UGH-MAY-ZING WEEKEND!!!

Three words pretty much sum up the whirlwind of a weekend I've experienced:

UGH-MAY-ZING!!!!! (Yes...still trying to make up my own words here. LOL)

Don't you just love it when family come in from out of town to visit. I know I do because it definitely gives me an excuse to do the things I wouldn't normally do. But when you add great weather...correction...PERFECT weather to the mix, that's just an open invitation to the world of awesomeness!!!

Sadly...my camera charger is totally lost (kalofae), and since I forgot to download all the pix from my cousin's camera before she left, you'll just have to use your imagination. LOL.

Well, as I mentioned, my cousins were visiting from Utah. My cousin David, his wife, and their 3 kids ranging from the ages of 11-16 (along with the token haole bff) decided to spend their spring break in our beautiful islands. David's sister, Chantel, who I am super close with works for Delta, so I convinced her to come out with them as well to join in on the festivities.

*Here's a pic of us at our reunion in New Zealand. Chantel's the one holding up the backwards "C". LOL

So, because Chantel was coming in on Thursday, I worked all week before that to make sure I had the weekend off. Did I mention it was spring break for me as well? So after picking her up from the airport, we went and watched my boyfriend Vin in his latest movie "Fast and Furious." Can I just say...awesome action packed movie. Story line kinda sucked though. I'll just leave it at that.

FRIDAY:
Mahea had planned for all of us to go parasailing in town. We had planned on taking my brothers kids cause I haven't hung out with them in FOREVER, but we ended up taking my sisters kids as well because as I've mentioned in previous posts...with these kids, if I take one set, I HAVE TO take the other. So we all piled in the car and headed out to Honolulu. Because there was so many of us, we had to take two seperate boats. But its all good.

OH-EM-GEE..all I gotta say is if you've never gone parasailing, you should definitely do it. I felt so free and at peace up there. It was like a whole new world (LOL) up there. But the best part was we saw a couple whales swimming around. One even breached while we were in the boat. Me and Chantel were stoked we went on the second boat. I can't wait to go again.

After our parasailing adventure, we decided to go jump in the water near Mahea's work (Duke's) in hopes to go cruising on the Catamaran, or even get some surfing lessons. Well, we did neither, but it was cool just cruising at the beach. One drawback: cruising with all the other tourists in Waikiki...so NOT cool!

So after a couple hours of swimming in what seemed more like suntan lotion than water, we packed up and headed towards the North Shore. I exposed Chantel to the awesomeness of the Storto's sandwich. Mmmm....just thinking about it makes my mouth water. Because Matsumoto's was down the road, Chantel had to get her fix. If you ask me I think Matsumoto's is totally overrated...Waiola's in town is WAAAAAAAAY better...but that's just me. Ok..enough of the food critiquing (sp?)...LOL.

We still haven't had enough of the beach, so we decided to eat our sandwiches at Ke Iki beach. For those of you unfamiliar...it's an amazing beach right next to Shark's Cove. Unfortunately, when we got there the waves were HUGE and the poor kids couldn't go swimming. But that didn't stop them. They found that if they sat in a certain part of the reef, the water that would wash up formed little pools for them to sit in. So all enjoyed the water on the reef. And this is where it happened.

For some reason, I was under the impression that I can withstand Mother Nature and all her force, and decided to sit in a spot on the reef a little closer to the edge. Sidenote: never test the forces of nature. The first couple of waves were ok. They would crash towards the edge of the reef, and slowly die out as it reached me. But then a bigger wave came, and because the first few waves didn't cause any harm, I thought I would be able to hold my ground.

WRONG! The wave, which actually looks like a ripple from where I was sitting, was a lot stronger than I had anticipated and knocked me flat on my back! All I remember seeing was Mahea (my sister) laughing her head off while I tumbled on the reef. Then, just when I thought it was over, and before I could even sit up, another wave came, and this time I rolled over the huge rock I was sitting next to. Now, this may not seem like a big deal to some, but this was no ordinary rock. This was on the REEF! So those rocks are sooooo not smooth. So my back had all these little scratches and a few cuts. I'll definitely have to post those pix as soon as I get them. The good thing about this experience: the kids were able to see first hand what happens when you sit too close to the edge of the reef. DON'T DO IT!

But, at the end of the day, it was all worth it. I was able to spend the whole day with family, get a whole lotta sun, something I haven't been able to do lately with this horrible weather. Which by the way was short lived because it's cold and rainy right now as I'm typing. And, these series of events inspired this blog! UGH-MAY-ZING WEEKEND!!!!