Circle the Island Tour.

Last Saturday we went on an all day tour around the Oahu island. This tour was for BYUH students. (I love how Daniel and I get to do all these cool things for really cheap since he's a student). We loaded the buses at 7:45, bright and early in the morning. Our first stop was:
Valley of the Temples 
Memorial Park

This is the Byodo-In temple, located at the center of a cemetery. This temple was built to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the first Japanese immigrant to Hawaii. It is a replica of the Byodo-In temple in Uji, Japan. 

The temple was surrounded with hundreds of Koi fish swimming in the water. 

Our second stop was the Swap Meet!
A swap meet is basically a huge flee market. You can find all sorts of stuff here! 

Dora, they had your same beach towel!

Our next stop was Pearl Harbor.

This is the USS Arizona Memorial. It is built above the sunken vessel and sailors who died to remind us of their sacrifice. 

Next, we stopped at Wal Mart(which is really far away from Laie, so they stopped here so the students could do some quick shopping).


Finally, our last stop was Matsumoto Shaved Ice. This is a really famous place to get shaved ice on the north shore. The line was insanely long, but it was well worth it. We got a large mango/passion fruit/tangerine flavored snow cone with ice cream on the bottom. It was the best snow cone I have ever had!

:)

Aloha!

We finally made it to Hawaii! It is absolutely beautiful here. Living in a tropical paradise makes me feel so spoiled. Daniel and I live in a small town called Laie, which is on the north east side of Oahu. The people here are so nice. We are so lucky to be here!


The past few days have been a bit crazy. Getting settled into a new place can be a headache. Our apartment is still a disaster. I've been procrastinating unpacking because there are just too many fun things I'd rather be doing! 


Polynesian Cultural Center. 
This past Wednesday we had the opportunity to go to the PCC. We were able to get in for free because it was part of Daniel's BYUH student orientation. I can honestly say that it was one of the coolest experiences that I have ever had. It was so much fun learning about the Polynesian culture!

We watched a canoe show where they performed all kinds of Polynesian dancing. We saw dances from Fiji, Tahiti, Samoa, Tonga, New Zealand, Hawaii, etc.  

This entire place was breath taking. 

See pictures for yourself. 

Later that evening we went to a Luau held for all first year BYUH students (freshmen and transfer students). The food was amazing and the performances were so fun to watch. We saw more Polynesian dancing and a local band played. Afterwards, we ended our amazing day by going to a night show called HA Breath of Life. It was a wonderful performance filled with drums, dancing, music, and singing. The fire dancing was my favorite!  

Montana, Canada, & Seattle.

After we left Texas we had a week of vacationing before we moved to Hawaii. We spent a few days in Montana, a few days in Canada, and a few days in Seattle. I guess you could call us world travelers. ;)


Montana, Big Sky Country

I don't have a picture of Canada, but here's a picture of the adorable Aspen(Daniel's cousin's daughter) who lives in Canada. We stayed with them (Tatum & Jessie) for a few days while we were there. 

Hello Seattle.

This was the main part of our trip. 
We loved it. 

For those of you who claim to be sea food lovers, I'd like to challenge that claim. Until you have eaten at the Crab Pot in Seattle your claims are hollow. One ten foot strip of wax paper becomes the plate for the entire table. They dump your order onto the table from big metal bowls. We ordered two kinds of crab, muscles, oysters, unshelled shrimp, sausage, corn on the cob, and potatoes. Your utensils are a crab fork, a wooden mallet and a plank of wood.  AMAZING!  (This was written by Daniel) 

Before

and...After

Oh baby, that was the best seafood ever.

The Lake House

Daniel's aunt Kim owns an adorable lake house in western Washington. She was so nice to let us stay there. We had the most amazing time relaxing, canoeing, kayaking, fishing, swimming, and spending time with family. 

One day, while I was laying out on a float on the lake, Daniel and Connor decided that it would be hilarious to throw a bunch of nasty, slimy, brown newts at me. One actually hit the back of my head! It scared me so bad, causing me to fall backwards into the water. I was freaking out, perhaps overreacting a bit. They thought it was quite funny. You probably would have thought so too if you were there. Thanks a lot guys...  

When Mama and Papa Bridge came to visit.

Since the entire Bridge clan was already in Texas, Alan and Colleen decided that it was probably a good idea to come visit all of their kids. It was so great to have the whole family together. We mostly just chilled at the pool and ate lots of food while they were here. We also...

Blessed our baby nephew. 
Cute Ole Boy. 

And had a Bridge Family 
photo shoot. 

Photography done by the lovely Mercedez.