Just Hanging Out!

Well, we've been having a blast these days! Just hanging out with each other. Our favorite times together are definately on the mountain! We have been riding horses a lot and Fishing and spending time with the family. We are loving every minute of it! We took a little 4 wheeling adventure up the mountain and went fishing, (picture above) I think Kade looks like Gollum off the Lord of the Rings, with this fish in his hand! Just the funny face he is pulling I guess! Kinda made me chuckle! :)
We got to help get some wood for the fam. That was fun. I like watching the tree fall and make the big crash! Tiiimmbeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrr!

We have taken the horses on the mountain a lot, and that has been my favorite. I feel like I can't get enough of the horses, thats all I want to do anymore is ride! I've always loved it but for some reason its intensified lately! :) We've helped a few people pack out their elk from the hunts and thats been fun too.

The colors were beautiful this year! So bright!

There's always something crazy happening at the Church home :) We were all hangin out and Tyson decided he needed to dress us in something different.................Well, Kade ended up with a button up shirt that is too small for him with some running pants, and I ended up with Tysons sweats........around my whole body! Very fashionable and attractive I'd say! One of my better outfits! And for sure Kade's best! Thanks Tyson for the new and definately improved make over!

Our last Memories on The Big Island!

I told Kade that I wanted to go hang out at the pool with him before we left and "float". I've been wanting to do this since we were in Hilo, only I wanted to float on the ocean in this one little spot that was really cool, but we never got around to doing it. So we went to the pool the other day and it ended up being such a great time! I pushed Kade around like he was a King! All he was missing was grapes to eat and fig leave fans! It was a lot of fun! Glad we went!

And he pushed me!!!! :) And tried to flip me over.......and over.....and over! Of course! :) LOVE THIS BOY SO SO MUCH! He makes my life such a better place!

And me

This was at a BBQ the other day that we had with some of the guys. We have all been hanging out a bit more because the wives have gone home. It was a nice little BBQ at the pool :) over looking the ocean.

Us at the bbqGordon was so nice to take us bowling. We all had so much fun...........until the live mexican band showed up! They were really loud! But it was still fun! My first game was horrible, and then my second game was better than bad, so I guess it was good. And Jordan and Isaac had fun (pictured above)

Almost Time to Leave......

I have tried about 5 different blog posts over the past month or so and for some reason, my "publish post" button wont work! So I don't know what the dealio is! (hopefully I can get this to post!)

Anyways, its almost time for Kade and I to leave this beautiful place, Hawaii! I have so many mixed feelings! I have seriously loved our stay here and would never trade it for anything! Each day has its different emotions, different ups and downs. Some days I'm so ready to come home(which has been felt more so the past 2 to 3 weeks), and other days I have anxiety about leaving too! I have gotten really used to the lifestyle of the weather, the ocean, the beach, the yummy tropical fruit, just everything. Its going to be different to go back to something that was so normal, but now so different too! I can count the time that I wore jeans out here! And I only brought one pair! haha! I miss my family, and my horses and our house and the "rugged mountains" and my friends, we are definately excited to come home! I'm just going to try and let it all soak in for the next 2 weeks and treasure every moment that we have left!

I think there have been a lot of highlights, while we have been here. Of course, sight seeing has been awesome and something we have thoroughly enjoyed! It was so great to have my mom and dad come and share this experience with us, that was a once in a lifetime opportunity and I'm grateful for that! We have loved going to the beach everyday and body boarding together, and Kade has loved laughing at me and watching me get tumbled by my first wave!! We've had alot of "firsts" together this summer, since its been a whole new experience for the both of us! And its been awesome! We have loved being able to attend the Kona tmeple! Its one of our favorite temples now! And I think one of our biggest highlights of the whole summer was meeting Elder Uchtdorf! He came to our ward one Sunday and we got to hear him speak! The power of that man is unreal! He is amazing. It was awesome to know that when we looked at him, we were seeing him, in person, and not on a screen and he was seeing us back! We were fortunate to get to meet him and shake is hand and talk with him for a moment. An incredible experience that we will never forget! And in one week from today, Kade's mom and dad are flying in to meet us on the island of Kauai! We are going to island hop before we go home and what an awesome experience that will be for us too!

We can't wait to see everyone and be with our families again. We are grateful to have had this opportunity! We feel so blessed!

Random Happenings:)

This picture is for my mom:) She wanted me to post this because I got this new dress while I was with her on Oahu, and she never got to see me in it:) So here you go mom:) This was on Sunday after church.

We got to eat at Bubba Gump shrimp last night with the company, and it was so great! And I had to grab a picture of the captain that sits outside the resaurant :) He's a pretty handsome guy!

I got to wear Forest Gumps running shoes for this pic!! Lucky me!!! They fit perfectly! They were actually metal and bolted to the ground for picture purposes:)

This was our dining experience!! Right on the ocean! What a view and what a great experience!! And the food was delicious! Had some yummy Mahi Mahi!

So Kade came home the other day just ramdomly chewing this huge piece of bubble gum! He started blowing a huge bubble and I couldn't resist!! He wasnt very happy with me!

On the beach after body boarding! :) Fun times! I'm loving Hawaii! I never want to leave!

Horse Riding in Hawaii!

I feel so lucky to get to ride horses in Hawaii! It reminds me of home and its such a nice feeling!! I miss my horses so much and this helps feed that need LOL :) So how this all started was, I met this awesome friend (Marlo) through one of the guys in our office. He knocked on her door and she bought a security system from him. Kade came to pick him up for the night, because they were finished working, and Marlo invited Kade into her home to have a bite to eat with the other guy. They got talking and Kade noticed her horse outside and asked about it. He told her that I LOVE horses and grew up with them, and she told him to have me call her! So I called her and we are now training her new horse together. She was into horses for a long time and then got out of it for a while and now is back into it. Marlo knows a lot of people at the equiestrian center, which is kinda by her house, and so she took me there and introduced me to a bunch of her friends. Her friends invited us to come ride their horses the next day. Kade and I went over there the next day and I had a blast!!! It was seriously so much fun for me! The owner of the horse's name is Jeffery, and he told me that I could have the horse for the summer, if I would come and ride him! He even told me to change its name if I wanted to!!! haha! Such a cool experience! So it looks like I get to ride horses all summer!!! :) So HAPPY!!!!

At the equestrian center they spray their horses down after riding them, once they've cooled down. The weather is always nice here so they can do that! I wish that we had nice enough weather all year round so that we could do that to! I seriously love this horse though! He is so fun to ride and so fun to be around!

This is a race track at the equestrian center! Such a beautiful sight! I wish I could just transplant this whole facility right to my back yard! LOVE IT! I feel so lucky to have this opportunity!

Random Hawaii

So this is just a ramdom post because I'm suck a slacker on my blog! So I'll just give a brief explanation of the pics.
We went to the temple the other day in Kona and we were just getting in our car to leave and Kade said, "Come here I have something to show you". He had spotted some horses in the distance. Two of my most favorite things in the whole world are horses and the temple!!!!!!

I thought this horse needed a Hawaiian flower since he lives in Hawaii! haha!

This was my anniversary Lei that Kade gave me!! So pretty!!!

The sunsets and sunrises are amazing here....absolutely amazing!!

We hung out on the beach for our anniversary, jus the two of us! It was so nice!

I think this is the coolest swimming spot!

Yeah, the wave ate me!!!! I had no idea it was going to spray me!!!! haha! It was fun and felt good!

Happy Anniversary!

So I found this picture looking through all my files, I had forgotton about it. It was a few years ago when I was in the Young Womens Presidency, and we had a Young Women's in excellence night and the husbands served all of us and the Young Women. It's really the only picture that I have of us all dressed up fancy other than our wedding day..........so I thought I would put it on here:)

I can't believe 6 years has gone by! So crazy! Where does time go, and at the same time, 6 years really isn't that long! I'm so lucky to have such a great man! He is the best! I don't know how I got so lucky! Each year that goes by I say to Kade, "Wow, that was an amazing year! How could life get any better!!??" And the crazy thing is, each year together gets better and better! We are so blessed! We love serving the lord and growing close together through him!

Happy Happy Anniversary to my Heat Swart! (Sweetheart) Kade likes to change the letters around on everything so instead of you are my sweetheart, you are my heat swart! ;)

Rainbow Falls and the Volcano!

Ok, this is a long post! But I couldnt decide which pictures to put on here, so I ended up putting most of them! haha! Oh well. The picture above is on our hike up to the waterfalls, there was some huge trees, (massive) and there was a spot that we could hide in the trunk.....so we did:)
Rainbow falls, view from the front. So beautiful! Pictues do it no justice!

This was on top of the falls, and boy, was it a long way down! Yikes!

This is on top of the falls looking out into the distance.

This was a little friend that Kade found in some of the rock pools.

Kade and the frog (at the bottom of the picture you can see the frog)

Yes, I'm in the picture, very small, barely there, but I'm there! Find me, where's Ciara! haha! This was up behind the waterfalls.

This was heading to the outlet of the falls, lots of cool rock formations behind the falls.

Another shot of behind the falls

I think this tree is cool with all its cool vines hanging down.

On our way to the falls

Some of the trees are just huge! The people look like little specks compared to the trees.

More jungle trees

This was some water coming down from the plants, just adding to the beauty of the falls :)

The above pic is of the volcano in the distance. Always steaming.

This was on our way to the Lava Tubes. Its so fun to hike through the jungle, something I'm not quite used to!

This is inside the lava tube that we went through. Its crazy to think that hot lava was once running through this tube!

Not the greatest picture for sure, but it shows what it needs to.

Another shot of inside the tube.

Going inside the tube. I felt like Indiana Jones on a new adventure!

Another view of the volcano in the distance. There is a trail that you can see down at the bottom, that people hike down into to get a closer look.

This is a fairly close up pic of the Volcano, and you can see the lava that is dried on the surface, which is from clear back in 1983. The volcano is still active but does not produce a lot of action. You will see steam pockets coming out of the ground just ramdomly everywhere around the volcano, even on the drive there.

Volcano in the distance. Its definately a colder climate at the level of the volcano. Down into the 60's. The Big Island goes from sea level to 13000 feet high! Sometimes, when we get really heavy rain storms, there will be some snow on the tips of the volcano.

This was some steam that comes up out of the ground. If you reach your hand over and put it in the steam, it would sometimes burn you. Pretty crazy.