the trip of a lifetime

I realized that this post has been sitting in my drafts for what, like seven months, so thought I should probably share some of our pictures and adventures from our honeymoon in Oahu, so here you go:

This is Pali Lookout - the most windy place you've ever been. I thought I was going to blow right off the side of the mountain. Husband's sunglasses were ripped right off his shirt and blown across the pavement resulting in a number of little scratches in his lenses/on his frames. But it's ok cause it was a gorgeous view!

We went on a lot of hikes that had a really long crazy Hawaiian names that I can't remember... but they were pretty there too!

We lounged on the beach everyday and it was just perfect. The weather was beautiful and the water was clear and blue. Just how I like it!

Anywhere we drove had amazing views because the entire island is green and lush.

Some of our highlights from the trip included going to up to the North Shore to visit my cousin Mary at BYU Hawaii, and then going to see the cute little town of Haleiwa (eating lots of mochi ice cream and snow cones), the Polynesian Cultural Center, and the Temple. Of course we are really bad at picture taking so we don't have any pictures of any of this - besides a few from the temple.

Really sunny, ignore the squinty eyes!

One of our favorite parts of the trip was going to Pearl Harbor. We of course saw the USS Arizona Memorial, which is such a touching and spiritual place to reflect on all the many men and women who give their lives to protect our freedom. We also toured the USS Missouri and the USS Bowfin too! 

Super windy and bright. For some reason I always forgot my sunglasses in the hotel. I also didn't do my hair or wear make-up the entire trip. Well besides my birthday. It was grand. 

I am so glad I never have to live on a submarine. I appreciate my personal space too much to be cramped up on a tiny little sub.

The USS Missouri was cool because we joined the end of a random tour with a guide that knew everything about the battleship. He was even throwing out exact minutes of when things happened on the ship. Pretty cool.

My cousin told us about this great hike called the Pill Boxes and it ended up being our favorite! It was so cool to be able to look out over all of Honolulu.

My birthday happened to be the last day of our trip so Conner and I went parasailing, and man was that fun! We went 800 feet into the air and it was so quiet up there. I thought I would be terrified since heights scare me, but it was actually kinda peaceful and I felt like we were flying.

Conner planned the best honeymoon I could've asked for. We had so much fun lounging and shopping and eating delicious food. Best trip ever! Man, I wish I was back there in sunny Hawaii! Sure is cold here in Utah!

life lately

Photo dump! Here's a smattering of what we've been up to in the past few months...

Jazz game date night! Third row tickets baby, right up there, smelling the sweat! I love dating my husband. We are both so busy with school and work that it doesn't happen very often but it's always great when we do get a chance to get out.

Creeper pic of Brooks from The Bachelorette while out to dinner in Provo!

Not so high-quality photos of our tables from Thanksgiving. My mom, Kate, and I bought about a million candles from TJ Maxx for the centerpieces. It was so fun to have all the family over for one of my favorite holidays. Too bad Dad threw out his back (still doing physical therapy) that morning and had to spend the day on his back on the bedroom floor. Other than that it was great!

Celebrating our first married Dutch Christmas + Christmas in our little apartment! Gotta love my Dutch goodies, thanks Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet! I love being able to carry over my favorite traditions into our new little family unit and start new traditions with husband.

Skyped this happy missionary, we sure love our Elder! So glad he is loving life in Redlands, CA.

We ate way too many yummy treats over the break, cookie sandwiches and Korean banana milk to name a few...

Celebrated the New Year with all the married cousins at a fab party. We were introduced to Ticket to Ride, one of my new favorite games!

We also got to take a trip to another beautiful temple, the Bountiful Utah temple. I love going to the temple with husband. Maybe one day we will go to all the Utah temples. We've been to about half of the CA temples, but not nearly half of the Utah temples. 

Made an ice cream cake to celebrate bro-in-law Reed's birthday. The big 23. The cake was pretty dang good if I do say so myself. Thanks Pinterest.

One of my favorite things to do on the weekends is double with the many awesome married friends we have at BYU. This month we made dinner and played miniature croquet with some of our good friends at the Provo Beach Resort. Have you ever been? So fun!

Bicycle fabric for the pajama pants I'm making in my sewing class at BYU. { The last time I sewed was senior year of high school when mom and I made my prom dress. } The first day we were supposed to cut out the pattern and fabric. I made it all the way to the hem before the TA told me to wait till next class to finish... whoops! I forgot how much I like sewing though so I'm excited for the rest of our projects.

More treats with the fam for the long MLK weekend. Love me some long weekends! Perfect for lounging and catching up on some work. Just two more grad applications to finish up for me and a whole lot of CPA exam studying for husband.

Side note: Today marks three years of Conner & Riley. It's a good day :)