Oahu

Earlier this month, we had the chance to go to Oahu with my family. It was our first family vacation since my brother has gotten back from his LDS mission. There is nothing better than escaping to paradise when it starts getting freezing back in Utah.

We arrived on Oahu in the early afternoon, so we headed down to Honolulu and Waikiki for dinner and to hang out for the rest of the day. We ate at Marukame Udon in downtown Honolulu and it was life changing. Seriously, you guys. We haven't been able to stop talking about it since. After we finished eating, we walked down to Waikiki to watch the sunset and see the torch lighting ceremony. The cutest old Hawaiian men walk around in traditional Hawaiian clothes and light the torches along the beach.

We stayed in a little city on the North Shore called Haleiwa. It's the cutest little town with a great beach and main street. We stayed here. It was right on the beach and was super close to downtown. Iris (the owner of the condo) and her family were great. They were very helpful, let us borrow their SUP's and body boards, and even taught the boys how to surf. 

View from our condo to the beach

We packed our week full of tons of different activities, due to all the boys not being able to sit still for more than an hour. Some of our favorites:

Diamondhead State Park - Diamondhead has a famous hike that leads to the summit of Le'ahi. It's about a mile up to the top and pretty steep. The last little bit is all stairs, so it's a pretty good workout. The views from the top were AMAZING.

So, so sweaty. I may or may not have run the stairs at the end to try and make them go by faster. Not my best idea.

Paddle Boarding the Anahulu River - The Anahulu river runs right through Haleiwa and meets the ocean near Ali'i Beach Park. We started at the base of the river near Rainbow Bridge and went about a 1/2 mile up the river. There are turtles everywhere! Definitely one of the coolest parts of the trip.

Waimea Falls - In Waimea Valley, we went on a short hike up to the falls. It was one of the most beautiful places we went while on the island. It's a dense forest with lots of different types of plants and flowers along the hike. Once you get to the falls, you can swim in the pool. The water was FREEZING.

 

 The Beach - We visited tons of different beaches throughout the week, but some of our favorites included Turtle Bay and Ko Olina.

 

KoKo Head Crater Trail - We all had a love/hate relationship with this one. The trail consists of stairs made out of railroad ties that go to the top of the crater. It kicks your butt! Seriously, it was SO many stairs. The view from the top is amazing though!

Do you SEE how far those stairs go up?!

Food - We ate so much good food this trip!! Some of our favorites included Malasada's from Leonard's Bakery, Coconut Cake & Garlic Shrimp from Ted's Bakery, Shrimp Scampi from Giovanni's Shrimp Truck and Udon Noodles from Marukame Udon (Yes, I'm mentioning them again).

Thanks to my parents for the great week, we can't wait to go back again!

Life Lately

This summer flew by! We've been really busy with work and school, with lots of fun stuff in between.

Ellie has had a growth on her head ever since we got her as a small puppy. It has gradually gotten bigger and bigger, so the vet told us that we should get it removed to ensure that it wasn't cancer or a tumor of some sort. They ended up removing the mass and she is doing great now. They sent it to the lab and it turns out it was a cyst, so she should be fine and hopefully it won't come back. She definitely did not like the cone or her pain medicine.

Before and After the surgery

We had the opportunity to go to the Ogden Temple House with the Brown family. It was such a great experience, the temple was absolutely beautiful.

Both of Wes's parents celebrated their 60th birthdays this year. All of the siblings got together one weekend to celebrate. We had lunch together, took the grandkids to the Rec Center, and had a great dinner at the Mandarin. 

Every year for General Conference, the Larsen side of the family goes up to the cabin and has breakfast while listening to the morning session. It's one of our favorite traditions. The canyon is always beautiful in the Fall. This year, after the morning session, a group of us went on a hike on the Moose Trail near our cabin. The view was amazing!

Can you tell we were still celebrating our Utes victory?

Mel, Mark, Megan, Wes, Linds, Jen, Scott, Dad, & Mom

We went up to Park City last weekend to enjoy the fall colors and take a break from school and work. We stayed in a cottage at Hotel Park City and had a great weekend. We enjoyed walking around Main Street, shopping at the outlets, and caramel apples from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory (my favorite!).

The view from our balcony

Behind our cottage

We have a lot of big things coming up including Luke and Scott returning from their missions, a California trip for Meg, hunting trip for Wes, and the holidays!

Lake Powell 2014

Every year we have the opportunity to go Lake Powell with my family and our friends, the Watson's. It's one of our favorite trips of the year. I'm convinced it's one of the most beautiful places in the world. We're able to go stay in a secluded canyon away from the rest of the world, it's a good break from real life.

This year we ended up staying in Navajo Canyon. It's one of the closest canyon's to the Antelope and Wahweap Marinas. We spent most of our time wakeboarding, wake surfing, and just hanging out!

 

Every year we have a couple of "theme" nights. They always end up being a blast! Some of our favorites are always "White Trash Wednesday" and "Luau".  The Luau always features a Limbo competition which gets very competitive. Linds won it this year.

This year my dad led us through a Crossfit workout one of the days. It kicked our butts! I'm pretty sure he's the only person who thinks working out on vacation is fun (actually, I'm pretty sure Wes does too).We were all sore for DAYS.

We had a great time and already can't wait to go back next year!