bit longer to come to terms with it but she did eventually and actually likes it now!!
Being home was so much fun. I loved being with my family and my friends all the time. I had a jam packed two and a half weeks that is for sure. I don't think I went to sleep before 3:00 am any night I was there, but it was worth it. One of the highlights is always Allie's birthday party, and this year was no different. It was so much fun especially since the Schneider clan took 3rd place and we didn't even have a roof on our house! It always gets busy right before Christmas with neighbor deliveries to be made, friend's gifts to be given, and so many family parties, but even with all the hustle and bustle, it had never felt nicer to be home.

I accomplished many fun activities while being home. I was able to go to two of the jazz games, even though the lost one, it felt good to be back at the Delta Center. My family ran up to Sun Valley for a couple days and I really didn't want to go but after I got up there I ended up having such a fun time and was so glad that we went. Thanks for letting me leave a day early Dad! Bringing in 2010 was another highlight. I think New Years is always kind of a disappointing holiday, and my friends didn't really start our New Years Eve party till about 11:50, we partied it up after midnight had come and gone! Hopefully 2010 will be an even better year than 2009! My friends and I definitely took advantage of my hot-tub which is always fun to do with snow surrounding you. Sledding, swimming, watching movies, going out to eat, sleeping over at a cabin with friends, and just hanging out was what my days were filled with. 

After two and a half weeks of the cold, I was definitely ready to get back to the heat and sunshine! I was sad to have to leave everyone but it feels so good to be back into a routine of things, and I am still loving my time here!