HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARIE!!!!

Here's a birthday cake with a bit of pizzaz and style for you! You know, a bit of black and white since that's what I tend to like and just not very mainstream :).  Love ya friend!!!  Hope you have a great day! 

Happy Easter!

I realize I still have a Hawaii post pending... I'll finish it up one of these days (still waiting for that inspiration to hit so that I doesn't just sound like a travel log :))... but anyway, it's Easter so I thought I'd do a post and wish you all a HAPPY EASTER! 

So, in my family we always celebrated Easter but it never was a massive production of any sort. I think some of that has to do with the fact that we lived away from extended family and so we just sort of did our thing. Every Easter, however, we would each get a large chocolate egg that my parents would hide around the house. We each had a specific egg assigned to us and we had to find our own egg (you couldn't just take someone else's egg). My parents would hide the ones for us younger kids in fairly easy locations and the ones for the older kids would be harder to find. Anyway, after we got to be a certain age my parents stopped hiding our eggs and they would just give them to us. Well, apparently the year that my parents stopped hiding the eggs Debbie was pretty devastated because she was quite fond of searching for the egg. She never told my parents but Rick and I knew she was disappointed so we decided to hide Debbie's egg so she could get her egg hunt experience. (I don't remember this story but this is the story my dad told me that Debbie told him). Side note to Debbie: Debs if the story is incorrect feel free to correct it :). Also if you are reading the post today, today being Easter Sunday or Monday morning, you should probably just close my blog and come back to it on Tuesday... consider that my spoiler alert... we don't want this to turn into another Secret Santa incident :). Ok, that's the end of my side not to Debbie. Anyway, so after hearing Debbie tell this story my dad decided to buy some Easter candy so that he could hide it for Debbie and make us search for it. Debbie, however, had Easter at her in-laws today and since she wasn't around my dad just handed us our Easter candy and hid Debbie's for tomorrow (I picked the hiding spot though... good luck finding it :)).  

So anyway, here's a picture of my dad and me with my Easter candy. 

And a picture of Dan and my mom with the flowers Dan bought for my mom. 

These are crappy pictures cause they were taken with my iPhone since I didn't have my camera with me but thought I'd share them anyway. I am missing the picture Ose took of Nicole with their Easter candy cause it was on his iPhone. Side note to Ose: Send me the picture you took and I'll put it up on the blog. 

Anyway, hope you guys had a Happy Easter!

Hawaiian Adventures

So, I was busy while I was in Hawaii... oh please who am I kidding, I wasn't busy at all... I just didn't want to do any work so I never got around to actually blogging about our adventures. Marie and I had intended to blog... really, we thought about it most nights, but I was jet lagged and would go to bed several hours before Marie did and when I wasn't asleep we were taking advantage of the fact that I was awake and watching movies instead of blogging (I know, hard to believe that I actually stayed awake during movies, especially given the jet lag but I did. In fact, I NEVER fell asleep during any of the movies we watched while I was there - we did only watch two but still...). The 4 hour time difference was brutal and meant that I was pretty much done for at 9:00 pm and awake at 5:00 am most days. Going to bed that early sucked but waking up early actually meant that I could go running (yes, I did get one 5 mile run in while I was in Hawaii... I should have gotten 3 runs done while in Hawaii - an 8 mile, a 5 mile, and a 3 mile - but I was on vacation...) or go to the beach while everyone else was still sleeping. 

Anyway, back in Utah now. Life is back to normal. The snow is still here. And I'm definitely wishing I were still in Hawaii... So since I don't get to be there I'll just reminisce and tell you the tales of our Hawaiian adventures...

I got there on Friday and we took advantage of the fact that we were already "in town" and stopped by Pearl Harbor. It was a quick trip to Pearl Harbor but we did manage to get a few pictures and a Pearl Harbor pin for Dan's pin collection.

I don't really remember much about this anchor but the sign did say that it was incredibly heavy... don't remember how heavy exactly (again, I was on vacation and apparently so was my brain).

This is Marie's most natural smile ever :). 

The USS Bowfin.

And Marie supposedly looking "dangerous" next to a suicide missile (yeah, she looks terrifying). 

When we decided to head back to Laie we found out that whatever highway it was that we were intending to take was closed because part of it had flooded (I don't really remember if it flooded or if some pole had fallen) so we had to take an alternate route which ended up being a good thing because we got to stop at Matusmoto's and get their classic shaved ice... I can't remember what flavors I ended up picking but it was incredibly good! 

Here we are standing outside of Matsumoto's waiting in line for our shaved ice. That about sums it up for day one. After we got back to Laie, I was introduced to Marie's friend and then I was out for the night. The next day we had breakfast at the Hukilau Cafe (those of you who have watched "50 First Dates" have heard of the Hukilau Cafe) and then went to Waimae - Marie's favorite beach. The weather was gorgeous and I was thrilled to get some sun, water, and sand. We played catch with a small squishy football (I did much better at throwing than catching - my catching was pretty pitiful), did some boogie boarding, but mostly just laid in the sun. 

The sandals in the pictures are my "Havaianas" which I purchased in Brazil - Havaianas means Hawaiians in Portuguese so these are my "Hawaiians" in Hawaii :). 

And here we are just laying in the sun...

And here we are with Bambi and Vicki after laying in the sun...

 And, as many of you know, Marie has a bit of an affinity for pyramids...

Marie also has a tradition of having people stand on her shoulders when she's at Waimae... usually this is done in the water but I had already been in the water and I had just gotten warm again and didn't really want to go back into the water so we did this on land (and survived :)). 

After the beach we stopped someplace (I can't remember what it was called) for Acai bowls. Acai bowls are a Brazilian thing and ironically the only one in the group that had never had an Acai bowl was the Brazilian... sad huh? It was fabulous but best of all the place where we got the bowls also sold bathing suits from Brazil... YAY! I was devastated when my parents moved away from Brazil because I didn't know where I would be buying my bathing suits anymore... now I know :). 

Here's Marie, fully focused, ordering our Acai bowls. 

Sunday morning I got up early (shocking, I know...) and walked over to the beach. I sat there for a while and just watched the waves... it was so incredibly peaceful and serene. 

Marie and Bambi joined me when they got up and we sat and talked for a while. 

I know, how peaceful is that for a Sunday morning? We didn't have church until 2:00 pm so we had plenty of time to just chill in the morning. 

We did eventually get dressed and go to church... here's the proof... 

This is starting to sound too much like a travel log for my taste... I realize it is sort of a "travel log" but travel logs have a tendency to get boring... so, I think I'm going to stop now and I'll do my last two days in Hawaii at a later time when my creative juices are flowing a little more abundantly and can compensate for some of the "travel logness"... Although really, if that's the requisite for blogging about the rest of the Hawaii trip, you may never get the last two days :). 

5K

I'm not sure if I've already mentioned this on the blog before but a while ago Debbie and I talked each other into training for a half marathon. We are not really sure how it happened but next thing we knew we were buying a book on marathon training which Debbie committed to read for the two of us. After a few days of reading the book, Debbie got all sorts of inspired and convinced me to that we should do a full marathon... You have to understand that Debbie and I are not runners nor are we particularly athletic (Debbie did play basketball in high school but it's been a while and I've never really done anything of the athletic variety). But we figured it could we should try and we started training... 

So, as part of the training you end up running a number of different races (5K, 10K, Half Marathon, and then the Marathon). We've been meaning to do the Rex Lee Run for years but never got around to it until now... Debbie and I are a few week off on our training and I was scheduled to run my 5K last week and Debbie was scheduled to run her 5K next week but the Rex Lee Run was today so we ran it today. This was our first race EVER and we were pretty excited about it which, of course, means we had to document it. So here are a few pictures of our race day.  

We were supposed to be at the track by 8:45 am today (half our before the cannon was scheduled to go off for the 5K) so I stopped by Debbie's around 8:15 to pick her up and get our numbers pinned on our shirts and our chips attached to our shoes. One of the ties that came with Debbie's chip wasn't working very well so it took us a while to get her chip attached but here we are pre-race working on getting the chip on her shoe. 

 

Here we are at the track waiting for the race to begin. We were late getting there (good thing we weren't running the 10K that started at 9:00 am) but it was probably good because we would have frozen had we stood outside longer than we had too (we did freeze but it would have been worse had we been there longer). Today was a beautiful day, the nicest we've had in a LONG time, but it was cold this morning...

This is a shot of me doing my last 100 meters... (I'm the one that you can't really see).

And here's Debbie doing her last 100 meters. She's the one with the long ponytail.  

And Debbie post-race pretending to be completely worn out which she wasn't at all :). 

Finished! 

We didn't get our results from the race until later in the day but it turns out that I came in 9th out of 162 for our age group (25-29) and ran the 5K in 25:14.04 mins and Debbie ran the 5K in 32:42.59 mins. We thought we did pretty well for our first race! :)

 

The Rex Lee Run is a run for cancer so Debbie and I ran in honor of 2 cancer survivors we love and admire. I ran for my mother-in-law who was diagnosed with and underwent treatment for breast cancer in 2004. Debbie ran for my sister-in-law who was diagnosed with and underwent treatment for breast cancer in 2007. 

  

And here's a picture of our one fan (and photographer).

Counseling Psychology represented! 

Laurie and Kristina are both first years in our program who also participated in the Rex Lee Run (they ran the 10k instead of the 5K). 

So anyway, there it is... we successfully completed our first race! :)

Happy Birthday Debbie!!!

Friday was my Debbie's 25th birthday - yep, Debbie is now a quarter of a century old - so we celebrated. We took Debbie to the Bombay House (Debbie's favorite restaurant in Provo) and then went back to Debbie's house and did cake and ice cream in the form of an ice cream cake. 

Four generations of women at the Bombay house. My grandma and my mom got into town last Sunday so they got to celebrate with us. 

Debbie with her Bombay House birthday mango ice cream. Dani was REALLY excited about Debbie's ice cream and couldn't wait to get some :). 

And back at Debbie's house for cake (chocolate, of course, since that is Debbie's favorite). We also had brigadeiros and beijinhos (Brazilian birthday treats) that Debbie made. My grandma got Debs the tulips that are on the table (also Debbie's favorite). 

How cute are they? :)

And here's a happy birthday song in Portuguese for your enjoyment. 

Happy birthday to Marie's Debbie too who was also born in February of 1984 and is also now a quarter of a century old! :) (Yep, we both have sisters named Debbie born in the same month in the same year, we also both have brothers named Sam and Richard (well, mine is a Ricardo which is the Portuguese version of Richard). Weird huh?) 

Internship Updates...

The results of the match came in Monday morning and...

Marie will be spending next year at CSU. 

Quel will be spending next year at BYU.

We are both pleased with the results of the match and are looking forward to next year. We are also SOOOO glad this stupid process is over and are thankful we survived! Thanks to all of you for your support and encouragement throughout the process!

The last couple weeks have blown by. It has been super busy with the classes I am teaching and at the counseling center. I'm struggling to juggle all my responsibilities there and not work more than I am supposed to (that is an important goal for me). I have a very full client load and we just got done with our Depression Screening Day. I was in charge of organizing, preparing, and executing it. It is a super cool outreach activity, but it took a ton of work. I think it went very well for the students who participated, but there were some really frustrating things about it to. Below is a picture of one of our little tables that we set up with fliers, information, and the screening measures. It was really fun to work the other interns on the project.



Last weekend, I went with a couple friends (Bambi and Liz) to Honolulu to go to a Liz's brother's new restaurant. We got to be part of a practice lunch they were doing. It was very fun and the restaurant is great. That same morning we went snorkeling at Hanauma Bay and then to Ala Moana beach in the afternoon. It was a full day of fun, even if the weather was fickle. The picture above is of Bambi and me at Ala Moana beach. Below is a picture of the beach from where we were sitting and the next one is Liz waving from the water.



President's Day brought a welcome 3-day weekend. We decided that it was important to celebrate the holiday and the day off so we planned a Monday full of activities. Monday morning, Bambi and I hiked Hau'ula Loop trail. It was a nice, fairly short, hike that has a beautiful view of the ocean from within the mountains. Here are some pictures from our hike.





One of my favorite beaches here is Waimea beach. It is along the north shore and is always pretty popular. We went there on Monday and then again this past Saturday. The waves can get big but the water is beautiful and fun to play in. I wish the pictures could capture the size and power of the waves coming in, but they just don't!

These shots (above and below) are taken from the beach, looking into Waimea Valley. It is a beautiful blend of blues and greens, especially when the clouds flit playfully across the brillant azure sky.
Yesterday, we were all feeling pretty goofey and decided to see how far we could walk, standing on top of each other, toward the shore before the waves knocked us over. Below are some shots of our attemps. Steph is standing, with Vickie's help, on my shoulders as we struggled to stay upright while the waves rolled in... good times and a lot of laughs! :)



Here are just a few other pictures of us hanging-out at the beach.




This week should be a fairly normal work week. I will find out Monday morning where I have been matched for internship. I've been trying not to think about it too much or get too worked up about it, but I will let everyone know when I find out where I will be spending the next year of my life!
Time feels like it is slipping by too quickly now. I have visitors coming out soon! My parents and my sister Marissa will be coming out in a few weeks and then Quel will be here at the end of March. I just extended my ticket home from April 21st to May 2nd...trying to soak up as much Hawaiian fun as I can before I have to leave!