Hawaii

I love to look back over the past year at New Years and see all the blessings that have unfolded during that year. I can never just pick one highlight of each month so sorry there are multiple pictures for some months!

January- we started 2013 at the Rose Parade and Rose Bowl. It was so much fun and something we will always remember! We also went to Kauai with the Warrens!

February-we added sweet little Leo to our family! He makes us smile and laugh every day.

March- Rachel got her Mission call to Spain! Mark and I celebrated our 24th birthdays and lots of other family birthdays.

April- we got to go to the temple with Rachel, it was a great experience. I love my family 🙂

May- we got to meet our newest niece Coraline! Taylor turned sweet 16!

June- our family said goodbye to middle school and went to Courtney’s promotion.

July- this was a busy month for our family. My mom, Rachel and me went to southern California for my cousin Natasha’s wedding. While we were there we hit up Disneyland. It was a blast! We then said goodbye to Rachel for 18 months and our family headed to Utah for a Barker family reunion. It was great to be with family and especially my 99 year old great-grandfather! While there I got to catch up with my favorite roommates and their husbands! It was definitely a highlight of the year.

August- Mark and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary with a getaway to beautiful Jenner, CA. Mark is the best thing that has ever happened to me. I’m so blessed to share my life with this cute boy.

September- I went shooting with my little sister Courtney.

October- We were very fortunate to get to go to Hawaii for a 2nd time this year! This time we went to Oahu. I got to check paddle boarding off my bucket list, I loved it! We also threw a Murder Mystery Halloween party.

November- we celebrated my wonderful dad’s 50th birthday!

December- it has been a very busy month for us, per usual. We started the month off by going down to southern California for our niece Belle’s baptism. We obviously couldn’t pass up an opportunity to go Disneyland and see the Christmas Decorations. It was the BEST!

We also got to spend LOTS of time with family.

My dad took us to the Fight Hunger Bowl at AT&T Park to watch BYU & Washington State. We love going and especially love the perks of my dad’s job! Thanks Dad!

December was a tough month for our little kitty. He turned 1 this month! We had to take him to the vet a couple of times and also thought we were going to have to put him down a couple of time. It was emotionally exhausting but we are happy we get to have him longer. Hopefully 2014 is a little easier on him.

2013 was a good year, we were so blessed to have the opportunity to go to Hawaii twice, adopt Leo, send off the cutest little missionary, and spend lots of time with family and friends. I’m so grateful for everyone in my life. I’m excited to see what 2014 holds! Happy New Year!

A couple of weeks ago we were lucky enough to go to Oahu! Mark had to go for work (tough job, right?) and I tagged along! I have to say October is a great time to go on vacation! It’s nice to go somewhere warm when it’s starting to get cold here, come back tan and ready for fall!

We had a great time. It was fun to go to a different island and see and do different things. Oahu has great beaches. Perfect waves that are fun to dive in and out of without getting pummeled into the shore. I already want to go back! We mostly hung out at Turtle Bay. We would go lay on the beach and float in the ocean for the first half of the day and then sneak over to the pool at the resort. One day we went to Waikiki. That place is great but soo crowded. I am glad we went though. It was really the only “touristy” thing we did. We walked around the international market place, which is going out of business. I was on the hunt for one thing for Mark for Christmas…but I had no such luck . Then we walked through some of the gorgeous hotels like the Moana Surfrider (which is stunning. I hope to stay there one day, or have a house designed after it) and the Royal Hawaiian. Both hotels had these huge rocking chairs on the porch so we sat and rocked for a little bit. Then we headed to the beach and found our selves some Stand up paddle board rentals! After paying they basically sent us out. All they told us was to stand with our knees bent. They didn’t even tell us which boards to take, or warn us that they weighed a ton! I couldn’t even carry it to the water, Mark had to do it for me! (Pathetic.) Mark really didn’t want to try the SUPB because he was embarrassed that he wouldn’t be able to stand up. But he was a good sport and new I REALLY wanted to do it, so he came with me. We started out on our knees and paddled out away from the crowds and then decided to just try and stand up. Next thing I knew I was standing and saw Mark standing, then a wave came and took him out. But he got back up and we had a blast! At one point there were 3 sea turtles right next to us! It was amazing! We both fell once or twice but it wasn’t bad (although I did get a raspberry on my stomach from the board.) We were so glad we did it and would totally recommend it to everyone! My legs were sore the next day from squatting and trying to stay balanced.

The rest of our trip consisted of hitting the beach, eating amazing food, going to a high school football game (Mark is the only person who goes to Hawaii and wants to go to a hs football game, but those guys were massive!), eat haupia pie from Teds, watching the locals surf and boogie board in the huge swells, and eating lots of coconut-macadamia nut shrimp.