Hawaii!!!

 TJ and I had a fabulous time in Hawaii for our 10 year anniversary!  We went to Pearl Harbor on our last day and happened to run into TJ's Aunt, Uncle & cousins. It is definitely a small world, we did know that they were in Hawaii but we had no idea what island they were on, or that they were going to Pearl Harbor on the same day as us!
( Whenever we had someone take a picture of us they always took it from so far away that you can hardly see us, sorry.)

 This guy was hilarious, he asked me where I was from and then showed me a Utah handshake which was about milking cows.

 We had a great time at the Polynesian Cultural center, it was amazing to get a taste of the culture of these little islands all in one place!  We went to the Luau which was fun  and then stayed for the Breath of Life Evening Show which was absolutely incredible.  It was Broadway quality the whole way through and breathtaking!

 These boys climbed these coconut trees in seconds flat!

 I had read that if you were in Oahu you had to try out the shrimp shacks that were along the North Shore.  After convincing TJ of the idea we had a fabulous lunch of jumbo shrimp and........

 DEEP FRIED TWINKIES!!

 On the Big Island we went and saw the volcano.  We weren't able to get close enough to see the lava but at night you could see the lava glowing.  TJ loved reading and learning all about this.

 Our Ziplining Adventure!  This was definitely the most exhilarating thing that we did.  I am not normally scared of heights but on the second zipline we had to climb this tower pretty high and when you were told to step off that ledge it definitely made my stomach churn!  Ziplining through the rainforest, in the rain, was super fun!

 TJ was brave enough to take out the camera and video me going down the zipline as he was going down it!

 We went Boogie Boarding at Hapuna Beach and it was a lot more fun than we thought it would be.  It took us a few tries to figure out how to catch the wave but super fun once we got the hang of it!  When you're out in those waves you can feel how powerful the ocean really is.

 Us at the Kona, HI temple.

 We went snorkeling at Kealukekua Bay and swam with 40 wild dolphins.  We showed up to nothing more than a parking lot with a bunch of Hawaiians willing to rent you snorkel gear and a kayak and spent a great day swimming with the dolphins.  I guess these spinner dolphins call this bay home and are here quite a bit.  We happened to come on a good day where they gave us a great show.  They were not scared of humans at all and they would swim right around you and under you;  I even got to touch one as it swam by!  We swam with sea turtles and saw lots of colorful fish too!

 If you look close you can see these dolphins swimming right next to us.

 We stayed at the Waikoloa Hilton and it was Paradise!  I wish I would have taken more pictures but it was beautiful!  We spent a lot of time just relaxing here at the resort!

 They had an all you can eat Breakfast Buffet in the morning and I'm embarrassed to admit that the first morning I had 5 plates of food.  TJ definitely got his feel too!  We ate so much in the mornings that we weren't even hungry until dinner time!  A few of my favorites were the omelets, the mansatas, the coconut syrup and the fresh squeezed orange juice.  For some reason food always tastes so good when you aren't the one that had to make it!!

 One day I'll be able to make omelets like they do!!

 These dolphins were right at the resort and were very entertaining to watch!

Hide & Seek!

Cambree's been wanting to play hide & seek a lot lately, and this is one of her best hiding spots! Need I say more???

I DID IT!!!

 This was the start of my very first 1/2 marathon, 13.1 miles!!!!  As we watched the weather the night before we noticed that they were forecasting rain and up to 50 mph winds.  I was thinking positive and hoping and praying that the weather report was absolutely wrong.  We were in St. George and it hadn't rained since the last time we were there trying to see the play "The Little Mermaid" in an outdoor theatre for Kaylee's B-Day!  As I laid in bed trying to sleep at 5:30 I was awoken by........  you guessed it pouring rain & wind!!! The thought came into my head, "Come what may and Love it!!"  So that's just what we did, we started with rain and ended with pouring rain but we DID IT!!!

 This is just a shot of the finish line that we were hoping to cross in a few hours!

 My friends husband and kids met us at 3 different points along the race, we handed off unwanted gear and they got some fun pictures!! This is about mile 5 1/2 after climbing a hill at least it wasn't raining!

Mile 8 1/2 and feeling great! We had just finished the 8 miles of constant up and down hills, the downhills are always so much easier than the up.  As we could see our destination below from up on the hill it didn't seem like that much farther to go but we obviously didn't get a straight shot across the valley.  At mile 10 1/2 as the wind was hitting us in the face, the rain was pouring down and we were climbing the last hill  I began to wonder if I would be able to keep going.  That's why you run with amazing people that keep you going and going.  All I could do at that point was put one foot in front of the other & keep telling myself I had ran 2 1/2 miles a million times before!!

I put this picture in just so you could see how hard it was raining!

Me taking my last few steps into the finish line! We had just ran along way!!!

 Kim, Me, & DonaMae just after crossing the finish line!! We finished in 2 hours 14 min.  sopping wet from head to toe!  These women are incredible and we kept each other going the entire race, we stuck together and there is no way I could have done it without them! These girls trained with me day in and day out in sometimes temperatures of 10 degrees to keep logging all of the miles that we needed to be adequately trained for this!! Considering that we can all walk today and are not really sore I think our training paid off!

My in-laws were so nice to watch my kids so I could accomplish my goal, they had helped my daughters make these cute hearts filled with candy that had their hand written notes.  As weird as it may sound I was  emotional as I crossed the finish line and saw my girls, nieces, sister-in-law, and in-laws standing in the pouring rain to cheer me on!!! And yes, TJ wouldn't have missed it if he wasn't out of town for work! 

In the end, I asked myself was that worth it? And I can answer with a definitive YES, every step was worth it to work hard at something and accomplish a goal, it's an incredible feeling!!!

 Me and Lindy after the race, she finished about 12 minutes before I did but it was still fun to have her there, maybe one day I'll be able to keep up with her!!