I figure I better start talking like a Southerner now to get me ready for Georgia...
This week is flooded with nostalgic feelings for us. We have done a lot of growing up here in Provo and are sad to go. We're sad to leave lots of friends behind.
But, we are excited about what new adventures await us in the south and excited to make new friends.
This week is also stressful as we're packing up everything. The word pack and stress has always been synonymous for me. Any packing tips?
I am a HUGE fan of to-do lists. Especially seasonal ones. Every summer we make a "summer to-do list" which mainly consists of fun summer activities. It's almost just as fun to cross things off the list to see how much we've done :) We made a "Things to do before we move " list which again is filled with activities, places to eat, things/people to see. We won't be able to do everything we listed but we've done a lot. One of our activities was a bonfire. You know how we love our bonfires!
Also to ensure I saw friends I deemed different days of the week to see different friends. Wednesday started out with having lunch with Ruth, which ended up on all different days of the week and included two more of our freshman roommates which was lots of fun to see them. I think we did that 3 or 4 times.
Thursdays have been my "Thursdays with Sandi" day. Sandi was my roommate sophomore year and I was thrilled to find out she was moving back to UT and that our babies would be 3 months apart. So, almost every Thursday since January we've had a playdate. Azure and Gabe have so much fun together.
Maybe they'll date in college :)
We also got to see our good friends Jared and Maren and their darling daughter Eva. Her and Azure had fun "sharing" toys.
Even though we're a bit stressed about packing up, we are beyond excited to know that next week we'll be celebrating our 2 yr anniversary on the beautiful island of Hawaii, alone! Just the two of us! Nothing beats a stressful week of packing followed by the ultimate vacation :)
Then drove down the south east coast of Oahu.
Then we headed to the North Shore and visited the Dole Pineapple Plantation (which we don't have any pictures of) and had some yummy pineapple ice cream. 
We arrived in Honolulu on Friday night and Charles' parents picked us up from the airport and brought us leis, so sweet. We had a unique experience on Oahu since Charles has so much family there. We didn't feel quite so much like tourists. We stayed 4 nights at Grandpa Leavitt's house.
Saturday we woke up early to go snorkeling at Hanauma Bay. I had never been snorkeling before and it took me awhile to get used to the idea that I could breathe under water. We saw lots of cool fishies. Too bad we didn't have an underwater camera...
We spent most of Saturday and Sunday looking at amazing sights, which in Hawaii is not hard at all.
On the way to Lava Tree State Park we drove on this beautiful road perfectly canopied by these trees.
Fun fact: a lava tree is a tree/plant/misc living object that has been covered by lava, awesome.
Palm trees growing on top of lava
Black sand beach
View from the top of Volcanoes National Park
The Mauna Loa macadamia nut factory. Apparently mac nuts are the hardest nuts to crack. 
Kiluea Volcano
The drive to Hilo from Kona is amazing. The sights everywhere are gorgeous. Wednesday afternoon we hiked up the Pololu Valley.
I love how the people in caution signs always have these weird stick legs and arms :)
Then we took another short hike to Akaka Falls.
Oh, what a splendid day. If I could relive any day over again I would want to live Sat. May 20, 2006 again. It was such a perfect day. My greatest dream came true. And the soundtrack to our day was perfect with the words, "I could not ask for more". I really couldn't have.
We celebrated by doing sealings in the Kona Temple, absolutely BEAUTIFUL!
More pics to come...
