Surprise Hawaii Trip!!

 April 28th we got up bright and early to fly out. It was another early flight and I was not super excited about that. However, I was excited to get away just me and Brandon again. That and I was wondering if we were actually going to Scottsdale Arizona or not. After our cruise Brandon mentioned that we would pack separate luggage. I thought that was fine. I also thought we would be packing our smaller suitcases if we were packing our own. Then Brandon mentioned packing our large ones. I was not quite sure why we would need to pack 2 big suitcases if we were just going to Arizona for 5 days. Brandon said that we should pack our big ones in case we get souvenirs. Which I thought was an odd statement. I thought, "What are we going to bring home a cactus?" haha Brandon also asked if I wanted to go to a baseball game which I don't enjoy baseball. haha He kept telling me I should pack my big sun hat and seemed to be pushing me to buy another sun dress when we were on our cruise which I thought was odd too. There were a couple of other things that he said that made me think maybe we were going to Hawaii instead. In fact the night before we left Wyatt said, "Dad told me that its for your anniversary," He also said that when we chat with them it will be like 3 in the morning. So that meant there was going to be a time difference. I was really getting my hopes up that we were going to be actually going to Hawaii. However, I did not want to get too excited in case we were really going to Arizona. That would be a bummer to think we were going to go to Hawaii but really going to Arizona. So I was wishy washy about it all week long. So when we got to the airport and tagged our bags I noticed that they put a transfer tag on our bags. So I asked Brandon why and he said, "Hmm.... let me check." Then after looking at his app on his phone he said, "That's weird we are flying into longbeach and then to Hawaii!" haha I slapped him and told him I knew it!! I was officially thrilled that we were going to Hawaii. He then told me that we were not going to be gone for 5 days. We were going to be staying for 7 days. So he had to tell Wyatt before we left because we were going to miss his Choir performance that he had been practicing for all year. He was going to be doing an duet dance solo. So I was bummed that we were going to miss his performace but I was super excited to be going to Hawaii!!! 

Here we GO!!!!

These clouds looked so crazy! They looked like cotton candy.

On our flight to Hawaii Brandon got out his lap top to show me his slide show that he put together for me!! He had planned the whole trip in secret and until the week before we left I had no clue. So it was fun to look through the slid show and see all that he had planned for what we can do. It was going to be a fun trip and I was so excited to spend time with Brandon in Hawaii finally! 

There it is!!!

It sure is a lot of flying to get to Hawaii. I had to stand up for a little bit because of my tailbone. Otherwise the flights went well and then we were finally there in humid Hawaii!!!

We grabbed our rental car and drove to get some lunch/dinner. The time change was pretty crazy. I don't remember the jet lag when I went the last time over 15 years ago. I sure felt it this time around. 

The Island was so lush and green. I was so pretty and we were pretty hungry! 

Our first stop was this amazing restaurant. We got there before it opened and waited in line 20 minutes before it even opened. It was well worth the wait!! 

The food and the view was amazing!! It was a pricier dinner but it was so good I could have eaten that salmon we got 3 more times that week. It was so good and it was a fantastic start to our Hawaiian vacation!

There were some chickens out on the grounds and this cute little baby chick that was chirping and so cute. We got close to it before it ran away. 

Such pretty scenery! 

We were so tired that first night. With getting up early and the time change we were exhausted by 7. We didn't want to go to bed too early because we would just wake up super early too. So we made it till 10 which was 2 am our body time. Then we were up in time to go out and see the sunrise. It was cloudier than we were hoping for during our sunrise but it turned out pretty anyways. 

There were tons of crab holes all over the sand. I have never seen so many crab holes 

Brandon tried to catch one of the crabs that was going back into the ocean. He was scared to get pinched though. 

Success!! He grabbed one with his sandals so he wouldn't get pinched. haha 

Pretty good size!

If you see at the bottom of this picture there is a little blue thing that looks like a small jelly fish. Well we ended up finding out that they call them "blue bubbles". They are a type of jelly fish and apparently they cause a pretty bad sting and can sting you even a couple of days after they die. We didn't know that until we heard about them at church that Sunday and then I looked it up and read about them. Glad we didn't get stung and that the water and weather wasn't nice enough to want to go swimming in. 

After walking the beach for a little while we hoped in the car and drove around to explore some of the beaches that Brandon remembered going to. 

It kept sprinkling on us off and on. So we saw some pretty rainbows over the ocean. 

Brandon remembered this spot from when he came years ago. He said that he had so much fun jumping off those rocks. I had no desire to do so and we ended up not going back there so Brandon never got to jump off. He said he didn't want salt water up his nose so he didn't care all that much. We were driving around these beaches at like 7 in the mornings. So it was just the perfect weather to be walking around. Not the weather to be swimming yet especially with the rain clouds and the breeze. 

It was pretty though. 

Then we made our was to Haleiwa and grabbed some breakfast from a food truck! We got some loco moco rice and an egg. I had a few bites of it and we shared a smoothie. 

Pretty tasty and filling with all the rice. 

On our way back towards our hotel we decided to stop and do a hike. We were driving right by the entrance and decided to just go do it. Why not... we didn't have anything we had to be to for a few hours. The trail was not even open yet when we arrived. We had about 15 minutes before it opened. So we just hung out until they opened up the gates. This hike was 50 bucks per person. Crazy to think that it cost that much to do this hike. It was very manicured though. So I am sure that is why. 

It was a very leisurely walk. It was paved and just nice to walk around and explore for a while. The falls were pretty and there was barely anyone there. So we were able to get a picture by the falls without anyone else there. There was one other couple there besides us. We walked quite far and I quickly realized that my new sandals were giving me blisters. The problem was that they had a metal bracket that rubbed again my foot. So I got a blister and had to grab some bandaids to cover the part that rubs again my foot. 

On our way back to the hotel we also stopped at a fruit stand. 

We got some fresh fruit to snack on and a cold coconut to share. It was the best coconut water I have ever had!! I can see why people enjoy drinking coconut water when it tastes like that. It was really refreshing drinking that coconut. We had been up for hours and barely drank anything. So I was super thirsty and that hit the spot for sure. 

The last thing we did that morning was stopping by the Temple.

The Temple grounds were so pretty. I really wanted to be able to go do a session there but we didn't bring our temple clothes. When I was not sure where exactly we were going on our trip I looked up the temples in AZ that we would be able to visit and the temples in Hawaii. I couldn't find any way of getting a time slot to go in the temple in Hawaii and we decided to not bring our clothes. We figured maybe if we could go to the temple we could possibly just rent clothes. Brandon told me while we were walking the temple grounds that they were booked out and the only time we would have been able to go was after we left the area. It was still nice to go walk the grounds and just see how pretty it was. 

We even saw Santa there. See.... Even Santa believes!! 

After walking the Temple grounds for a bit we made the last few minutes drive to our hotel and we got ready to go grab lunch and then hit the PCC! I was so excited to go to the PCC. Brandon had gotten us a reservation there and we were doing the dinner and show after! I was so excited!!! I remembered loving it when I came those many years ago! 

We stopped at Titas Grill (Sister Ah-You's families food truck). 

This was their garlic shrimp. They were huge and had the legs attached still. It was kind of weird having to take the shell and legs off before eating them. Still pretty good. 

This was their Peanut Butter toast! It was so good and ginormous!!! We ended up giving a little family that needed our seats one of our breads when we were done because there was no way we were going to finish both! haha

Then our PCC adventure began! The rest of our day was spent exploring the Polynesian culture and going to eat yummy food and enjoy an amazing show. 

It was a fantastic first full day in Hawaii!! I was loving life spending all this fun time with just my other half!!

This was our view from our hotel room. With all the cloudy and windy weather we really didn't get a ton a great sunrises. We had a pretty good sunrise that first morning. Then after that the clouds were just a little too much. So we didn't mind just hanging out and relaxing for a bit while the sun came up. Then we got up and walked around for a little while exploring and finding something for breakfast. It was so fun walking for miles just with Brandon in the lovely humid weather. I was loving just walking around exploring with Brandon it was so fun. We walked around the neighborhoods and stopped at a grocery store to see if they had anything we wanted to buy for breakfast. It was Sunday so we were planning on going to church. 

We walked the beach that morning too and then got ready for church. We were trying to go to Sister Ah You's family ward. We looked it up and went at 9 to meet her family and tell them how much we loved having their daughter in our ward. We arrived at church and sat looking to see if we could recognize them from facebook pictures. Then church started and we realized very quickly that we were in the wrong ward. It was a Tongan ward and they were speaking in Tongan. So we made it through the sacrament and then we left to try and find the Leie 1st ward. We walked around for a while and asked a few people if they knew when the ward started. We finally found out that it didnt start until 11. So we walked over to the Temple to see if the visitors center was open while we waited for the right time to go to church. It was fun going in the visitors center. We were able to watch a video about the Leie Temple and how it came about it. It was a great video. Then we went back to the chapel to sit through some more church in hopes of meeting the Ah You family. 

Right before the meeting started Brandon saw Sister Ah You's mom. So I walked up and sat next to her and introduced myself to her. She was so glad that I came and said hi. She then got my number so she could text me. She said that she would love to have us stop by later that day so she would text me and get something coordinated. 

It was a great sacrament meeting. After that we went back to the hotel to change and go explore. We were wanting to go see the sea turtles on the beach and just explore some more again. It was already lunch time. So we had like 3 hours of church stuff on our trip. We enjoyed it though and I was glad we were able to meet the sister missionaries family.

After sitting through some crazy traffic we finally made it to the sea turtle beach area. 

The sea turtles were so big and cool to see in person. They looked like the rocks on the beach. 

We were thinking of going to Haleiwa again to grab lunch but the traffic was so busy that we didnt' really want to get stuck in hours of traffic coming back. On our way back to the hotel we got a call from the Ah You's. They were inviting us over for lunch with the whole family. We decided it would be fun so why not. It was a great time getting to know the family. They are a great family. We even got to say hi to Sister Ah You because they were video chatting with her when we were over there. After eating some really yummy food for lunch we chatted for a bit and had some root beer floats and then we said bye and were off again. 

They were a great family and it was a fun afternoon. They even gave us some Lei's to take home to our boys. So nice of them!! 

We then went and walked around Haleiwa and got dinner there. 

Delicious coconut shrimp and coconut crusted Mahi Mahi. 

We got to see a pretty sun set as we walked around to get some dinner and then some ice cream. We were going to stop at a sit down restaurant but when we got there it was about to close. Apparently island living means opening later for things and closing early for things too. I was surprised how many restaurants were closing by 6. 

It was a lovely evening regardless. We got some ice cream before heading home. 

The ice cream was tasty. The cone was terrible! haha So Brandon and I tried eating around the cone. Even started throwing pieces of the cone out our car window because it just ruined the ice cream flavor. haha. 

Then we headed back to our hotel and sat in the hot tub for a little bit again before calling it a night.

In the morning we walked over to Titas Grill again for some breakfast. 

While we waited for our breakfast we watched the chickens look for food under us. haha 

We got some Hawaiian fried rice and egg and some toast. We also got some cocoa rice to try. Since it was the Ah You family they gave it to us for free. It was so nice of them. Plus it was DELICIOUS!!!! I was wishing we had tried that place for breakfast on Saturday because I could have had that fried rice more than once. It was so good! The cocoa rice was really good too. We had some the first time we tried them for lunch but they gave us a massive container of them. This time they put it in a cup with a drinking lid. It was like I was drinking hot cocoa but with little soft chunks of rice in it. It was a lot better than the first time I had it. Plus I knew a little bit more of what to expect. haha The bread was super thick again and super tasty too. It was a yummy breakfast and it was free which was nice. 

That was our last morning on the North Shore. We were then heading to Ko'Olina to spend the next few days at a resort. 

We stopped in at Haleiwa one last time to get some shaved ice and some lunch.

It was so yummy!!

Then we got this sourdough pizza with local honey drizzle on it. It was super good too. 

Before leaving we decided to look for some gifts to take back to the boys. There were so many cute shops in that area that we figured it was probably our best bet at getting something for the kids. We found some cute hats and called it good. 

Our next stop was the Dole Plantation.

All of these plants were pineapples. The fields went for days. The soil was red too which was so weird to see. 

We walked around and looked at what they had to offer and just explored for a few minutes. Then we grabbed some dole whip and sat at a table to chat with the kiddos for a minute. 

These are the pictures that Grandma sent. They were having spaghetti and loving it. haha So once they were done they called us to chat. It worked out perfectly because while we were sitting under an umbrella eating our tasty dessert it started to rain. So we chatted with the kids while it rained and by the time we were done the rain had stopped. 

Then we were back on the road to go to our final destination. 

The resort was very manicured and pretty. They had lots of pools to choose from and quite a few hot tubs which was also nice. There was a path that went for about 2 miles down near the water and passed by a couple of other resorts including the Disney's Auloni resort. So we decided to walk in there and check out that resort. 

They had a cool ginormous aquarium that apparently you can pay to swim in with all the fish. It was a pretty sweet resort. The only issue with it is that it is super expensive just to stay there and then you still have to pay for your food. Its not an all inclusive kind of place like we are used to with the DR. So although it was nice I am glad Brandon didn't spend the extra couple of grand to stay there. It was expensive enough to stay at our resort and the food there was super expensive as well. It was not all inclusive and everything was over priced. So we did a lot of walking into town to the little shop to get some food and drove a lot to get other foods. We even drove to Target to grab some Hawaiian sodas and snacks to have on hand. haha 

I felt like it took a couple of days to get used to North Shore and then by the time I got used to having to drive everywhere to get where we wanted to and enjoyed the food. Then I had to get used to a whole different vibe. 

The area was very pretty though. It was just hard to realize that Brandon splurged on this resort for us to want to leave it all the time. haha He was thinking it would be more like the resort style we are used to with the DR. It was not. Although the beach scene was pretty and it was nice to have the hot tubs it was probably not worth the amount he spent. It was still a blast! We just didn't stay on the resort the whole time. We left quite frequently. Our walk was really nice though and we walked miles and miles each day which I loved doing. 

It was also crazy how rainy and gloomy it was when we got to Ko'Olina. The day after we got there it was kind of rainy all day. So we got in the hot tubs a lot and walked around quite a bit. We even went to the golf course restaurant to use our discount we got. It was pretty tasty but expensive. They gave us a little extra dessert as well because we were celebrating our anniversary.

 I have to say the one thing that I was bummed about was feeling cold while I was in Hawaii. I had hoped it was going to be hot the whole time we were there. 

For dinner we drove into the town 10 minutes away and grabbed some Kalua Pork which was super tasty. 

Then we grabbed some ice cream from a place that mixed cereal into soft served ice cream. It was really good too. Another good way to end another lovely day in Hawaii! 

The next morning we finally woke up to sunshine and blue skies! Our view from our window really was beautiful!! I looks like a fake picture but it was real. No filters! Pretty amazing!!

Then while walking our usual path the landscapers were trimming the coconut trees. So we hung around and watched so we could get a fresh coconut. 

Once they were done cutting down all the coconuts on one of the trees all of us in the crown went to go grab one. The landscapers cut them open right then and there for us to drink. 

It was another good coconut. Not as good as the first one we had but it was still tasty.

I was so happy to finally have a sunny hot day! 

After relaxing for a little bit and walking our usual walk we drove back to the North Shore to hit some yummy food places one last time. It was our last chance to drive far and get yummy food. So we grabbed some Kalua Pork at a very popular BBQ place.

Then we grabbed more coconut crusted Mahi Mahi and shrimp. We were pretty stuffed after all that food! haha 

Then we made our way back to the resort to do some relaxing and hot tubbing. 

These trees are just so cool with their roots all exposed. 

This was the best sunset we were able to see. There were so many clouds in the distance every day that. we didn't get the best sunsets. It was still pretty enough. 

Our last full day in Hawaii was an active day. We got up bright and early to drive to a popular snorkel place. 

Yet again it was super cloud and rainy while we drove there. I was getting worried that it was going to be a very cold snorkel experience. 

Our first stop was to get some Malasadas which is a kind of donut. 

It is yet another very popular place and the malasadas did not disappoint! 

We arrived at our destination and it was windy and cloudy and cold. I wished I had brought a sweatshirt!

After going through all the safety precautions and rules we were able to find a spot to put our stuff and eat our yummy breakfast!

So good!!!We ate way too much! We almost finished the whole box right then and there. 

It looks sunny but it was not very sunny while we were there. The cloud kept covering the sun and the wind was cold. The water was freezing!!

I was so cold!!! We had to pay a good amount to go here so we decided that we might as well get in the water even if it was freezing in the water which made getting out even worse. We snorkeled pretty far and sadly didn't see much. By the time we had made it almost the entire length of the bay my hands were going numb and my teeth were chattering behind my snorkel mask. I couldn't stop my teeth from chattering. So we got out and tried to warm up. I had to wrap up in my towel and have Brandon hug me to warm up enough to stop shaking. So we were done swimming after that. I had no desire to get back in. haha 

It was a cool view. Just wish we were able to see more fish and maybe a sea turtle. We probably should have waited out the weather till it got warmer. Maybe we would have seen more as the day went on but it was already getting super crowded by 10. So we decided we had seen all we needed to see and left. 

Our next stop before heading back to our resort was a really cool hike. It was off and on sprinkling while we hiked. The trail was super muddy because of all the rain they had been getting. It was so lush and green and a really nice hike! I am glad we decided to do this one. 

Our shoes were so muddy after that hike. It was fun though. 

Then we stopped for some more Hawaiian food. 

Garlic chicken!!! We got a little bit of Kalua pork too. The Garlic chicken was top notch! I wish I had found it sooner too. That chicken was amazing!!! 

Thankfully, when we got back to our resort it was sunny and hot. So we were able to warm up while laying out for a bit. We also tried snorkeling a little bit in our little bay. 

We didn't see anything. It was too cloudy in the water. It was way more fun though because the sun was out and was warm. haha So we laid out and got some sunshine and walked some more.

I wanted to try Lau Lau at the place we got Kalua Pork. Ya its the green mess at the top of my plate. It was pretty gross looking and I opened it and barely tried a bite of it. Tasted too fishy. The rest of the dinner was good  again besides that hot mess at the top. I had to at least try it. haha 

Before we knew the evening was over. We drove to a difference grocery store to make sure we had enough foods to bring home to share with the kids and to give Brandons parents to thank them for watching the boys. I tried a sparkling coconut water that was so good I wish I had bought a bunch to bring home. Sadly, we were leaving that next morning so there was no time to go back and get more to bring home. It was a fun trip and we were sad to have to say goodbye! 

We were up bright and early the next morning to head to the airport. 

We grabbed Burger King for breakfast since that was really only thing there. 

The airport had this really cool courtyard so we ate our breakfast outside looking down at this view. I wanted to enjoy every last minute of the warm humidity before we left. We had a very brave bird that kept getting really close wanting our food that we had to keep scaring away. haha 

Then we were off! Good Bye Hawaii until next time!!! 

Brandon was exhausted and fell asleep. I finally have a flattering picture of Brandon asleep on a trip. haha Of course he looks way better in his picture that I do in any of the ones he takes of me! haha 

Can't believe how fast that week went. It was so much fun and I loved spending all that time with just Brandon! It was a great way to celebrate our 15 years of marriage! I am one lucky girl to have such an amazing guy in my life!! He took so much time planning this surprise trip and it turned out amazing. It had been so long since both of us had been to Hawaii and it was a great time spending it there together for the first time!