Sunset Cruise

 For Valentine's Day MarLeice and I bought the boys Groupon Sunset Cruises, and we were finally able to use them. For how small the boat was, it wasn't rocky at all and it was a beautiful (cold) evening out in the bay. We hit up Cheesecake Factory after, and it was a great night! Every memory with them has been so sentimental lately because they're leaving us for a new adventure in Boston. I'm SO happy for them, but I'm really going to miss my bestie. I guess that means we will have to visit a lot!

My IRONMAN

The following weekend after our Hawaiian vacation, Tanner did something I will never be able to accomplish: A half ironman. I am still SO extremely proud of him and for his crazy hard work in finishing this race. Here are some pictures from that day.

SO extremely thankful that Tanner's parents and brother came in town for the race. I was kind of a nervous wreck this morning and I'm so thankful I had someone there with me to calm my nerves! Also - it was freezing so don't judge the outfit. We left the hotel at 4am and it's a miracle my contacts even got in my eyes!

The water was warmer than the outside air, and that was 43 degrees, so I don't know if I wished to be in the water or standing outside.

When he spotted us he was SO happy. So cold, numb, exhausted, but so happy to be done with the swim.

The pictures don't show the unreal weather conditions, but right after he hopped on his bike, it started down pouring, hailing, and dropped to freezing temperatures. It was really scary.

The picture above was right before the storm. After sitting in the car for a few minutes I started to get a little anxious. I wanted to know if he was okay because as you can see he was in a short sleeve, shorts, and nothing rain protectant. We decided to drive and find him and I'm so glad we did. When we got to the halfway biking point we saw about 5 ambulances filled with people who got hypothermia, girls that couldn't push the brakes on their bikes because their hands were frozen, and lots of crying. 3/4 of the group that started, didn't finish because of the conditions. It was so frightening. 

We couldn't find Tanner, so we kept going up the hill. All the sudden an ambulance zoomed passed us and I turned to "freak out" mode. I told Tanner's dad to step on it, and we finally saw him at the turnaround point. There he was with other grown men who couldn't stop shaking huddling in the sun together trying to get warm. Logan took off his socks and we gave Tanner new socks because his shoes were soaked. We gave him his jacket and tried to keep him warm. I think it was good for all of us to see each other because it gave him the extra boost to keep going. We waited at the top of the hill for him to go so we weren't just riding his tail, and we helped a lot of the other bikers. We only saw 2 full Iron Man racers pass us because everyone had given up - it was that insane. People were hopping in our cars to sit in front of the heater, and they were leaving their bikes on the side of the road and asking to be taken back. Needless to say, we are happy it's over!

We went past Tanner on the hill down and he says he was breaking completely, but because of the rain on the hill he couldn't really control it - it's such a blessing that we found him when we did!

Of course when we got back to the waiting station the sun decided to come out... it was still sprinkling during the beginning of his run, but at that point he knew he was almost done! 

He got to finish with one of our best friend's, Clayton, and I'm so glad they accomplished it together!

So proud of you babe!

The race was in Napa Valley, so for the rest of the weekend we got to relax with his parents and take it easy. I'm looking forward when we can go back and actually explore the area!

A Hawaiian Video

I really enjoy making videos of the trips we go on! My computer is TREMENDOUSLY slow, and it literally took me almost 3 months to back everything up and let it rest in between, etc. Here's the video I made from our trip to Hawaii - I want to go back!!

Hawaiian Spring Break from Rylee Zylstra on Vimeo.

Aloha

Back in March, we went to the Island of Hawaii during Tanner's Spring Break. Him and Drew had a week off, and the rest of us were able to take it off of work. It was so fun to go on a trip with our friends - especially before the Fabrizio's moved! MarLeice's parents had a time share available, so we were able to snag that which helped a lot since it's the most expensive time to go to Hawaii! It's definetly a trip we will always remember!

Tanner and I weren't familiar with The Big Island because it was our first time visiting (and first time together!) so I'm going to list our activities and restaurant list since I had a couple of questions from friends.

Sunday: We flew non-stop on Alaskan Airlines, and were really happy with them. I think that was only like my second time flying with them, but never to Hawaii, and it was a great experience. The leg room wasn't horrible either! Just FYI: Exit Row seats DON'T lay back like I thought they did... I thought I was tricking the system getting us extra leg room and leaning chairs but I guess you have to pick one or the other! ;)

The Big Island is very big (duh?) and spread out. As soon as we landed we hopped in the rental cars (we scored with two Jeeps because of points) and drove to Costco. We loaded up on groceries and snacks for the week and indulged in some good ole' pizza and hot dogs to start off the trip. We hung around the pool and explored the resort the rest of the evening, and went into town for dinner.

Monday: The next morning the boys golfed while the girls went to Zumba. After that, we made our way to the resort (we were staying in the timeshare area) and explored the pools, got some virgin lava flow's and pina colada's, and pool food: aka chicken fingers and fries! (I was embracing my Miley buns all day long!) They had dolphin excursions at the hotel so we sat and watched them for a bit. Once the boys met up with us, we went down the slides and ventured around the lagoon swimming with turtles, then headed back to get ready for dinner. 

My friend recommended Huggo's on the Rock's for a sunset dinner, and that's exactly what we did! Their little restaurant is right on the water, with live music and hula girls so it was a fun 'welcome' to the islands! We loved the fried rice and the fish tacos. We heard the desserts were great too, but we had planned to get shaved ice so we didn't get to try any. We had Scandinavian Shave Ice for dessert and it was a typical delicious Hawaiian shaved ice shack. Tip: 'Check In' on Yelp to receive one free topping.

Tuesday: We discovered what would become "our beach" aka Hapuna Beach. We loved this area for body surfing waves and the calm yet fun atmosphere. There's also a large tree that can give you some shade when you're feeling too much sun.

We went to a "The End of the Road" destination in Puako for some great snorkeling. The waves were a little rough this day, and we still didn't have our GoPro case but we made the best of it! We were the only ones there, so the turtles were really loving our attention.

We were all freezing after snorkeling, so we rushed home to get in the hot tub. We also started a licorice-chocolate milk-in wine glass tradition.

Wednesday: This was our Hilo day - where we drove to the other side of the island. It was one of the most eventful days we had. We started off the morning at Tex's Drive In for some Malasadas, and then had the prettiest time getting lost on our drive to Rainbow Falls. We hiked around Rainbow Falls and Akaka Falls, the Botanical Gardens, and Waipio Valley. We found another secret beach near The Botanical Gardens to picnic at, and got swept up by a huge wave but luckily didn't lose anything critical (except for my Polaroid getting water damage). Mike threw a log off of the side of the cliff and Drew almost died (literally) and the wives weren't too happy about the husbands acting like children. We got stopped by a drunk ranger and almost got police reports because we were being "too loud" on the beach at 6pm. Some lady's dog went wild and she was claiming it was because of us. There are some sketchy people living in Hilo, but it was a fun day!

Thursday: We ventured down to the Mauna Lani Resort for more beach relaxing and snorkeling. I would love to stay at this resort someday, with all the beautiful cabanas and the pools! When we first walked in, they let us feed the largest orange fishies I've ever seen and it was so exciting! They let us just walk through to the beach and they were extremely friendly.

We went back to "our beach" for some more body surfing later in the afternoon, and finished the night off with watching the sunset and the tiki man run from each tiki torch at the resort. We had a fun little family dinner that night and went to bed early!

Friday: We had another relaxing pool day, watched a luau show at the timeshare lawn, and headed to the Observatory in the evening for sunset. It was FREEZING but thankfully we were semi prepared. We felt like we were on the moon with all the lava - it was so crazy! We got to look through the telescopes and see all the stars, and it was pretty sweet! 

Endless hair braiding with my girl, Lex!

Saturday: We listened to General Conference on our Bluetooth Speakers, visited the "End of the Road" snorkeling location again, and swam and ate at the resort. It was another relaxing day, but I felt like we had a super relaxing day, every other day and that was perfect. We surprised Alexis for her birthday back at the rooms with balloons and funfetti cake! We all got ready to go to our favorite (and most expensive!) dinner of the week at Lava Lava Beach Club. They had live music, corn hole games, and we got to eat in the sand again - it was the perfect way to our our trip - watching another beautiful Hawaiian sunset.

Sunday: We laid out by the resort pool one last time, while we listened to General Conference and watched the IronMan racers race on the hotel grounds! We packed up the rest of our stuff and headed to the airport. I think we were all depressed for the rest of the week going back to real life. 

Looking forward to getting back to Hawaii... and I hope it's sometime soon!