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.

Our apartment

Here's our little apartment for 2 1/2 more months :) My mom wanted pics to see where we live, and where they will come when they stay:) I should've let it be a surpirse:) Oh well! This is the view out from our deck.

The deck

Out the bedroom window

Our bedroom

Kitchen

Living room. I absolutely LOVE the picture that is hanging ont eh wall! I think it is so beautiful! The decor is very Hawaiian!

More of Hawaii

I just thought I would post some scenic pics that I've taken since my internet is now working, well sort of, enough to let me post this:) The above pic is one taken on the Big Island, the volcanic rock beaches. They are so beautiful!

I had to throw this one in there, lol, these little guys run around ALL OVER the place, including in our apartment! But they keep the bugs away!

Love Love Love the flowers!

This is one of my favorites yet! I love the sunsets here, simply amazing!