"I love a good wedding!! Drinks all around!"

It has been a very eventful past couple of days!!

There is so much to update on what's been going on - prepare to be inundated with the events of the past few weeks!

Mike and I have been on vacation in Arizona/Utah for Dan & Krystal's wedding and to see all our friends and family.  I can honestly say I've never had a better trip than this.. Just love my husband and taking a break and getting to spend all this time with him has been such a blessing.

We came back for Dan & Krystal's wedding.  They got married on September 10, 2011 in the Mesa, Arizona temple.  Krystal was so BEAUTIFUL (seriously, one of the prettiest brides I have ever seen!) and the reception was so fun.  I LOVED the bright colors - she had orange and yellow.  It was sweet! 

We got together the day before the wedding to help set up all the decorations - it was at the church that Krystal lived by.

That's my handsome man carrying in some of the decorations.  There were a ton of those things!  That trailer in the background was full of them.



That's us.. hard at work. :)

Mike was tempted to steal all the frosting for the cupcakes, because he might be obsessed with frosting... but eventually his conscience won him over and he left it there... maybe only a bite or two was missing.

Krystal had gone through the temple that morning and received her endowments.  It was fun to see her and Dan together.

AND this was the FIRST time I have met my Father in law!  So that was fun too.  Mike is trying to be as tall as he is in this photo..

We finally got everything done and parted ways again until the next day.  Mike's two sisters, Mindy and Amy, flew in from Georgia and Texas and they were a RIOT.  They were so much fun, and this is the first time the four siblings have been together in fifteen years!!!  What an awesome experience. 

While Dan & Krystal were getting sealed, Mike and I got to spend some time with Mindy and Amy.  It was a great chance to get to know them!  Finally, Dan and Krystal came out of the temple...

SO beautiful.  One of our favorite couples.  :)

Then we took lots of photos in the hot Phoenix sun.. It was BLAZIN!  Lots of squinty eyes, but I think a lot of them turned out great!  Here are a few of my favorites -

FYI, that skirt was really puffy and hard to figure out where her legs were, so that was a tricky shot!  But those are the Bridesmaids dresses, and I think they are AWESOME!

All the groomsman.  Casey, Mike, Dan & Mario.  Mario let us stay at his house the entire time we were in AZ for the wedding - Love him and his cute family!  What  handsome guys!  Especially the bald one!

This is Holly and Max - the other part of the family we stayed with in Coolidge.  Some of my new favorite people in the world!  Holly is the sweetest momma and Max is SO adorable. More to come in future posts about them! 

Here is a pic of all the in-laws!  This picture pretty much sums up the extent of my new family! (Besides Mindy & Amy's family ... but still,  you get the idea)

Cutting the cake ... :)

What a great wedding.  Congrats Dan & Krystal!!

Rise & Shout! and ... Roll Tide!

Saturday was pretty much the perfect day.

College Football started up again!

Since we are in Hawaii, the games are ridiculously early for us, which is okay, but sometimes it's hard for me to get out of bed in the morning... 

It's a lot easier when Mike comes running in the room yelling, "Wake up, wake up!  Utah State is beating Auburn!"  Then I jump out of bed like I just got subbed in off the bench from a basketball game, because who wants to miss the greatest upset of all time?

Unfortunately, and by a major stroke of luck, Auburn came back for the win... But that's okay, because Bama rolled over Kent State and BYU scraped by with a win against Ole Miss!  Our second SEC win in the history of BYU football.  We still have a lot of work to do, hopefully our offense shapes up a little and we have a great season being independent!

Since both our teams won, we were pretty happy campers all day! :)

And we finally got to use the groupon that Mike's Mom gave us for parasailing!  It was so wonderful!

So much fun!  :D

School!

I really should be cooking dinner, the missionaries are coming over in just a while to eat.. But I am too excited I had to get a little out on my blog!

Today I finally figured out what I am going to do for my degree while I am here on this Island! 

I am going to the University of Phoenix

I will graduate in May 2013

 with a degree in HealthCare Administration!

Let me tell you what... it feels SO good to be going to school with a specific degree in mind -

and a date that you will get there.

And I only have to go to school one night a week to make this happen, so I can continue working full time!

Yay for school! 

Paddle Boarding / Pearl Harbor Adventure!

Last Saturday Mike & I both had work off...

and football season hasn't started yet ...

so we decided to go Paddleboarding!

We woke up REALLY early and went on base to meet up with our little tour group.  We all loaded into a van and drove out to the North Shore.   When we got there we had a short instruction session and then we were off!  I was really nervous that I would be super bad and slow the whole group down, but I did alright!  

Mike was really speedy.  He almost took out a sea turtle with his oar, it was pretty funny!  The tour started out in the ocean, but then we veered off into this river and it was BEAUTIFUL.  

Paddleboarding is really peaceful and relaxing.

Mmmm-hmmmm.

After we were done Paddleboarding, we still had the afternoon and we've been wanting to go visit Pearl Harbor.  We spent a few hours there as well, enjoying learning more about the stories and feeling inspired by the sacrifice.

Two of Mike's relatives were killed in the attacks - we found their names on the wall in the memorial - D.J. Lakin and J.J. Lakin.

Behind us is the recovered anchor from the USS Arizona.

And... I just really really love the expression Mike went with for this photo. :)

Love having days off to explore with my best friend!

Twice in one week....

This week I have been pooped on by a bird not once, but TWO times!

Never in my life has this happened to me; have I laughed at someone else that it has happened to?  Absolutely.  Maybe it's karma.  

So I was at work, sitting with my resident in a little garden area at that Assisted Living Center.  We were just enjoying the sun when 

SPLAT ...

a red sticky blob of bird poop came out of nowhere.  

I looked up to see a lone bird smirking down at me safely from it's tree.

So we went inside and I cleaned up, and sent my husband this text..

So I laugh it off and move on, right?

Well the next day we decided to take a little jaunt down Waikiki to the International Marketplace, because we hadn't seen it yet.  As we are crossing this bridge, all of the sudden SPLAT...

A - freaking - GAIN!

*insert expletive here

At this point I am literally incredulous that I've been pooped on again, and Mike is doubled over in laughter at the luck. 

Sure enough, I look up and see the LONE offender sitting on a power line. It was probably the same stupid bird stalking me.

GROSS.

The end.

School

I never thought I would hear myself say this, but I am genuinely sad that I am not going to school this semester!

I woke up to several Facebook posts of friends with mixed emotions about returning to school- several were ecstatic, some were indifferent, and many were dreading the workload that a college semester brings.

For me, school is out of the picture this semester. Don't get me wrong- I wanted to go! But I have never ran into more obstacles in my entire life than when I tried to enroll.

"Oh, you just got married? Okay do fill out your FAFSA with your married name." ...three weeks later... "We just got your FAFSA and since it doesn't match the name on your social security card, just re-do the entire thing."

"We need your immunizations- sorry this paper that says you already got your MMR done isn't enough. Sorry you moved approximately 5 times and have no idea where to start looking. Guess you better schedule some bloodwork then to prove that for us.

"Oh your in the military trying to get residency exemption? Here are approximately 400 forms to fill out. Your husbands commanding officer wil need to sign them. Sorry he's deployed, guess you'll just have to wait til next semester."

I really want to get my degree finished - I'm getting close, but I guess the Lord has different plans for me this semester.

So... I'm trying to be patient. *deep breath*

Summer Adventures!

I feel like so much has happened since I last blogged!

Let me just sum up a few great things that have been going on in the Reynolds family.  :D

1.  We have a new niece and a new nephew!  All within one week.

Grace Mercedes Colvin, born August 3rd

 

and

Isaac Edmund Perkins, born Aug 8.

I am so sad that I couldn't be in Utah to see these two babies...  What a miracle little babies are.  And they are both so lucky to be born into such good families.

I am super excited to go back in September for a wedding and a visit so I can meet these wonderful little people!

2.  I started my new job!  I work for Ho'okele Care at Home.  I have one client now who I visit and that pretty much makes my job full time.  She lives in a ballin Assisted Living Center with rent over 5 GRAND a month!  I am amazed at this place... I enjoy getting to be with her and having a job that makes me feel like I'm helping someone is awesome.

3. Kayaking Adventure!  Mike and I went to Hickam Beach one day after we got off and rented kayaks - they are only 9 bucks an hour for a double kayak and just rowed out to sea!  It was a really great afternoon.

4.  Dolphin / Snorkeling surprise date - Mike told me not to make any plans on Saturday because he planned a surprise.  We drove out to Waianae in the morning and boarded a little boat that took us out to this spot where there were probably fifty spinner dolphins!  It was incredible.

After we watched dolphins for awhile they took us out to a sweet reef to go snorkeling.  It was beautiful!  I was nervous to jump off the boat into the water - that part scared me! But once I was in the water it was great.  Mike and I even saw a sea turtle and it came up super close to us.  The only bad part was the banana floaties they made us put on... 

Awesome, yeah? :P

5. Maunawili Falls - I hiked this with a friend when Mike was on his mission in Laos, and loved it!  So I thought we should go do it together so he could go see how awesome it was.. 

The best part was getting lost even though I had already hiked this before and walking around in a huge.. muddy.. circle.. :)

6. Sunday drive to Hanuma Bay!  We just wanted to go see what it looked like ... We still have to go snorkeling here, but we've heard it's one of the best places to go.

Loving getting to spend some time with my sweetheart!  :)