Hawaii- Oahu

When we arrived in Honolulu, I instantly felt the relaxed, laid back atmosphere wash over me. Our first destination was Pearl Harbor. We got our free tickets to the Arizona memorial and played around with the vintage periscopes and anti-air weapons. We learned about what happened prior to, and during the attack. After the film, we exited the theater and boarded a large ferry which took us to the memorial which was built right over the wreckage of the Arizona. Large drops of oil could be seen rising to the surface of the water. Volunteers handed out flowers to drop in the water. The names of all the men who died were engraved onto a stone wall on one end of the building. I was caught off guard by strong emotions of sadness, gratitude, and patriotism. It was a sobering experience that all Americans should experience. After Pearl Harbor, Chelsea and I had an adventure finding the right place to eat. We ended up eating at a Japanese tepanyaki style restaurant that was an absolute blast. Chelsea had never experienced the in-your-face cooking of tepanyaki and had a great time watching our chef slice and dice our shrimp, create a volcano by igniting oil in a stacked onion, and cooking up our fresh vegetables, steak, and fish. We got settled in at the Aqua Waikiki Wave and took a short walk to the beach and back to complete a very full day.

Halloween

From Halloween

Last night we had a fun Halloween. We did a murder mystery dinner called "Hoo hung Woo." It was fun getting to play dress up and act and accuse with family. I was Ding Ling- Silver Bell, Stephen was Gereral Shang Hi Shek, Mom Cromar was Hoo Ting- Jade Owl, Dad Cromar was Pen ta-gon, Kara was Woo Pi- Joyous Flower, Ben was Hao Di-Do, Ryan was Hoo Li-gan, and Mom Fremming was Wee Ping- Willow Blossom. We had Chinese food. It was a fun night.

Apple Hill

Last weekend we went with Stephen's parents to Apple Hill up near Placerville. We loved it. We parked our car and rode the shuttle around to about 4 or 5 apple farms. We had a fun time trying the good apple juice, and all the baked goods. They have these good apple donuts there. My favorite though was the apple turnover. The leaves on the trees were just starting to change colors, so we got to see some pretty Fall.

Update Time!!!

At the end of August Stephen and I attended Stephen's 10 year high school reunion. Wow, how time flies when you're busy with school, a mission, school, getting married, and starting a real job.

For Labor Day weekend we took a trip to Yosemite National Park. What a beautiful place, I so want to move there. We got to stay there for 4 nights in Curry Village. We had fun riding our bikes, hiking, and taking an art class. One of the days we hiked up to Vernal Falls, and then Stephen went on to Half-Dome. I stayed on top of Vernal Falls for over an hour just enjoying the peace and beauty. Stephen took amazing pictures of the view from Half-Dome. His total hike time there and back was about 9 1/2 hours. He loved being on top. Stephen's parents came up for 2 days, and Ryan and Jessica came up for 1. We loved it there.

We celebrated Stephen's 28th Birthday on the 29th of September. That Sunday we had a nice family dinner down in Merced. On his birthday Stephen took the afternoon off of work and went golfing. That night we went out to eat at Sweetriver. Stephen enjoyed his birthday, and the great birthday gifts. I gave him Planet Earth and Blue Planet, and we have been enjoying watching episode at night. What a crazy cool set of movies.

Last week we went to see the Barenaked Ladies in concert at the Fresno Fair. They were fantastic. Really great performers. We had been a little worried about how the concert would be since one of the main singers, Steve, had left the band, but they sounded great.

Oxymoron

Here's my random post:
So the other day I went shopping. I had decided that I wanted a more professional wardrobe for work. So I went shopping and had one heck of a time finding pant, but I finally found some nice ones. The problem with pants these days, especially dress pants is that the bigger the dress pants, the taller they figure you are. So not true. I am a very average height, and a very average size, so you would think that an average size of pants would fit and average height girl. Once again, very much not true. So the pants that fit me are made for a girl that is at least 5'9".
There being not much way to get around this I decide that's okay, because I need some nice dress shoes. So I think to myself "I just need some comfortable heels." Right after I thought it, I realized "comfortable heels" is very much an oxymoron. But I decide to try to find some anyways. I found the cutest shoes, seriously cute shoes, and they are Aerosoles so they should be good for my feet.
I decide to wear these "comfortable heels" for the first day of school. Turns out that they support my feet very well, but also take off the skin on both pinky toes making it very hard to walk by the end of the day. When I got home I took care of the toes, and put band-aids on them. The next day they were feeling pretty good. The day after that one of the band-aids comes off, and when I got home I didn't do anything about it. Gross part- then Molly licked it, and it began to sting.
Yesterday morning when I woke up my toe was hurting very badly, it was swollen and super red. I realized it was infected and decided to take care of it later. As the day went on it got worse, and in the afternoon when I decided to take care of it, I saw that there was a red line going from the toe up my foot. Of course that kind of freaked me out, because I didn't want blood poisoning, so I went to the doctor and he put me on antibiotics.
Moral of the story- don't be a moron when you know something is an Oxymoron.
P.S. I'm now on antibiotics, and doing very well. No more red line.

Cont. Update Time

Continuation from the previous post.

Father's Day: Kara, Mom and I make Dad a sign that tells where all his kids live, and how far from Merced they are. He loved it. Kara and I used our Cricut's (thanks so much Mom Fremming for mine) to cut out all the vinyl lettering, mom cut and painted the sign, and she and I put all the letters on. It was a fun project, great idea mom.

Girl's Reunion: The Smith Family reunion was in Oregon this year, so we decided to have a Girl's reunion at Magan's house in Washington the week before the Smith reunion. Mom, Jessica, Emily and I drove about 16 hours up to Magan's house. Emily did so great for being so young. Kara and Jenny also flew in, and we got lots of time to hangout together. We went to the Zoo, the Children's Museum, had a baby shower for Kara, played at the park, helped Magan move some, and chatted a lot. It was fun to get to be there.

Smith Reunion: We drove to Lincoln City for the Smith reunion. I was only there for an evening, but was glad to get to see some of my relatives, and the beach. The picture of Tyler and Kara I just thought was funny, so I wanted to post it. How far along are you Tyler?

Fremming Reunion: From Oregon I flew out to Lake Tahoe where Stephen's family had their reunion. We were there for about 5 days or so. It was beautiful weather, and fun being with more family. The day after I got there we got to take out some wave runners on the lake, super fun! That day Stephen and I also got burnt. We forgot to reapply, though we did come up with a very good parable about sun burns and the effects of sin, repentance, and gospel protection. We also played miniature golf, Stephen played real golf, we took a hike, rode a tandem bike, and got to watch the fireworks over the lake. Lots of fun and great food. Sorry there aren't any pictures from the Fremming reunion, I accidentally left my camera in Oregon.

Update Time!

It's about time right. So we've had a busy spring and beginning of summer, and we've loved it. Here's a little update on where we've been, and what we've been doing.

Memorial Weekend: we went to Huntington Beach to visit Stephen's friend Jared, and his wife Aubrey. We also got to see Brandon and Natalia. We played on the beach, watched professional volleyball, ate yummy food, and had fun just hanging out.

Plays: School ended and that week we went to see Lion King with my parents and Ryan and Jessica. For mothers day I gave my moms tickets to see Wicked. So at the end of June we had a girls night and drove up to San Francisco to see Wicked. It was my mom, Stephen's mom, my sister-in-law Jessica, Stephen's sister Kim, and myself. It was fantastic!

Utah Trip: Mid June we took a trip to Utah for Cameron's wedding. Cameron and Stephen have been friends since who knows when, for sure forever. We got to stay with Stephen's sister Kellee. We were glad to get to be there for Cameron's wedding, and Stephen enjoyed hanging out with some of his old friends. I got to stay in Utah a couple days more than Stephen, and visit my sister Kara. I loved hanging out with her and Ben. She is for sure the cutest pregnant girl ever, and the greatest friend ever.