Take a DEEP breath

I tend to do things in spurts. I have never been an endurance exerciser. I like to do something really hard/really fast for less amounts of time rather than drag it out.

That has carried over into my blogging...so prepare yourself. You are about to get a whole month's worth of pictures and posts. Enjoy--if you can make it that far.

THE ONE AND ONLY

The only snow storm we had where there was actual snow that was usable/packable was at the beginning of March. Pete and I were staying with his siblings while their parents were in Boston. On Saturday we took Olivia out for her version of "sledding" (tying a sled to the back of the four-wheeler that someone drives around the back yard--Oh the joys of being the youngest child, by a large margin). I wish I would have caught a picture of Pete driving up and down the large hill in the back yard while Olivia smiled widely taking all of the white washing happily.

We then put away the "sledding" supplies and decided to make a snowman since the snow was so amazingly packable. Jessica (Pete's sister) also came outside to help us build "Bowtie." Unfortunately Bowtie melted in less than 24 hours. But we enjoyed our friendship while it lasted.

HAWAII

I headed to a business/pleasure trip to Hawaii in early March. Little Heroes was fundraising at a Nature's Sunshine convention at the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Honolulu. It would have been a beautiful resort had my shoes not gotten soaking wet every time I stepped outside. grr. I HATE WET SHOES!

So, yeah, the rain was a bummer. But we were inside working most of the time--minus the few times I had to walk outside from our hotel room to the convention center--grr, again. We did get the afternoon and evening off one day--which miraculously the sun came out for. So I soaked up the sun for a couple of hours.

I got to meet a lot of really fun people at the convention. The morning we left the resort we were eating breakfast and we happened to have two extra seats at our table so two of those friends, Cookie and Jackie (from North Carolina and Virginia) joined us for our last meal before we all left. :)

At one point the CEO of Little Heroes was chatting with Cookie and when he found out that she was from North Carolina he asked if she was a Duke fan. She was turned around, because she was about to walk away, when she abruptly turned to face him head on and said her most southern accent "Excuse me? I bleeeed Carolina blue!" and then proceeded to strut her stuff away from our table.  I just LOVED Cookie!

 Holding a tropical penguin.

 Walking along the beach after breakfast.

 My 5:00am pose--getting ready for a long day of work.

 I saw so many tourists taking pictures with this guy every time I passed. So my last day there I decided I too should probably get a picture with him because there was probably something really cool about him that I was missing.

Our totally cute ponchos--The hotel distributed them during our closing banquet because it was raining. Our food, however, didn't get the same treatment. 

Do I look young to you in these pictures? Like say 14? Because I CANNOT count the number of times I was mistaken for my boss's daughter or my colleague's (pictured above) daughter or a lost girl who for some reason wore a name tag and could answer all your questions and wore a wedding ring! Sheesh people! The worst part about this trip--although mostly splendid--was surprisingly not the rain but being worn out from trying to laugh when people ignored me for the umpteenth time and instead addressed my colleague who then referred them to me to answer their questions.

SO degrading! I'm 23 people! 23! I am old enough to have a child of my own!

Ok. I'm done.

 

LIKE NOTHING HAS CHANGED

After I finished my work in Honolulu my bestest best buddy from growing up came to pick me up and take me to start having some REAL fun on the North Shore. She had been texting me during the beginning of the week to say how crazy the rain was on her side of the island and that it had even flooded really bad.

Finally the morning when she was planning to come pick me up she called to say she would be a couple of hours earlier because all her classes at BYU-Hawaii had been cancelled! All the classrooms were flooded. And if she could take some of the back roads to get from there to here she would be there soon!

I couldn't even imagine the extent of the flooding because it hadn't been raining too hard in Honolulu and I really haven't ever experienced rain like it rains in Hawaii. Refer to her blog here to check out the crazy pics of the flooding. And don't mind any atrocious pictures you may or may not find of me on that blog :)

Anyway, Al pal came and picked me up then we hung out in Honolulu for a bit while she got the oil changed in her car and we saw some sites around town. It was so fun to see her and pick up right where we left off. Every time I see her, although usually many months have passed, I feel as if we hung out yesterday. We talked about old times and old friends and laughed about how old we are and how we still feel like 16-year-olds making music videos and talking about boys. So much has changed in our lives--I have gotten married and started working at a real job, she has traveled the world (literally) and is about to graduate--and yet nothing has changed between us. We are still young at heart and giggle about the same things we did as 12-year-olds walking home from school and talking about sharing a locker in Jr. High.

Ali was the best hostess! I was so impressed. She went out of her way to make sure I was comfortable and well-fed. She showed me all around BYU campus, the PCC and the North Shore, she made us pancakes, eggs and hash browns (all gluten-free I might add), and she made sure I was at the right place at the airport on time! I was so impressed with her skills!

At the Beautiful Hawaii temple!

Thanks so much Ali for your hospitality! I always said I would come visit you and I am so glad it finally happened! Can't wait for many more years of friendship to come!

--Ali and I have planned our future lives living next door to each other  so that she can teach my children how to have some fun and I can teach hers some discipline. We know our strengths (and weaknesses). --

For old times' sake: