Blessings

I wanted to write about this past weekend when S and I took the girls and the Jr. High Youth Group to Tolmachoff Farms for this fall holiday. If anyone didn't know, S and I are now the Jr. High leaders and we meet with them every Wednesday night. Anyway, they are such a blessing from God for S and I! They are such a wonderful group that is so excited to learn about Christ and to fellowship with not only their friends, but us as well. They have such exciting ideas and even want to do whatever then can to help the church and others around them. They really humble me b/c of the fire that they have for Christ! I'm always so amazed at the things that they come up with to do to help, but then also some of the answers that they have during Bible study! They are such an intelligent group, that for S and I, it really keeps us on our toes to be really studying the Word so as to not lead them astray. I just really felt the need to tell you all what a great group we have been blessed with and show you the fun we had at the farms. We will be meeting tonight as well, even though it's Halloween-their idea too! They are so excited to come over tonight and spend this time with each other, it makes me excited just to think about it. Anyway, thanks for letting me ramble about them. ;)

HAWAII

Okay, I know I know, finally is what you all are saying! It's been almost a month and I'm just now writing about our trip. Well, I'm sorry it took so long, but with coming home to my mom being here and then just the regular deals that go on throughout a day, I've been so busy I haven't even had time to sit down long enough, and uninterrupted, to write everything I wanted to.

Well, as you know Hawaii is absolutely gorgeous! There is no better place to go and relax! Over there, time has no meaning, and the days seem to go on forever! We were busy doing something everyday, but because of the calming surroundings and atmosphere, we could have taken a nap at any time and during some of the things that we were doing. It's just so amazing there.

We went to Kauai for a week. Well, actually, we were in Kauai for 7 days and in Oahu for 2 days. We flew in and out of Oahu, and it was the day before and after we were to check in and out of our resort in Kauai, so that is why we were there to. To us, Oahu was nothing to write home about. We stayed in Waikiki Beach, and that was a nice beach, but Honolulu in general is VERY downtownish and that was just not what I expected to see. Now, Kauai was everything I pictured Hawaii as. Lush greenery all around you, no big downtown, friendly people, road right by the ocean, beaches everywhere you looked.... the list could go on and on, so I will stop there. We were on the north shore of the island, Princeville, which is the wetter and colder part of the island. It did mist/sprinkle throughout everyday that we were there, but it didn't last more than about a couple minutes every time, so it wasn't bad. Plus, with 85 degrees pretty much the entire time, who could complain. Between the trade winds and the occasional misting that happened it was beautiful and you couldn't ask for anything more! :)

We did so many things while we were there, it would be exhausting to write about, but I did write about the Luau that we went to and the horseback riding trips that we took. Those were the three events that I had pictures to, besides just beach and scenic pictures, so that is why I wrote about those. We traveled the entire island in a couple of hours, but I have to saw, our side that we were on was much better! More green and, well, just more beautiful! :) If you would like to see more pictures or want to know something more specific please email me. I will be glad to tell you more, and send you some more pics as well.

The Luau

This was an incredible experience! It was everything I thought it would be, but at the same time, nothing I thought it would be. I can't explain why I feel that, it just was! ;) The food was good, although, I must say, I wasn't all that thrilled about the pork. That could be, though, b/c they showed it to us after it had been underground all day and right before they shredded it for us to eat. I don't know though, I just preferred the other meats that they had there. And before any of you ask, no I did not try the Poi. For those of you who don't know, Poi is some custom of theirs to have at meals. It's supposedly really gross and taste sort of like plaster. I'm not sure why anyone would want to eat that and I told myself that I would try it, but these ladies at our table grossed me out before I even got up to the table. Oh well, I don't feel like I missed out on anything, so that is all that matters! ;)

The dancing show that was put on was wonderful! It's just amazing to me how men and women can shake their hips like that! I have to tell you, though, the best dance was the one at the end right before the fire dance. With this dance, the men and women who had be dancing all night went into the audience and picked out 3 women and 4 men. S was one of the men. When everyone got up there, they pulled 3 of the 4 men out to the front of the stage and had them dance with 3 of the professional women. When they were done, they took the 3 women from the audience and had them dance with the 3 of the professional men. Well, that would leave 1 man left from the audience, and wouldn't you know, it was S! He was so embarrassed and confused, but of course, they let him know right away what was going on. They pulled him up to the front of the stage along with the gal that pulled him from the audience. They asked him who he was here with, talked to me for awhile, and then told S that he was going to being doing the Love Hula (which is a SLOW hula dance). Of course, everyone started to laugh. Well, the host told him to just follow what the hula girl was doing and he would be fine. I was trying to take pictures and watch all while laughing! At the end of the dance, the music all of a sudden sped up and all the other hula girls started to circle around S and surround him. So he was trying to hula in the middle while he had about 5 women shaking there hips at him and dancing in a circle! :) It was sooo funny to see S up there. For those of you who know, S doesn't dance, so having to do the hula in slow motion was quite comical. Don't get me wrong, I love S very much, but that is just one thing he doesn't do-and he will admit it every time! Well, needless to say it was funny, but he did quite well considering, and he had a great time which is all that matters anyway. Once that dance was over, then we all went outside to see the fire dancer. That was great as well, but b/c it was dark and just a guy with fire batons, the pictures didn't come out as well.

Horseback riding in Hawaii

Horseback riding in Hawaii was nothing short of BEAUTIFUL!!!!!! That place is already amazing, and then to add my favorite past time, well lets just say you can't get much better than that!

Anyway, we went on two riding trips while we were there. The first one was a 5 hour ride through the mountains and valleys in the middle of Kauai. I was riding a paint American Show Horse (basically like an Arabian) and S was riding Quarter Horse cross. Anyway, on our ride we saw some amazing scenery and even got to try some wild plants that are edible! There was a couple that looked like weeds. One of those had little tiny purple flowers on it, and when you ate those flowers, they tasted like mushrooms. The other one, if you pulled it out of the ground and scratched the root, it smelled like sarsaparilla (root beer). That was pretty cool. Anyway, the best part of this ride was that our guide was a young women (slightly older than me) that was a lot like me in so many ways and she was a Christian. S and I had the best talk with her on the way back. She was soo excited to hear about where we felt God was leading us and what He wanted us to do as a ministry. At the same time, though, she had great things to talk about in her walk and where she felt God was leading her and what she wanted to do. It was great!

Our second ride was supposed to be a 3 hour ride, but it turned into more of a 4 hour ride. Which, of course, was alright with both S and I! ;) All the horses at this place were all crossed with draft horses, so they were all VERY big and VERY wide! I like the big part, but the wide was definitely something to get used to! ;) This ride, was on an entire ranch property. We rode around inside the property itself and got to see all the is around it and what was in it. One of the things in it, is a personal waterfall, which we did eventually get to! That was so incredibly beautiful as well. You see a lot of waterfalls from a distance in Hawaii, but at least as we could tell, you couldn't really get close enough to swim in any of them. This one you could. We actually tied our horses up and had to walk down to the waterfall. S and I went swimming, of course, while our guide set up lunch for us. Once we got out, we ate lunch and then headed back up to the horses to get back to the stables. On the way down to the waterfall, we just walked down a really tall and steep hill/mountain with man-made steps and a rope to help you so you didn't slip. Well, apparently that is the second way to get there. See, the original way was getting to be too hard for people to take, so they made this way, the problem was, nobody (including the guides) didn't like to go back up that way. So, the come down to the waterfall the new way and go back up to the horses the old way. Well, as we are getting ready to go, our guide gives us these rock climbing packs to put around our waste (which also has one of those heavy duty clips on them). Well, we start to climb the path we took to get there, but then we turn and start to head back towards the waterfall. Come to find out, we have to cross the top of the waterfall that we were just at. Of course, it's rushing water and the rocks underneath are slippery, so they have a heavy duty cable that runs across the water and we attach the heavy duty clips to that cable. As we are crossing, one of my feet slip, so now my right foot is soaking wet. Oh well, it could be worse, right? Well, after that, we walk a up a little higher and we come to a smaller waterfall that actually feeds into the bigger one that we just crossed. Once we are done looking at that waterfall, we look to where we are to go next and realize that we are going to be climbing a rock wall. It's not too big or anything, but they use that pack we are wearing and attach the clip to a cable and then we grab onto the chain that is there and climb up that rock. That was actually pretty cool. After that, we have to cross the other waterfall now, so off we go. Of course, things would not be complete if I didn't stumble again, but this time it was my other foot, so now both feet (and my legs up to the middle of my calf) are soaking wet. After crossing that waterfall we were pretty much to the horses, so nothing else to exciting.

So, as you can see, the horseback riding was definitely the highlight of the trip for me. I can tell you that S would say it was the beach for him. Don't get me wrong, the beaches were wonderful too, but as you all know, animals would almost always top things! Hawaii is such a magical place. It is expensive, yes, but I encourage you all to go when and if you ever get the chance! I don't know if we would have gone if this opportunity had not arised, but I'm sooo glad it did. I'm missed the girls terribly and am happy to be home again with them, but I will say I can't wait to go back again and that next time, take the girls and some family and friends with us! :)