Manoa Falls

We hiked up through the jungle yesterday to Manoa Falls. The waterfall was pretty and really big but honestly I was more in awe of the jungle that we hiked through to get there. It was so cool to hear the birds all around us...and there was even a few times that I freaked out and grabbed onto Landon because something ran by us in the bushes. It was a really pretty hike but I am definitely paying the price today...I got 8 HUGE bug bites on my legs that are driving me insane!

New pics for the Grandparents

Things here in Hawaii are great! We are having lots of fun and enjoying the SUN! Julien is growing so much and keeps us smiling everyday!

Playing in the pool!

He dominates in the water ...direct quote from Derek

Enjoying the new couch








































Julien LOVES his books!

















When Julien gets really excited he tries to cram ALL of his fingers in his mouth!

The Gecko!

I know I live in Hawaii and am lucky to be in such a warm, beautiful place but seriously I cannot deal with the geckos and cockroaches! This morning we had a very traumatic experience with a gecko. I went into the kitchen to get a pot or pan or something for Julien to bang on and when I opened the cupboard there was a lizard running around on the pots and pans…sick!!! People keep telling me that they are good because they eat the other bugs and that they can’t hurt you but that just doesn’t make me feel better when it’s in my KITCHEN. I don’t care if they run around outside, but get out of my house!!! I started freaking out and like any girl yelled for my husband to come in and save the day…too bad he is almost as terrified of the things as I am. I am not sure of what all he did I was in the other room trying not to pass out (seriously) but I do know that the Gecko is now tailless, covered in raid but still in my kitchen! It ran underneath the washer and won’t come out. I am just praying its dead but I don’t think it is. Landon had to go to class and left me and the boy home alone with the gecko. I just get nauseous every time I think about it running around and the possibility of it getting on me! Why can’t there just be a place that is beautiful and warm and not infested with crawling things?

All about Julien

Julien had his 6 month dr appointment yesterday…I can’t believe how big he is getting! He weighed 16lbs 10oz and was 27.5in long. He is in the 80th percentile for height and 30th for weight. Tall and skinny…although his thighs don’t look so skinny. He had to get his shots while we were there…that is just a horrible experience! He did really well this time though and didn’t get a fever or anything and even slept really well last night. We are still working at the whole sleeping through the night thing but he has been doing a lot better lately. I think he just wakes up and wants his binky but can’t find it, he is so addicted to that thing, that should be a really fun habit to break later. Oh well it’s a life saver now. I was also able to find him a highchair and crib yesterday and I am so excited! We started feeding him solids about 2 week ago and it is so fun! I am surprised how well he is doing, almost all of it stays in his mouth until he remembers how fun it is to spit it out in my face. It is so hard to get mad at him when he looks at me with a huge messy grin and the cutest little laugh. He has also learned to sit up by himself, now that he has figured that out he is not such a big fan of lying down, he wants to be up and grabbing everything around him.

Landon’s survived his first real week of school and is doing really well. I am trying to not go insane being at home all day! It’s hard not having a car, I am literally stuck at home all day! I am not used to being alone since we have pretty much always lived with someone the entire time we have been married! I can’t wait until we have family and friends come visit!

We went back to Hanauma Bay yesterday with Paul and Nancy. I LOVE living by the beach! It is so relaxing and so beautiful…I just LOVE it!

Our crazy Hawaiian adventures!

Life the past few weeks has been absolutely CrAzY!...but we are finally settled into an apartment and it is starting to feel like home more and more everyday. We left Utah the middle of July and headed for Canada to spend time with Landon's family before our big move! We had a lot of fun in Canada. Julien loved grandma and grandpas pool and so did Landon and I. We were able to be there for the Olsen family reunion and our own little Garner family reunion which were both in Fairmont Hot Springs. It was so beautiful and so nice to spend time together as family. On August 11th we drove to Calgary (Julien screamed almost the entire 3 hour drive) and got on a plane for Hawaii. I was so nervous for the flight...I was so worried about Julien and so sad to be moving so far from family. Julien was perfect on the plane and slept almost the entire way there. The airport was a little hectic... we had a baby, a car seat, 4 huge suitcases, 4 carry ons, and a pack n play, I am not exactly sure how we did it looking back but I know it involved lots of sweat! We finally arrived to our hotel at 4 am and hurried to bed. The next week was probably one of the hardest weeks of my life. We were not able to find an apartment before we got here so we spent the entire week looking for a place. We had a little bit of a culture shock when we got here. We felt like we were in a 3rd world country. We were pretty much the only white people, we couldn't understand anybody, the roads are ridiculously confusing and the housing here is well... interesting. People here don't really clean things and will pretty much live in anything. We looked at some pretty interesting places and got pretty depressed. Our first day here started with Landon driving the wrong way down a one way street which led to an off ramp of a freeway which left us getting onto the freeway in the WRONG direction! The people trying to get off the freeway were not so happy...Julien heard his first cuss words that day. The next day didn't get too much better, we had only booked a hotel room for two nights so we didn't have a place to stay until finally at 8pm we got a hold of a senior missionary couple who let us come stay at their apartment. The next morning we woke up to find that our rental car has been towed away which cost us $150 to get back plus a $50 parking ticket! We spent the next few days sleeping on Paul and Nancy's floor while we looked for an apartment that Landon could stand up in, one that wasn't under an overpass or completely filled with bugs...not the easiest thing to find in Honolulu for under $2000 a month. We were definitely so glad that we had Paul and Nancy here too...I am not sure we would still be here if they had not of been here with us. Finally a week later Bishop Lopez helped us to find an apartment and we were able to start moving in. The bad luck continued to follow us though. Our first day in our new apartment ended with us in the emergency room. Landon had split his chin open on the bottom of the pool (i think only something Landon can accomplish). Luckily it was not too bad. The next day resulted in Landon getting a bump on his forehead the size of a golf ball. Our apartment is on the 16th floor and we leave both the front door and back door open to get a nice breeze to blow through and sometimes it gets a little intense. Well the wind started blowing really hard and our flip flops started blowing around the apt so Landon got up to grab them and all of the sudden our hall closet door flung open at 150 miles an hour and knocked Landon on his back. I thought for a minute that we were going to be heading straight back to the emergency room. 2 days later Landon's bike got stolen from school leaving us without ANY transportation. We decided that we would try and take the bus to walmart to buy a new bike. The bus never came so after waiting for 40 minutes we decided that we would walk to walmart. The walk there was not so bad, pretty long but we made it. The way home was a little different. We were in the scary part of downtown and had to try and get home with a baby (no stroller) a bike, a HUGE fan, 2 gallons of milk, 2 snorkel sets, and our other groceries that we needed. I am not sure that we would have made it home if we would not have found a bus stop half way home. We have definitely had some hard times our first few weeks here but have also seen some of the most beautiful things we have ever seen. It seems like when we are just about to get back on the plane and come home we get to the beach and are able to forget all our problems. Things have started to calm down the past few days as well. We have met some really wonderful people and have had some time to enjoy the sunshine. Julien Loves it here and we are enjoying our time together as a family. This is the first time that we have actually really had a place of our own and we love it! We miss our families like crazy and cant wait for visitors to come play on the beach with us. We have found some really nice beaches and were even able to go snorkeling at Hanauma Bay the other day...again we are sooo glad that Paul and Nancy are here with us and we are able to see them so often! We had the opportunity to go to the temple this morning, it was my first time since Julien was born. I am so grateful for temples and the amazing blessing of being sealed together as a family. The Hawaii Temple is beautiful. We have had some hard times but I know that things will get better...they are already starting too and I know that we are going to really have a lot of fun here...I am finally really excited for the next 2 years!