Merry Christmas!!

Hello All!

Christmas is approaching as we all know, but it sure doesn't feel that way here! It's still warm and sunny, and i feel bad for not being more thankful for the weather, but it just doesn't feel like the holidays to us. People put up more Christmas lights here though than I have seen back home, and we decided that is what makes up for the lack of snow and cold weather. Hawaii has entered its rainy season, or its equivalent to "winter". It rains anywhere from 1 to 5 (yes, 5) times a day and then the wind howls all day and night long! it's so sporadic it makes it a little hard to plan for outdoor activities, but its nice too because it's cooler and not as humid. At night i can wear jeans and a light jacket and be  comfortable.

This was the first time i have ever went Christmas tree shopping, and when i finally got around to it due to the move and our hectic schedule, they were all GONE! No trees anywhere to be found. I could've looked around for a real one, but since it's so close i saw this on pinterest and decided this would work for our first Christmas tree:

Yep, it's made from books, and then the top is from our wedding last year! I never thought i would have a Christmas tree made from books,especially for our first tree together, but it works. Between moving, trying to get the house together, his work schedule, and my CNA program, it was a cute and no hassle alternative.

Our pastor at our church is a really gifted speaker, this is last Sunday's sermon if you want to check it out http://hopechapel.com/teaching/live-webcast/archived-teachings its ID check-Role by Carl Moore 12/16/2012

Fun things to do around here

Hello Everyone!

This past weekend Ryan and I went hiking, to the North Shore, and some other miscellaneous things.

First, we ate breakfast at Cinnamon's. I've talked about it before, but we go back as often as possible because it's delicious! I always get an omelet with artichoke, black olive, parm. cheese, and pesto with rice, and he get's the S.u.n.s.h.i.n.e. last time he got red velvet pancakes and this is what they looked like:

  They tasted just like red velvet cupcakes, which was amazing, but too sugar-y. so this time he got whole wheat french toast :)

Next, we went hiking to Maunawili Falls. We went with The Camacho's, they are from Oregon and they are stationed here in Hawaii with us-awesome people! it's a 3 mile hike total, and at the end there is a water hole you can swim in and then a little ledge about 25 feet up that you can jump into the water from. I jumped from it, but Ryan was too scared!..haha no just kidding, i was actually very proud of him that he didn't get into the water since his small pox shot is still on the mend. but he hated every minute of not getting to participate.

People took the time to balance these rocks, it was neat to see and amazing that they didn't fall over!

It was so pretty to be out in the forest and see all the green and flowers, we are going to try to hike a trail every other weekend! (look familiar mom?)

After we went hiking we went to the movie theater. they were playing all three extended versions of Lord of the Rings in anticipation for The Hobbit, so we made the Twin Towers and The Return of the King.

Gandalf and I

Sunday we went with the Camacho's to the North Shore. it ended up being a little too cloudy so we left early, but we did get to see a surfing competition, which was really neat. on the drive back we stopped at a little market and bought some fresh fruit. I've said it before, but the avocado's are HUGE here. then we stopped to eat at this little farm on the side of the road. I had grilled banana bread, and Ryan had pesto pizza. both delicious!

This is a picture of the stage inside the church we go to. They always have a really good message. you can see more about it here http://hopechapel.com/

And this is the view from the church

I found this guy in the grass, he was the biggest snail i have ever seen!

This is what they call "Vog" it's different from Fog in that it comes from the volcano on the Big Island. When it comes in we both get headaches, and my allergies go haywire.

Overall, we had a really fun/exciting/tiring weekend! This week will be really busy for the both of us-Ryan with his crazy work schedule and i start my CNA course this week.

Hope all is well with everyone back home, we miss you all so much!

Hawaiian Sledding

This is Hawaii's version of sledding:

On Saturday's there is a really big farmer's market in Honolulu. they sell all kinds of different things! we bought a few veggies, but mainly tried different foods they had out. we tried a Vietnamese doughnut and Vietnamese coffee (which were both delicious, we went back for more), and i tried seaweed pesto, which was also very good! they had tons of different plants, which all look so exotic and tropical. i keep telling  Ryan he needs to get me some, but he never does...sigh...one day haha :) but the avocado's are HUGE here, i've never seen anything like it.

We went up to the top of the big hill we run to see the sun set, but where we are located on the island we don't get much of one, the mountains hide it. it is always dark here by 6, and its really dark too. when its 6pm it feels more like 9pm, so it just always feels later than it actually is.

Busy Bee's

Hey Everyone!

Sorry i haven't been blogging as much as i would like to! we've been pretty busy!

Ryan has started doing some work with his unit, but since most of his unit is deployed there's not much he can really do. So they tasked him with organizing the units return from their deployment , and he has been enjoying learning how to do certain things and kind of get a head start before everyone gets back and then just dumps work on him...which he looks forward to as well.He is also the safety officer for the unit. that means before every leave or break he gets up in front of everyone and says "okay now, don't do this and stay away from that" etc.,  But overall it's going well and he is meeting a lot of people that are giving advice about his unit.

I've been trying to get things in order for graduate school. I'm in the process of getting into a CNA class and then for the Spring 2013 semester i'm taking a microbiology class. And then I've applied for an accelerated nurse practitioners program for the fall of 2013, so fingers crossed! if i don't get accepted i'll just try to apply again for the next fall. it's a two year program and we have three years here, so hopefully one of the times i apply i'll get in! if not i'll just have to pursue other things! I also start volunteering for the Red Cross soon, i have orientation that starts the 27th! so i am excited about all of that!

We went to a beach called "sandy's beach" and i think it's called that because you get sand everywhere, you sit on your towel and somehow you have sand all over you, you don't get in the water somehow you have sand all over you,you get in the water to wash the sand off and somehow you have more sand. its a mystery to us! The Drive out there was absolutely beautiful! i'm having some trouble getting my photos to load on the computer, but i will post those at a later date!

This is his "official" marine corps photo. i tried to send one to family, but just in case someone hasn't seen it here it is :)

Hope everyone is doing well :)

Graduations

Hello Family and Friends!

These are pictures of Ryan's graduations-From TBS in Virginia, and then Logistics school in Jacksonville.
 these are the friends he made during the 6 months of training, everyone was SO happy to graduate and be out of there, but they were getting very sentimental as well, realizing they won't be seeing each other for a very long time, if again...but hey, Ooo Ra.

Trevor Sewell, Rich Powell, Daniel Driscoll, Jason Moxley

Kyle King 

Colton Sizemore

Jeff Spangler

Mike Noland

 Then we moved to Jacksonville! We really liked it, and there are certain things we miss. If i messed up on dinner or it was just a late night, we went to this 24 hour old school diner and would eat breakfast :) it was also fun living so close to the Atlantic, and now we are living on the Pacific!

 This is graduation from Logistics school, and yes, i am wearing the same dress...perks of moving around!

Ryan and Jeff

Jason and Judy Grenier. Judy and i walked together every morning :) and they are expecting a little one!

Nice face Ryan...

If you look down, you can post comments which we will get! Please post if you want to!

Our first week :)

Hello Everyone!

We've been here a week now, and so far, we love it! We already miss everyone though, and fall, and the feeling of coming into a warm, cozy house when it's chilly outside. We've been trying to get to the beach as much as we can in between looking for houses, filling out paper work, filling out more paper work, Ryan checking in with his unit, and just getting things situated that we need. We've been trying to adjust to the time zone- we are still in bed by around 8:30 pm here and getting up around 4:30 or 5 am, though that's right around lunch time for you guys! The first place we stayed in was the Cabana's. we had to cross an air strip to get there, so we were always stopped for military air craft take off and landing, it was neat to see so close up. it was just a little one room place, and we shared the bathrooms with other people staying in the cabana's. i didn't mind that so much, but it was a little creepy in the middle of the night if we had to get up and use the restroom. To sum it up, it was hood rich with a nice view.

They called us and had a room open up in the lodge, which is more hotel like, and so we've been here since Thursday. Here we are closer to the grocery store, gym, and shopping center, but not as close to the ocean.

The beaches here on base are really nice and secluded. We went this past weekend and boogie boarded. we had so much fun but the waves were HUGE. and not nice big waves- they would go up and then cap right away and crash down on on the people trying to surf. So we hung out in the white wash and rode the waves out that way, i was too scared to venture out any further, i am just a white girl from the mainland so i'm not too disappointed in my actions.

Note: pictures of ocean here do not represent the huge waves we saw.

This is a video of very big hill, or small mountain (we aren't quite sure) that we run up. The view is amazing, so i hope this video works so you can see it. I'm still trying to get the hang of all this posting.

Love you all!