Hawaii

My Grandpa Don and Grandmommy Shan decided to take five of their granddaughters to Oahu, Hawaii. I was the furthest away (I've been in McCall, Idaho this summer). My adventure began when Luke and I left for Boise, ID on Thursday night so he could drop me off at the airport Friday morning. We had time to kill and Luke REALLY wanted to see the Batman movie so we saw the midnight showing!Valerie and her boyfriend Matt picked me up at LAX Friday morning and we headed out for brunch with our grandparents. Aunt Audrie was very generous and let us stay at her house that night so we didnt have to far to go getting to the airport the next morning. Val didn't wait too long after I showed her some of my knitting projects to put them onto her bear Teddy (Short for Theodore). I've told some of you that I have lots of nieces and nephews (My sister Valerie's bears to knit for.) Valerie is practically making a list. It makes me laugh.We all met at our grandparents house and caravaned to the airport. It took three cars to get all seven of us and our luggage to the airport. Our seats took up a whole row across the airplane. Grandmommy took a couple surprise pictures of us on the plane(I'm working on knitting a purple sweater for myself and watching some comentary on Hawaii the airline played).

The first thing we did when we got to our hotel was put on our swimsuits and go out to the pool! We stayed at the Hale Koa hotel on the Fort de Russy military reservation. Its open to those who are active in or retired from the Military and since my grandpa Retired Major of the Marines we got to stay there!

Sunday we went to Pearl Harbor and saw the USS Arizona Memorial and Museum with Grandpa, Shan, and Alex (our cousin).

That night we walked down the street to The Ocean House Restaraunt in the Outrigger Reef Hotel in Honolulu.

Talk about a table with a view!

On Monday Lane (far left) Taylor, Alex, and Valerie went parasailing. That's not really my style so I went shopping with Grandmommy instead.

That night before we went to dinner we rented a wheel chair for grandpa because it was further to walk. We were quite the parade walking down the street!

On Tuesday the girls went with some of Taylor's friends from USC who live in Hawaii to a beach that's more of a locals beach. I ventured out with my grandparents in search of one of two golf courses designed by Arnold Palmer.

We ate at the course and my beverage of choice was an Arnold Palmer. Fitting huh? I thought it was funny.

The hotel lobby was all open and when we got back there were ducks just passing through as though they belonged.
Tuesday night we all went to Honolulu's popular restaurant called Duke's.

Lane(middle) wore heels and we had to document how much taller than us she was!

The flower vendor at the entrance of the restaurant gave us flowers to put behind our left ear so everyone would know we're not married. (Lane just preferred to put hers behind her right ear because it looked better. Shes not married.)

Because we waited a while for a table we had a reservation for, the manager sent us four appetizers and complimentary deserts. Above we're holding a Hula Pie. Macadamia nut ice cream covered in chocolate and macadamia nuts! YUM! It was so good we felt obligated to lick the plate clean so we could show you how cute it is!

On Wednesday Shan had planned for us to go to Doris Duke's home in Hawaii, called Shangri La.

It was incredible! I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside, but the artifacts she had collected were so unique! There was so much to know and unfortunately our tour guide wasn't all that well informed. I would like to go back again after learning more about Doris Duke and the artifacts she collected.

Here we are on the ocean side of her home.

This is the little cove Doris Duke had built for her first husbands yacht. Now locals use it for swimming.

The entrance her visitors would have used when visiting. Impressive huh?

Yah...we could live here! :)

Thursday was Luau day. Valerie and I figured it was as good a day as any to go get our makeup done. We picked up Jamba Juice making it a complete day of pampering...sort of. We went for dramatic eyes since Luaus are tropical!

Ready to go!

The whole crew waiting to go in!

Valerie and I were brave enough to go up and learn a hula dance! In heels no less!

My Blue Hawaiian mattched my dress!

They didn't have water for us on our table so since I've had a lot of practice getting water this summer through my job as a hostess in Idaho I took it upon myself to make sure everyone got water. Ater a couple trips delivering tiny cups that I knew would need refilling soon, I opted to go nicely ask the bartenders to borrow one of their pitchers.

There were seven of us staying in two rooms. It got loud at times. No, wait. It was usually loud so I would go out into the hall to use the phone. I got caught by Grandmommys camera sitting on this table. I liked sitting there facing the other direction looking out the window.

Friday was our North Shore day. We went shopping at the North Shore Marketplace, and I got to go to my favorite swimsuit store that makes custom swimsuits to mix and match, called North Shore Swimwear, we also went to our friends shop called Jungle Gems. Then we headed to Turtle Bay where I got to tour another Palmer course. This course beats all that I've seen so far I think!

The "cart guy" (I know Im horrible with names I cant remember his, but he spent the first seven years of his life in Hanford, CA so that kind of makes him a kindred spirit right?)who drove Valerie and me around on our tour.

Can you see the ocean coming through in the very back! So pretty!

Even the cart paths at the Turtle Bay courses were purty!

For lunch we ate at the resort's beach front restaraunt. Good chicken sandwiches AND a view!

Friday night Valerie and I went with our grandparents to Brew Moon, a restaraunt we learned about when we went to Hawaii several years ago for our Uncle Jim and Aunt Cheryle's wedding! It was as good as we remembered! That night we relaxed and got ready to get up at 4:30 am (ugh!) to go to the airport! It was a great trip and we had a blast!

An Outing

Luke and I had a rare day off together and we fully utilized it! First we went to the golf course and hit balls at the driving range. Then we got out the hike book and set out to drive to a trail head that would have taken us to Pearl Lake. Unfortunately the book forgot to mention that the road was intended only for cars that had more than 6 inch clearance from the ground (that means NOT Luke's little white car or my bug.) Sigh. So we stopped and turned around when we got room but we still got some great pictures. We also stopped and played in the river on the way back!

At the driving range! I'm starting to hit the ball more at least! :) (Disclaimer-that's a mosquito bite in the middle of my forehead. It's gotta be one of the worst places to get one.)

The view from where we stopped to turn around. You can see some of the fire damage from last years forest fires.

"Hey Dad, hows your aspen?" <- We were only aloud to ask this when we were backpacking and actually saw aspen trees. It still makes me laugh.

These white flowers where everywhere. Any ideas as to what they're called?

The river has mellowed significantly now that the snow is done melting. Luke was more confident in his balancing abilities than I ever will be and went rock hopping.

I suspect he was posing for this one?

I'm 21!

On Tuesday we celebrated my 21st birthday!

Luke made me pancakes!

Then we hiked to Goose Creek (Raging River) Falls

We arrived!

We got sandwich's from the local bakery, Evening Rise, for our picinic lunch. Turkey, with dijon mustard, sprouts, lettuce, and smoked gouda cheese! YUM!

The view of the medium ranked trail on the way back. Needless to say Jessica was quiet on the way back. I was too out of breath to talk!

After the hike Luke and I headed back to watch the Fresno State baseball team beat North Carolina. The game wasn't over before a group of us went out to dinner though. Luckily, the restaraunt had TV's and we got to see the win!

James (Luke's co-worker and Roomate) and Jessica

Shannon (Jessica's Roomate) and Michael (a friend from McCall)

Cody (Luke's Roomate from school, co-worker, and roomate in McCall) and Me!

Luke and Me!

It was a good day!

Snow. In June.

So Tuesday morning on my way to work, it was snowing. I thought this will stop right away it wont get worse. Well I was wrong.



The next morning, Wednesday, my car was covered. I think I cried,and then I got back into bed after calling Luke who came over and made pancakes. What a guy, coming to save the day!

Pancakes.

We've been on a pancake spree lately. One day I had more fun than usual making my stack. So I took a picture.

"Lawrence, we're going to need considerably bigger buns."

Last night I watched Calendar Girl's with Shannnon and Katie (Katy, I cant remember off the top of my head, most sincere apologies.) and Katie and I worked on our recently (within the last week, thank you Lynda) acquired knitting skills. The movie was awesome! We also thought it was quite fitting that we were knitting while watching the movie as one of the calendar girls was covered by her knittng! :) We only got made fun of a little at the irony.Here we are! I've graduated from a little hat to a sweater that I have restarted no fewer than 3 times to date. Katie is working on a little pumpkin hat! (I'm holding the Calendar Girls DVD to document through photos.)

On a side note, I thought I'd fill you in on what Luke is up to. Here he is...sitting, and listening to his MP3 lectures for his online summer school class!

He finally smiled!

Aha! I have found a niche!

With all this gloomy weather I declared that I needed an indoor project. I headed to the cool yarn shop I had found called Keep Me in Stitches. On Tuesday afternoon Lynda taught me to knit and today I began knitting my first hat! Its great, I got to sit around the table with the "regulars" and work on my project, while they worked on theres! They're definately kindred spirits and I think I might be found hanging out there on more than one occasion.

Can you see all the fabulous yarns in the background? Some of them are hand dyed! How cool is that! I think Im going to learn a lot! (And have fun doing it!)

Late Pictures/Post

Sooo I have been complaining a lot about the gloomy weather thats supposed to continue through the week but as I was loading my pictures onto the computer I was reminded of the two days of fabulous weather we actually did have. Here it is:

Cody, Shannon, Luke and I took a walk "to town" this was the view of the mountains on the way.

The snow was melting fast that day!

The river was high since the snow was melting so fast!

I let Luke take the picture this time, hence the downward angle. :)

When we drove away from the lake the snow quantities got greater. Luke decided snowballs would be fun. Lucky for him...he "missed."

Shorts! Sandals! Tank top! Sigh...someday right?

Very Relieved

The cold weather came back and has slowed things down substantially for the town of McCall. I dont have a lot of news for you because,honestly, cool weather makes me want to stay in. I have, on the other hand, found a new coffee shop that I am enjoying substantially more than the other one I was spending time in. This one is called Mountain Java. Mountain Java also has wireless internet, and instead of spending time in a cold, diner style coffee shop where the girls working are less than friendly and make talking to their friends a priority over making the drinks they are paid to make(I might be venting), I can now browse the web in a charming coffee shop with pretty black hutches, checker board tile, warm yellow and red walls, and a perfectly wonderfull pattio with flowers, plants and arbors! I am so relieved and much more relaxed as I browse and catch up on my computer!

A Productive Day

Today the temperature got up to 78 degrees! Thats exciting since the first time I came here there was snow everywhere! The snow is melting fast! I did some exploring and on my moms recomendation I sought out the quilt shop. There are three! The first one, Huckleberry Patches, hosts an evening called Sew and Sew's every other Thursday and I will have to check that out! The woman at the yarn shop, Keep Me In Stitches said that she would work with me one on one to teach me whatever I want to learn, knitting or crochet. I found a health food store that has more glutten free goods than I think Ive seen in one place (shout out to Aunt Maggie) and I stopped in at the library to see if they had any fun reading programs going on this summer. My roomate Shannon and I also scouted out the coffe shop with free wi-fi which is how you are viewing all of my updates. I've been typing them in my laptop but since we dont have wireless in the apartments I had to wait until now to post them all! Ill try and keep you all updated as often as possible!

Change in Plans

Some of you may have heard that it looks like I might be staying it Idaho for the summer! On a whim I applied to a resort I had found through a search for “summer jobs Idaho.” It turns out it was the same place Luke is working. So the two of us will be spending the summer in McCall, Idaho and working at Whitetail Club and Resort. It’s a nice set-up and the resort owns condos/apartments that they use sort of like dorms for the college students working here for the summer. Luke lives in an apartment with his school roommate Cody and another golf guy from Michigan whose name is James. I live with a girl from University of Idaho named Shannon and another girl is coming in the beginning of June. I’ve been told that McCall is around 6,500 ft elevation which explains why it’s a little chilly and there’s still snow on the ground. I thought this was a summer job!

Gone Visiting

Right after school got out Luke and I went down to Payette, where he grew up, to see some of his friends and family. Here he is playing basketball with his cousins.




This is Chenowa (Luke’s friend Jerrell’s fiancé) showing off our cool pattern we made with the poker chips. I didn’t do so well actually playing, but I had fun!

I Might Miss My Room in McConnell Hall

These are some of the things I enjoyed about my room and being a resident assistant.
I really liked my door…I put dots around the letters and frames making them look like they were stitched!
I needed a door stop to keep my door open during my RA hours, but of course it had to be cute. Jenny, Chris and I went to Michael’s kind of wandering around for something fun. I knew it couldn’t be breakable. I finally found a plastic jar and rounded glass to put in it. The flowers were just icing on the cake.


I really liked one of the door decs my co-resident assistant Torrey made for me. The fish bowl made me so happy.

Lastly I’m going to miss decorating my bulletin boards. The last one I did was for closing the hall and a goodbye note to my residents.

Making it Through Finals...

I sometimes bite my fingernails when I get stressed out so to try and save myself some pain I started eating sunflower seeds. I went through three bags (Ranch, BBQ and Nacho) and filled up two water bottles.

Grocery Bag Bag…Finally Finished!

I saved all my grocery bags from this year to make a stronger re-useable bag I can take to the store. It’s really strong and I’m even more proud of recycling. I finished it right in time to use it to pack my stuff in the car!