Sister Sneak

Have I ever told you that I have the BEST in-laws in the World!! Well I do and one of the many reasons why I love them so much is because they love me and wanted to come visit me in St. Louis. It was kind of a last minute trip for everyone but it worked out wonderfully. My mother-in-law, Pat, sisters-in-law Wendi, Allison, and Lauren all made it out along with their kids. They all stayed at my house even though it was a little crowded. It was perfect.

One of the days that they were here I took them to the Magic House.

Zoe

Sadie

Haha, Mckay

Marissa

This was outside of the Magic House and I thought it was really cool

Alice in Wonderland

Park time..

Most of the time we all just hung out and played at my house.. so fun

I love my Nelson Girls!!

This was our awesome 15 passenger van.. lol how else do you think we would get from one place to another ;)

I really couldn't ask for a better trip or better family to be married into. Thanks ladies for making it work!

Hawaii!!

Matt and I were lucky enough to go to Hawaii with my in-laws without any kids!! It was AMAZING! We had so much fun with Steve and Lauren and Pat and Dee.

The Flight... poor Matt was so exhausted. He had just worked a long overnight shift the night before, then flew to Utah where he met up with us at the airport, not having slept for a day and a half, and then we headed out on the long 7 hour flight to Hawaii. He was out the second we sat on the plane.

So were Pat and Dee

This was what we came to.... paradise

This is the view from our hotel room.. IT was beautiful

Punchbowl

The first day in Hawaii we took it easy most of the day. Matt slept all morning and most of the afternoon but after he was up we were ready to play. We decided to go to the Punchbowl for our first outing. The punch bowl is a military graveyard situated in what appears to be an old volcano. It was really neat to be able to read the stories of the men and women that gave their lives during WWII.

While we were there we hiked up to the rim of the punch bowl and found a coconut tree. We were all pretty thirsty so we had Matt climb up to get us a coconut. :)

And what do you know.. we got a coconut and I was able to take a drink.

(this look of mine according to my family and close friends would be called "the KA." Thought you all would enjoy:))

I love my sister Lauren

Our deep thinking men.. so hot

After the Punchbowl we decided to go on a drive and try and find a trail with a waterfall to hike... we never found the waterfall but we loved the hike. It was so beautiful!

K so for some reason in my board shorts I found this little knife, which we thought was so funny because we had no idea what it was for.....then while we were hiking we found some ginger root and thought it would be fun to take some home.. lucky for us we discovered a purpose for our little knife. Ha ha we couldn't stop laughing over this. Guess you had to be there. :)

Thanks to these two strong men, this tree didn't completely fall over.

WAIMEIA FALLS

This was such a fun little hike.. I don't even know if I can call it a hike, it was more like an adventure walk. That's my type of hiking.

Matt and Steve went "Tarzan" on us and went swinging on the vines that were hanging from the trees.

Isn't that just Beautiful!!

I had no idea that this was what a pineapple plant looked like! Well now I know and so do you :)

Where are Tana and Lauren??

Lucky for me they had boogie boards you could use to go over to the waterfall... I'm a horrible swimmer so I really think this was the only way I could get there in that freezing water!

Snorkeling

This was the first time I have been snorkeling. It twas fun.

Yes I know, odd picture of Matt and I. Whenever I have glasses on, my smile pushes my glasses up and makes me look funny. Plus Matt's eyes aren't even open.. Well it's the only picture of us. Enjoy :)

Laie Hawaii Temple

We were lucky enough to go to the LDS temple there in Hawaii. It was so beautiful and wonderful in every way.

Holly Smokes!!

So I don't have any pictures of this but it's a must tell. The morning that we went to the temple we were all in a really big hurry to try and get there by 8:30am. We were all ready to go and were out in the hallway but Pat had to use the restroom so as we waited and time kept ticking. Finally we decided to go and see what was taking so long. Steve opened the door and yelled "Holy Smokes!!!" and ran in and the door shut behind him. We could hear Steve coughing and gagging but we couldn't get in cause none of us had a key. Laur started banging on the door and when Steve open the door the room was filled with smoke!! I guess we had a bag of chips on the stove top and somehow the stove was turned on and the bag started on fire. The fire alarm went off and we were all just waiting for the sprinklers in the room to turn on. We all grabbed towels and tried to wave the smoke out of the room. It was quit a sight to see. Soon someone came up and then we took off cause we still wanted to make it to the 9'o clock session. Can you imagine what would of happened if Pat hadn't gone back to use the restroom!!? We would have burnt down the hotel! Thanks Pat for needing to use the bathroom. :) Well, we made it to the Temple, barely, and we all smelled like smoke.

Turtle Beach

Such a cool place. These turtles were huge! You could even look out in the ocean and see huge turtles floating around.

We went to this shaved ice place that had the longest line I have ever seen for shaved ice. To be honest, I didn't really see what the big fuss was all about. I guess if you like black beans and flavored shaved ice with sweetened and condensed milk on top, then maybe I can see why you would like it. :)

A Day out on the Sea

One day we went deep sea fishing. All I have to say is that I'm not cut out with see legs... Within 15 minutes of us being on the boat I got sick. It was one of the worst, helpless, sickest feelings I think I have ever had. I tried my best to be a good sport about it all. But most of the time I was in the cabin laying down on the couch with my eyes closed pretending that I was on a hammock and trying to fall asleep. :) It worked and I was asleep for most of the 8 hour trip!! yes that's right 8 hours of being sick on the boat. I don't think I'll be going on any more boat rides like that again!

I caught a fish!!

And then I lost it :(

And so did Steve and Laur. Luckily, Matt didn't let his get away. This is a real Tuna Fish!!





Then we were attacked by Pirates. Okay, we weren't attacked by Pirates, but we did see the Black Pearl, from "Pirates of the Caribbean." The real thing!! So cool.

Steve and Lauren had a book they were reading together and Matt and I joined in. We all went down by the beach and took turns reading out loud. We were all hooked!

How relaxing is that.

Isn't that just beautiful!

Random Pictures

You are all very lucky to be able to see the real me.. this is my hair if I let it air dry and then brush it out. Matt likes to call this look Hagrid hair. :)

Last day in Hawaii

I love this picture of Lauren and me.

But as I am putting this picture up I just noticed Matt in the background... lol.. I think he was playing football with Steve and we just happened to catch him in the moment, or he was trying to get into our picture, hmmmmm:(.

Thank you Pat and Dee for making making this wonderful trip happen! We loved every minute we were there.

Goodbye Hawaii... Until next time