!i! Another Birthday !i!

AJ and I shared another birthday together.  We both turned 27.  This birthday was a little difficult to swallow.  I am approaching my late 20s.  I remember how hard it was when I approached my 20s.  I felt so old and grown up.  Now I'm approaching my 30s and it scares me a little.  Luckily...AJ is the same age as I am so we can age together...give or take 5 hours.

AJ and I decided that we wanted to celebrate our birthday...where else?  Somewhere that has tropical fish, sharks, and sea turtles...the Aquarium.  We could never tire of the aquarium.  It seems to be tradition that we all go on our birthday.

Afterwards, we went to my parents house for presents and cake.  My mom makes the most delicious "Samoa Cake."  It looks like the Samoa girl scout cookies.  It has toasted coconut and a dulce de leche frosting.  I could eat the entire thing!

 This will be a big year for us.  There will be some changes.  We'll make it through together as we always do.  When I was a little girl, I remember saying that I never ever wanted to share my birthday with anyone.  Then I met AJ and I guess, if you have to share a birthday, who better to share it with than your best friend?

!i! Natural History Museum !i!

Recently, Carolyn, AJ, and I went to the newly renovated Natural History Museum.  I remember visiting the Natural History Museum as a child and digging through the sandbox to uncover plastic bones just as a scientist would do.  Part of me was hoping I could dig through the sandbox on this trip too.

The first floor of the museum contained displays of bugs and lizards native to Utah.

Then we discovered the displays of fossils, fragments of dinosaur bones, and dinosaur footprints.

Finally, we found the dinosaur skeletons.  There were so many of them and and they were gigantic!

A.J. liked to reenact the dinosaurs.

Then there were displays of native American Indians, gems and precious stones, Lake Bonneville, and tarantulas!  That glass was not thick enough for me to put my face that close to the tarantula!

 There was a display that measured seismic activity representing earthquakes.  There was a metal plate that you jumped on that would measure your seismic activity.  The first arrow is mine.  I was pretty proud of my jump because my wave was bigger than all the previous jumpers.  Then it was AJ's turn.  His seismic wave was double mine! (I guess that's a good thing).

The Natural History Museum was absolutely huge!  We were there for four hours and still didn't even have time to explore everything!

!i! Otai !i!

When we were in Hawaii, I experienced my first sip of the glorious Hawaiian drink called Otai.  Otai is basically a chunkier version of a smoothy.  It is a drink that has pieces of grated fruit mixed together in liquid.  Every Hawaiian has a different recipe for Otai and it varies depending on the fruit accessible at that time.  We stopped on the side of the road in Hawaii and tried some Otai that a Native Hawaiian had made.  It was so delicious that when we got home from Hawaii, we decided we wanted to try to make it.

We went to the grocery store and we got a little of this and a little of that.  We grated and mixed.  And Vuala...Coconut Otai.

 

It was absolutely delicious.  It brought us back to Hawaii.  For those of you feeling brave enough, I have posted the recipe.

1/2 cup grated and chopped coconut

20 oz can crushed pineapple, chopped

13.5 oz can coconut milk

2 cans of water

3 grated apples

1/2 cup sugar

1 grated banana

Mix together and enjoy!!

!i! Spring Flowers !i!

I always love going to Temple Square in the springtime when all the flowers are blooming.  There's nothing better than the warm sunshine and the smell of blooming flowers in the air and knowing that a warm summer is just around the corner.

I also like to pretend that I am good at taking pictures in the springtime. Here are a few photos of the beautiful flowers blooming around Temple Square.

!i! Vacation Photos That Didn't Quite Make the Cut !i!

Everybody has those crazy vacation pictures where at least one person is looking crazy.  Well I didn't notice how many I had until we went through our Hawaiian vacation photos this year.  Most of which...contain one person in specific.  Any guesses who would take crazy photos?  Here's a few hints...

Okay...okay AJ isn't the only one who takes crazy photos.

AJ and I must be meant to be!  This is the kind of excitement that occurs on vacations with the Lokeys!

!i! Coming Home !i!

As tradition has it, on our last day in Hawaii we typically drive around the island and visit our favorite beaches one last time.  We had a plane to catch later that night so we couldn't really get in the water.  We decided to find the famous Lanakai beach.  AJ said this was rated one of the top beaches of the United States.  Thanks to our GPS, we found this so called "famous" beach.  I was skeptical as we had seen so many beautiful beaches.  But...it was amazing!

We took our shoes off and felt the sand between our toes.  Unlike the China Man's Hat beach which feels like walking on glass, the sand at Lanakai beach felt like I was walking on powdered sugar.  It was like a massage for my toes!  I didn't want to put my shoes back on...ever!

Next we visited the Botanical Garden.  It's nice to find activities on vacation that are completely free!  The Botanical Garden had an abundance of naturally occurring plants, flowers, and ... bugs.  We were eaten alive!  Bug bites weren't exactly the souvenir I was looking forward to bringing home with me.

 

 We visited a few of our favorite beaches and searched for sea debris that had swept up on shore.

 

 

 Finally, we made it to the Lankiakea (aka turtle) beach for one last visit and we struck TURTLE GOLD!  There were 5 turtles on the beach all at once.  Of course we had to take some serious pictures!

 

We caught our last glimpse of the Hawaiian sunset at Haleiwa Beach Park.  It was gorgeous as usual and a great way to end our vacation in paradise.

!i! Our 5th Day !i!

For all of you concerned, we did come home from Hawaii.  It has been many months since I've had the chance to blog.  Being congested and home bound allows for plenty of time for blogging so hopefully I can make some progress.

Our 5th day in Hawaii was our last full day there so we wanted to make the most of it. We woke up early to make it to Pearl Harbor before the bus tours arrived.  We got there early, but it wasn't quite early enough.  Multiple buses had just pulled up and they were unloading their passengers, but AJ was a man on a mission! 

 We checked our bags in the lockers and AJ ran as fast as he could rushing past sleepy tourists and racing toward the gate selling tickets.  Just then, a man said he had 4 tickets to the first boat out, but we would need to board immediately.  We jumped on the boat and were the first group of passengers out on the monument.

After we returned, we explored the museum.  Every time we had been there, they were remodeling the museum so we didn't get a chance to see it until now.  They had a lot of information.  You could easily spend the entire day there, but that's not how we vacation.  We were off to our next activity!...the palace.

 

We wandered around the grounds of the palace and then we were off to the Waikiki Aquarium.  The Waikiki aquarium displays plants and animals that are native to Hawaii so it was fun to pick out the fish that we had seen snorkeling.  There were quite a few that we had seen over the past few days!

 Then it was off to enjoy sunset at Ala Moana Beach Park.

We gazed at the sunset as our legs dangled above the black rocks below.  The waves rolled in and crushed against the rocks.  Scurrying around on the rocks below were black crabs.  Carolyn was not a fan of the creepy spider-like crabs.

After sunset, we went back to our hotel for our last night in Hawaii.