New Movie

Beau and I can't wait for Soul Surfer to come out in April.

It was filmed here, on the island of Oahu.

We watched some of the filming happen actually.

Who was riding a bike and was directed to the side of the road by a police car, escorting a car with Dennis Quad and Helen Hunt during a filming scene? 

Oh right, that would be me. 

Why hello Dennis.  Hi Helen. 

Nice to see you on this lovely island.

Check out the trailer for this upcoming movie. 

Surfing, Old friend, and Good food

We spent a lovely Saturday at the beach yesterday.

One of Beau's old friends from his mission was in town.

We took him surfing and to one of our favorite local restaurants, Kahuku Grill.

While at the beach we watched a wedding dress shoot. Surfing in wedding dresses does not look that easy.

After a day of surfing and sun, the giant "Twice as Much" Burgers were just what these two boys needed. 

Not only did Beau manage to eat his own burger, but a good portion of my coconut shrimp plate as well. 

Check out the pictures of these burgers. Impressive. 

Lately...

Our lives haven't been anything too exciting lately.  

As the semester continues, we seem to fall deeper and deeper into our routines.

Beau student teachers at the high school Mon-Fri. 

He officially takes over all the classes on Monday. 

When he's not teaching, planning, or helping me around the house..

He spends time with his favorite new toy...the xbox.

I go to classes and work Mon-Fri.  

Some Saturdays I play, while others I stay at home and write papers ALL day. 

As you can guess I'd much rather go to the beach and play.

Responsibility...bah.

Our life is going well though. 

Not much to complain about. 

When you live in a place where every morning looks like this though..

What's to complain about?

Gems and Jewels

Anyone have a favorite brand of jewelry?

Mine is Kenneth Cole. I couldn't tell you why. I just love it.

It's classy, trendy, and goes with everything.

What's not to love?

Weekend Adventure in the woods

This past weekend we went on a beautiful hike with our friends, the Sandberg's.  The Falls were gorgeous, and though none of us jumped in, we relaxed and ate our lunch on a small rock platform at the top.   We met a really nice man from Wyoming.  He even promised to send us free whistles made out of antlers!  Antlers? I think that's right.  Overall a very fun day.  We came back muddy, wet, and slightly scraped up. We got lost on the way home and instead of taking the trail...where is that darn path again??...we trekked on through the creek bed.  Hopefully we will be going on many more hikes here. Hawaii has more beauty than you could imagine.  I LOVE it. 

Some music for your weekend

Love it. 

Awkward and Awesome

I have recently become a huge fan of the Daybook.

Every Thursday there is an awkward and awesome post
where other bloggers can link up and share their own
awkward and awesome posts.
Go check it out. 

Awkward

• Watching someone waving at you but swearing you have no idea who they are.  After several uncomfortable seconds you wave back only to have them say "ohhh, uhh I was waving to the girl behind you."
• Being asked by your professor if you have a normal menses
• Having someone you barely know pointing out a gray hair amongst your otherwise luscious (ha!) brunette locks
• "Fitness Appraisals" for EXS class at school. How many situps can you do? How fast can you run? Body fat percentage anyone?  Though I love publicizing this to the class typically (Sarcasm? You bet!)....No thanks.
• Losing your umbrella because of the wind and having to chase it down in the rain

Awesome

• Being told that your senior project/paper (that you slaved over!) had one of the best narratives by far
• Being asked to help publish an article in a scientific journal (yes, I'm a little nerdy, don't judge)
• Eating cereal for two meals a day and loving it
• Knowing that after SUCH a long day, I have my amazing husband to come home to and snuggle up with
• Coming home and finding that the hubs has also done all the dishes! Sweet guy 

A peek into our lives

When no one is around...

• We eat luxurious tropical fruits
• We ride around in limos (okay, just once)
• We lounge on gorgeous beaches
• We go sailing and pretend we are on a Ralph Lauren Polo commercial
• We pretend our life is always as glamorous as limo-riding and sailing, but then realize that the following items better describe our day to day lives...
• We watch various reality tv shows (they are unfortunately addicting)
• We have lots of kissing 
• We dream about our future 
• Where we're going to live
• Babies babies babies (Don't worry family, none yet, or for quite some time. Hard not to think about them though when it's freakin' baby mania where we live!
• Grad school??? Don'even want to think about that one yet!
• We cook make-shift meals (hmmm, what kind of ingredients are in the cabinet tonight I wonder??)
• We dance around our tiny apartment (oh wait, that might just be me...)
• We play xbox and watch How I Met Your Mother
• Oh, and we kiss some more :)

New blog URL!!!

Just so there is no confusion,

I CHANGED the URL of the blog.

The old was was rather long and highly unrelated! :)

Hopefully the new one is easier to remember...

togetherforthebetter.blogspot.com

Crackin' jokes and bakin' treats

Last night we had a get together with some of our dear friends.

These here are the lovely ladies I hang out with.

The hubbies were of course off playing FIFA together.

So we of course made delicious treats!

Cookies, cookies, and lots of muddy buddies...YUM.

The place I call home

A few funny things about Hawaii

1. You know how sketchy hitch hiking is? Not in Hawaii. I'll be honest, I've done it about a dozen times or so.
2. Food trucks are immensely popular. Shrimp trucks, taco trucks, you name it, they are loved here.
3. Chickens run rampant. They are not pleasant to wake up to at 5am...
4. It rains A LOT. Perhaps this is common knowledge to some, but before coming here, I never could have imagined how often it rains.
5. SPAM is considered delicious. Yep, that's right, people LOVE it here. I'm talking spam burgers, spam and eggs, even spam-flavored macadamia nuts! Crazy, huh?

But, all in all Hawaii is wonderful.

Yum Yum

Last night Beau and I went out with eight of our friends to dinner in beautiful Haleiwa.

We tried out a new sushi restaurant.

We will definitely be going back.

It was delicious.

Miso soup

Tempura battered, fried avocado pieces in eel sauce

The classic tuna roll

We also had a "gnarly marley" that was unfortunately not documented.

Imagine though..huge rolls of sushi wrapped in seared marlin and filled with avocado, cucumber, and much more.

Just a few cute things I've found lately...

And adorable apron from Anthropologie

Legwarmers from Free People

A cozy sweater from Madewell

Necklace from JCrew

Scarf from The Limited

Shoes from ModCloth

Ahoy!

Yesterday Beau and I got to go sailing with a couple of our friends.

Beau's aunt Melody and uncle Terry were amazingly nice to let us all go out on their boat with them.

Have a look at our day...

Beau got to steer the boat

We got to see the Black Pearl from Pirate's of the Caribbean. It's currently parked at the same docks as Terry and Melody's boat.

We saw a group of about 3 whales jumping out of the water

(Thanks for the whale pictures Melody!)

A couple other fun things that happened that were unfortunately not documented on film...

We saw a pod of dolphins!

We caught a glimpse of a turtle swimming behind our boat!

And we rescued a French couple who were snorkling on vacation and got sucked out pretty far by the strong currents.

Overall? A fabulous day in Hawaii. :)

Goodbye 2010, Hello 2011

Hope everyone has a wonderful new year!