Dreams Come True!!!!

You will have to excuse the grammar/ organization of this post. When I begin talking about Hawaii I become so scatter brained that it's quite ridiculous. I think I started dreaming of my vacation to Hawaii when I first muttered the word "Aloha" (Which would have been around two years old since my baby sister says it beautifully). At the age of 19 I began to set aside money for the specific purpose of going on a trip to Hawaii with some of my dearest friends the next December. After two months of scrimping and saving my best friend's car broke down and all her savings went toward getting it fixed. My Hawaii dreams were postponed and so I spent my entire savings on something to help cheer me up a bit. At 20 I decided my college apartment bedroom could use some color so I took 100 pieces of the brightest colored paper I could find and cut them into hundreds of strips. Soon I had created a chain about 30-40 feet long. I attached the two ends together and hung it up along the walls in my room with a sign above it that said "Days til Brooke goes to Hawaii". Whenever I would show people my room they would comment on my chain and I would tell them I planned on going someday but it seemed like a lifetime away. Since then I have also bought some beautiful poster pictures of the Hawaii landscape and I have hung them in room to make me feel as though I have a bit of paradise in my room with me (which helped sometimes when I was having a less then splendid day).
About three weeks ago I found out my younger sister, who plays for Dixie State soccer, would be going to Hawaii to play three Hawaii teams. I was jealous beyond all belief until my mom mentioned she would be going along. At that point I "demanded" (Ok, really I begged, nay, groveled at my parent's feet) that I would get to go along as well. Two days later my dad, 13 year old sister, mom, and myself all had plane tickets to Hawaii departing on August 30th.
It all happened so fast that I had to remind myself on several occasions that I was actually getting on a plane to go to Hawaii in a few days. Before I knew it I was at the airport waiting for my plane and then I was actually flying over the ocean on my way there.
Now that I am back in Utah, I look back and it seems as though it was all a dream. But I have proof that I was there: LOTS AND LOTS of pictures. As some of you know it takes a good hour to go through all the pictures I took and so it's been hard to narrow down which ones to post but here are some of my favorite pictures I took while in Hawaii.


I wouldn't have been here without them so I had to add a picture of my new favorite people in the world!

This picture was taken at "Sunset Beach"

This was one of my favorite things we did while in Hawaii

We had a similar experience to Chick's Cafe at this less then lovely restaurant so I thought I would post a picture to protect you from making the same mistake we made.

Sunset seen on the beach of Waikiki

The Punch Bowl Cemetary overlooking Honolulu

United States Flag as seen from the inside of the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor

Unfortunately I was unable to get any pictures of our snorkling adventure because I left my camera in the car all day but I thought I would make a quick note that you CANNOT go to Hawaii and not go snorkling at least one day. It's like going to the Zoo and refusing to look at the animals. So now that my dream of going to Hawaii has come true, it is on to dreaming about a trip to Australlia (and now it doesn't seem as unrealistic as it did before)!

-Brooke Jean