Big Island Fun!

We headed to the Big Island of Hawaii today!

I'm super excited! I'll post more from our trip later.

Hope everyone has a great day!

Palm Trees and Sand

This blog is dedicated to my very good friend, Kristyn Flinchum :)

The other day, after a great afternoon of watching the twins, I set out on my own adventure. I ended up going to the North Shore again, but with a mission. Pineapple Ice Cream! The Dole Plantation is on the way to North Shore, and having a love, no, more of an obsession with pineapple, I was craving a nice waffle cone full of their delicious ice cream. I walked around the plantation a bit, but it was close to closing time so I didn't spend too much time there. Just got my ice cream and a few pictures and was on my way.

I finally worked the nerve up to ask someone to take my picture. Turns out, although the lady looked American, she clearly was not and spoke little English. I was aiming for a picture of me and my ice cream underneath the Dole sign. This is what I got. I wasn't about to be the person who makes her do it again, so I just went with it.

After visiting Dole, I went towards the beach. Saw the usual surfers (which I don't think I'll ever get tired of looking at), sand and sea. I also saw a wonderful rainbow! What a treat! So Kristyn, these pictures were taken just for you! I'm going to also thrown in some beach trip pictures from the day after these. Enjoy!

Saturday Wonderland

There's many words that could describe today's events, including: perfect, wonderful, fabulous, breathtaking, amazing, etc. Basically, I had a really awesome day!

When I woke up around 9:45, I thought to myself, Hmmm, I should go hike something today. I think I'll give Diamond Head a whirl, so I did! After getting ready, I drove downtown to Diamond Head State Park. I was bound and determined not to be as big of a wimp on this hike as I was on KoKo Head, but this hike was a lot more moderate than the first one. I knew I wasn't going to have a problem when I saw an elderly lady starting up the trail with a cane. I was right. I went straight to the top without really stopping, I even passed a couple of people. Now don't get me wrong, the stairs part of the hike really kicked my butt, but I persevered. I've decided that every hike on this island must consist of stairs at some point and to be honest, I was never a fan of the stairmaster at the gym. Anywho, once to the top, you could see why it was recommended you hike this if you were here. It was absolutely gorgeous! And the best part: there were A TON of other tourists so it made getting my picture taken super easy. I think I asked about three or four other couples to take my photos. One lady even made me pose for several before she was satisfied. Eh, who am I to complain?

Conquered those stairs!

After this amazing hike, I had planned on hanging out with Trent again. When I got to his place, we decided to go golfing. Now, Jacob Lusk is the only other person I've ever actually golfed with, and for good reason. We never completed the whole course we attempted in Florida at our resort. After round three, we were out of golf balls and had to return to the desk ball-less.

First time golfing in Florida...

Trent is actually a golf pro, seriously. Like, that's what he went to school for. So I was in good hands (no offense Jacobs). First, we did what every girl needs to do before golfing: a shopping spree! In order to play golf well, you have to look the part, am I correct ladies? Trent hooked me up with a tight golfing outfit and we set out for the driving range. After much talking and lesson giving on Trents part, I attempted to actually hit the ball on my own. I didn't see it, but Trent said I did very well for my first actual golf lesson. I think he was just being nice. After about thirty minutes practicing, we hit the golf course. We played a few holes, and messed around a bit but I had a grand time trying my hand at it.

New golfing attire

Just as we were finishing up, we went to explore real quick. I don't know if any of you are aware of the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie that is coming out soon, but apparently the ship they use is being stored in Ko Olina where Trent lives and works. Guess who got to see that ship? That's right....

To top it all off, there was a PERFECT sunset that I couldn't get enough of. We went to dinner right on the water and got to see the sun go down. The restaurant had a live singer and a Hula dancer. I was in paradise, literally. The night ended with star gazing on the beach. Perfect day!

Cooking With Megan

Having worked two jobs where I'm constantly surrounded by food, I don't cook often... if ever. And when I'm at home, I generally don't eat or food is bought from some other poor soul who had to cook it for me. However, when I do decide to try my hand at cooking, I'm not terrible.. just ask the boys of Western Carolina University. Since being in Hawaii though, Jessi has been my chef. For these two weeks while Mike is home however, I'm on my own again and since she made sure I had plenty of food, I didn't want to let her down so.... tonight I cooked! And I didn't even set off the smoke detector. What did I cook you might ask? A very simple pasta with chicken that I learned from my dear dear friend, JH. For those of you who are also cooking dummies, here's as easy how-to recipe, with pictures!

Got the ingredients, hmmm what now?

Well of course you're suppose to boil water to put the pasta in, while starting to cook the chicken. Just for the record, the piece of chicken I had selected was HUGE and still frozen. Trent actually called me in the middle of and I confessed to him that I was unsure of how I was suppose to cook this chicken. He suggested many a ways in which I could cook this mentioned half bird, and I went with the throwing it in a pan method.

That chicken takes up the whole pan!

The pasta well on its way

After draining the pasta and finally getting the chicken cooked all the way through, I put a small amount of Italian dressing over the pasta and garnished it with chicken slices. And Viola!, a simple and delightful dinner!

Ta-Da!

Welcome Home!

Welcome back Mike!

Time seriously does fly! Mike is currently home for two weeks of R&R, and Jessi and the Burn's babies couldn't be more ecstatic. Before you know it, I'll be headed back to good ole NC.

Adults Say the Darndest Things

Being a twin myself, I've heard about all the stupid questions there are when it comes to being a twin. After time though, you just learn to deal with it, because people have no clue and are actually interested in things like twins and multiples. The usuals like "Are you twins?" or "Are you identical?". Now a quick lesson on egg fertilization for those of you who aren't familiar with the whole identical/fraternal twin thing: 1) Identical twins occur with one egg is fertilized and splits into two eggs, resulting in two boys or two girls that look identical. 2) Fraternal twins are when two separate eggs are fertilized, resulting in two girls, two boys, or a boy/girl combo. While fraternal twins may look very similar, they are not identical.

Pushing Nora and Holden around, sometimes we'll get comments such as "You must have your hands full," and "Here comes double trouble". I mean, really??

Today at the commissary, while having to wait on Jessi, the nicest elderly man came up to talk to me while waiting for his wife in the restroom. People generally assume Nora and Holden are mine if Jessi isn't around, and I usually just let them go on thinking that so I don't have to explain I'm not the mother. But this old man wasn't going to drop the conversation, so after about a minute or so I informed him they weren't mine, they were a friends I was watching as she was shopping, but that I was in fact a twin myself. After asking a series of questions, I told him that I had a twin brother who lived back home in NC. Other than being asked if I was a siamese twin (and it could be argued that the girl who asked it had a very low IQ), the second dumbest question I've gotten is "Do you feel each others pain?", which this man asked. He said, "Like if your brother stubs his toe on the east coast, do you feel pain in your toe over here? There's been a lot of information on those types of things with twins." I politely informed him that was not the case with Michael and I, but nonetheless I got a good kick out of it. Which got me to wondering, what are some other stupid things twins hear, so I looked it up. Most of these were asked to identical twins, but are still funny... Enjoy!

"Are you telepathic?"
"If one of you is injured does the other one feel the pain?"

"Do you both have the same name?"
"Were you in the same class in school?"
"Can your parents tell the difference?"

"Have you ever been out with twin girls/twin boys?"
"Do you ever wake up and think you're the other one?"

"Which one of you is the evil twin?"
"Do you have the same birthday?"
"Are you guys related?"

"Are your parents twins? "

"Do you share a brain?"

"Do you have the same parents?"

"How old is your twin?"

"How long have you been twins?"

Surviving KoKo Head

If one were to look up treacherous, grueling, you're-gonna-hate-yourself-work-outs, I feel certain that KoKo Head Crater Hike would be somewhere on the top ten list. However, I must admit I was given fair warning before deciding to hike up this mountain. I remember it very clearly: "You're going to hate yourself every step up, but it's definitely worth it in the end, and the going down part is fun too." They were right of course, but I just had to find out for myself, as always. I set out towards KoKo Head Wednesday morning. Paying attention as usual, I was too busy checking out the size of the mountain from the car and totally missed my turn. It all worked out ok because I got to see a lot of pretty sights and pull off on scenic overlooks for a few pictures before I realized I needed to turn around.

I'm going to be climbing that?!

You can't tell, but this is a blow hole.

After turning around and mentally preparing myself, I set out on the trail towards my doom. I had a great mind set going into it, and the small hike to the bottom of the staircase and the first 100 steps or so into it were great. And then... I lost my motivation and thought I was going to die! The mid day heat and the fact that I am out of shape really got to me and I kid you not, I felt like I was seeking shade and resting every 20 steps. Ok, that may be a bit of an exaggeration, but I was pretty pathetic. People kept passing me, but I wasn't about to quit.

Halfway there!

A lot of huffing, sweating, and resting later and... I finally made it! And just like everyone said, it was totally worth it. The view was amazing, but it was more of a feeling of self accomplishment that made it so worth it. How many steps was it to the top you ask? Well how about a whopping:

1,048!

The scenery was beautiful and I got a whole look at the island. Not having someone else with me, I quickly learned how to use my self timer on my camera.

When it was time to head back down, I realized it wasn't going to be as "fun" as I was told. Going down something steep always throws my balance way off wack and I just imagined myself tumbling down 1,048 railroad tracks.

It wasn't nearly as bad as I was expecting, but I did fall at one point and I currently have three bruises to show for it. It was a great work out though and I'm still having problems walking up and down stairs. And after my super hike, I decided to treat myself to none other than Victoria's Secret! A great hike followed by shopping, a wonderful way to spend my Wednesday!

What if I wanted more?

Dieting is always hard for me considering my love for food. However, I decided I would go on a diet while I was out here for two months. Now is as good a time as ever I suppose. Since leaving, I've completely cut out soft drinks, drinking strictly water and Crystal Light. Since I'm no longer working with foodfor the majority of my day, I've also cut down how much I've been eating. And I even told my mother NOT to send me any Valentine's Day candy (but lets not mention the whole ten pounds of M&M's I ate in a weeks time of arriving here).

We bought frozen dinners, to eat for lunch or dinner whenever we didn't have anything else prepared.

Weight Watchers Smart Ones are very cheap, delightful and supposedly good for you too. A win-win situation if you ask me. Wh

en going to cook dinner for myself the other night, I decided upon a quesadilla entree. There were two in the box, and considering I wasn't that hungry at the time, decided I would be smart and save one for later. However, little did I know that Weight Watchers was already look

ing out for me.

Read the first direction on the microwave sleeve and it clearly says "Return second quesadilla to the freezer". Given the fact that I had ate a late lunch and wasn't too hungry, I had already done that. Usually though, I would have wanted two, and most likely eaten them both. Thank goodness Weight Watcher's is there telling me what my portions are. When I get super skinny and become a model, I'll know who to thank!

Cats

Cali, my baby girl, is over 5,000 miles away. I miss her terribly. She always makes everything better. She can usually be found in a box, cuddled up on some clothes, on top of the couch or even in Michael's bowl in his room.

Cali Baby

However, I have two replacements to take her place while I'm here in Hawaii. Don't worry Cali, they are only temporary. Lulu and Oliver are the Burn's very calm, well mannered cats, who are a lot like Cali.

Meet LuLu. She's more afraid of the kids than Oliver is, but sweet nonetheless. She likes to sleep behind me on the couch at night and hide behind the blinds in the window during the day while she works on her tan.

And this is Olli on the right. He's very good with the kids. Especially when they want to "pet" him, which is more along the lines of hitting him. He even puts up with Nora's "AAATTTTT" she screams every time she sees him and tries to chase him.

Trying to get to Ollie.

"Who would believe such pleasure from a wee ball o' fur?"

~Irish Saying

Beach Bums and Lots of Flowers

Today is Valentines Day obviously. Being a female, I should be excited about this day. However, and it's not because I don't have a significant other, I have always thought the idea of Valentines Day was stupid. A waste of money if you would. A Hallmark holiday in between Christmas and Easter designed to sucker those poor men into thinking they have to buy their lady of admiration flowers, cards, candy and such. Ok I'll stop hating on this day of love, I mean after all, at least some men really try and put effort into it, and a lot of women love this day. I'm just not a romantic I suppose.

Since it's here though, we took full advantage of it and headed to the beach! Nora and Holden had a blast! That is once Holden calmed down and got over the initial fear of the ocean. Poor thing. Jessi set up a play tent complete with a tunnel! I think I was more excited to see this contraption set up than the twins were. We had buckets, shovels, rakes, and every other toy imaginable to potentially build a sandcastle. The kiddos played in the sand and tasted it too. By the end of the day, as every beach trip goes with kids, we were all covered in it.

Holden R. Burns

Nora G. Burns

Just making sure it was safe for the kids...

Happy Valentines Day from Hawaii

Upon returning home and putting the babies down for nap (which the beach definitely tuckered those two out), Jessi and I watched Sex and the City 2. When the kids woke up, we got them all dolled up in cute outfits for the special day and took them to Chili's where we were gonna get dinner and a sweet treat. After dinner, we decided against dessert since apparently Hawaii Chili's don't have an apple crisp type dessert, and the twins don't eat chocolate. When we got home, we had a quick photo-shoot with them in their outfits, and a star studded performance of a Moulin Rouge song by Jessi and myself. After bath and reading, we put the munchinks to bed and went to watch another movie.

Jessi's date

My date

Kisses for Holden

Kiss for Auntie Megan

Jessi, knowing she was suppose to receive flowers from Mike, was at the point of thinking they weren't going to make it today when all of a sudden the door bell rang around 9:30. To my surprise, Jessi said "Megan you got flowers too!". Thanks to a thoughtful Travis, I wasn't left out. And since Mike had sent Nora flowers a few days ago, we currently have three vases of flowers to decorate the downstairs with. What a great way to spend a day I'm not so fond of. It's definitely been a day I won't forget!