Stairway to Heaven

Okay, so a few weeks ago one of my good friends Heidi Fairbourn asked me to hike "Stairway to Heaven" with her and a few friends.

Let me tell you a little bit about this hike...

I first heard about it a few years ago before I had any inkling that I would ever be living in Hawaii.  Someone from my student ward returned from a trip here and absolutely raved about this gorgeous hike ... He showed me some pictures and at that point it immediately went on my bucket list.  This is what most of the hike looks like ...

There are 3,942 stairs...  and four platforms, which serve as great places to take a breather...  It was SO intense.  I was mostly nervous because I am by no means an avid hiker, and I was doing this hike with a bunch of fitness gurus, so I was worried I wouldn't be able to keep up.  I ended up hiking with Heidi and Chad for the most part, who were AWESOME to encourage me to keep going when the going got tough (and it did!)

This was our fun group!  Actually the guys in the middle is a guard, who usually prohibits hikers from going... however one of our group who shall remain nameless knows the guard and so he let us go up.. Shhhh that parts kind of a secret.  

Here is the first stair... at this point I had so much adrenaline and was SO ready to conquer the mountain!

This is the view from the first platform... you can see the Pali Highway and out into Kaneohe Bay.  

Overlooking Kaneohe and Kailua - from the second platform I think.

Heidi and I takin' a photo break.  Me saying "Hey, let's take a picture" was the code word for I AM NOW DYING AND IF I DON'T TAKE A BREAK WILL COLLAPSE RIGHT HERE!  :)  

It was absolutely beautiful.  

This part of the hike was a little scary because of the sheer steepness on either side of us... You can see the mountain is almost completely vertical here, and the stairs were more like a ladder!

This was the very last climb!! Right behind me is the top.  I was SO HAPPY inside that I made it.  What a great adventure!

Trip Part Dos! Arizona, Utah, and Vegas!

It's been awhile since I have posted... I have yet to even do part 2 of our trip!  Maybe I'll just throw it all in this one post.  I'm feeling kind of random like that right now.

For part dos of our adventurous trip we went to Prescott, Arizona - Mike's hometown.  He gave me the grand tour of the town, which was pretty much "this is the road I got pulled over for..." or "this is the road where I wrecked..."  It was fun to see everything though!  Oh and his Eagle Scout project is still standing!

His parents were house sitting in Prescott at the time so we got to spend a few days with them.  One of my favorite parts of staying with them was going golfing... Mike's Mom used to be super awesome at golfing til she hurt her back, so she showed us some tips!

As a result of the challenge it was jumping up on Mike's back...  this is what happened to my pants! HA!  So it was a little awkward until I could get home and change.  I suppose I guess that's what I deserve for golfing on Sunday! : )

We also stopped by the Grand Canyon - I have never been there and so that was fantastic to behold!  

It was a wonderful opportunity to see some of God's greatest creations.  

The other part of our trip was a blast as well!  We completely surprised my parents in Utah.

These were my parent's surprised faces... 

We went to see all my nephews that night... Sweet Carter and Isaac first, and then Quincy and Collin next. The next day we got to go to Dinosaur Park with the nieces and nephews as well!

The slide burned molly a little because it was so hot... also it was just a really fast slide!  After she got off she said, "Mommy, I think that slide is a little to scary for me."  It was SOOO CUTE! 

We had a blast seeing all my family.  We also went out with Dan and Krystal for a date night, and they joined us for my family barbecue the next day as well! 

My sweet nieces both adore Mike!! :)

We had a lot of fun in Utah even though we were only there for just a few short days!  

We ended our trip in Vegas... we were there for awhile before our flight left for Hawaii, so we went to the Stratosphere and rode all the rides up there!  SCARY!!

We also got to see the Bodies World Exhibit (which I LOVED) and the Titanic museum as well.  Such a great trip with my love!!