A Little Craftiness

I got a Cricut Expression for Christmas along with a computer program to use with it.  The computer program is called Sure Cuts A Lot and it is so amazing.  It allows you to cut hundreds of fonts, shapes, images, and even import your own all without the use of Cricut cartridges.  It is so nice to not have to pay for tons of different cartridges but still be able to use my Cricut! I had been dying to use it and try out all of the cool features.  I made some Valentine's Day cards to send to my nieces and nephews and also some little decor for the cupcakes I gave my roommates. 

This card was my favorite!

Somehow I have just now discovered the art of Distress Ink...and I love it!! You can do so much with it and it adds a really cool effect to paper.

This is the inside of the Be Mine card.  I listed the 10 things in the space below.

I am excited to try out new things with my Cricut and see what else I can create.  My next project will be to get caught up on my scrapbooking...oh boy!! That will be a massive project!

Hawaii: Part 2

DAY 4: BEACH DAY...AGAIN!!! We love Hapuna Beach so much that we headed back there on Monday.  Eric came with us, but Mindy stayed at the resort with baby Kacey because he was sick. :(  The waves were A LOT better on this day and we all got tossed around a little bit!! It is always so much fun to go boogie boarding even though it wears me out! It takes so much work to get out to the waves just to get pummeled by them! But boy is it loads of fun!! One piece of advice...wear a swimsuit that you know will stay on! I made the mistake of wearing a new swimsuit that did NOT stay in place! Let's just say some lucky beach-goers may have gotten a little show! Oops! Besides the wardrobe malfunction, it was another fun-filled day at the beach!

Eric and Christian

He thinks he is tough...ha!

Me and Jason catching a wave

showing off their "muscles"

 After the beach we went back to the resort and went swimming.  We had wanted to go down the water slides so we found them and had a ball! My mom has all the pictures of us going down a bigger waterslide.  I think the guy on duty at the slide probably thought we were crazy because we kept going and going and going...but it was so fun! We were posing for my mom as we went down the slide and everything!  I'll have to get those pictures from her.

 That night we all went to dinner at Roy's. It was pretty good and marked a milestone in my life. I ordered fish for the first time ever!! I decided to branch out a little and actually order a seafood meal...I was kind of disappointed.  But I can now say that I have ordered and eaten a seafood dinner. Yay me!

Adorable Campbell

Isabelle...I love this girl's smile :)

me and Gretchen...I'm so short that she had to pick me up!

me and the madre!

DAY 5:  ISLAND ADVENTURE.  The Big Island is almost two times bigger than all the other islands combined.  It is quite diverse in its landscape too.  The Kona side is the desert side and is not what most people think Hawaii would look like.  It is mostly just black lava rock.  As you travel around the island towards the Hilo side it gets more green and luscious.  The Hilo side gets a lot more rain and is also home to Volcanoes National Park.  We all wanted to see the volcano, so we decided to take the day and drive around the island to check it all out.  We got a late start on the day and it takes about 2 hours to get over to Hilo then about another 15 or so to get to the National Park.  That side is definitely more green and reminded me more of what the other islands look like.  Driving around the island was great because we got to see the diversity of the island and how beautiful it is.  Since we were driving, I didn't get any pictures of the trip.

We had to get back to the resort for the luau that night so we did not have much time to check out the volcano and the national park.  We were able to drive to the steam vents, see the crater where the volcano collapsed in on itself at one point, and more of the island.  I would have loved to hike around the park or even see the recent lava flow, but we did not plan our day very well! Oh well, next time right?

I think they were using the sulfur vents as a way to release some gas of their own without everyone noticing ;)

That night was the luau at the resort and all of the people with the AFS group were invited to go, so we headed back to Kona for that.  The luaus are always fun and they always have different dances which is neat.  They had a big buffet dinner with delicious Hawaiian foods.  It was quite an enjoyable night.

Grandparents and parents doing some hula dancing

Me and Sha

YEAH BABY!!

G-ma getting some action too

DAY 6:  FINAL HOORAH!! Wednesday was our last day on the island.  Our flight didn't leave until almost 10 that night, so we still had all day to play. My parents were actually staying for a few extra days so even though we had to check out of our rooms, we could still play in the sun and have a room to shower and freshen up in before heading to the airport.  This was very nice because normally we have to drive around with our suitcases in the car and didn't want to get dirty or wet.  We decided to hang around the resort and play in the lagoon again.  We had talked about having kayak races the whole trip, so of course we had to do this! After soaking up as much sun as we could, we got ready and hit some of the shops, then headed into Kailua-Kona for dinner before heading to the airport.

One of the turtles just chillin by the lagoon.

kayak races!! Christian cheats, by the way.

run, run, run!

We found another waterslide. Let the easy entertainment begin!

LOVE these flowers!

I just love this picture! What a dork!

Dinner at Bubba Gumps on our last night.

Thanks mom & dad, Associated Foods, and Destinations for another fun and memorable trip!!! I had such a great time and Hawaii truly is my favorite place to be! ALOHA!!

Hawaiian Getaway

Every two years Associated Foods Stores teams up with Destinations Travel and plans a trip for all AFS store owners and some of their employees.  My parents are kind enough to take all of us on these trips whenever they have them, and we all love them! This year they went to the Big Island of Hawaii and stayed on the Kona side at the Hilton Waikoloa Village.  This resort is absolutely beautiful and you just can't beat being in Hawaii.  We were there for a week and enjoyed every single minute of it! My whole family went (except for Jill & Christian's boys, Carson and Travis), my aunt and uncle (Lori & Kent), my cousin and her husband ( Sha & Brandon), my grandparents, and Eric & Mindy Mackay and their little boy Kacey (he manages our Thermopolis store).  This may take a couple of posts because I took A LOT of pictures!!

DAY 1:  We spent the day playing in the Lagoon at the resort.  This man-made beach is one of the top beaches and it was so fun.  The ocean actually feeds into the lagoon so there are fish, eels, stingrays, and turtles swimming around in it.  You can rent snorkel gear, paddle boats, paddle boards, and kayaks to play around in the lagoon.  We literally swam right next to turtles and could have touched them (but you're not supposed to :))

Heading down to our breakfast by the lagoon on the first morning

They have dolphins at the resort and you can swim with them if you want to

The boys heading out to do some snorkeling

Loving the sunshine!

Me and Jill paddleboarding...it was pretty fun!!

Jason and Campbell playing in the water

Little Izzers

Eric, Mindy and Kacey playing in the water

surfer girls :)

hangin out on the beach

Kyle taking a turn on the paddleboard



I absolutely LOVE hibiscus flowers and this one was the best!!!





Beautiful Hibiscus flower!!



Shot of the Lagoon with the pretty waterfall and everything

DAY 2: Day at the Beach!! On Saturday we headed over to Hapuna Beach.  My mom, Jill, Gretchen, and I went to this same island last year so we had already scoped out all the good places.  Hapuna Beach is absolutely gorgeous! It is one of the top 25 beaches...perfect!! We went on a Saturday so it was pretty busy, but it was still fun.

Riding in the Jeep with the top off...love it!

We love our rental cars!!!

hahaha I can't help but laugh every time I see this pic...classic!

Jason, me, and Christian catching a wave

Christian and Kyle

Gretchen and Isabelle soakin up the sun

sunset at our dinner by the ocean

DAY 3: BIG SURPRISE!! When we got back to our rooms the night before we each had an envelope with our name on it.  I opened it up to find a folded up piece of paper that said to bring the enclosed ticket to my parent's room at 5:15 am and to wear comfy shoes and bring a camera.  I looked at the plane ticket and it was to Honolulu...we were going to OAHU!! I was so excited because in all the times we have been to Hawaii we have yet to go to Oahu and I would love to see the sites and all that fun stuff.  I was ecstatic and couldn't wait.  We headed to the airport to catch the earliest flight out and made it to Oahu.  We found a place to eat breakfast.  While eating, my parents surprised us AGAIN!  They had gotten us tickets to the PRO BOWL!! I was so shocked and super stoked! They had kept it a secret for a long, long time!  We did have time to visit Pearl Harbor before we had to go to the game.



YAY!!!! Pro Bowl tickets, baby!!



Riding the boat out to the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor

hehe probably one of my favorite pictures from the trip...stretch it out!

It was down-pouring on us until we bought ponchos then it stopped!



#18 Peyton Manning



The GooGoo Dolls performed and Kris Allen sang the National Anthem



I know this is a ridiculously long post, but it's gotta happen! I will post the rest of the trip soon...