Aysia's Baby Shower

 My dear friend Aysia from college is having a baby this spring. The girls who are still in Hawaii decided we should throw her a party on Oahu to celebrate! This was the first time I was seeing Aysia with her baby bump. She looks adorable and has the cutest bump ever. We had the party at Jansen's place in the backyard. We decorated when we were supposed to be at church. Aysia didn't really want to go to the singles ward pregnant so it worked out perfectly to have that time to decorate. Heather did an amazing job with the balloon arch. She sure whipped it up so fast. She also crocheted flower placemats for everyone! We had charcuterie, lilikoi lemon cookies, cake, pink lemonade, and purple sweet potato salad. All of Aysia's favorite things. We enjoyed chatting and catching up with one another. Aysia is going to name her little girl Ivy. 

We decided to shower her with some gifts for herself. She already has been given a ton of baby stuff so we gave her some fun things that she might need when the baby comes. The night ended with painting! We wanted to do an activity with all of us but because Aysia can't hike, walk, or do any tours we decided that painting would be the perfect activity. We were guided by a video that taught us how to mix colors, what stroke to use, and how to layer the colors on the painting. It was so fun seeing everyone's paintings come together. All of ours turned out a little different based on our personalities. Aysia said she was going to hang it in her baby's room. I love that all of us have the same picture hung up somewhere in our place. 

The rest of the weekend consisted of watching The Bachelor, shopping, eating, beaching, and enjoying the island. I also spent some time with Kaiwi and Kapono. They are the cutest kids. I Sure, do love these girls of mine. We have so many fun memories together on the island. We love getting together to celebrate big milestones with each other. 

Ziplining and the Super Bowl Party!

One great benefit of working as a concierge at the Sheraton is that I get to do most of the tours on the island for free! Gavin and I have slowly been making our way through them. Today we tried ziplining! I think ziplining is fun but usually, not my first pick of a must-do when I travel. In Hawaii though everyone wants to zipline. No better way to give an honest review than to try the tour myself right?

Koloa Zipline has eight different lines that make up a total of 1.5 miles. The first line was a short practice line. They taught us how to slow down on the line so that we didn't body slam the guide at the end or, worse, run into a tree. We all felt incredibly stupid doing the move they taught us. We were all sprawling in the air. When you hang from a zip line, you are in a sitting position. To slow down, you spread your arms and legs out like a star, but because you are sitting down, I feel like it didn't look good. We all took turns laughing at one another. We were able to do a variety of different moves while on the zipline. We hung upside down, flew on our stomachs, and even backward! We were the youngest in the crowd. Everyone loved watching Gavin spin around. We ate some snacks at a beautiful lookout before the last line.

As we were heading out, the wind started picking up and blowing against us. Since the last line was so long, they were worried we were going to get stuck. We had to curl up in a ball to make sure we weren't going to get stuck on the line. I just made it to the end. I was slowing down way too early and inched right to the platform. I let out a sigh of relief. I didn't want to be that 25-year-old who got stuck and had to be rescued. It's crazy how many people were afraid of heights. Some people had the hardest time jumping off the platform. For me, that was the best part! I did love flying over the beautiful lush green field of Kauai. The zipline is in a gorgeous place. For that alone, I would tell people to do the zipline.

The Super Bowl is big every year, but I feel like this year's Super Bowl was even more popular. Taylor Swift has been a hot topic and gossip of this year's games! The Chiefs and the 49ers are going against each other. Taylor Swift is cheering on Travis. So who am I going to cheer for? That's right, the Chiefs! I think a lot more Swifties watched football this year. We went to the Geddes's house to watch the game with several other couples in our ward. Gavin somehow managed to get work off for the day. His manager thought it was because of the Chinese New Year... Yes because everyone in Hawaii celebrates that..

We were a split group, with half of us cheering for one team and the other half for the other. What made this game extra fun was seeing Taylor Swift screaming and cheering on her boyfriend, Travis Kelce. Gavin, Eve, Brayden, and I all love Taylor Swift. Every time they showed her, we would cheer loudly. The game was surprisingly really good. I think this is the first year I actually watched the whole Super Bowl game. The game went into overtime with the Chiefs winning with 5 seconds to spare. We were going wild and screaming when the Chiefs won. The other half of the group was screaming out of anger that their team lost. Either way, lots of people were screaming. We kept watching so we could see Taylor Swift and Travis kiss on the field. That was the best part for me.

There were so many bets going on that Travis was going to propose to Taylor and what kind of outfit she was going to wear, etc. I mean, it was intense. I bet a lot of people lost a lot of money from this year's game. We loved seeing Taylor and Travis together sharing their moment on the field. How could you not support the two of them?

Gavin and I also went hiking the next day up to this beautiful valley to a secret tree swing! This island never gets old. Every time we go hiking, I can't believe how beautiful this island is. This island feels like home to me. Gavin flew his drone and got some sweet footage of us!
I also had a potluck with my coworkers one day. I enjoy most of my coworkers. There is always some sort of drama going on with them. Some of my coworkers share way too much personal information about their lives.