sawadee ka....

just booked the hotel today....and i'm ready to GO!!!! in less than two weeks i'll be doing this!!!!

SOOOOOO EXCITED!!!!

tita's in town!!!!

since i moved to utah almost two years ago the transition has been easy with my sister and her family...and my brother and his family here. not to mention the *almost* monthly trips back to the rock. but i know that it has been hard for my other brother and other sister back home to be away from all of us...especially me. hahahaha...jk. so whenever they get a chance, they try to take a few weeks off to come up and spend some time with us. more so mahea than aaron...tis the life of a single lady.

so...as leone (oldest sis) and i got ready to pick her up...we joked about the different things mahea would say as soon as we picked her up. here's what we came up with:

"its sooooo coooooold!!!!"

"i'm soooooooooo hungry!!!"

"i HATE utah!!!!"

buahahahaha....you really have to know my sister in order to understand how funny this is. so i guess this is just for my own personal documentation.

so needless to say as soon as she stepped out of that airport...she repeated each phrase almost verbatim! not necessarily in that order. lol. and then there was her FAMOUS line...which she says almost everytime we're driving somewhere NOT in hawai'i...

"WHERE are we?! i don't even know where we are!!!"

never mind she's been here like 5 times already!!!! and she wants me to list her as my companion next year???? hahahaha. omg...i LOVE my tita.

luv my twinkies!!!!

one of the best parts about coming home from a much needed vacay is coming home to this...

this...
this...

and this....

don't forget this....

i was only gone for a week but these two monkeys changed so much while i was gone! they both started crawling...and hili girl's first two teeth broke through!!! ugh...they are growing so fast, and i'm so excited! i can't wait for them to start walking/running around. it's gonna drive their dad NUTS when he comes home to a messy house. hahaha!!!

much needed vacay...

just got back from one of THE best vacays i've had in a while. much of my time was spent relaxing...eating...swimming...more eating...exploring...playing games...talking story...did i mention eating?...and spending quality time with some quality people.

destination: Lake Powell
duration: 7 beautiful days
company: my murr town/long beach 'ohana

i don't know if words could describe the grandeur of lake powell. before i met greg, i've never even heard of lake powell...let alone planned to go there at any point in my life. being the island girl that i am...forever surrounded by the largest body of water there is...the pacific ocean, i never....EVER thought i would be spend time in a...lake...let alone spend 7 days there!!! but it was freakin awesome!!! we spent our entire time there cruising on the dowden's houseboat...and exploring the canyons on their smaller boat and seadoo's.

the dowden's have been going every year for the past 30 or so years...and the murphy's (greg's grandparents) have been going almost every year since the lake opened up back in the 60's! they knew every nook and cranny there! man...i swear i was so luck to be with them, cuz if i ever went by myself i swear i would get lost. every corner looks the same to me. lol.

i'm kicking myself right now for not taking that many pictures. thats wut happens when you go with people with cameras...you're too lazy to take any of your own. but here are the few that i do have.

wahweep marina..the morning i arrived
the other side of the marina...where all the houseboats are docked
the back of castle rock...its HUGE!!!!
the dreamcatcher...my home for the entire trip
rainbow bridge...one of the natural wonders of the world. a 747 can fly thru it. MASSIVE!!

the cliffs by our campsite
hole in the wall (yup thats what its called) an lds historical landmark. you can read about it here.
some indian ruins. if you look closely you'll see the opening to their homes. these guys would scale these cliffs (which are a couple hundred feet high) just to get to their HOUSE! i'm never complaining about my drive to and from work ever again! lol
there were a lot of HUGE cave. if you look closely to the bottom left you'll see greg and josh on the seadoo's...just to give you some perspective of how GARGANTUAN everything was.
i forgot what this was called...but it was another HUGE hole in one of the cliffs. lol
just a shot of the water reflecting on the rocks as we were coming out of one of the canyons. pretty cool huh? and...while i was there i discovered a new app that does some pretty cool effects with your pix. this is the modified version. i call it..."fiyah on the rock"... lol
i thoroughly enjoyed the different colors and lines on all the cliffs.
here's the same pic after its been instagram-ed. i call this one "rawr like tigah...on the rock" lol

the pix really don't do it justice, but i had so much fun just enjoying God's creations. who knew the desert could be so beautiful?! with all the swimming and exploring you can guarantee that i got my tan on! and here's proof...

me and anabunz on our way to rainbow bridge...

this was one of the few pix of myself while there. its been instagram-ed...but it stays true to my color. lol. anyhoo....thats the extent of my trip. i don't know if i'll ever go back again by myself..but if the dowden's extend the invite again...i'm so there!