Five minutes after the men start the women start, and the buzzer sounded and I went into the water/battlefield. the beginning was like hand to hand combat! I was accidentally kicking and hitting people and everyone else was doing the same to me. haha. I kept swimming and after about 5 minutes people got more and more spread out. I was near the back which was fine with me. Ten minutes later I lifted my head up and noticed as I was rounding the first floating marker that I can not do this. I was already aching and feeling like if I stayed in the water much longer I would have no energy to keep my head up. I was sure I would be one of the poor people to have to get pulled out of the water by a lifeguard. I decided to try and keep pace with a girl who was next to me for a while and say that if she quit I would quit. I looked up and coudln't even find the next marker in the distance. A mile is SO much farther than you would think it is!
I kept swimming and stayed with the same girl the whole way, and came in just before her at 44 minutes. Its not a fast mile, but I'm SO glad I finished! I got out to Kelsey and her family all cheering me on and that felt really good. I was too exhausted to talk though so everyone thought I was mad, still. lol
Just after the race I went to the airport to pick up my sister, Sarah! I was so excited to see her! We had been planning this vacation for about two months and it was finally here! I went home and changed clothes and then drove to the airport and got there just in time and picked her up. It was great to see her! We drove around and talked and had fun. We have hung out constantly for the last week. Here's what we did:
Saturday: layed on my bed and we both tried to sleep, ate vietnamese food, and went to bed early. (what a start!)
Sunday: Church, then we drove to the north shore with Jamie to show Sarah the Temple. We went in the visitor's center, which is BEAUTIFUL. I have been many times since I moved here but it was fun to show Sarah and Jamie, who hasn't been in a long time. We watched some of the old LDS commercials (one of them has one of our friends in it as a little girl) Then we took some pictures outside the temple. Afterwards we went and met a friend of mine, Christen and her new boyfriend for some dinner. Then we went back and hung out and read books and went to bed early
Monday: Waiamea Bay on the North shore. It was INCREDIBLE to swim there. Sarah and I were swimming with goggles on and somehow ended up in the middle of a HUGE school of fish and we were in the middle of the clear blue water with what had to have been thousands of fish circling us. It looked like a wall around us that was wiggling. it was beautiful! We also walked on another really private but quiet beach on a bay I had never stopped on and took some pictures. Afterwards we hung out with Jamie at his house and ate ice cream bars. mmm
Tuesday: Sarah and I got ready to go to the beach, but on our way decided we would rather hike. We did the Moanawilli Falls Trail that leads to a beautiful waterfall. (its the spot where Jason Mraz filmed his "I'm Yours" video) and we swam in the water, and climbed the side of the waterfall to another beautiful waterall. Then we jumped off the rock into the probably-bacteria-filled water. haha. It felt really good though, and its so pretty you feel like you are on a man-made set of a jungle movie. I climbed up the 40 foot rock and tried to get the courage to jump into the water. I was so scared I sat there for half an hour while about 20 people came up the trail and ended up waiting for me to jump. I was really nervous and had no idea how many people were down there. Finally I asked my sister to cound down from ten, and everyone joined in- which was good because if i didn't jump i would look like such a fool- so i jumped when they said ONE. It was SUCH a rush. I loved it. Sarah and I hiked down the mountain and had a good spiritual talk. For dinner I took Sarah to my favorite Sushi place "I love Sushi" in Honolulu. It was AMAZING-as usual! From there We walked around waikiki and I showed sarah all the weird entertainers and artists and where the prosititues and gays hang out.
Wednesday: Sarah and I wend to Kailua beach and read our books and swam in the water. The water was really murky which was weird but it was fun to try and catch the small waves. Sarah got REALLY sunburned, and when we went home we were lazy and played with Kelsey and hung out. That night we met up with some friends at the Mall and eating at Ruby Tuesdays for the most fun Dinner ever. After talking in the parking lot forever and not knowing what to do we ended up sitting on the beach and talking until Midnight.
Thursday: Sarah was really fried so we didn't want to go outside and make it worse. It was my last day to watch Kelsey, so I decided to take her wherever she wanted. She wanted to go to the mall and play in the kid playcenter. It was fun to watch her and she already loved Sarah. We played glow golf and then took her home for a nap. Sarah was hurting bad so we didn't go outside at all, and we watched MEAN GIRLS and read books and went to bed early while sarah soaked in a half a bottle of Aloe Vera
Friday: We put Sarah in gallons of Aloe and sunscreen and covered her with a rash guard and hat and long shorts and decided to go Kayaking in the ocean. We borrowed a friends Kayak and paddled through a canal that lead to the ocean, where we saw lots of sea turtles swimming in the water. We played in the waves and sang really lame songs that we made up, all about turtles. We both started feeling the sun getting our skin so we decided to head back. We swam in my friends pool and at pizza with her and her boyfriend. We got Taco Bell and then went and walked aroudn Kailua and ate again at C.P.K. and changed and we were going to snorkel but had no gear and on the way to get some it started raining so we went and got a really dumb movie and fell asleep early.
Saturday: My employer set up my birthday present for today and had me signed up to go Parasailing. We asked Sarah to watch Kelsey so I could fly and Bill could take pictures. Jamie came to watch me take off and once I was strapped in and signed my life away i waited until I felt the kit picking me up and lifted my legs. The instructor flew us to the left, but wanted us to go right. I heard him say "Uh Oh- wind died" GREAT! We made a U turn over the beach and came down fast, i almost hit a long and he said "TRY AND STAND" I put my feet in the sand and "skiied" on the sand until we stopped and the kit flew over me into the rocks and knocked me on my knees. The instructor said "It wasn't supposed to work like that- its such a light day" So I looked up to Sarah and Jamie and Bill laughing their heads off at my "crash" and hiked up the cliff to try again. I got strapped in again and this time take off was great and I flew around for about half an hour to 45 mintues about the island. It was gorgeous. When I landed kelsey ran up to me and hugged me. I said thank you to Bill and then Sarah and I drove straight up to the North shore to go skydiving. We got signed up and waited about an hour and then we were on the plane. This was my 5th jump, my jump guy had great teeth and sarah and I joked with him the whole plane ride up. Sarah didn't seem to be nervous, I wasn't until the plan flattened out above the clouds and everyone in front of us started disappearing out the door. Sarah went out backwards before me and I heard a little scream as she shot out the door. I was next and went out backwards falling at like 100 m.p.h. flipping and spinning everywhere. It was AMAZING. that feeling never gets old. Once down Sarah and I were really giddy and happy, took some pictures and drove home. We met Jamie and his grandparents for dinner and a fancy club and had a good meal and dessert.
Sunday: Today. We are going to church, then to Pearl Harbor. I'll try and remember to update more often so my blogs aren't a whole book long.
ALOHA!
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