Hibbs Go to Hawaii: Days 7-13

DAY 7: Was a Sunday, so we went to church! I love being able to attend church when I travel because I love seeing how the church is the same wherever you go! Same schedules, structure, leadership positions, etc. It's a part of my testimony of the church because God isn't partial to certain people or places, and He wants to bless all of his children. It is also interesting to see the different culture when going to church in other places. You've all probably heard when someone from the islands might get up to speak and says "Aloha" and the congregation replies with "Aloha". Well on this Sunday this cute military couple spoke. The wife was probably the most Caucasian person there, super blue eyes and very blonde hair. You could tell she was nervous to speak. She started out her talk by saying "good morning brothers and sisters" and then she tried to keep speaking (not leaving any room for a reply from the congregation), but still, the congregation all said "good morning" and it totally caught her off guard. I think by not saying "aloha" she thought she was off the hook from that cultural tradition, but she was wrong! She was a sweet girl and gave a great talk but it definitely made me laugh.

DAY 8: One of my favorite days of our trip...And it may or may not have included an awesome shopping trip! Tay and I sort of started a tradition (unintentionally) of going shopping to Ala Moana shopping center in Honolulu with my mother-in-law. My mother-in-law is quite the shopper, just like I am so it's a lot of fun! Tay is always a good sport (and he actually likes shopping) so it's always a good time. We ate at one of my favorite places, Bubba Gump Shrimp, based off of the movie Forrest Gump. The day was filled with good shopping and good food. Can't beat that!



Macy's at Ala Moana is my favorite! They had an AMAZING shoe sale. Let's just say I went home with all but the closed-toes shoes here (just tried these on for work..didn't love 'em!). But sad day, last night I was unpacking...and the saleslady accidentally gave me two right feet for the coral shoes! I didn't notice because the sale just featured the right foot of each shoe and when you decided to purchase they'd go grab the other shoe and box it for you. So sad. I'm going up to Fashion Place mall tonight to try to get it all figured out.

Day 9: Tay and I met up with his dad and his wife for lunch at an ALL FISH restaurant. OK, I lie, there were two things on the menu that weren't fish. If you know me you know that I really don't care for fish, or seafood at all, which has been a slight struggle seeing that my husband is from an island where seafood such as raw fish (yes, raw fish) is a common thing they eat. Anyway, I was very proud of myself because I ordered a calamari salad. Not super fishy, but it wasn't a cheeseburger, which sounded really tempting instead. I think the fact that it is breaded helps because I can't see exactly what I'm eating.

Oh, I forgot. We stopped by a local bakery to get some cocoa puffs (on the right). They're basically chocolate-filled pastries with chantilly frosting on top. So, so yummy. 

We spent the rest of the day in Kailua at the beach, and I still couldn't get over how blue the ocean was and how white the sand was. So beautiful! Of course we ended the night as usual over at Tay's grandma's house spending time with family.

In love. 

Sorry for the mini photo shoot. but I love photos. 

Day 10: I loved this day! Tay and I slept in a little then took a swim at the pool in his mom's neighborhood. We had the pool to ourselves and got some good sun. After we showered real quick and went to see the movie The Butler (so good, by the way!). The movie theater is also literally down the street from my mother-in-law's so it was fun doing fun things very locally. We decided to splurge and got a big bag of popcorn and I got and Icee, one of my newest obsessions when we go to movies (not a good habit, but all growing up and until now I never got Icees during movies so it's a fun new thing). In Utah the blue Icee is flavored blueberry or blue raspberry or something I'm pretty sure but at that theater it was blue Vanilla. So yummy! That night we had dinner at Tay's sister's house. They just built it and it's beautiful!

Tay told me to make an excited face...so here it is Tay! 

Day 11: We went to the beach in Kailua. Again. Because I loved how beautiful it was so Tay let us go to the exact same spot we were at just two days before. Funny because the same girl who was laying out near us was there, in the exact same spot, again. She must love that place, too!

My boy just getting real brown. 

typical beach feet shot. 

Visited Island Snow for some amazing shave ice! Last time we visited Island Snow, President Obama came in like exactly two hours after we did. 

After shave ice Tay wanted some of his favorite food: Poke (raw fish) and Poi. I have not been brave enough to try either of these...

Day 12: After spending the whole time trying to figure out our flights back home (no thanks to Delta and their unwillingness to let us pay to switch our flights), we went for another swim in the pool. We were kind of stressed all day because of our travel plans. Basically our brother-in-law works for Hawaiian airlines so we get to fly on buddy passes, which is way cheaper, but it isn't confirmed, and Hawaiian doesn't fly out of Utah so we have to get flights to somewhere on the west coast then fly standby from there. We had purchased flights out of LAX to SLC for Sunday, but the flights from Hawaii to LAX were looking really full so there wasn't a way for us to get to our confirmed flight. So basically all weekend we were just trying to be chill and worry about going home when the time came...more on that later. sorry for the rant. but Delta and I aren't friends right now. I stayed up super late packing...and watching Good Luck Charlie. I will totally admit that I love the Disney channel. It's easy entertainment to watch while I do laundry, clean, sew, etc. because I don't REALLY care about the story line, but I can follow along enough to be entertained.

Day 13: This is the day we had to go home :(. It was so hard to say goodbye to everyone not knowing when we'd see them again. It's always easier having something to look forward to and count down until (yes, I do think it's OK to end sentences with prepositions so don't worry, I'm aware I just did it twice).

Ate our last home cooked breakfast made by Tay's mom.

All packed up (obviously more was in the back haha). Loving my new Vera Bradley bag I got on our little shopping trip. 

Every time we left the house we ALWAYS got stuck at this light. When we left the house for the last time we almost made the light, but then caught it. Taylor was cute and said it wouldn't be right if we didn't have to wait at the light one last time.  

Shakas with the nieces and nephew (missing two of our nephews though! :( )  

Our trip to Hawaii was probably my favorite of all of them so far. It's such a beautiful place with beautiful culture and I especially love listening to the dialect as I study language, so I catch myself noticing things I've learned in my phonetics, dialects, and other classes.