...:Toni's Spontaneous Visit!:..

I know it's been a couple weeks [okay it's been a WHOLE month!] since my last post, but I've been catching up on life since Toni was here... Okay, that only took a couple days, it's been crazy busy lately! But to the post at hand... What a fun 10 days with that girl. I miss her more I can even express, and now that she's been gone this last week I have been trying to get back into 'real' life... but wishing I could go back to when she was here-- I could not have asked for a better 10 days with that funny girl!

She flew in Tuesday morning and we headed over to Pearl Harbor... Fun time, except for we had missed that last boat out to the Arizona Memorial by 15 minutes! I was so frustrated, it was 1:15pm in the afternoon, I thought for sure they'd be open till 3. Oh well. We walked around the little museum area anyway and watched the film they had there. I felt bad, but we had a good time anyway. I never get bored of Pearl Harbor. Such an amazing place that holds so much history and heartache.

We then went and grabbed some lunch at Zippy's. I wanted her to eat somewhere they didn't have on the mainland, and Zippy's was my favorite last time the family and I were here, so we headed over there and grabbed some teryaki Hawaiian sandwiches. Next was the Pali Lookout! I wanted her to see the Pali more than even Pearl Harbor.

As we were leaving Honolulu, on our way to the Pali she was like, "This is not how I imagined Hawaii," with all the high rise buildings and freeways. I told her, "don't worry, this is just the business part of the island, it's definitely the busy part of Hawaii, let me show you the Pali, I promise you'll fall in-love with this island as I do every single time I go up to it." Like I said, she fell in-love with Oahu once I got her up to the Pali. I love the Pali so much I think too, is because the 4 times we've been the Oahu, it was the first thing we did on the first day we'd get here, every time. It was such a great memory and I just remember the very first time going up there, it was so windy, but so beautiful. It truly is the essence of this island.

We then headed back to Laie, and grabbed some shaved ice just up in Kahuku. It was huge and dropped all over the place, but I think she enjoyed it. Haha, it was the first of many shaved ice's she'd enjoy! When we got to BYU Hawaii, I let her know that the windward side of the island, where I lived, was the best part of the island. I love this side of the island for the beauty and peacefulness it has to offer, and she saw that and agreed with it when we got here-- and on the days we'd spend hours on the quite beach. So amazing!


We had a lot of beach time while she was here. She got super burned... twice! I felt awful, but she did not want to get out of the sun. She was definitely taking advantage of the closeness of the beach.

We took the bus into town one day and headed to the Aloha Stadium for the swamp meet. It was a good 2 1/2 hour bus ride, but we made it and both agreed that it was so worth it.

We also headed up to North Shore one day and just walked around the town, got shaved ice, and hung out on the beach. Oh, and I caught a lizard.. and then I put it down and it ran back up my leg!!  Friggin' sweet! We also watched the sunset, and it was sooooo beautiful!!

One day I got a package from my family, and I literally started jumping up and down with excitement. I was so freaking excited! Along with all the clothes, towels, shower stuff and candy they'd stuffed in, there was all the goods to make cookies. I had been telling my mom how much I missed making them and that the cookies here in the caf sucked and she was like, "go buy the stuff to make some." Do you know how much that would cost me? The prices are ridiculous here! Anyways, she obviously knew I was missing home and decided to make my entire life and send my the cookie stuff! She had used coconut oil in replacement of butter cause she knew I didn't have a fridge and already had the dough mostly made. She also found a replacement for eggs, flax seed, and all we had to do was add water and mix the flour in she had already measured out! One of the days it was raining real good and for a long time, so we decided to make the cookies. Everything was going swell, till we realized we didn't have any measuring spoons to measure out the 6 tablespoons of water to add to the flax seed. So we were literally cupping our hands and seeing how much water we think a tablespoon is [you can imagine, we were laughing pretty hard at this point]. We found this little cup that we thought was a measuring cup, and by golly it was... but it was in Chinese. No joke. We were like this will work... maybe. Toni looks at me and goes, "How many 40 Chinese whatever's make a tablespoon?" I can't help but laugh and go, "I don't know, let me see if I can find a converter on my phone..." So I totally look it up trying to convert Chinese measurement into U.S. What a joke! There was like 6 different types of measurements they use, and obviously could not figure it out; so we gave up and guessed. We could not stop laughing. We found a pan in the kitchen and just used that to mix the cookies and bake them in. We were going to divide them into cookies, and decided to just make one giant one. It actually turned out super good and smelt soooo yummy! The smell of warm cookies is the thing I missed the most! Toni and I came back to the room and shared with my roomie {see pic below, hahaha--I sort of shared ;)} and it seriously turned into the best rain day.

We also went out to Laie Pointe a few times and she loved that. It was a super fun time.

Oh, and the Polynesian Culture Center of course, which is always a good time. It was raining the whole time during the canoe show, but we were dry not too long after it stopped and then had stories to tell. And our hair looked super fab the rest of the day as well!

 

 

 

Oh... we can't forget that the Grey's Anatomy Final happened while Toni was here. I had worn my gray "grey's" shirt all day long... Made it myself. It says, "pick me, choose me, love me!" You'll obviously only get the quote if you're a die hard Grey's fan... but for the rest of you, just know the main character, Meredith Grey [Ellen Pompeo] say's this as she is pretty much begging Derek Shepard [AKA, McDreamy-- Patrick Dempsey] to pick her instead of his {soon to be} ex-wife... ANYWAY! So. Listen. I was freaking out about this all day. I was so excited for the finale I could hardly stand it. Like it was ridiculous how excited I was. Okay, well draw back to leaving in the dorm, obviously I can't just stream Grey's to my room via cable...  I also don't have a TV! So that wouldn't work even if it was possible. So they have a little 'lounge' for each hale (dorm complex) where there is a TV with cable and boys and girls can chill in there... So it was Toni's last day. So we did a beach day and then went to dinner at 7 Brothers. Soooo yummy. So we got home about 7:25, Grey's started at 8. There was a boy in there flipping through the channels and we walked in and he goes, "Hey, did you guys want to watch something?" And I was like, "No, it's okay..." I felt so dumb! I didn't just want to kick him out. So we went across the court yard to the other girls hale and there were people watching TV in there too and I was like ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!? I was going to start crying. Guys, I was having such a hard time with this. It didn't help that Toni was leaving the next day. I hate saying goodbyes and Grey's always gets me in an emotional jumble. Toni says, "Lets just go talk to the boy, it'll be fine..." So we go back, and she walks in, and I stood behind her about 10 feet in the doorway, hiding as she asks the kid, "Hey, are you watching anything particular at 8?" The kid says no, and she continues, "See that girl back there and points at me... Yeah, she's a die hard Grey's Anatomy fan and the finale is on tonight at 8 and she is embarrassed to ask, but would it be okay if we watched it?" I was SO embarrassed, but SO grateful for Toni. Cause I would not have said a word. The kid of course says, "Yeah, that's just fine!!" So I got to watch Grey's. It was the best. However, the BEST part of this entire story... I had a really hard time finding Toni a ride back to the airport, it wasn't until that day, Thursday, the day before she left that I was able to find her a ride. She had to leave at 5AM, so it wasn't easy. But my friend Brittney let me know Thursday afternoon she had a friend that wouldn't mind driving her. I had no idea if it was a boy or girl, or what their name even was to be honest, I was just sooo grateful. I could've kissed this girl. Serious. I was so happy. So the next morning, a boy pulls up in a Toyota Tundra. It only had two seats, so we said bye on the curb side and I cried as she drove off, and then waited to go back to sleep till I knew she was in the airport and through security and on her plane safely. As she's on her way she texts me and goes, "Remember the boy we kicked out of the TV room last night??? He's driving me to the airport right now..." WHAT? Guys, I could've DIED! I laughed SOOOO hard! They started to talk in the car and he was like, "Have we met before, I feel like I've seen you somewhere..." How embarrassing! Right? Makes for such a great story!!
 

I am so grateful Toni came to visit me!! We had such a good time and seriously laughed and laughed and laughed. We could not STOP laughing! It was the best. My favorite day we were sitting here and I was looking up 101 ways to cut a shirt, and as I was looking it up, it googled 101 ways to annoy people.. so obviously we clicked on it and read them and died laughing!! We were literally rolling on the floor! It was the best. I loved her being here. It was a great re-kindle of our friendship and the fun we've always had together. I miss her like crazy but am soooo happy about all the memories we made here in Hawaii together!

 

  Kisses from the sea xoxoxo