Maui: Day 1

Niel returned home from Mexico on Sunday afternoon after being gone for a week. We had only seen each other for about 24 hours during the last two weeks (I saw him for a day after girls camp before he went to Mexico). We got all packed and ready because we had to leave our place around 3:00a.m. Monday morning. Our plane flew out of the LAX airport at 6:00a.m.

This was our first experience flying out of the LAX airport. We learned the hard way because we missed out flight to Maui. I have never missed a flight in my life and I have never seen this type of madness at ANY airport. First of all, finding the longterm parking was a night-mare. It was like half a mile away from the airport and there were no signs at all for it. Once we got on the shuttle from the long-term parking we were the last airline stop. The shuttle stopped at like 15 stops it seemed like and I heard them announce airlines that I had never heard of like "Asian express" and other crazy airline names. Finally when our stop came we saw the line at United....it was the longest line I had EVER seen at an airport check in. To make things worse it was the first day United starting charging for baggage. By the time we got to the front of the line we had 43 minutes until our plane left. The computer wouldn't let us check in because we were two minutes after the 45 minute cut-off. They had about 5 employees working and about 25 computer screens. It was the worst run operation I had seen at the airport. Eventually we were able to reschedule our flight and check-in. At that time I found out my baggage was 8 pounds over the limit. Not thinking I threw a bag full of body lotions and sunscreens into my carry-on bag thinking I was pretty smart since that bag was the heaviest. We continued onto security where we were "randomly selected" for a nationally security checking. It wasn't until then that I remembered about the liquid and gel policy. She threw away 4 bottles of sunscreen, a bottle of aloe Vera, and a bottle of my favorite lotion from Bath and Body works. FREAKIN' TERRORISTS! That's all I had to say.

This is my "we missed our flight to Maui" face. Not happy...not happy at all. And then to make things worse Niel said sarcastically, "Well at least your hair looks nice". Lets just say he wasn't too happy with me because I took too long getting ready in the morning.

We arrived in San Francisco to catch our connecting flight to Maui. Unfortunately our flight was delayed for two hours. They started threatening the possibility of cancelling our flight altogether because they were having problems with the plane. The next flight going to Maui wouldn't be until the following day. At that point I was wondering if there was anything that could have gone worse on our way to Maui. I started wondering if maybe we weren't supposed to go to Maui at all. Just when we were about to go put our names on a waiting list for the next available flight to Maui they told us they would start boarding in five minutes!! We were SO relieved! Five hours later than we were originally supposed to arrive in Maui we showed up. Once we were in Maui it was all bliss. It didn't take us long to forget about the long, stressful trip there.

We got our little red rental car and we were off!! On our drive to Lahaina we were amazed by the beauty of Maui. EVERYTHING looked like a postcard.

We stayed at the Royal Lahaina. We loved where we stayed because the beach was beautiful and right outside our cottage, it wasn't crowded, but we were still only a 15 minute walk to Whaler's Village. Whaler's village was an outdoor shopping area right on the beach with uppity shops like Louis Vuitton and yummy restaurants. We were only about a 10 minute drive from down-town Lahaina too. This was the cute little cottage we stayed in. It was surrounded by gorgeous trees, flowers, & vegetation. This is Kaanapali Beach. It was about 3o steps from our porch. The water was clean, blue, and warm. This beach was gorgeous....way better than the ones we saw in the Caribbean and in Cabo. It was never crowded either.

This is our cute little cottage on the inside. We loved it!

First walk on the beach when we got in late Monday afternoon.

This is the golf course that surrounded the resort we stayed at.

We walked to Whaler's Village and went to dinner at "Hula Grill". This is a barefoot bar and grill that is on the sand right next to the ocean. Everyone told us we had to go here. This was probably my favorite restaurant we went too.

At our table on the sand under the little huts:)

We got to watch the sunset that night....yes that is the beach right behind us.

These guys serenaded us while we had dinner to island music. I am now into island music.

After dinner we walked around the shops at Whaler's Village. These little Hawaiian girls were doing a hula performance in the center of the shopping area. It was so adorable! They were really good and could really shake it!

Post-Girls Camp

This is what I looked like after girl's camp....very torn up ha ha. I averaged about 4-5 hours of sleep during the week. I came home from girls camp and slept ALOT.

GIRLS CAMP!!! August 4th-8th

This spring I was called to be the assistant stake Young Women's Girls' Camp director. After months of preparation it finally came. It was an amazing week and awesome experience for me. I know that the church leaders were definitely inspired when they asked me to do this. I think I needed the week at girls camp more than the girls needed me as their leader. It was so fun to get to know the girls in the stake and in my ward better. I had a very spiritual, uplifting week, and my testimony was strengthened by the girls.

Girls Camp was at Cabrillo Youth Camps which is a camping site on the beach for youth camps. It is in San Pedro California (outside of L.A.). The week was sooo much fun. Let me tell you about all the things we did! We swam in the swimming pool and rode the canoes. We did certification, made kites, made leather bookmarks, and sea shell picture frames. We also went to the tide pools and the impressive aquarium they have there. Of course we spent time swimming and playing at the beach. One of my favorite things we did was our barbecue at the beach. We roasted hot dogs and s'mores over a bon-fire at the beach. Afterwards bishop Gardner played the guitar while we sang. The skits the girls put together were hilarious. One night we did "singing by the sea" (we sang church hymns at night next to the shore). We took a tour of one of the first lighthouses ever constructed, went on a hike, and enjoyed a wonderful presentation by the fire department. On the last day while waiting for our bus the polynesian girls taught me how to hula! One of the best parts of the week was testimony meeting night. Our bishop brought our ward In-N-Out for dinner and then gave us a spiritual thought. After that we went to testimony meeting. I felt the spirit very strong that night during both the bishops' lesson and the testimony meeting. It was such a great week and I left wanting to be a better person.

Skit night. See that full-body gorilla suit? Yes, that is the suit Gabby Barnes wore as she hid in the bushes and jumped out to scare Niel when he came to camp for a night. It was planned and executed very well. We scared him pretty bad and all the young women had a good laugh. Thanks for being a good sport Niel! Did I mention that they also toilet-papered and saran wrapped his car?! ha ha!!
Gayle Land's chance with squirting the fire hose (our ward's Young Women's President).
This was the charming fire fighter Eddie Martinez that did a presentation at girl's camp. I am pretty sure he was some of the girls' favorite part of the week. Tishnae here on the right asked him if he was "September" in the fireman's calendar! He got a lot of cat calls and pictures with the young women.
This picture cracks me up. This was the morning we left when we had a sunrise ceremony at 5:30 a.m. They were definitely not awake.

Girls bonding at the beach.
Bishop Gardner playing his guitar while we sand church songs around the bon-fire on the beach.
This is sadly one of the few pictures I am actually in and not taking thanks to Gayle Land. Brenda, Tishnae, me, and Alex at the beach.
Sand Castle competition!! Hunter and Georgette.

This was one of the bus rides up to Cabrillo Youth Camps. I was the adult supervisor who signed the bus reliability release form...let me tell you, that felt weird to be the "adult". I laughed.
First day at camp...everyone looking cute in their camp t-shirts!
Two of the girls from my ward(Taylor & Alex) looking cute at the beach in their matching swimsuits.
Alex stealing my camera and taking unauthorized photos as always:)
I love these girls...Alex, Taylor & Gabby

My First Post!

Well here I am writing my first post...and I swore I would never do a blog. I always thought it was pretty cliche. Something every young married mormon couple creates to show off their adventures and their cute kids. The last three or four years my new years resolution has been "Start writing in your journal". Now four years later with very little journal writing completed, I decided I was going to start a new thing. I am a fast typer (65 wpm suckers) and I am on the internet alot. I think I might be on to something here. More than anything I want my blog to be a little journal for myself. (that is a disclaimer to everyone who might get on here-yes it might not always be lots of pictures and pretty layouts) But it will also be great for keeping in touch with family in friends.