Filling the Bucket List!

Hiking is a great thing to do in Hawaii. There are so many beautiful sights to see. The scenery is spectacular wherever you may be. The last two Saturday's we have tried to take advantage of a couple of scenic places. They have not been strenuous but have been long walks and well worth the time we have taken to enjoy them. We have seen lots of birds, whales, and seals, a lighthouse and a blowhole. Both hikes or walks were enjoyable but I really do need to get into better shape.

Views from Kaena Point. Northwest part of the island of Oahu. Saturday Feb 3, 2018Surprise! Made it to the gate!
















The waves were incredibly huge on this particular day.

       Me, Karen Rhodes, Cathy Hanrahan,  and Linda Sherwood. THIS IS THE POINT!

  
The monk seal may look blotted and dead but she really is sleeping. The albatross has a few eggs that she is taking care of.

THIS IS THE PLACE! at least one of them.

What a sight. Just a testimony that we did all make it back.

I made it on one hike so I decided it was time for another. This time it was to the Makapu'u Lighthouse. The trail was paved all the way to the lighthouse but it was an elevated hike and the first part was strenuous but it was so much fun on the way down.

 Proof that there was volcanoes on the island of Hawaii. 

Lighthouses are always an attraction. This one is very beautiful.

The two Karen's.

 

and add a Polly and a Carol. After the lighthouse we visited the famous blowhole, saw quite a few whales, and ended up at the botanical gardens in Kaneohe. It really was a delightful and fun day. 

two more flowers that I haven't seen before on the island.

 















African Gardenia

Second year and second round of events but still enjoyable and worthwhile.

Again, I can't say how fast the time passes here. I am afraid to blink or this incredible experience will be over. I love the warm winters. It is so nice not to freeze and be able to be outside in the winter months other than shoveling snow. My heart is overjoyed by the beauty of this place. Yes, there are times I miss the beautiful mornings after a snowstorm and look out at all that beautiful, pure whiteness all around but then I think of the snowplows passing and it isn't white anymore or a below zero morning and the trees are frosted in white sparkles. What could be more beautiful than that? All I can do is thank my Father in Heaven for the beauty that surrounds us everywhere on this earth and the people and their kindness that comes with it.
As second rounds go, I had another birthday with lots of birthday wishes from family and friends. Thank you so much for thinking of me on my day. My good friends at work had a surprise party for me at Lei Lei's restaurant and it was a real surprise. Pua had been sick for more than a few weeks and I thought we were going to celebrate her coming back to work. I was so excited that she was back I didn't think it was a bit odd to do that. Instead it was a surprise lunch for me. Elder Griffeth stood up and announced it was my birthday. Elijah, a student worker, that set next to me was getting married the next day so we also called it a bachelor party for him. (Ha! Ha!) Some bachelor party. Anyway, we all enjoyed ourselves and the food was yummy.


Then on Saturday it was the Hawaiian devotional. See, even the islanders had a party for my birthday. Two years in a row.  It was a very beautiful tribute to our Savior and all he has done for us.

Flag ceremony.

This young man is Ammon. He is a student that is in my YSA 8th Ward. He talked of the lover our Savior has for each of us.

The beautiful girl's of Hawaii performing the Hula and telling a story of their ancestors.

After the devotional Polly and I decided to ride up to Halewa and spend some time before we had to take tickets in the evening. We had heard a lot about Halewa Joe's so we decide to lunch there. This is the historic bridge as we go into the little town of Halewa.

                                      My limo in the background passed me right by. 

Sunday was my actual birthday and a very quite day so I decided that the best place to be after sacrament meeting was the Laie Temple. I love to go up there on Sunday and meditate. It is such a beautiful, quiet, serene place to spend time.

Of course I have to find a flower and place somewhere. The plumeria are starting to show their blooms even in the depths of a Hawaiian winter.  Smell's like spring is coming.

Monday brought more parties. On this Monday it was a party for two young men who had graduated from a GED high school program. They also celebrated the January birthdays. Here we go!!! Notice how they honored these young men with the lei's.

Last picture for this week is 3 out of the 5 hale sisters have the same muumuu and it was not planned. Karen B sent me mine, Raeola had hers when she came and Linda go hers a few days after she arrived. We all happened to have them on for tickets this evening.

ONE YEAR DOWN! WHAT AN ANNIVERSARY!

My one year mark has come and gone. It doesn't seem possible but it has. There are ways I can't wait to come home and other's I will be afraid to leave because it has become a new way of life. My job is so satisfying because it is so different from when I taught school. It is laid back and we are not going, going, going 8 to 10 hours a day. Teaching was a never ending day of following schedules and never having a minute to yourself. We always had little people that needed to be taken care of. It had to be done and it had to be done now! We are always busy here but it is a different kind. I get an actual lunch hour.  We have all different types of activities that we are able to take advantage of.

Last Saturday was an eventful day. One that I will remember and talk about for the rest of my life. It was a beautiful day in Hawaii. We were getting up and getting our day started in the usual fashion. Two of our hale sisters had already left for various activities and the three of us were just relaxing and enjoying our leisurely morning. I was thinking about making my bed when my phone let out the most awful noise that I had every heard. I thought that maybe it was going to blow up. I picked it up and this was the message on it!

If that didn't get our hearts pumping nothing else will. Linda and I went to tell our other hale sister, Raeola. She didn't get the message or didn't hear it go off. We decided that the first thing we should do is close the windows and get dressed which we did. I shot off a message to my family telling them that I love them. Then someone went outside and saw other people heading for the Cannon Center so instead of staying inside we decided to walk to the center which was the totally wrong thing to do but we did it anyway. We did not have our thinking heads on at this point. We just didn't know what exactly to do. I guess we thought it would be better to be other people. About half way to the center my phone kept going off with text messages but I didn't have time to look at it until we got to the center. When we got there I looked and there was a message from Angie say that she found on the internet that it was a false alarm and at the center they had found out it was a false alarm. We did not get anything from the state saying it was a false alarm for 45 minutes although I think the word had gotten out through radio or tv by then. Needless to say there were not many people on the island prepared for what happened that day. It was a scare but it was like many of the drills we had as children during the cold war. The theme then was duck and cover. It brought back many memories.


We survived!


                               



Life goes on and our hearts were still pumping so we decided to take off and do the town. The waves were extremely high that day so we decided to go beach hopping on our way and watch the big waves. Others had the same idea.
 Elder Garff likes to photo bomb!
                                                             
The ocean and waves were especially beautiful after the scare.
Left to right, me, Raeola, Elder and Sister Dee, Linda and Elder and Sister Garff.
After beach hopping and still being thankful we were alive to live another day we ended up in Kapolei at the shopping center, then lunch at Cheesecake Factory and to a movie.
It ended up being a wonderful day.






As we all know, President Monson passed away a couple of weeks ago. It was a sad time for the church but as with all things time moves on and we have a new prophet. President Monson has visited the PCC many times and the people here loved him. They wanted to honor him in a special way so one sister went to work and created this beautiful wreath to send to Salt Lake in honor of his memory. As we watched the funeral the cameras focused on the wreath many times. I think it was the most beautiful one there. I am not prejudiced or anything. John Moana, holding the wreath, was the VP of the PCC. He retired a few months ago.

Charbine, my granddaughter, texted me and asked me about a Sister Boyce. Charbine works with her dad. I was over at the PCC and asked about her one day and she was at the visitor's center. I walked back and one of the sister's said Sister Boyce was there, now. I had this picture taken of us. It is always fun to see someone from your hometown. There are quite a few of us here from Cache Valley and many of us are from my North Logan Stake.

And finally, a beautiful Hawaiian sunset after a very unusual day!

Holidays have come and gone. Fun was had by all.

We decorated a little for Christmas. It brightened up our hale and made it look a little homier. The house couldn't be homlier. We have half painted rooms. Right now my room is under construction "Hawaiian Time." That means when Judy flooded my room and it was a mess and needed desperate help. I waited and waited for someone to come and they didn't. So I put my room back together. Then carpenter came in three days before Christmas without letting anyone know he was coming and Polly just happened to be at the house. She let him in and he tore my room apart, again, to fix the walls. He got the sheet rock done from the floor halfway up and told us he would be back tomorrow to finish it and paint it. Guess what? You guessed it. Haven't seen hide nor hair of him since. My bet is that he doesn't come back. Any bets?  I've got to remember. "This is Hawaii and their time schedules are different from ours. They do throw good parties though.

Here is our home decorated for Christmas with real Christmas presents. It was a cute little tree.Christmas day we were invited to the Ah You's for Christmas dinner and then we were invited to go with them to the show, "The Greatest Showman." in Kaneohe. The bearded woman was from Laie and related to them. If you saw the show she was quite a woman. We took them up on the dinner, which was wonderful, but we wanted to spend time on the beach on Christmas Day. None of us get to spend Christmas on the beach. It was wonderful and beautiful at the beach. It was a beautiful day to sit and give thanks that our Savior was born to complete God's plan for us. The trade winds made it a little chilly so we came home and talked to our families. It was a very good Christmas Day. Thank you to the people who try to make it home away from home and to the friends and family that called, face timed and tried to visit with us on Christmas and during the holidays.

      
Part of the AhYou family. Below in the beard is Jr Jr AhYou. Polly and Sister Long are on the left.




















Below some of the younger sisters missionaries join us as well. Oh! To be young again.




The day after Christmas was a holiday for a few of us. The Polynesian Cultural Center was open so some of the sisters had to work.  Polly and I decided to go on a whale watching tour. We grabbed our hats and was off for the day. It was suppose to rain but hey this is Hawaii. Who knows what will happen. We hoped this wasn't the ship that we would go  on because that is where "Surely" (my phone) led us. We were thankful when we found out it was next door.

The following are pictures of our tour. It rained and rained and rained the whole day and of course we didn't see any whales but the food was good and we got a "rain" check if we didn't see any to go back another day, so the Saturday before New Year's day we went back and it was a beautiful day and we did get to see bunches or pods of whales. Both days were fun.

The museum by the ship we boarded.
















 Me on the first day.

Diamond Head and the Port of Hawaii

NEW YEAR'S EVE

New Year's eve fell on a Sunday and it was Bishop Fiu's daughter's farewell that day. She is going to Orlando Florida mission. She arrives at the MTC on the tenth of January. In Hawaii they do farewells like they do everything else. "BIG" It was a very nice farewell. The stake president asked the Bishop
to talk a few minutes and he told a story that he had never told his daughter about her and how he prayed to the Lord to save his daughter's life. He promised if her life was spared he would try to raise her up to serve the Lord. She wasn't breathing well and was not responding for the first few days after she was born. They didn't know if she would make it so the Dr's sent her to a hospital in Kapolai. She always wondered why her dad alway asked her and not her sisters if she was going to serve a mission. In her talk she felt like he was always picking on her and not her other sisters. She finally found out why she had been singled out. In her talk she said that she absolutely didn't want to go on a mission and then one day she was contemplating and knew it was the thing to do. After the Bishop told his story there wasn't a dry eye in the congregation. After the closing prayer they sang Alaha Oie.  As the congregation was singing people would come up and place lei's around her neck. It made every on cry again.She even received more leis after this. Here Christie is with her mother Robyn. They have been ever so
good to me.
 
Here is the whole Fiu family minus their daughter Nicole who is on a mission in California. She will be home in July. They will have two girls on missions until then. The young lady on the left is a niece who is living with them. Taylor in the blue is getting married in Feb. and the boys Johnathan, right and Joesph left play football and Johnathan dances in the Luau and night show at the PCC. He is quite the dancer. He has been doing it since he was six years old. He used to do the fire knife but his dad told him he wasn't going anywhere with that.
They had a luncheon later in the afternoon. It was just scrumptious with the best pork and shrimp I have ever tasted.


New Year's eve brought a party at the "Beach House." We cooked up soup and bread, and dessert was ice cream sundae's for all the single sister adult missionaries. There were only 3 sisters that couldn't make it. We had a very nice time. Fireworks started at six and didn't end until way after midnight. The fireworks at 12 were spectacular. I bet they spent thousands of dollars on fireworks. They were going off everywhere in the town. It was a panorama of fireworks put on by the citizens. You couldn't sleep if you wanted to. 

Me on the left, and hale sisters, Linda Sherwood, Raeola Baker, Polly Beach left to right. A very nice way to bring in the New Year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2018!

Happy New Year also to those of you who read this blog. I miss you and hope to see you at the end of the year.

The manger scene at the Laie temple visitor's center.

and finally, a few more flowers. I haven't run out yet but the pickings get slimmer.

Lilac's in January
This tree reminded me of our lilac trees back home at least the flowers did.


This is a flower on the rubber tree plant. I used to try and grow this plant at home but didn't know it had flowers on it. The flower is kind of rubbery, also.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!😎