Hawaii--Day 7

Today was a day of relaxation! No major activities, no place to be at any certain time. We did a little shopping, laid by the pool, and grilled some amazing ahi. After a few days of being on the move, it was wonderful to just slow down and just enjoy the beautiful weather and scenery.

Taylor getting some sun

Mom and Sandra enjoying the water

This little guy joined me on the lounge chair for a while

 
The delicious ahi searing 

 

The finished product

Just incase we had a slow day like this, I've been saving a special treat for the blog. A few days ago Sandra wrote a beautiful song about her fat feet that day. Here is the video...even though she treatened to hack into my blog and delete it! I'm willing to take that risk.

Hawaii--Day 6

Today Mom, Taylor and I went on a great adventure! Gary, Sandra and my Dad wanted to go golfing so we had them drop us off at the Kona dock and we went on a Dolphin and Snorkel Catamaran Tour. It was AWESOME!!! The boat and crew were so so so nice. It was clean and comfortable. They fed us breakfast and lunch. We saw beautiful fish and dolphins. What an experience! I would do that tour every single day if that was an option!Since I wasn't on the lame golf trip, I don't have any pictures of their adventure. Enjoy the pics of the cool group's day!

Alright... Dolphin Video should be good to go finally! Enjoy!!!

Video from Day 4

If you've been following along, day 4 I wasn't able to post my video because my computer freaked out and froze since I was doing too many things at once and not on the strongest internet connection. So... here is that video I told you about. It's been so windy here that all you could hear in the video was noisy wind gusts so I pulled all the audio out of the video. So don't adjust your speakers, there's nothing to hear!

Hawaii--Day5

Today we went on an adventure tour called "Flumin' da Ditch." I couldn't explain it in the elegant detail like the company's website so I'll just let you read what they say: "One of the Big Island of Hawaii's most popular tours is back after a 5 year haiatus! The Kohala Ditch has been repaired, and Kohala Ditch Adventures has begun operating the Flumin' Da Ditch tour once again! Guests float on inflatable kayaks for approximately 90 minutes as you cover a little less than three miles of this historic irrigation ditch. Your guides will share the history and folklore of the area, and lead you on this floating adventure through 10 tunnels, across a number of flume structures (bridges that carry the water over gulches), and past native flora and fauna. After a Pinzgauer ride high into the Kohala Mountains and a short nature walk, your floating adventure will begin. You will wear headlamps supplied for you so that you can see inside the many tunnels that you navigate. At the conclusion of the kayaking you are transported on 6 passenger guide-driven ATV's through a macademia nut orchard and back to the base area." -Kohala Ditch Adventures It was a very neat experience! Dad, Gary and Taylor had to work paddling, the rest of us got to enjoy! Here's today's pictures All of the caves were WAY too dark to film, so here's video of us floating through one of the flumes. Enjoy!

Hawaii--Day 4

Well Day 4 has come and gone! We drove around the entire island today! We saw the southernmost bakery in the US, black sand beach, sea turtles, one of the most active volcanoes in the world, walked through a tube made of dried lava, saw waterfalls, the works!! Enjoy today's pics. I put a video together but my computer got angry and I'll have to start over, so stay tuned!

Hawaii--Day 3

Day 3 is no where close to being over but we had some down time so I'm taking the opportunity to update from our eventful morning.  Today's agenda as you may recall: teach Shaylan to snorkel. Well we achieved our goal! We went over to the Hilton Waikaloa nearby and used their lagoon.  We rented our equipment and jumped in.  At first I was really intimidated, mostly because a sea turtle swam right at me! After a few minutes I settled in and really enjoyed it! I brought along a waterproof camera/video camera and the pics/video turned out much better than I thought they would.  Oh...and please don't listen to my nasaly voice in the video it's worse than normal from the mask. Not sure what the plan is for the rest of the day- we're all sleepy and salty from the water and sun! Aloha!

Hawaii-- Day 2

Aloha! Welcome to day 2 of Hawaii! We had a very eventful day for having no real major activity planned! Since we're still adjusting to the time difference we were all up by 4am.  After 3 pots of coffee (it's a very small pot) we were up with nothing to do. Mom, Taylor and I walked over to the nearby Kings Shops and looked around for a bit. They're really nice shops- still haven't had a chance to go through all of them.  We found some adorable wild cats that someone must take care of because they look very well fed.  Once the rest of the crew was ready to go for the day we headed into the main part of Kona.  We're technically in Waikaloa Village (all the names of towns sound the same around here!) We had lunch at a neat little touristy place, I had great coconut shrimp.  After that we went exploring and found a few neat bays, a coffee plantation and a Costco! Once it was all said and done we headed back to the condo and made a nice little dinner then hit the spa. The plan for tomorrow: teach Shaylan how to snorkel! There's talk of going to one of the bigger hotels and getting a day pass to their pool and lagoon. Wish me luck!!! Enjoy the slideshow of today's pictures!

Hawaii--Day1

Well, we made it to Hawaii! Quite an easy travel day really. We left LA at 9am and arrived in Kona just before 1pm. The plane had tons of empty seats so they let us spread out! We were able to each have a seat between us so we could spread out, so wonderful!

After spending ages waiting to get our rental car we finally headed out to eat--we were starving with the time change! After checking in to our condo we went and got a few groceries, had a light snack (and maybe a Mai Tai) and got settled into our home for the next 7 nights. We then headed off to dinner at this beautiful resort. We were a little early so we maybe had another Mai Tai on the beach.

Dinner was this BEAUTIFUL buffet with traditional Thanksgiving foods and traditional Hawaiian foods. Everything was so pretty!

It wouldn't be my blog if I didn't show you pictures of what I ate so here you go!!! This one below is my first round to the buffet- Smoked salmon with cream cheese and capers, bay shrimp salad, crab claws, shrimp, and ahi with wasabi.

Second trip-- Prime Rib with horseradish, Turkey with gravy, Lamb (which was really gamey, ick), Andouille Stuffing, Carbonara Shells, Bread with pretty flower shaped butter, mashed potatoes, Kahlua Pork and Hawaiian Fried Rice

Third trip- Macadamia nut cookie, chocolate espresso cake, lemon meringue tart, citrus bar, vanilla ice cream with hot fudge, macadamia nuts, and chocolate chips

I put way more on my plate that I could ever eat in a million years, or at least a few hours, but hey it's a buffet and we paid plenty for the food I wasted!

Tomorrow's plan: Costco!!! First thing! We have to get our black Friday cook books. We have an addiction problem and we know it. It's who we are! Then there's talk of going on a tour of the Thunder Mountain Coffee Plantation.

Hopefully I'll stick with my plan and blog every day!

Happy 30th Birthday, Dereem!

 

The amazing Dereem McKinney just turned 30 and to celebrate she took a group of girls on a limo ride to Paso Robles to go wine tasting.  I had the privileged of being invited. These are the cupcakes I made for her. They were a hit! I found them on this blog- here's the recipe for you to make too!

Ryan Bakes: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

Abby and Jake's Wedding Cake

A friend of mine from the church is getting married and asked me to make her cake. Here it is! I really need to invest in some colored backdrops because this all white thing isn't really working. But it's the best I can do. I'm a baker, not a photographer! The white frosting is just my standard butter cream with clear vanilla extract and this fancy white food coloring. The bow and dots are all fondant (pre-colored because trying to dye white fondant that color would have been a slimy disaster) with some sparkly edible glitter.