I'd Rather be in Hawaii

5 days was not nearly long enough. Last week Morris and I decided to take advantage of some free flights and a condo in Waikiki and take a last minute vacation to Hawaii. We booked our tickets on Saturday and by Wednesday we were sun bathing in Oahu. We met up with two of Morris's sisters and their husbands our second day there and had the best vacation.

Our second day on the island we explored the North Shore and the beautiful beaches. The waves were huge and incredible to watch. Morris and Lance got taken out a few times while they were body surfing at Waimea Bay.

On the way home we stopped for lunch in the cutest little surf town called Haleiwa. After lunch we stopped at a local favorite--Matsumotos, for the best Hawaiian shaved ice. This is my kind of treat, shaved ice with ice cream in the bottom--there really is nothing better.
The next day we got up early to hike Diamond Head. The trail takes you through the inside of the extinct volcanic crater. When you reach the top of the crater there is a beautiful view of the island and the Pacific Ocean. Behind us is Waikiki and downtown Honolulu.
Morris decided he would braves the waves again but this time with a boogie board in hand. We spent the afternoon at Lanikai beach. Morris even convinced me to take a turn on the boogie board.
I caught a few waves and then went back to my book on the sand. This is how the ladies spent our time in the sun.
Then it was my BIRTHDAY--the big 26! We celebrated over dinner at Dukes. The restaurant is right on the beach with beautiful views of the sunset. Jason and Lance even arranged for a birthday song and a huge piece of Hula Pie. It was delicious!
We had one rainy day during our vacation so we decided to spend the day visiting Pearl Harbor. There is a very nice, peaceful spirit at the USS Arizona Memorial. It was great to visit and remember this day in American history.

The rain cleared up for a few hours so we took advantage of the rays and spent some time on the beaches of Ko Olina at the JW Marriott. This was my favorite part of the island, it was beautiful and the beaches were very calm and very few people.
Just before we were heading home for the day the rains picked up again and we watched the storm clouds move in. We stopped for a few shots with the waves, Mindy and Lance almost got washed away. Just as we were finishing up our photos a huge wave crashed onto the shore and we all got drenched including the cameras we were all holding.
Mindy and Melanie spent the day at the JW spa while the rest of us hiked through a beautiful rain forest to Moana Falls just a few minutes north of downtown Honolulu.
Our last night in Hawaii we went to dinner at the Kahala Hotel. The grounds of the hotel were beautiful and the dinner was delicious. Before our dinner arrived we took advantage of the photo op. I thought this photo of Melanie and Jason turned out best.

This was just a few hours before getting on the plane. We are smiling but I was very sad to go back to real life so soon.
Thank you Rices and Ponds for letting us tag along on your vacation, we had a wonderful time with you. We will be sure to invite ourselves on your next vacation as well--he he.

Aloha!

This where Morris and I will be hanging out tomorrow. See you in a couple days.

My Famous Moment

For those of you who did not catch the Ellen show yesterday here is your second chance.

Ellen

Today I went to a taping of the Ellen show with some friends. Jackie and Janae got some last minute tickets and invited Marrisa and I to join them for the show. It was a long afternoon waiting for the taping to begin but once we finally made it into the studio it was a great time. We thought we were going to a taping of the Valentines Day show but when we got there we found out it was actually the taping for Wednesdays (Feb. 12th) show. We saw several guests but the most exciting was Richard Branson who had a very nice gift for the audience (2 round trip tickets on Virgin America) and a crazy scientist guy who called ME on stage to walk on water. You will have to watch tomorrow to see my TV debut.

Necessities

In preperation of our upcoming move across the country I have been obsessed with trying to get as much information about Richmond as I can before we move. We don't know exactly where we are going to live yet and probably won't know for a few months. So I have decided to locate all of the places I have grown to love over the years and see if they will still be avaliable to me on the east coast.

Target--1 for sure maybe 3 within 20 minutes.

Nordstrom--1. We will still be poor students so 1 should be enough.

Barnes and Noble--At least 5. And hopefully a good public library system.

L.D.S. Temple--0. Washington D.C. is our closest and is about 2 hours away. 1 guarnteed trip to D.C. each month-yeah.

Beach--1 hr. 20 min. to Newport News.

Einsteins Bagels-- 4 in the area. I love Bagels. I have missed them while living in CA.

Trader Joe's--0 right now, closest is in Newport News but Richmond is coming soon and is already on the map. Hopefully it will be open by the time we arrive.

Art Museum--1. I have heard the Richmond Art Museum is a decent museum for the size of the city. But don't worry the National Gallery will be a regular stop our monthly visits to D.C. and N.Y.C. is a short train ride away with several of my favorite museums to choose from.

Costco--1. Hooray we can still enjoy Hewbrew National dogs and our Costco date nights.

Ikea--1 in Woodbridge, VA about an hour and a half from Richmond. I will still be able to get all kinds of inexpensive items to furnish our new home.

Airport--1 but that is all you need. Delta and Jet Blue fly from there but no direct flights to any family--boo.

Now we just have to find a place to live and figure out how to get there. Once we arrive I think we will be well taken care of and we will love the east just as much as we have loved the west.

Heros Wanted

Morris and I spent Saturday in Carlsbad at Legoland with our friends the Shamos and my sister Brooke and her kids. It has been so rainy here for the last two weeks we were really hoping the weather would be nice for our day at the park. The rain held off and we had a great day.

Tate gave us a few heart attacks when he wander off out of sight, thankfully we found him both times. He is such a cutie and had a great time on every ride.
The boys were the only ones who wanted to ride the water rides since it was so cold.
Janae and I took a ride on the crazy "claw" thing ride. You can decide how intense you want your ride to be 1-5. We chose to go with level 5 and I think both of us suffered from a head rush for the rest of the day. I think level 5 just meant you spent more than half the time upside down with all the blood rushing to your head.
Rick teaching Wyatt a few things about flying a plane.
Thanks Shamos and Camps for spending the day with us at Legoland.

I'm A Fan

On Friday Morris and I went to Red Mango for the first time. I love Pinkberry so I was very excited to try out the Red Mango down the street. And my vote goes to Red Mango, it is so much better. Red Mango is much creamier (real yogurt versus the powder that Pinkberry uses) and I think the fruit was fresher as well. Oh and no lines, we were the only people there--well for most of the time, until a bunch of crazy kids came over and ran us out.

Jammers in L.A.

Last week my good friend Jamie came from Boise for a visit to L.A. Jamies husband surprised her with tickets to Wicked for Christmas. The Burgers were not in town very long but we managed to squeeze in a quick visit and a bite to eat at C&O's. It was so fun to see Jamie and Bryce, hopefully next time we will get to spend more time with one another. I hope we will get as many visitors in Virginia as we do in California.