Hawaii 2008

Some of you may know that Jason and I were able to go to Hawaii again this January for about ten days! I think I like this tradition of going to Hawaii every year in January. It sure makes the winter a little more tolerable. Anyway, I know that February is now coming to an end but I just thought that it would be fun to share a few things that happened on our vacation.

We left January 13 to go to Kona, Hawaii on the big islan. I absolutely love it there :) It is so laid back and relaxed which is what I'm all about. Jason's grandparents had served a mission on the Big Island and met a wonderful family that we still keep in contact with. So we like to go to that island to visit the Basque's and also enjoy paradise. While we were there we snorkeled almost everyday. I am kinda freaked out of the water so I don't go for long, but I do enjoy it when I just don't think about big fish or being swept out to sea. The first time I went last year I got slammed into lava rock by a wave as we were coming back into shore so now I am permanently scared of the rocks whether it's coral or lava rock. So when we start to get to a shallow area I am swimming for my life to get to a deeper area away from the rocks and coral. I kind of also have an issue with the turtles. They are so adorable..... when they are at least 12 feet away, but once they start getting closer I freak out and blow air into my goggles, which then makes it so I can't see. I am sure all the people around me and even those watching from the shore get a kick out of me freaking out in the water.

Jason and I love to take road trips so we would select a waterfall from our navigation thing and just drive. While we were on our way up to Polulu Valley, we could see Humpback Whales jumping out of the ocean. It was definately an awesome sight to see. Polulu Valley is at the north part of the island and it is so beautiful. There is a black sand beach and a river that flows into the ocean. If you want to get close to the water it's about a 20 minute hike down but well worth it. It looked like something out of a book or fairytale. We then went on the other side of Polulu Valley to Waipio Valley where the filmed Waterworld. When we got there we found out that if you want to go down by the water on that side, you either had to hike for about 45 minutes or have four-wheel drive to get down. Since we had just hiked down on the other side, we just enjoyed the view for awhile and left. We had also visited several waterfalls and just enjoyed the nice sunny 80 degree weather, On our way back to Kona, we went through the farmland, which is absolutely amazing. Very green rolling hills on one side and on the other side the green hills lead up to a mountain with snow on it where the observatory is. We decided that we came to Hawaii to get away from the snow, but one day we will drive up there to see the observatory and look and the stars.

Finally, another tradition that we have is to visit the farmers market that they have over the weekend and enjoy their exotic fruits. This year we tried a custard apple (not so good), passion fruit (very good), rumbatans (they look like spiny grapes and taste kinda like them too), apple bananas and of course pineapple. But we get our pineapple from Costco cause it was cheaper and we found out that most of the people at the farmers market would buy them from Costco anyway and then sell them for more money at the market.

Well, there really is more stories to tell but I don't want to write a novel. We are actually planning on going back to Hawaii this coming September with Jasons parents so we are certainly looking forward to that. Of course we have more trips planned in between, so I will keep ya'll updated. P.S. I don't know if spell check is working or not, so there may be a few mispelled words.

Hello!

Hey everyone! I decided that I needed to join the bloggers world in order to keep up with everyone.

I guess I'll start out with the low-down about Jason and I. First, we met while working together at Discover Card. We were on the same team and hit it off really quick. We thought we were being sneaky by making up stories that Jason was dating a "friend" of mine, but apparently people read right through it because seven months later when I came to work with a ring and told them I was engaged to Jason most just said, "I knew it!" However, there were some people that were shocked. We were then married in the Salt Lake Temple on October 20, 2006.

We bought a condo out in Eagle Mountain and have dealt with the long commute to anywhere we want to go. It really isn't that bad but it sure has made a dent in our wallets with all the gas we have to buy. Jason still works at Discover Card as a Customer Service Trainer and enjoys the perks and benefits of being on salary. I actually quit Discover Card (after three years) in July, 2006 and got a job with Skywest airlines as a gate agent. After three months of dealing with angry passengers I decided to transfer to a job more behind the scenes. So I now work in the Commisary/Provisions department which stocks the airplane with the snacks, drinks and other items the flight attendant requests. It is the most laid back job ever and I love it. I mostly sit in a truck or the break room all day chattin' with my friends while waiting for the airplanes in my zone to come in. Then it only takes all about ten minutes at most to commo the plane and BAM, I'm done. It is definately a great job to have especially because we get to fly for FREE!!! YES FREE! On Skywest flights as well as ANYWHERE DELTA flies :) I decided that I needed to go down the same path that my mom did and work somewhere that benefits me and Jas!

In our first year of marriage we were lucky enough to travel to quite a few places. Our first vacation together as a married couple was to Kona, Hawaii! Jason was so sweet and suprised with a ten day vacation to Hawaii for my Christmas present. It was my first time to Hawaii and it was a blast. I am a little freaked out when it comes to snorkeling, but none-the-less we had an amazing time. Later, we went to Kentucky to visit Jason's grandparents and it is so green and pretty there. I was ready to pack my bags and move there. For our first anniversary, we were planning to go to the Florida Keys, however, once we landed in Orlando we found out that the weather was not going to be so great so we stayed in Orlando and went to Sea World as well as Busch Gardens. It was really fun. We also like to take little road trips, so we also drove down to Moab, Utah to hike around on the rocks. While I was in training at Skywest, Jason was already taking advantage of the flight benefits and went to Alaska for a week to visit his mission companion and have fun in the wilderness. He also flew to San Francisco with his brothers to watch the first 49'ers game of the season.

On a more serious topic, I found out that I needed to have heart surgery last year. To explain, my heart would all of the sudden start to beat really really fast as if I just ran five miles and it would make me really light headed, almost to the point of passing out. The "episodes" if you will would only last about five minutes, wich would only occur once a month if that and after my heart would start beating normally again, it felt as if nothing ever happened. Well, one day it happened three times and that kind of freaked me out. So I started going to a cardiologist and had to wear a heart monitor so they could record what is going on when the "episode" happens. Needless to say, my heart got stage fright and I had to wear the monitor for three months to get two recordings. They finally decided that I had some cells in my heart that acted as a pacemaker and send signals to my heart to start beating even though it already was. The technical term for all this is Supraventricular Tachycardia. So the doctor said that I could either take a pill everyday for the rest of my life or have minor surgery to get rid of the heart palpitations. So obviously I opted for the surgery and had the surgery on December 11, 2006 at 5:00 AM! It was an outpatient surgery so I went home that night at about 7:00 PM. The recovery process was really quick, only a week and I was back at work out in the snow servicing the planes. It was great! Now everything is perfect with my heart and haven't had any more fast heartbeats that were unexpected!! HOORAY!

Well my friends, this post is entirely way to long but I just wanted to keep everyone updated since I am so horrible at making phone calls or writing letters. I guess we will see how often I actually update this blog and keep up with posting pictures and all that jazz. Until next time.....