POLYNESIAN CULTURAL CENTER

PCC is the coolest! If you have never been, put it on your list to do - you'll be so glad you did!

Our favorite PCC employee - Apele!

In the Tahitian Village, we discovered that Tahitian Coconut Bread is vegan.  So good, and they even give you the recipe!

We HAD to take a picture with a Fijian warrior in the Fiji Village.  Fiji hold such a special place in our hearts.

Ice cold coconut water and learning the hula.

We were practicing our New Zealand eyes.  This picture cracks me up!

We were at PCC the whole day, from open until close. One of my favorite parts was getting a ukulele lesson!

KAWELA BAY AND SHARK'S COVE

Seriously, the COOLEST banyan trees! These trees have been seen in Lost and Pirates of the Caribbean.

This bay was seen in Catching Fire.

Snorkeling at Shark's Cove!

SHE DID IT! SHE DID IT! SHE REALLY, REALLY DID IT!

It was such a fun and special day watching my sister graduate from BYU-Hawaii.

The graduates are entering and taking their seats.

Our proud parents have a front row seat.

The speakers were inspiring.

She's crossing the stage in all her glory.

I love this picture of her and one of her best friends.

The campus is gorgeous!

What a wonderful day!  My sister is amazing.

WE HAD A GIRLS, AND PARENT'S, WEEKEND IN HAWAII

so that we could see my sister graduate from college.
We stayed on the North Shore and had wonderful long weekend in paradise. The only thing that would have made it better was if my man clan were there too.

 My favorite fruit stand is Kahuku Land Farms.  They have a plethora of fresh fruit and super yummy fried banana mochi balls.

They also have the cutest little piglet!

MYSTERY WOMEN GETAWAY

This weekend I was in California with my high school best friend and some other women I hadn't met.
Actually, no one there knew every person, so it was dubbed the mystery women getaway. It ended up being a series of unfortunate events and a lot of amazingness.  It was most definitely a beautiful mess.

Due to a last minute flight cancellation, six of the eight women didn't have a way to California ( I will NEVER fly Allegiant Air) and that started a wave of events.  Luckily they got tickets with another airline, but they weren't able to fly out until the next day.
I was already at the Oakland Airport waiting for them.  Thankfully, one of the other women lives close so I was able to take the BART to her and we started the weekend fun, that sadly, the Utah lasses missed out on.
We bonded straightaway and I feel like I've known Rebecca forever.
We hung out in her neck of the woods and in the morning we drove down to Monterey and went sea kayaking - oh my goodness, was that fun!  One highlight was we had six curious seals that kept coming really close, one even rolled over like it wanted it's belly rubbed!

Finally, everyone was in one place and I got to hug my Kristen Pisten!

It was such a great weekend reconnecting with Kristen and getting to know the other lasses.  We rented an amazing house in Pacific Grove, stayed up to the wee hours of the night, went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, enjoyed the coastal gorgeousness, had a birthday celebration, walked around Carmel, ate at delicious restaurants (every restaurant we went to was very vegan friendly - it was so nice!) explored 17 mile drive and laughed so hard I almost wet pants.
I had no doubt I'd like all the women this weekend, but I had no idea how fast I'd fall for them.  They are spectacular!!  Although this weekend had circumstances beyond our control, this weekend gets a four star review.