Valentines Day

This was our first Valentines Day as a married couple. We chose to spend it with our friends Jeremi, Rebecca, Cierra and Alfredo. Nothing says I love you more than a savory slab of beef... So we all got together and went to The Outback, and it was delicious.. Brandon left this on the bed for me to find when I came home.... you can't really tell but those bears are using a bag of cotton candy for a pillow!! my fave!!

Brandon in a dance off...are you kidding?

We had a married student dinner/dance right before Valentines Day, which Ashley insisted we had to go to. For a price of $5 and the lure of food Brandon concented. Brandon doesn't dance though, not because he doesn't know how its just something about bopping around to the rythm of the music just isn't appealing to him. We had some live bands performing for the dance and we got our boogie on. Later in the dance the MC announced some of the upcoming festivities including a dance off for the 2 best dance couples the judges had voted on previously, little did I know the judge was one of my buddies who thought it would be funny to match us up against a crazy Tongan girl who danced her soul out. I usually don't dance but I do things i don't like to do sometimes if I can get attention and Ashley who does like to dance got a little nervous about being in the spotlight so needless to say the music started and we gave it our best but in the end we couldn't keep up with the other couple but we still got a prize anyway.

Isn't he cute in his little scrubbies?!?!?

This is my Brandon taking his shift at the Pre-med club booth at school!! Brandon is on of the Vice presidents of the club!!! I am so proud of him for putting in the time and working so hard to help bring a Pre-Med club to BYU-Hawaii!! Don't you just want to pinch his little cheeks in this picture?!?!

I don't want brownies I just want President Hinckley back!

This evening I received about 10 text messages telling me the sad news. Ashley has been pretty sick so it was wasn't exactly the ideal time for such bad news but being a loving husband i woke her up from her sick bed and told her that President Hinckley died and she was extremely distraught. After Ashley called her parents she came out of the bedroom half dazed half crying and me trying to cheer her up said I would make her some brownies. That's when my adorable wife said what is the title of this blog "I don't want brownies I just want President Hinckley BACK!" Its hard to say goodbye to the man who has been there for us the last decade. Many of us can hardly remember having a different prophet. Not a good weekend!!

Roughin' It!!

Brandon and I ( mostly Brandon..) decided it would be fun to go camping one night since we had a three day weekend.... We are lucky to be able to go camping anytime here in Hawaii since the weather is pretty nice most of the time... Brandon was very excited because got a Tent for Christmas! Our friends Nick and Alysha decided to brave the outdoors with us, so Alysha and I made Tin-foil dinners, girls camp style and packed up everything but the kitchen sink and headed out to the beach. We knew ahead of time that you needed a permit to camp on the beach in Hawaii, but we figured we would live life on the edge and go without one, but when we got there we saw a sign that said our car would be towed if we did not have a permit....we started to get nervous, but I made Brandon go talk to a camper with me and he ended up being from Germany, and he had a permit that allowed ten campers and it was just him and his girlfriend there, so he agreed to let us claim to be part of his group! (poor guy probably had no idea what we were asking of him, he just kept saying "no problem!"). Long camping story short: Dinner was great! sleeping outside was another story.... It rained all night and we were kinda cramped in our little tent....but all in all It was fun...but I am thinking camping would be more fun if you just did not have to stay there all night.

Sorry it is blurry but this is us cookin' dinner!

The sky!

This is my "I am ready to go" face.

CHOLOS

Cholos is the only Mexican restaurant around besides Taco Bell so I don't have any idea how good the food is because Taco Bell isn't a good bench mark in fine Mexican cuisine so I'm unable to endorse it but it is decorated quite nicely with crucifixes and We thought it would be Virgin Marys and weird demonic heads. Cowdery and I thought it would be funny to use the decorations of the walls as props for some funny pictures but it just made Ashley feel uncomfortable like we were shop lifting or something

So I blessed my enchalada, and it was good.

Ashley kept talking on the phone so I Tried to perform an exercism so that we could just get along with eating our food. Needless to say Ashley resisted me so well and I wasn't strong enough.

More pics of electric beach

I like these pictures because the headless turtle is looking at Ashley

Electric Beach

Excellent day at electric beach we heard whale's making woopie underwater and we saw turtles, a spotted eagel ray, dolphins and tons of fish. All that capped off by a beautiful sunset.

Electric Beach

mele kalikimaka, hau'oli makahiki hou

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year



New Years Eve in Hawaii is what D-day would have looked like if it were night or a firefight in Fallujah. Laie residents wents nuts buying fireworks especially the fireworks of the illegal variety. I couldn't compete with my 'Foodland' purchased ground flowers which I tried to make more exiting by hitting them with my tennis racket into the water turing this particular firework into an airborn pyrotechnic floosey but it did light up the water for a few seconds with was pretty cool. We got ashley some sparklers which turned out to be just as fun. As we approached the newyear the roads became filled with kids and adults alike using pedestrians and cars and unsuspecting moving targets. The steets eventually just became closed while everyone including toddlers lit off their fireworks. The fireworks were steadily going off from about 6 PM to 3 in the Morning. Now a couple week after the event we still hear fireworks going off. I don't know why but the fireworks show here in Laie made me extremely patriotic.

Getting festively Plump, Christmas in Hawaii

Brandon broke his own personal record by gaining 6 pounds in oune day. It sounds pretty unrealistic but its true. We started the night before by cooking up a big Christmas eve ham dinner. From there we woke up early to open presents (Brandon has been waking up early for Christmas his whole life) we ate some cinnemon rolls. We had a brunch where the two sets of senior couple missionaries in our ward made us a ham and potatoes. About two hours after eating brunch we were invited to a Kiwi/Ausie early dinner where we ate lamb amoung other things. Ashley had a hard time devouring such a cute animal but, when in Rome.... she went all out and even put some mint jelly on it and everything. We eventually ended up playing some games at a family in our ward's house (and when I say play games I mean get shot at by their adorible asian kids while everybody else plays) and were given even more food. Needless to say I had been 'crack skinny' since I can remember and the day after Christmas was the first time in my life I wanted to lose weight. My old roommates have commented on seperate occaisions that ever since I've been married I've gotten fatter while Ashley just keeps looking better and better.....ARRRGGHH! Jerks..... Its sad because its true I'm becoming a 'fat kid' and I think its because I am stealing all of Ashley's food. I have my excuses but none of them are any good. My favorite though is I was one of the few Nephites who stayed here for Christmas and surrounded by polynesians makes me look like skeletor.

2007 a brief review