Big Island

On Friday, June 12th, Adam and I had the opportunity to go to the Big Island for the first time. The main purpose of our trip was to go to the Kona Temple. We haven't been to the temple for more than 6 months because the La'ie Temple is closed for a year and a half for major renovations. We left at 4am to get to the airport by 5am, and our flight left at 5:52, so we were pretty tired the entire time, but it was well worth it. After a 40-45 minute flight, we arrived on the Big Island, rented a car and headed to the Kona Temple. We went through 2 sessions, at 9 and 11, with the other 13 people from the ward who came. We had been looking forward to going to the temple for a long time, so it was awesome to finally be able to go. It may not be for another year (when the La'ie Temple reopens) until we can go back again.



Oh, and just across a wall to the temple grounds, there were 3 horses, so we petted them and fed one of them a piece of banana.



Having such a great experience at the temple, we went with Erik from our ward to Kahalu'u Beach to go snorkeling. I had read online that it had great snorkeling there, but I didn't realize it would be so amazing. The fish were twice as big and numerous as I had ever seen on Oahu, there were so many brightly colored corals and we got to hang out with some sea turtles that weren't afraid to get close.



After snorkeling, we went to eat at the Big Island Grill, right by the temple. I got a Hawaiian plate, which consisted of lau lau, poke, macaroni salad and rice. It was all pretty good. If you're ever in the area, I'd recommend it. After finally being able to attend the temple after so long and having the best snorkeling experience ever, I hope we can go back to the Big Island soon, but it probably won't happen since we had to sacrifice a little to make it there this time.

Limu

The other day we decided that we wanted to try to replace Mochi, so we got another lovebird. His name (we're not sure if it's a boy or a girl, so we'll just say "him" until we figure it out) is Limu, which is the Hawaiian word for algae or seaweed. We thought it was fitting since he is green like some limu. He has been pretty fun to have around so far, but he is still getting used to us. Hopefully he'll start warming up to us soon; he's still scared of us, but it took Mochi a couple of months before he would come anywhere near us. It's fun to have him around.

Just Us Two Now

Our bird Mochi flew away today. Here are some pictures in memory of him. We are so sad that he escaped our apartment and flew to the other side of town. We haven't seen him since.

Visit From Kerry and Brenda!

Kerry and Brenda (Adam's parents) have been on the island for almost a week now, and we've been having a lot of fun visiting with them. They were staying at the Marriott on the other side of the island, but they came to stay with us for the last few nights of their trip. We stayed in one of the rooms of their timeshare a couple of nights, and it was pretty amazing. There were pools everywhere with bridges, tunnels, and waterfalls in them. There is also a few lagoons that we didn't get the chance to play in because of Adam's work.



Yesterday we all went to Pearl Harbor. We ended up just going to the Arizona Memorial, which was fine with me because that is my favorite thing there. First, you watch a short film with footage from both the U.S. and Japanese media/government that explains the events that lead to the attack on Pearl Harbor and what happened as a result of it. Then, they take you on a ferry to the Arizona Memorial that was built over the sunken ship.







After Pearl Harbor, we went to the Waikiki Aquarium. Even though I'm there every week volunteering, it's always fun to go as a visitor. It was also fun to share some of my knowledge about the exhibits.



We had to cut the day short because Kerry and Brenda were tired from all the fun they had earlier in the week and Adam had to get to work by 5:00. By the way, along with working during the day landscaping at BYU-H, he recently picked up a job working at McDonald's at night to make a little bit more money. It will just be for the summer when he's not in school. For me, the school year just ended today, but I applied to substitute teach for summer school as well. Hopefully I get called in to work at least a couple of times a week.