hawaii, day two

we woke up bright and early the next morning (like six am, which is technically ten am in utah time, so not bad at all). after a delicious breakfast at a place called "paradise", we headed out to the swap meet.

the swap meet is basically rows and rows of stands surrounding the stadium, all filled to the brim with cool things for decent deals. it's the best place to get souvenirs or gifts to bring home to family and friends. i ended up picking up a cute backpack (which ended up being super convenient throughout the trip), some odds and ends for my parents, and a baseball cap that said "hawaii" across the front. on our way out, kendrick grabbed a bag of freshly cut pineapple chunks sprinkled with li hing mui , which was obviously as good as it sounds.

next, we headed over to the international market place, which is a newly renovated outdoor mall in downtown honolulu. we must have timed our trip perfectly, because we were actually there for their opening week, and the whole entire place was decked out with hawaiian dancers and a great music.

the highlight of our shopping trip was definitely kendrick finding a shinola store. shinola makes his dream watch, and he's basically obsessed with anything and everything that the brands put out. we spent a good amount of time in the story, until kendrick decided on a few things that he wanted to  take home. he ended up grabbing a navy blue hardcover notebook (that they engraved his initials on with gold ink), and a pretty sweet deck of cards.

(me looking like the ultimate tourist in my palm print romper, new backpack, and spiffy camera)

for lunch, i was craving a hamburger, so kendrick found a hole-in-the-wall restaurant called "burgers and things" only minutes away. i kid you not when i say this place was a hole-on-the-wall. like, it was kind of underneath an overpass and almost looked like it was in a rundown apartment complex. the inside of the place was't much better, as there was only one "u" shaped table that surrounded the area where the food was prepped. however, needless to say, that meal ended up being the best one that we had the entire trip (the boys are still talking about those hamburgers to this day, and kamiya even gets a little emotional when he thinks about it)

we decided to spend the rest of the day at our favorite beach, waimea bay. sadly, the water wasn't as crystal clear as it was last time we were there due to all of the rain the island had the week before. however, i'll take slightly un-clear water over cold rainy days anyday!

confession: i had actually purchased a selfie stick for this trip (ashamed, so ashamed), because i absolutely hate asking strangers to take pictures, and nobody likes the iphone facing camera. however, a couple days before the trip, i purchased a mirror-less dslr camera, and one of the nifty features was the screen that couple be flipped up into selfie mode (picture above was taken using it).  because of this, that selfie stick didn't get pulled out once. i'm just not ready to lose my dignity quite yet... 

(and not to mention the new camera takes bomb photos)

 a picture of the sky on our way home from the beach #nofilter

hawaii, day one

aloha!

and just like that, our ten day hawaiian paradise is over. however, now's the fun part- recapping all of the amazing things we got to do and see (because there was a lot, a lot!) i'll be doing one post for each day... mainly because there will be so many pictures in each one. #pictureoverload

for starters, i have to rewind back to about three days before we left. i'm pretty sure someone out there was trying to keep us from going because i was hit with a super awful and painful uti (we were actually in the temple when it hit, and we had to rush out mid-session and get to the instacare because of the pain). then the next day, kendrick was hit with the flu... which then transferred over to me. we were both literally throwing up and practically in a coma the day before we left (it's safe to say that at that point, neither of us cared if we even went!) we slept at my parents that night (so that they could get us to the airport in the morning), and my dad and a neighbor gave us both a blessing. needless to say, we woke up at four am the next morning, both feeling happy, healthy, and ready to go!

all security lines and flights went smoothly, and we were in hawaii by two pm. it was so surreal being back there again! i don't know what it is about that place, but something is just different. like, even the air just smells and feels different and everywhere you turn is completely picturesque. it truly is paradise.

we picked up our rental car, freshened up a bit at the kamiya's house (aaron's nice family that would be taking us in for the next week and a half), and then headed out for some dinner with brandon, aaron, and a friend of theirs. we ended up getting sushi and taking it over to this place called "china walls", which was this huge rock that overlooked the ocean. the waves were super high and would crash up against the rocks edge, and some people even jumped in for a swim (i'm to big of a scardy cat and can only imagine my body getting tossed around by the waves and getting slammed into the rock wall... no thank you). we ended up staying for an hour or so, enjoying the scenery and the beautiful sunset.

 it was a perfect first night to the perfect trip.

its about time

kendrick and i have been to bear lake three times this summer... three. the first two times were disappointingly rainy and cold. however, the third time (last weekend), was beautiful, sunny, and eighty-five degrees all weekend long. it's about time.

it was such a wonderful getaway with all of kendrick's extended family. we decided to drive up early saturday morning, as we had plans the night before. the entire day ended up being spent on the beach playing bad-mitten, volleyball, and wading in the bright blue water. for lunch, kendrick's uncle made some delicious chicken and steak tacos using a camp stove right on the beach.

after dinner, we all took family pictures, played some corn hole, and an aggressive came of trivial pursuit. lucky for me, i ended up being on the winning team! 

Got to love the matching t shirts.

grateful for weekend likes these, surrounded by some of the best people i know.

busy busy busy

holy moly, this has been a crazy busy summer. i think kendrick and i have been home three weekends in the past two months, not even joking. however, all craziness aside, this has been the most fun and exciting summer we've had together, and we want to remember all of it... so i'm going to try to get around to blogging about all that we have done so far.

oh, and best part? our biggest trip for the summer hasn't even happened yet- we leave for hawaii in eleven days (!!!!) yep, we saved the best for last. ;)

a few of the things we've done this summer (that aren't covered in a post of their own, of course):

- ran our first 5k.

okay, let's read "ran" very loosely... infact, let's replace it with jogging/walking/crawling. jade helped in organizing the "run for the refugees" up in provo, and we thought it would be a great chance to support her and the cause. while the race was free, there was a food truck roundup that took place immediately after, and all proceeds went towards the refugees... so we paid our support through some buffalo fries and cupbop. ;)

- bees games!

i think so far, we have been to three bees games this summer, which we are both totally fine with. get a nice summer night, nachos and an icecream cone the size of my head, and some opportune people-watching, and you know i'm in. 

(one of the times was with kendrick's entire extended family. so fun!)

- attended a fun luau for kendrick's cousin

kendrick has a cousin who plays in the nfl, and we were lucky enough to get some tickets to attend the haloti ngata foundation event/dinner. the night was filled with pro athletes, delicious food, and a legit hawaiian luau.

- went to my company party/luau at the aquarium

healthequity seriously throws the best company parties! eternally grateful to work for such an amazing place.

- attended kendrick's family reunion at the cabin

for the first time in years, almost all of kendrick's family (on the adams side) were in one place at one time! we enjoyed a beautiful evening at the family cabin in oakley, eating delicious food, going on gorgeous walks, and meeting new people (for me, not kendrick).

- decorated and re-decorated our place

i've gone a little crazy this summer, and have rearranged, reorganized, and redecorated our place multiple times. for the first time in a while.. i'm so happy with how it is... for now.  ;)

our cute little patio space

 new coffee table... definitely my favorite piece of furniture that we own!

our new leather tufted armchair that kendrick loves, which is really really rare.

my current project is currently the bedroom... there are so many things i want to do to it, that i don't even know where to get started!

- helped harmony and jeff move

jeff got accepted to dental school in indiana literally last minute, which meant the family had to scramble to help them pack and soak in every last minute with them. i took off work a couple of days before they left to spend some time with harmony and the boys.

it was a super, super hot day.. so obviously a kiddi pool was required.

- "ice" date night

kendrick planned and surprised me with a super cute "ice" themed date night. first, to introduce the theme, he played "ice ice baby" in the car (haha), and then we went ice skating. afterwards, we got some shaved ice. it was the perfect night with my favorite person in the entire world.

oh, i love him.

- went to keys on main
keys on main is this piano bar downtown. basically, people pay these crazy talented pianist/singers to play any song they can think of... while getting crazy drunk. it's pretty entertaining when you're the only sober ones there! it was a fun night celebrating a friends birthday while enjoying some cokes. we were sure to leave by ten o'clock before things got a little too crazy ;)

 

well, that's all for now!