August's Adventures

 August has been absolutely dreamy. The month has consisted of no school and all fun! My kind of month! We went on a sailing adventure with Aysias chiropracher one evening on the North Shore and I was so sick the whole time. I could manage to sit up for only a couple of photos before I had to sit back down. I have never been so nauseous in my whole entire life. I was sitting on the back of my boat with a ginger ale in my hand praying I wasn't going to vomit. I don't think I am a boat gal sadly. My friends however had the most amazing time! And you wouldn't know looking at these pictures that I was so sick. 

We went to Sacred Falls again! This hike is definitely on my top three. It's so beautiful back in the valley. We went with a loud crowd and we had the best time swimming in the falls! We went on a Sunday morning before church. We all washed off with ginger shampoo in the falls. A very refreshing waterfall. I couldn't believe how long Jansen's hair was! This was my first time meeting her and we have so much in common. She was making me laugh so hard.  

Life at the preschool is good. We are finally getting more students back since the Rona started. Thankfully we don't have to wear masks. There is no way I could teach in a mask all day. This little kid is one of my favorites. He has all silver teeth and always has some sort of fade tattoo on him. Cool kid for sure. 

One of my favorite times of the day to swim is at sunset. This is when the sun casts the most perfect orange glow on the water. I could look at that color all day. Also, I love swimming with the girls! 

I took Ava out to Chinamans hat one afternoon and we had the whole place to ourselves. I kept thinking we were going to get stuck in a massive storm because the clouds were so dark but we had nothing but warm water and clear views! I love the view of the Kualua mountain range from the top of Chinamans. Truly one of the best views ever! 

We did another campout this month. I know you are probably thinking how many campouts are there in Hawaii? Well, a ton. This time we hiked to another secret cabin up in Laie. It took us almost 6 hours! It was one of the worst hikes I have ever been on. The trail was so overgrown we were all getting scratched by thorns the whole time. My legs were raw after. And there was so much mud. We were all trying to be careful at first not wanting to get any on us. But after an hour we just wanted to be done so walked right through. The mud was up to our knees. The cabin was definitely cool to see and I felt so accomplished hiking so far to get there. That night we hung from the rafters singing and celebrating with all the junk food we carried up. We always have strawberry belts on our campouts!   However, sleeping with super muddy legs and knowing what I had to face in the morning was awful! Straight up awful! We all had good attitudes and laughed about it on the way down. Good thing it was strawberry guava season. The fruit saved our lifes on the way down. I was constantly grabbing them off the bushes to keep me distracted. This is definitely one of those hikes I will NEVER do again. My toenails are covered in mud and I think my legs look like they were clawed by a bear. 

SKYDIVING

I have dreamed of skydiving since I was at Snow College. I was supposed to go with all my friends one day before my mission. We ended up not going because of a massive rainstorm the day we were supposed to jump. I am glad that happened looking back. Because jumping in Hawaii with my sister and cousin was the best experience ever! 

The thing about sky diving is that it's scarier the day before you jump rather than the day of. I think because the day before all I could think about was falling from the sky and that was pretty freaky. I hate jumping off of things but for some reason, I have always wanted to go skydiving.  

We decided to go on a random day in August. We decided that it was going to be a celebration for Ava moving to the island and for her birthday. Sam rounded up Michael and Jonah to come with us. We also met up with Sei and Nikita at the diving place. They were jumping to celebrate their graduation! We scheduled a 9am jump time but I guess it's more of a first come first serve basis and they just take as many reservations as they can in a day and give you an idea about what time you'll jump. Well, we waited for 5 hours in the hot sun. Ava and I just wore our Chacos because we didn't know you had to jump with closed-toed shoes! Luckily they had a box of old tennis we could wear. I had some pink shoes that I wore all day in the hot sun with no socks. We watched jumper after jumper land from our waiting spot. We also saw them folding up the parachutes. They were doing it so fast. I was crossing my fingers that nobody messed up. 

Finally, when it was our turn to jump they made us watch a safety video about how to lean and hold your body when you were in the air. After that, we were assigned our jumper. My guy was from Ukraine! I was stoked when I found that out. I was taller than him though. Once we were harnessed up we were filed out to the smallest plane. Ava and I hoped on first so this meant that we would be the last to jump. We were both speechless at this point. I think we were holding hands on the way up. My guide fell asleep and I was panicking that he wasn't going to connect me right when it was time. We flew over the ocean and away from the land. I couldn't believe I was about to jump out of the plane. They told us on the ground that there is no turning back once you get in that plane. We got this Ava!! This was my guides 10th jump that day. Easy for him! 

When it was time to jump we put on our safety goggles to keep bugs and wind out of our eyes and they made sure our harnesses were all secure. After that, we watched all 6 jumpers in front of us jump. It was surreal seeing Sam and my friends lean out of the plane and disappear. Next, it was my turn! I was brought to the end of the plane and we slowly leaned out. I was told to put my head on his shoulder the second we jumped and to arch my back. He started to count down from three! 3 2 1 and I was out! The last thing I heard was Ava yelling MALLERIEEEEEEEEE. I was praying she was right behind me! I was free-falling for 60 seconds before the parachute was released. I remember feeling the wind and seeing the clouds below me. It was a weird feeling free falling for that long. I definitely knew I was falling but it was almost as if my brain wasn't connecting to what was going on. I was living in the moment! The wind was stretching out my face. As soon as the parachute was pulled I was yanked up into a sitting position and it was a smooth sailing ride to the end. Ava's parachute was pulled right by mine and were yelling each other's names and throwing each other the Shaka. It was truly magical! We were both smiling so big! 

When we got to the ground I couldn't help but scream and jump with my fist in the air. The adrenaline was real. I had so much energy. We all cheered and hugged at the bottom! We were brought to a room where we viewed our photos and videos. After watching and seeing mine I knew I needed to purchase mine. My only regret was wearing a normal bra... if you watch the video of me jumping you will know exactly what I mean. We crashed hard that night after a big meal. I think from all the excitement we wore ourselves out. 

 

Ava Moves to Oahu and Camping at Kualoa Ranch

I was super excited when Ava decided to move to Oahu to join me for the fall semester at BYU Hawaii! Her graduation was cancelled due to covid and BYU Hawaii is online... But I am all for online school. And so happy to have my sister join me for college! The last time we were in the same school was in Elementary. 

Ava landed at 11am, and I was so excited all morning long! She was going to be taking Heather's spot in my room. Heather moved out to be with her family during this crazy COVID time. The island welcomed her with some HEAT. It was seriously SO HOT. We grabbed some quick lunch before heading up the North Shore! She would also be working at the Preschool with me, but this time filming the phonics lessons and editing them. 

I wanted to make Ava's first day in Hawaii the best day ever. I dragged her to the beach where she swam for the first time in the blue Hawaiian water. And after we went snorkeling at Sharks Cove and then went to Aysia's house for sunset! Ava was pretty jet-jagged because she konked out that night. I planned too many things on her first day on the island. But I couldn't help it! I was so happy to have my best friend living with me! I wanted her to love this island like I do. We met a bunch of awesome girls at waffle night at the canal house one evening. We love all the spontaneous parties that are thrown. 

We started adventuring pretty much the next day. I introduced her to all my friends and she fit right in. I mean who doesn't love Ava? We wanted to do a craft before the semester started so we bought a Tiny House kit on Amazon! We sat upstairs in the blue house next door and listened to music while crafting. We loved building our Tiny house! I think the only photo I got it was when we showed it to Sam. 

That weekend Sam wanted to do another camp out. He decided on another illegal one. We were headed to Kualoa Ranch to camp under the gyro-sphere that was used as the film set in Jurassic World! We couldn't say no to this adventure so we packed an overnight bag and headed over. Jansen and Aysia joined us. We left when it was dark because we didn't want anyone to see us walking back into the valley. What we weren't prepared for was the cows wandering around the grounds. They scared us so many times. We could hear something in the bush moving and the next thing we knew a huge cow was in front of us. Once we arrived at our camping spot we played some music and watched the stars. It was a beautiful night. Camping was not so beautiful because we were sleeping on a cement pad... Not comfortable and the cows were making noise all night long. Ava and I decided that we would just enjoy the night so we stayed up and watched Series of Unfortunate Events. Were laughing so hard for some reason. I don't know why but that movie was hitting home for us. We had way too much sugar and stayed up way too late.

The next morning we watched the most beautiful sunrise and made up a dance to Watermelon Sugar by Harry Styles. Ava also taught us the dance from Best Song Ever by One Direction. Sam was a trooper and filmed and replayed the music as we made up the moves. 

We were just blaring the music not concerned at all that we could get in serious trouble. For some reason with Sam, it all works out. He always has luck on his side. Getting caught never even crossed our minds. What we did was super illegal and we totally trespassed. I think all agreed it was worth the risk because we had such a fun night. 

That same night we went to a friend's house to watch The Longest Ride. Ava and I knocked out on the grass because were so exhausted. We woke up during the final credits. We were so tired it took every bit of strength we had to drive home. We refer to this as "the longest ride tired". We have never been more tired in our lives.