kauai day 6

ah. It feels good to be home but I seriously miss Hawaii. This post is definitely late, but it's better than never, right? I've been pretty busy since I've been home: catching up with my friends, eating gelato from Whole Foods (yes, this was on my to-do list), sending out an order from my etsy shop, and creating scrapbook layouts and projects because I'm going to apply for the design team of American Crafts!

Anyways, the last day I was in Hawaii my dad and I went on a kayaking and hiking day trip:

I kayaked for the first time and overall, I thought it was really fun. We kayaked five miles! That's probably not a lot, but I felt pretty good about it.

I decided to wear these shoes instead of my Birkenstocks because of the whole pinkie toe issue. Way better choice. These shoes gave me no hassle; no slipping and sliding or tripping once!

Our group walking through a river. Have you ever seen the show "Survivor"? This is a little embarrassing, but I was sort of pretending I was in the show while I was walking through the river and muddy trails. I wasn't actually acting it out, but I was thinking it...

After a few miles of hiking we came to these falls. I swam in that pool for a bit and it felt fantastic but I kind of just wish there were less people.

My dad and I :)

Hawaii,

I miss you already. But don't you worry. I'm coming back! And next time, I'm bringing SPF 100+ and proper hiking shoes...

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kauai day five

I discovered my new favorite thing on this earth (well, maybe just in Hawaii). Men hula dancers. Could anything be sexier? haha we'll get to that part later. This morning Paige and I went snorkeling and I've never seen more colorful fish. We bought a couple of biodegradable bags that have fish pellets in them. Once your in the water, you slit open the bag and shake it. When I tried it, literally out of nowhere, HUGE fish came to me and were eating the food. I took pictures with an underwater camera so I'll definitely post the pictures after I develop them.

We also went to a part of the island that looked like it hadn't been touched. ever. I felt like I was on LOST:

Yes! The water is that blue!

Really cool view on the beach.

Oh this was so cool. You see the crack by my feet? When the water would crash into the sand the air would blow out of this hole from underneath. Or at least that's my theory. And this is me attempting to be the Marilyn Monroe of Hawaii. Fail.

A pretty sweet crevasse.

A man made hut. I'm assuming a native from Hawaii made this. It'd be so fun to sleep in here for the night though!

Later in the evening my grandparents took us to a luau. Dang these girls can dance!

Back to the guy hula dancers. ooohhh boy. There's really no explanation for this. It's pretty much self explanatory in this picture. If you haven't been to a luau before, I'd say... put it on your bucket list!

All the hula girls did a show near the end with fire poi. So impressive and dangerous and exciting. Learning how to do this is officially on my bucket list.

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kauai day four

Wanna know what I did today? A whole lot of relaxing. And when I say relaxing, I mean tanning. My family went back to the canyons today to see another view of the Na Pali coast and there wasn't enough room in the car for me... so I stayed back and laid at the pool all day. Literally. My aunt and I got up at 7:30 (in the morning!) and stayed outside in the same spot until 3.

I started reading another book by my favorite true crime writer, Ann Rule. This one's called "A Fever in the Heart". I'm almost already half way done. She's an amazing author. It was nice to lay around and feel the sun on my legs (which, yes, I burned again) and the constant breeze through my hair all day.

I didn't really take any pictures today, but when I got back my mom and I walked on the beach and had a miniature photo shoot.

Trying to look candid...

And I leave this journaling tonight with a picture of this cute boy:

While my mom was taking pictures, we noticed this typical cute local surfer boy finish surfing and coming back from the ocean. My mom knows exactly what type of boys a like. And she was right on the spot about this one. I'm not sure who saw him first, but she started snapping photos of him and I'm pretty sure he knew we were taking pictures of him too because I was all, "mom stop!" and probably blushing/smiling real hard at him. Are my mom and I creepers or what?

I love this place.

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kauai day three

This morning we woke up at about 6 to go on a hike on the Na Pali coast. The drive there was about one and a half hours because we had to drive all the way around the island, instead of straight across because of the mountains. It was already 78 degrees by 7 in the morning...

The hike was 8 miles and totally worth it. If you go to Kauai, you must go on this hike! We didn't purchase permits (or have the right gear), but I really wanted to keep going along the Kalalau trail which is an additional eleven miles.

When the trail started, it immediately shot uphill at a pretty steep incline. After about a half mile, this was the view. Spectacular! My Birkesntocks didn't let me down. At first, that is...

A peek through the trees at some mountains.

My sista walking through a river. There were a ton of little creeks and rivers on the way. This is where I was grateful I was wearing sandals. I didn't have to take them off and it was nice to have water cooling and cleaning my dirty feet along the way.

The hike went way way up, then way way down to this beach. The water was so clear.

After chilling at the beach for a little bit, the hike went straight up again along a super muddy and skinny trail. At one point, there were clusters of bamboo trees left and right. My mom and I discovered our new favorite sound today. As the wind would blow, the bamboo trees would hit each other and make a really awesome clicking noise.

Another awesome view.

Finally at the waterfall. So grand!

By the time we got to the falls, I was super hot. Jumping in the water was a must.

Dear Birkenstocks, you let me down! Earlier in the hike I was really glad to be wearing sandals, especially you. On the way back, I was obviously not watching where I was going, and I stubbed my toe on a rock or branch or something. It HURT. At first I thought it was just bleeding a little bit, but then I realized my toe nail was freaking falling off. If you're grossed out now, don't read the rest. By the end of the hike, I had to pull the nail off because it was irritating me so much. Now I have a naked pinkie toe. For the rest of the week. Perfect.

After the hike we stopped at a shave ice hut. In Hawaii, it's not shaved ice, it's shave ice. I ate a blue raspberry shave ice. Reaaallly good.

I did a little snorkeling later in the afternoon and went to a burger place with my family for dinner. I'll be relaxing for the rest of the night 'cause my legs and pinkie toe hurt a little. Night!

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kauai day two

Besides being completely sunburned on the back of my legs and feeling like there are a hundred little pins on the back of my knees, hawaii is great! haha no really though, it's awesome.

We drove to the west side of the island to these canyons that were massive and dry and rocky:

After starting a blog and taking a lot of pictures, I'm beginning to realize that photos can't capture how huge or beautiful a place really is. But trust me, this place is big. (And that's the last time I'll mention the immensity of Kauai... I'm just still surprised at the size!)

My family. From left to right: grandpa Ted, grandma Warner, my mom, me, my dad, Paige, Fox, Chris, Aunt Katie, and Uncle Steve. Still wearing church clothes. haha.

Taking pictures of myself in the canyons.

I'm obsessed with this little boy. You'll be seeing lotsa pictures of Fox and I. I woke up this morning and when I walked in the room where Fox was, he got a big ol' smile. It just warmed my heart! Not sure if he was smiling because I came in the room or he was just happy, but it made me feel gooood.

Fantastic Mr. Fox.

For the rest of the day I just chilled at the beach and swam in the ocean. You know, relaxed and all. That's what Hawaii is for, right? My dad and I snorkled in the ocean at some point and saw dozens of different fish right below our feet. They were pretty big and really bright highlighter colors. Oh how I wish I had an underwater camera...

The sunset at poi pu beach. (I'm not sure how to spell the beach name and I'm too lazy to look it up right now).

The internet is c.r.a.p.p.y here so hopefully I'll be able to journal everyday. Hopefully. Tomorrow we're getting up at six to go on a hike on the other side of the island. So excited! I'm also trying to convince my dad to let me go skydiving this week (and maybe pay for a little of it). We'll see how that goes...

note to self: If not now, when?

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kauai day one

We made it! After switching planes not once, not twice, but three times (yesterday), we finally made it to Hawaii. I've never been here before and so far this place is a dream. It's actually making me wish I got accepted into BYU Hawaii. Sniff sniff. I'm sure I'm going to love Rexburg, but if I don't, I seriously might consider transferring to Hawaii. In fact, I might transfer to Hawaii anyways just for the change. What Allison?! Wait a second. I haven't even started my freshman year yet. Let's slow down here...

Surprisingly, the weather here is weirder than the weather in Seattle. It rained here today. I mean it poured here today. Luckily though it lasted for less than a half hour. It's been pretty windy and a little cloudy, but overall it's super hot.

Here are a few things I did today:

Stumbled upon this little guy while I was walking on the beach. How cute! He'd lift up his arm every couple of minutes like he was going back into the water, but then he'd flop right back down. Oh and while I was taking this photo there was the most annoying couple behind me telling me how I should act. This old lady was yelling to me, "Stay six feet away! NO flash on your camera!" I wanted to turn around and be like, "Hey lady! Excuse me. This Hawaiian Monk Seal could care less that I'm taking a picture of him. He could care less!" I was seriously annoyed because who do they think they are? I wasn't harming him I promise.

We drove to Spouting Horn Beach Park. It's a small lava shelf where water from waves is thrust through an opening, causing water and air to squirt out a blowhole. coooool.

Fox and I. My favorite lil' nephew ever.

A valley in Kauai. I wasn't expecting this island to be so big. For real. I thought it'd be about a 45 minute drive around the whole island, but apparently not. So big!

I made a another little friend today. We stopped at this abandoned sugar factory and there were two random goats who were really friendly. The smaller one poked his head in between the fence and wanted me to pet him. I couldn't resist.

Smoochies!

We walked through a golf course to see this lighthouse. prettttyyy.

My sister caught this picture of me jumping in the air at the golf course. Notice my brother in law, Chris, looks like he's being impaled by a palm tree. Ha! And it wasn't even on purpose.

I'm going to try to blog every night so I don't mix up my days by the time I get home. Stay tuned!

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the fourth in seattle

Seattle didn't let me down yesterday! They weather was perfect. I did a lot yesterday so I'm just going to sum it up:

-Rode longboards and walked the street markets in Carnation with Mackenzie. I was a little nervous to use my longboard on the sidewalk but it was easier than I thought.

-Went to Seattle with Eric, Tanya, and Mackenzie and rowed in those canoes you can rent at UW. I've never done it before! It was so fun, but Kenzie and I have no coordination together. It was sad. Let's see, we almost hit a few baby ducklings, a birds nest with a mother and her eggs, and we did a few logs here and there.

-From the parking lot where we parked our car to canoe, Kenzie and I rode our longboards and Eric and Tanya rode scooters to Gasworks park. Difficult to go through thousands of people on this trail, but worth it.

-Watched fireworks at gasworks. They were HUGE. We left a few minutes early to get back on the trail and longboard back so it wouldn't be so busy, and that was a success. But as we were leaving the fireworks were still going on and there were thousands of people; it felt like I was in the movie "Sandlot" like on their fourth of July night. By the end of the night Kenzie and I were pretty smooth at boarding. We'll definitely have to go to that trail again.

Note to self: ehh I'm going to miss you Seattle. I say that a lot I know. But I am!

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is this a dream

I woke up yesterday and I had a hankering for scrapbooking. My parents are in Idaho for the weekend and virtually all of my friends are out of town. Oh, and I have to take care of my puppy who is the craziest little thing ever... so I can only leave the house for a couple hours at a time.

I discovered this scrapbooking store at the ridge in Snoqualmie last summer and I haven't been there since. But they have a few scrapbooking lines that Ben Franklin doesn't have so I wanted to go there. On the way, I stopped at Snoqualmie falls. It was SO packed! I felt grateful for being a local :)

I also stopped at an old bridge that looks straight onto Mount Si. Sigh. So relaxing.

After I scrapbooked, Eric (my brother) and Tanya (his fiance) and I went biking in Carnation. My favorite biking place as you know.

I sold my mountain bike last summer on Craig's list for 450 bucks and bought this cruiser. I ended up only have to pay about 20 bucks for it. She's my pride and joy.

Eric and Tanya. The cutest couple. They're getting married next month. I think I'm pretty okay at taking pictures. haha.

And this is what I made with the scrapbooking paper and stickers I bought:

Journaling says: "sometimes i forget how lucky i am to live in washington. i forget about the natural wonders of snoqualmie falls and the rocky faces and ridges of mount si. i often forget about the gravel trail along the river in carnation. im finding i overlook the ponderosa pines and evergreen trees. today i realized that where i live might be one of the prettiest places on earth. it might even be a bit of heaven. is this a dream?"

Do something outside today and take advantage of where you live. There's only one July 2, 2011, so make it the best!

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