Hawaii - Day 3

On day 3 we got up and headed over to the International Marketplace to check it out.  It's basically just a bunch of little kiosks and stores that sell the same jewelry, shirts, wraps, etc. but still fun to walk through.

(I totally don't know how to pose for pictures when I am alone so I know I look stupid and awkward ok?)

After the Marketplace we went over to Cheese Burger Waikiki for some lunch.

The Market didn't take as long as I had thought so after that and lunch we decided to hike Diamond Head.  I am a lazy sack of potatoes and especially so on vacation and this hike was a little more vigorous than I had heard but we had a great time and the views were well worth the effort so I will let it slide.  Ha ha!

 (They are big time recyclers on the island.  Love that!)

 (Creepy stair case and bad camera angle)

 (Tons of stairs!!)

(I got my shave ice!  YUM)

After this little adventure we decided we needed a little beach time in our life so we headed back to our hotel and went to Waikiki Beach.

We were pretty much DONE by this point in the day so we just picked up Panda Express and took it back to our room.  We are such adventurous party animals!!

Hawaii - Day 2

Day two in Hawaii was a pretty laid back and more of an exploration day.  I woke up at the CRACKER of dawn because my internal time clock was all messed up.  There is a 4 hour time difference between Colorado and Hawaii so I was up and wide awake around 4:30am because for me that was technically 8:30am which is sleeping in in my world.  Scot on the other hand had no problems with this.  He just snoozed away - luckily this was the only day that I had problems with it as well. 

Once we were up and at 'em we walked down to the main drag for some breakfast and then headed off to Waikiki Beach for a little swimming and sun bathing.  It was WONDERFUL!!  Waikiki Beach is insanely busy but we loved it.  The atmosphere was fun and laid back - the sun was shining, the water was warm, how could you not be having a good time?

(chillaxin' on the beach)

(see what I mean?  TONS of people. This was still fairly early in the day so it would only get busier. Oh and P.S. this guy with the white sweatshirt to the right of the picture totally went swimming in the ocean in his hoodie and sweat pants.)

(Scot is out there somewhere...can you find him?)

(Scot's sand creation)

Once we had had enough sun we went back to the hotel to get ready and go for a little drive around the island.  Some of the reasoning behind that was that Scot had torn up his foot on some rocks when he was out swimming.  In all honesty we probably should have taken him to the EmergiCare for stitches but he was not having that so we stopped at a nearby Wal Mart.  HOLY CRAP BALLS BATMAN.  I will NEVER complain about our Wal Marts ever again!  I could not believe the amount of people at this Wal Mart.  It was INSANITY!  They had a parking garage that was a total mad house which should have been our first clue to not go in and to go find another one.  The parking garage was for Wal Mart and Sams Club so you can imagine how crazy it was plus it was Saturday afternoon.  Anyway so we got some waterproof bandaids and some of that paint on skin stuff and dealt with it that way all week. 

Our drive was beautiful.  I don't really have any pictures from it because we didn't want to get out and walk a lot since Scot's foot was so messed up but we had a great time exploring and seeing the island.  Oahu is a beautiful place!

That night we walked along Kalakaua Ave. and got some dinner at Wolfgang Puck and just walked through the shops.  Kalakaua Ave. has anything from high end retail store like Prada, Coach, Tiffany's to surf shops and hundreds of ABC stores.  We spent a lot of time here. 

(In our hotel room just before heading out for dinner)

(gorgeous sunset along the beach)

(beach front hotels all lit up)

Only 6 more days to go!!

Hawaii - Day 1

Hello blogging world!  I finally have something worthy of blogging!   Horray!  Scot and I just got back from an AMAZING trip to Hawaii so here is our trip day by day.  Get ready for picture overload!!

(I will be posting all of our pictures on Facebook if anyone is interested because a lot of them won't make the blog cut...it's too much of a pain to upload pictures on here...)

On the first day of our vacation we flew from Denver to Los Angeles, and Los Angeles to Honolulu - arriving in Honolulu around 1:30 in the afternoon for a total of around 8 hours of flight time.  When we were planning this trip I was thinking that would be an unbearable amount of time to be on a plane but it ended up not being too bad.  I just read magazines, watched the movies they had playing on the plane and got through it. 

(I had my Tom's on and I was ready to go!  On Thursday night we stayed in Denver at a hotel near the airport so that we could just go straight over in the morning and catch our flight.  When we got to Denver Scot realized that in all the excitement he had left his shoes at home so he got a new pair of kicks!)

Once we landed in Honolulu we were shuttled over to pick up our rental car and then we headed over to check in to our hotel.

 

(Hotel Entrance)

By the time we got done with check in we were starving so we walked over to some of the shops near our hotel and started exploring places to eat dinner.  We found a little food court area with a whole bunch of different restaurants and got us some Hawaiian Barbeque!  Yummo!!  After dinner we walked down to Waikiki Beach and walked along the water and watched the sun go down with a hot fudge sundae from McDonalds.  So classy, I know!  On our way back to our hotel we were stopped by some kids raising money for their basketball team and ended up buying leis from them. 

 (Posing with our new leis on our balcony)

(awwww - so precious...)

And that, my friends, was day one in Hawaii - already having a great time and super excited for the week ahead!!  Come back for day 2!!

Manitou Incline

Scot and I have been talking about hiking the Incline for a long time but I've always been too chicken to do it!...See THIS post from a while back.  FINALLY a few Saturdays ago we bucked up and did it and I'm so glad we did!  It felt like such an accomplishment when we got to the top which I wasn't expecting for some reason, but, we felt great and we finally fulfilled one of our long time goals!

It definitely wasn't easy getting to the top and there may or may not have been a moment where I had to pull off the trail and lay down on a rock but WE DID IT!  Yay!!

The views of Colorado Springs once we got to the top alone was worth it!  We feel so lucky to live in such a beautiful place!

Kings - Nuggets Game!

I lovie dove dove Sacramento! I really do. It's my hometown. Who doesn't love and adore their hometown? Forever now Scot and I have been talking about going to a Denver Nuggets game when the Sacramento Kings came in to town and so on Thursday night we finally did it! I had actually bought the tickets for Scot for Valentines Day so we have been anticipating this little outing for a while and were so excited to go. It came at the perfect time too. It seems like we have been so busy lately and haven't really spent a whole lot of time together with Scot being in school and our schedules constantly conflicting so we were really excited to have an entire night to get to spend together. We headed up to Denver right after work and got to the Pepsi Center about 30 minutes before the game started so we were able to get our NACHOS and Pepsi before the lines got too long and find our seats. We actually had really great seats too, they were high up of course but our row was up against a wall so we didn't have any one behind us kicking our seats or spilling food and such on us so it was great. I had big plans to order a Sacramento Kings shirt before this game but I just ran out of time and never got to it so I had to wear my retro Denver Nuggets shirt BUT I did represent in a small way by wearing my purple/black earings! Go Kings!I am very sad however, to report that the Kings lost. They were doing SOOO well at the beginning and I was having a great time heckling Scot about it but by the 4th quarter they were just over it I guess because it was almost like they gave up. Oh well, what can you do? We had such a fun time anyway! I love spending time with my husband!

So this one time...

(Remember the little old guy who would ride around on this bus in the commercials? Loved that guy...)

...a long time ago...during the summer of 2004 before Scot and I got married we went to my parents house in Sacramento for a little visit. One of the days we were there we went to Six Flags Marine World which is basically a miniature Sea World combined with a miniature Six Flags Theme park. We had spent a nice summer day seeing some shows and walking around the park. Toward the end of the day Scot and I decided to venture over to the area of the park where the rides are. There really aren't that many rides (at least at the time there wasn't, it might be different now) but there is this one really HUGE roller coaster ride called The Medusa. I had been on it about 13 trillion times from going as a kid so I wasn't worried or scared...like I sometimes am. It was a particularly busy day at the park so we had been waiting in line for a quite while. After a few minutes I noticed that we hadn't moved at all since getting in line and so we started looking around tryng to figure out what was going on. Come to find out from some of the other kids in line...someone had had the barfies all over the ride and they were trying to get it cleaned up. That was when it all changed for me. I was done! Gross, Gross, Gross. I instantly felt sick and we jumped out of the line. Scot could not understand why I didn't want to get on that ride. Seriously? What if? Just what if you got put in the seat with the barfies (which I would have) and then what if they hadn't gotten it all and then what if it made you have the barfies and then...then you would be known as the OTHER person who had the barfies on the Medusa ride and made the line stop while they cleaned it up. So to this day Scot has never ridden the Medusa ride and maybe he never will because it will forever be known and remembered as the barfy ride and I don't think I will ever be able to look at it the same again.

Snuggies!

Scot and I recently got Snuggies and we think they are awesome!
...I mean, at first I was like "a Snuggie? Seriously? Who came up with that?!!" But now...I would say not a night goes by where I don't put that bad boy on and think "wow, this was a great decision."

New Car!

So long PT Cruiser...

Butterfly Pavillion

When Scot and I were first married I was new to the area so we would always try to go out and see something new every weekend. I think we soon realized that we weren't going to be able to afford that...but it was fun while it lasted! One of the first weekends after we got married we drove to Denver and walked around the Butterfly Pavillion in Westminster. We had a blast spending the day exploring!

Scot with a tarantula! I wouldn't get near that thing! Yikes!

Sea Life!

A little butterfly in the bushes!

One landed on Scot's finger! I don't know why but that FREAKS me out. I did not want any of them landing on me! Most people would love it but for some reason...not me!

I think some of my fear of butterfly habitats comes from when I was a kid. There was this place called Marine World in Vallejo, California and we would go there when I was a kid and I just remember that one time we had gone in to the Butterfly Pavillion that they have. When you go to walk out they have these big plastic flaps in front of the doors, I am guessing to keep the butterflies inside when people leave and I was happily skipping along and ran through those flaps and was pretty happy about it until I realized that some nasty little kid had BARFED all over the flaps! Sooooo gross! So now every time I am in a butterfly place I think of that...and now you will too.