Busy, Busy, Busy!

Stephen has been very busy trying to finish the backyard before he goes back to work next week (Yay for no more trying to survive on teacher wages anymore!) On Monday some friends came over and layed the sod....the backyard is almost done! Now all he needs to do is hook up the BBQ, move his kegger-ator and hook up some lights. I think we will be having a celebration party in August for Stephen"s Birthday. Here are some pictures of our instant grass!

While Stephen was slaving away outside I decided to paint the only room left in our house with white walls....the Kitchen! It was the only room in our house that we were afraid to tackle because of the high ledges....I was finally fed up and decided to do it! I picked a color (which I love!!!) and got to work...I started on Monday and finished on Tuesday, then Wednesday I had to do some touch ups and decorate! Of course I forgot to take a before picture, but here are a couple shots of the finished product!

We have to go back to work very soon so we are going to try and enjoy our last few days together! Talk to you all soon!

Kauai

Since our trip to the Big Island was pretty much free (family member condo, and free airline tickets using our credit card points) we decided to go to Kauai and check it out since we have never been there before. We were only there for 3 days, but what we saw was beautiful! When we arrived we got our rental car and started exploring the island. We decided to go north and check out what the island had to offer. We saw a beautiful lighthouse and some really nice beaches. The island is so green, just driving around is nice! We went and had some lunch, checked into our hotel and hit the pool!

Our hotel was really nice! We had an oceanview room and the view was breathtaking! We hung out by the pool for a bit and then went to wal-mart and checked out a couple of really cool waterfalls. We went to dinner and then called it a night.

The nex day we drove south and went to Waimea Canyon. They call this the grand canyon of the pacific and it is really beautiful. We drove up the 19 mile road and stopped at all the lookouts to get some different views. We also got to see the biggest valley of the Na'pali coast. It's actually the only part of the coast that you can see by car. You can only see the whole thing by air or by boat.

We wanted to take a helicopter ride, but decided that it was too expensive...maybe next time!

We want to go back to Kauai so we can enjoy it all again. We did everything so fast that we didn't get to fully enjoy it all.

The Big Island

On July 7th, Stephen and I left San Diego for the Big Island in Hawaii. We were fortunate enough to be able to use a family members condo for free!!!! So when we arrived, we picked up our rental car, went to Costco and went to check out our living space for the next 8 days. The condo was absolutely amazing...way nice (and bigger) than our house! We checked it out and then went to explore some of the Island.

We drove around and found out where some of the nice beaches were and then we found a grocery store to stock up on some more food and supplies that we would need for the week. We spent our 8 days exploring the Big Island. We went to several beaches and did some swimming and snorkeling, we kayaked to the Captain Cook Monument in Kona, and we even hiked an active volcano!

We hike 4 miles into a crater that was once full of lava (I believe it erupted in 1959) and we got to see steam vents and get up close to where the lava was spewing out. It was a really cool experience! We also go to see lava moving down the side of a mountain and falling into the ocean. It wasn'tall orange and glowing, they said you had to be there at night to see that and since the volcano was almost 3 hours from our condo we didn't stay until dark :(

The Big Island is amazing! There is so much to do there, the only problem is, the island is really big so you spend a good amount of time in the car getting from place to place. We had a fantastic time and we will be returning to the Big Island, hopefully soon!

Aloha!!!

Well, Stephen and I are all packed and ready to go. We are leaving this afternoon to spend the evening with our buddy Richie. He lives in San Diego and has offered to take us to the airport in the morning. Our flight leaves tomorrow morning at 8:35am. We will be enjoying the hawaiian sunshine for 11 days! We will be home on the 17th so look for a blog and slideshow when we return!