Dinner after wedding

We had a couple of hours between the ceremony and dinner so we played around with the camera on the balcony. We got a couple of cute shots.

The theme of the evening was drinks! I had 8 drinks, every one being different! Josh says that I drank more on this vacation than I did on our honeymoon and the drinks weren't free on this trip! Whoops!

This is us toasting, me with a mai tai and Josh with his pomegranite martini
a lava float
Dinner, again, was wonderful!
Josh's toastSo cute!With our grass skirt drinks! Everything was sooo good! We also had green turtles and a hawaiian version of a long island and then some other drinks that I can't remember the name of!MAYBE THE BEST SHOT OF THE ENTIRE TRIP:Hahahahahahahah!!!!!! Tipsy much, Josh?? Travis' dad even had to take a shot of this one where Josh drank a fru fru drink!

The ceremony

Here we are before the ceremony started

Wohoo, handsome!
Robert, Travis, Josh
Beautiful Bride!
The Hawaiian tradition of placing leis on each otherThis is my favorite shot!!

Rehearsal Dinner

Us with Lilian
The food was AMAZING! We had a wonderful meal which started with RAW tuna (and I ATE IT!) It was great. Then we had lobster and steak. And we finished with the best creme brulee either of us had ever had!

YUM YUM YUM!!!

We each had our own relaxation...

We both relax in different ways and were able to both take some time to do our own thing on one of the days at the resort.

Josh and Travis got to go golfing at the resort. These are fuzzy pictures because we got them while driving by. Josh said that there were some sand patches that when he stood in them, he couldn't even see over the top! And he did pretty well for not having golfed in almost two years!! After they golfed, they went to Lei Lei's, the course bar and they had some shrimp and some drinks.
For me, there is NOTHING better than a day at the spa. I have the most wonderfully sneaky husband in the universe and he surprised me when we landed in Hawaii with a Makai Massage, which is a Seaside Massage. It was so incredible and I took some pictures while in there. There were even surfers outside the window but it was amazing to hear the sound of the ocean. Usually they play a tape with ocean sounds or music when you're at the spa, but nothing can beat the real thing!

After my massage, I spent some time in the sauna and then went and laid by the pool and enjoyed some poolside drinks! YUM!

Me on the rocks

I walked out while Josh was playing in the water and he snapped this picture while I was out there. Then he walked a little ways out as I was coming up, but you can see the rocks. There was also a gravesite of a woman at the tip of the rocks. I assume that they spread her ashes at the point.

Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor was the one place that we didn't feel like we got to spend quite enough time. We could have spent an entire day there, but we did get to go through the museum and go to the USS Arizona Memorial. It is such a somber experience, but one that we think everyone should do if they get the opportunity.USS Arizona where over 1000 of our soldiers still lie
This is part of the ship that sticks out from the water
The wall of names. There were two Wrights and actually a Bandy, which surprised me.
Josh with the USS Missouri in the background. Unfortunately we didn't get to see it. If we ever get back, we want to do this because you can actually walk onto the ship.
Here is a picture of the oil that has dripped from the ship since the day it sank. They say that these are the tears of the Arizona and there is a legend that the oil will cease dripping when the last of the surviving soldiers finally passes.

Shuffleboard! Our nightly activity!

We became like locals at the resort bar called the Bay Club. Every night we would go up and have some drinks and play shuffleboard. Josh and Travis used to play all the time in college and I'd never played, but Travis' dad and I overtook Josh and Travis a few times! We still claim to be the overall champs, even though we did lose our gusto after a few drinks!

Champs!!
Josh is convinced that we need a shuffleboard table in our loft now!

Our beautiful room!

The resort that we stayed in was absolutely gorgeous!!! We'd heard great things about it, but we had no idea it would be as spectacular as it was! This is the view from our balcony.
You'll see a picture later where I'm standing at the point of the long peninsula. It was really rocky, but one of my favorite moments of the trip being out there with the wind blowing and the waves crashing. It's unexplainable.
Here's a wedding that was going on during the first day when we got there.
We left the doors cracked every night because the sound of the waves crashing is so soothing and amazing. We also got to see tons of whales from our balcony. We were told to watch for them in the early morning so the second morning that we were there, we were up at sunrise and after a while, I spotted one blow the water up, and from there we saw tons and tons of them migrating and jumping out of the water and then blowing water out of their blowholes. It was pretty neat and if we'd been there even a week later we would have missed them! We're going on a whale watch next month when we go to see Jeremy & Lisa, so this got us even more excited for that!

Diamond Head Volcano & Dole Pineapple Plantation

On our first full day, we hiked to the top of a volcano and went to the Dole Pineapple Plantation.

Here is a pic from inside the volcano. If you see the three points at the top, we climbed to the one that is the highest in the just to the left of the center of the pic. It was a hike!! It is crazy to see the vegetation when you come from outside the middle of the volcano to inside of it. It looks and feels like a dry desert and then when you step foot outside, it's bright and gorgeous again.

View of Waikiki Beach from the top of Diamond Head Gorgeous waters
Me flipping Josh off for trying to take a picture of my butt. :)
The train at the pineapple plantation. It rained while we were there but it was still beautiful to see out across the island with the rain coming in.
Josh with the pineapple plants behind him.

They have this fabulous pineapple whip which is basically like a sorbet. We ate some of this and some fresh pineapple. YUM! And a peacock visited us. I was scared.Here is a gum tree. We thought it looked so cool. It looks like something out of a Dr. Seuss book!

We also visited Waikiki Beach which was neat to see but very commercialized. And we walked through downtown Honolulu to see great shops (note that I did NOT buy a thing! impressive!) where they have stores that remind us of what you see on Rodeo Drive. We didn't even venture into those, but we did visit the International Market which had great jewelry and t-shirts, etc. And we ate at a beachside restaurant where Josh got to grill his own Mahi Mahi.

Sweet Lincoln in the Hospital

We're back from Hawaii and had a marvelous time!! I'll post a blog soon, but first I want to send our love to Linc. He's gotten some sort of virus that zapped him and he is in the hospital (hopefully he'll get out today) to rehydrate and get some energy back. Even in the hospital with that bandage around his hand, he was a smiling little ham for the camera. He's so sweet. Give him a little prayer if you don't mind!! Thanks! We love you Lincers!