It has been downright chilly here. We have been keeping all windows closed, and when I work from home I wear sweats, a hoodie, socks, and wrap myself in a blanket. Scott woke up in the middle of the night the other day, and it was 60 degrees! That might not sound bad to you, but with our acclamation to paradisical temperatures it has been so frigthfully cold. This has been going on about 3 three weeks. 

So about two weeks ago, on a Saturday, we got fed up. We had been locked inside for weeks. We headed to Sandy's beach, on the East side, where it is always great weather no matter what the rest of the island is like. Sandy's, aka break neck beach, is great for body boarding because of it's great shore breaks. But when we went on that Saturday it was flat like a lake. Well, as flat as Sandy's gets, so about 3 foot waves. 
So we decided to head to ....(dun dun dun) the SECRET BEACH. We had been eyeing this beach for over a year, and we finally decided to go. Near Sandy's is the blow hole lookout point. The blow hole is a rock cliff with cracks in it where waves come in through the cracks and the water shoots up like a whale's blow hole. When you are up at the blow hole lookout point you can see down a steep cliff to this tiny cove with a beach in it. It is gorgeous, and usually there is no one there, but the day we went there was a circus there! (Almost literally, there was a bunch of hipsters from Denver there hula hooping like they were the shiz)
The waves at Secret Beach were great, it was like being in a wave pool, they kept pulling you forward and back and they just kept rolling. Here are some pics from the day. 
This is a picture of Sandy's- look how flat this is!


A view of the Secret Beach from the blow hole lookout point. 







Look at that waterfall It's basically the back side of the blow hole. 

 
The people up at the top of the cliff are at the blow hole lookout point. 









I am loving this lighting! Too bad it didn't last long, I only got a few shots. 








This is a great reflection pic, right? People probably thought I was a pedo because I was taking pictures of this kid, but you do what you do for a great picture. Right? Right?



The crazy circus Denver hipsters. 

Taken with our water proof camera. 


And this last picture is of my handsome husband Scottie. 

I know many of you (those in Heber with -22 and Wisconsin with -4 degree weather) are feeling bad for us and our chilly weather that prevents us from going to the beach like usual ;). 




Sushi in Waikiki is AMAZING. Or so we hear. Scott is allergic to shellfish, I don't really eat fish (except Salmon), and sushi is expensive. So a few weeks ago me and Scottie decided to bring the experience home. That's right peeps, we made our own California rolls.
And everybody was kang-fu fighting.
Just kidding, no one was fighting, or singing. They were just really hungry, because the rice took so freaking long to make. 2 hours!
Do you know all of the things I could do in 2 hours?!
I could;
watch 2/3 of a Lord of the Rings movie.
Play a full game of Settlers of Catan.
Make and eat  a pork roast, mashed potatoes, and string beans.
Shower 6 times.
Take a decent nap.
Clean the house and do the laundry.
Drive around the entire island.
Go through a temple session.
Eat all the mushrooms I want (hahahaha- you see, this is funny, because it would take me .00001 seconds to eat them all- I hate mushrooms, they are fungus!).
Write a 5 page paper.
Go on a date with my husband.
Work for 1/4 of a day.
Sew a skirt.

Annnnyways. So, the rice took really long to cook. But after we were done with the rice we cooked a piece of Salmon. Then we rolled the rice, salmon, and avocado inside the seaweed with this nifty bamboo sheet (some had the rice on the outside too). And then we enjoyed!
Man it was soooo delicious.
Worth the 2-3 hours of cooking.


The Sushi-making station. Scott was really good at this- he was a sushi chef!



Here is the bamboo mat you roll things on. 

Here is me, holding up the mat, all rolled up with the sushi roll inside. 



Scottie, cutting up the sushi rolls. 

Cheers with our sushi!

Here is to our fun and adventurous cooking! The little things are fun, and every once in a while even non-adventurous me likes to do fun things!

Even more pictures!
 I know my last post was all about how much I love Hawaii, but I love Utah too. For totally different reasons. Mostly being the people in it, my family and close friends. Me and Scott were lucky enough to find some good deals on tickets home for the holidays, about $420 a piece, round trip. A steal from Hawaii. We spent the entire two weeks eating food, and hanging out with the family. I still had to work, which was a bummer (vacations just aren't the same as an 'adult'), but it was still more than worth it.
Another plus about Utah is cute clothes- in Utah you can layer, wear boots, tights, scarfs, mittens, hats, ect. In Hawaii you wear short and a top, or a breezy dress. I can't curl my hair, wair too many accessories, and definitely no cardigans. We missed our cute winter outfits!
Here is a pic just outside my sister's house in Kaysville.

I was loving this horse. From a distance. Horses are scary, yo. Stay back you beautiful, untamed stallion.


This is baby Lyla, so big! She is such a happy baby, I could just steal her!

Here is my Uncle Allen and Aunt Jullie. They are living in Heber right now, searching for a home in the area (what good taste they have!).

In this picture is: Sydnie, Liz, Laurie, and my mom.

This picture was taken one of the first nights we arrived, where we had a family Spaghetti dinner night. I don't think spaghetti is worth eating, but it sure does make for cute babies!
 
Also while we were in Utah Scott's dad, Dave, came out for 4 days for a job interview. We made him stay at my parents house so we could spend some time with him, but he and Scott pretty much balked at all camera oportunities I offerred them, so I don't have any pictures to prove he was there, you will just have to believe me. We only got to see Scott's brother, Brent, and sister in law, Janeese, for one dinner before they left to Califronia for the holiday, so no pictures of them either. I feel like I am giving an un-equal number of pictures to my side of the family, and I am trying to tell you why it seems like I am prejudiced. Because I know what every member of the family on either side wants is to be in photos on my blog.


This picture kills me. I want to cuddle her!

Here is my aunt Lynette, the Lady in Red. Right before this picture she probably said "You're so good looking" and right after, "I love you". What a sweetheart. Her and my Uncle Kim came to spend Christmas with us. Their caretaker, Allyn, is an angel, truly. She does so much, our whole family was exhausted just helping them for 4 days. I have no idea how she does it. She is an endlessly strong, happy, and celestial being. She will be as rich as Oprah in heaven, and I wish I had a picture of her to put in here.

Here is a picture of me and Scott, Myspace style.

And a cute pictue I insisted we take because it was the first time I had ever worn red lipstick and not been on a dance stage.

This picture reminds me of the scene in The Nutcracker where the tree and the presents get bigger and bigger and BIGGER. I love it.


 
My family went tubing at Soldier Hollow, in Midway, on Christmas Eve. I had to work, so I couldn't go, but they all had lots of fun, and Scott got some great pictures with his waterproof camera.  
 
Tait and Liz.
 
Laurie, Sydnie, Dane, and I believe in that little tube is Trey.
 
Allie, Lucas, and Ethan.
 
Tien.
 
Reid.
 
 

Lyla, not looking too happy.


Lyla, looking more happy. 


Trey, cozied up in the tube.
 
After tubing we started our traditional Christmas Eve activites; pizza for dinner, singing Christmas songs, reading the Christmas story.
 

Isaac played us some Christmas songs on Christmas eve.

Allie played some as well. It was great to have Dane's family come into town for the holidays, since I rarely get to see them. Their kids are growing up so fast- Isaac is even in Young Men's!

Here is a picture of mom playing the piano while we had our yearly family caroling. Scott told me he was a little wierded out that my family would gather round together and sing. He said he liked it, but that it wasn't something he had experienced before. Which I thought was so funny, becuase we do it every year, so it seems normal to me. And I love it. I love how different every family is.

Here is a room shot of everyone gathered round to sing. We have some exceptionally good voices in my family (Mom, Tait, Colby, Dane, ect), and some exceptionally bad voices (me). But we always have fun, and everyone sings no matter what. Tait, Liz, and Tien even did a song for us where they sang in Thai, and Tien sang in Thai by herself! If I knew how to post videos on here I would post it. (PS, if anyone wants to teach me how I challenge you to do it).
 
On Christmas Day here is Colby and his friend Merga, who spent the holidays with us.

Mine and Scott's stockings, the princess and the Cowboys QB. Pretty much describes us.

Here I am in my festive wear, green polka-dot long john jammies and reindeer horns that jingle.

In my family you have two gift that you give each year. One is a gift-gift, which we got for Colby this year, and the other is a 'creative gift' where you make something to give someone. Here is Colby opening up part of his gift from us, very sexy like (or so he thought). We got him a remote control hellicopter, and two Wall Climber cars (they have vacuums on the bottom so they can go up walls).


Lynette enjoyed opening her many presents. She had more than anyone, and she opened them as slowly as possible, to soak in all of the attention. She was beaming.

Here is Scott playing with the remote control hellicopter that I got him for Christmas as well. (Our nephew Isaac got one too- thanks Costco!)


Look at that tiny pink lace top- it's the same one my brisdemaids wore at my wedding! I was dying!



Here is a photo on the last night we were in Utah. The siblings; Dane, Kelsey, Sydnie, Tait, and Colby. We missed Reid, who was there earlier that night, but 5/9 is pretty good.
 
I am so so grateful we got to go home for the holidays. I miss all members of our family so much, I don't know how I am going to survive when we move to Hong Kong! We didn't get to see everyone this holiday, but quite a few. I love everything about Christmas, but mostly the family time.
And you know what? My family is my best friends. Literally. The older I get the more I enjoy them. They are the best kind of friends; always watching out for you, giving to you, loving you. And mine are soo funny, and would give anything for you (well, me at least ;) ). My mom used to tell me that the best gift she could ever give me was siblings, and I definitely agree.

 
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