Adventures

Daddy on Wakiki Beach!
On the beach of Wainae. Very beautiful but very dangerous. Many homeless people that like to steal.
Lighthouse, looking down from the top of Dimondhead
Mama, Daddy, and I in front of Hanauma Bay.
The economy cars were all sold out so they got to rent a convertible! How fun, but not practical for the back seat on the interstate. ?:~

Here are some more pictures of when my parents came to visit me. These first pictures are when we went kayaking in the Hickam Harbor. When we were there we counted six sharks in one place and then my dad went back out and counted ten in another place. It was crazy just rowing along and a shark just swims by. They were really fast! I am glad that we were in a boat. In the back ground it is a picture of a ship that was going into Pearl Harbor. My dad was not sure if we were supposed to take pictures of it but it was too cool to pass up. I hope you enjoy!
After we had enough boating we went down and got some pictures of the memorial. This memorial stands for all the fallen airmen. It is a constant reminder that we are still at war and that we are not going to give up because this is our country that we are protecting. It has become so clear to me these last few months that even though so many military are going oversees and even as hard as it is, these people have a desire to go and protect our nation. It is truly a blessing that so many want to make that choice and I feel prevailed to meet and get to know so many of these brave people. Please pray for the leadership of our military. Also please pray for Lindsay, David, and Will. They are all friends of mine, that go to my church. They will be leaving in August to go to Iraq.
On Saturday, we woke up early to go to see the sunrise at the top of Dimondhead. This is a huge crater made from a volcano. I do not quite remember how tall it was but it was big hike. We did not make it to see the sunrise but it was a great workout and a beautiful scene at the top. You would be amazed how many people will hike up a big crater at 6:00 in the morning. We passed so many people, and lots of girls in high heels! CRAZY if you ask me!
This is Daddy on the top of Dimondhead overlooking Wikiki. He was obsessed with going to Wikiki so we took a walk along the beach after we hiked down. It is really sad how many homeless people we saw. Hawaii is the only place in the nation that it is legal to be homeless. Some people just set up camp and stay there for years. It is truly unbelievable.
We later went to Hanama Bay to go snorkeling. This was so much fun and Daddy really had a good time. Mama got in for about a minute but was too scared of the yellow and black fish chasing her, so she got out of the water. Me and Daddy had fun making fun of her. After that we took a drive around the island, through the H3 and around the Kam Highway along the coast. I hope they had a good trip. I had a lot of fun just spending time with them. God is good and I am so thankful that He worked everything out for them to come. Thank you so much for coming to see me! Love you both very much!!!

Alright, So..My mom told me not to show this picture to anyone but I had too. It was so cute! This is them when they first got off the plane. Before they found out that the airline had lost their luggage. It was kind of a catastrophe. They got their luggage back on Wednesday and they were happy. It really worked out well because they were able to stay at the place where they were originally only going to stay at for 2 nights, it worked out that they stay for entire trip. It was truly a blessing!
This is a picture of me at the "Mighty Mo" We toured this great ship. We learned a lot about how it fought in many wars including Operation Desert Storm. It is incredible how big these ships are. It was the last battleship in the world. I guess that they just don't need them anymore. It was located off of Ford Island. Ford Island is where "Pearl Harbor" the movie was filmed. It was a really cool island but you could not take pictures of it so that is why you just see the ship.
This is Mama and Daddy in front of the great guns on the front of the ship. They were so big. This picture does not capture what they looked like but I thought you would want to see them. This next picture is taken of the USS Arizona that sunk at Pearl Harbor. It is a very solemn place to be. They ask that you not talk above a whisper and there were many veterans that came over to see the memorial. It is very humbling to know that these men fought to save my freedom. Now that I understand more of how the military works and know so many people that are involved in helping our nation, I truly feel blessed to be born in this nation. There are so many that do not get that prevailed. God has blessed me!

This is a picture in front of a big anchor. It reminded me of the verse in the Bible: "In the same way God, desiring even more to show the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever." Hebrews 6:16-20

I will send more about their trip soon. I hope you all have a wonderful day! Love you all and miss you!!!

On my birthday, some of my friends had a party for me. Bethany, who is located in the next picture, took me to the Smythe's house and we played cards and ate cake (my favorite: Strawberry with Cream cheese icing, specially made by Charlotte). After that Bethany took me to her house where we had a sleep over. It was so much fun. We had a great time of fellowship and did not get much sleep. (Good Times!)
The next morning we got up and a group of us went hiking to Moana Falls. It was absolutely beautiful. To get to the falls you had to go through the rainforest area. To the right is a picture of the girls that went. From left to right: Laura, Hope, Bethany, and Malia. We are standing in front of a giant tree. I thought my tree lovers out there would love this picture.
This is a picture of another tree that we saw on the trail. It was really big and twisted. The last picture is one that I took in the bamboo forest, looking up. I thought it was a really cool picture so I included it.
It was a great way to celebrate my birthday and thank you all for your continued thoughts and prayers. They are greatly appreciated. I hope you all have a wonderful week. Love you!

Alright so...I got so many comments about the roots that I was ducking beside that I had to write about it. This is a tree on Schofield Barracks. The roots grow so big that they continually have to replace the road that is next to it. Some of these same kind of trees were featured in the movie Jurassic Park.
I really do not remember seeing these trees in that movie but I have heard that they were on there. That movie was filmed on the Hawaiian islands. The Smythe kids said that they like to go and play on them a lot. They are fun. Susannah and I had a good time taking pictures of them and climbing on them.

Hello all! This is a picture of a flower called Bird of Paradise. It is absolutely beautiful. It has all kinds of different colors that this picture does not capture. I just thought I would share it with you. On Friday it will be my 25th birthday. I seem so old! I mean, when you say that I will be a 1/4th of a century old, it looks old. I don't feel that old though but...Oh well. I have some plans to go on a hike with some friends of mine. We talked about going to go waterfall jumping but I am not sure if that is what we are going to do. If we end up doing that I will make sure to send some pictures!
On Sunday, my parents are flying in to visit me for about 8 days. I am so excited about that!!! I have been looking forward to them coming since Susannah left. (Actually before that but it has not really left my mind since Susannah left) I have lots of plans for us when they come. Please pray that they have a safe trip and a great time while they are here.

We still have not sold this house. Please pray also that the house would sell soon. I am exhausted with it being on the market. Good news! We have a house in Texas. It is beautiful. It has a waterfall pool in the backyard and is in a nice subdivision in Belton, TX. I hope everyone has a wonderful day and I will write more soon!

Susannah, my sister, came to visit me from Anderson. We had so many adventures while she was here. We went to so many different places. I will tell you about what we did. She got here on Sunday and I decided to use that as a day for her to rest. Being that Hawaii is 6 hours behind South Carolina I figured she needed to have a day to get adjusted. She got to go to church with me and then we relaxed at the Smythe's house where we had a good time just talking, and having fellowship over homemade donuts.
On Monday we got to go to the Polynesian Culture Center. This is a place that has many different "cultural island experiences" that the people dress up like the natives and show you how they live. You can visit different "islands" and even interact with the people there. We got to have coconut bread, learn a hula dance, ride on a canoe, and see many different dances that the people of the island tribes used to do. This is a picture of Susannah and I with some of the people from the Tahiti tribe. This was a all day experience and we had a great time.
On Tuesday, we went to see a beautiful sunset on a resort on the island. We took the kids with us and Susannah could not resist taking pictures of me with Joshua and Sydney with the sunset in the background. This is at the resort area called Ko Olina that I have written about in a earlier entry. It is a beautiful place and Susannah loved it too.
Here at the Aloha Stadium they have a thing called the "swap meet." This is where different vendors come out two or three times a week to sell things. This was really cool and I hope to go there again soon.
This is Susannah in front of a tank at Schofield barracks. We walked around to find pictures of flowers and wanted to get some pictures in front of the tanks. We had a lot of time to go shopping and to explore the island also. On Thursday, we went to Hanauma Bay to go snorkeling. We had so much fun and saw a lot of beautiful fish. I also showed Susannah the other side of the island. I took her to Zippy's to eat (very weird variety of food), but afterward we went and had shaved ice, so that made up for the weird food experience. That night I took her up to turtle beach, where we saw two turtles on the beach and one in the water. After there we went to Rosie's Cantinia and ate supper for the last night of her stay here.
On Friday, before she had to leave, she decided to have a birthday get-together with a few friends of mine at Starbucks. Here pictured (from left to right) Lydia, Charlotte, Susannah, Courtney, Heidi, and me. We had a great time of fellowship and I was really happy that she got to meet my friends here.
I was really sad to have to put her back on the plane but was really grateful to be able to spend time with her in this beautiful place. I am so glad that she was able to come and see what it is like here.
I hope everyone is doing well and can't wait to hear about things from where you are. I hope you have a wonderful day! Thanks for reading!