Back to What Is Really Important:

...My 20 People Who Inspire.

The next two people I'm doing together as a pair for several reasons: 

a) they are a team. 

b) they look great together. 

c) I happen to have a bunch of recent and awesome pictures of them.

You guessed it! I want to write about my parents. 

Attractive much? Just sayin'.

It feels silly just doing a simple post about these two incredible people. I could do a '20 Inspiring Things My Parents Have Done', or '20 Reasons My Parents Seem To Be Perfect', or '20 Reasons I'd Be Awesome If I Was Half As Awesome As My Parents'. I could go on, trust me. But just writing my parents as ONE of Twenty other inspiring people seems strange. It doesn't seem right. So- not enough to describe how great they are. These two people are by far the most inspiring people who I could write about. There's no way I could write all of the reasons why. Blogger.com would disown me for writing too much.  

So. 

In an attempt to not write for days and days, I'm going to focus my writings on the different inspiring things my parents did just in the week I got to hang out with them in Hawaii. 

Here I go, even though I know whatever I write won't do them justice.

Mom and Dad are Adventurous.

Before Gid and I arrived, Mom and Dad decided to try zip lining.

 They loved it. 

My parents are such adventurers. They've both been skydiving, scuba diving, and any other kind of diving you can think of. I don't even know all of the countries they've explored (partly because my dad volunteers with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Humanitarian Aid, and partly because they are crazy traveling adventurers). One of the reasons my parents fell in love was because they shared a desire to explore and have adventures. 

If they hadn't found that common characteristic, 

maybe the beautiful Californian BYU  study abroad student 

(my mother) 

wouldn't have fallen in love with the handsome young medical student

 (my father). 

Sigh. Oh the romance. No wonder I'm such a girl. 

Dad is a super stud. He's a master belly boarder.

If any of you need lessons, he's your man.

My Parents Are Sweet

I love how mom and dad have a way of showing love to each other with everything they do. My dad always holds my mother's hand. And he always makes sure when they are walking, that he is on the side closest to the road. I love that. My mother always kisses my dad's cheek, laughs at his jokes, and hugs him. They exchange lovely compliments on a daily basis.

And that's just the beginning of the different ways I see them show love every day.

Mom and Dad are
Unafraid to Laugh

mom- "remember that time you did this funny thing?"
dad- "yeah honey, now lets look at the camera."

I love the way these two joke around with each other.

Mom puts up with dad's silly movies, and Dad puts up with mom's femininity. 

And I mean 'put up' in the best way possible. They love putting up with each other.

My Parents are Thrifty.

During our week in Hawaii, Gideon and I only ate out one time with my parents. Instead of spending all of our money eating out every three hours, we went to local grocery stores and farmers markets, made meals together, and enjoyed them out on our little hotel patio. It was lovely. And so much less expensive than what I know it could have been. 

And now,  a funny story about how 'thrifty' my parents are. 

As we were driving down a mountain, my mother spotted a mango tree, and let out an excited desire to pull over so we could see if there were any ripe mangoes available to, ahem, take (...not steal). She and dad got out of the car and as dad strategically walked around the tree, 

trying to find the best angle to see ripe mangoes,

 mom, almost skipping with glee, 





circled the tree, 

and scavenged the ground where the rotten mangos sat. 

Instead of finding a ripe mango, mom found a large stick, which she proceeded to throw at the tree, in high hopes of capturing a fresh ready to eat mango. After that, mom and dad started throwing everything they could find at the ripe bundles of mangoes.

 Rocks, even bigger sticks, rotten mangoes... anything that could be a tool to get the prize. I wonder what would have happened if a police man drove by. 

Needless to say, mom and dad were victorious in their quest. 

And we had the most lovely freshly made mango smoothie that evening. 

Thanks to my parents. 

And their adventurously thrifty ways.

There's 

so much more 

to write about these two lovely people, who raised me, 

and taught me the ways of awesomeness.

However, Gideon and I have a pizza to eat, and duty calls. 

Lovely day to all of you.

Letters to my Future Children: #1

My last post got me thinking about what I would and would not be willing to share on a blog in letters. There are, of course, topics I'll write to my kiddos that I don't want available for the entire world to see, but there are a lot of topics that I'd be fine with sharing with loved ones and friends. I've already started writing some shorter letters (I'm not ready to get into the deeper subjects), and I've decided this one will be the first that I'll share. When I write, I feel like I write to my girls and boys separately, because I feel like I have different things to say to them. That will probably change; I'll probably have some letters for the girls, some for the boys, and some for both. It'll be interesting to see what comes.

I wish you all the loveliest weekend.

To My Little Girls,

Hopefully you aren't upset or annoyed by the names I've been thinking of for you. They come to me alot easier than boy names, and frankly, I like baby girl clothing more than I like baby boy clothing. You probably know that though, don't you girls? The other day, I found myself in the baby girl swimming suit section, trying to decide between a yellow tutu swimsuit, or a pink tutu swimsuit. After much thought, I ended up buying the pink, becuase I have a feeling it will go well with your personalities.

 But, a few days later I went back for the yellow one.

So now I have both. For the days when you're feeling like a star, and the other days when you're feeling like a flower. You never know, my sweet darlings. And they were on sale. I hope I don't pass on the 'shopping for things you have absolutly no need for yet' gene to you. I'll try to keep you away from Anthropologie until absolutely necessary. You should actually feel special, because I'm sure your brothers will have less attention to their wardrobe selections. But I'm sure they won't mind. Boys usually don't. Your father doesn't at least.

Maybe I'll just leave baby boy swim trunk shopping to him.

Scratch that.

I'll go ahead and be in charge of the boy's clothing too.

I've been thinking a little bit, girls. I've been wondering if you will love dancing as much as I do. I've just signed up to take classes again, and I can't believe how much I missed it. Your Grandma Rose loved dancing, I love dancing... I just wonder if you will too.

It's quite alright if you don't love dancing. When I was small, I couldn't stand the thought of pink tights. Maybe you won't like tights either. Or maybe you will.  You may be more into music, like Melody. Or maybe you'll find something else completely that you absolutly adore. That would be marvelous.

I just wonder.

No pressure, but I have a feeling you'll look simply lovely in a pink tutu.

Whether it's a swimsuit or a real one.

That's all for now, girls.

Try to be patient.
Hopefully it won't be too long.

Love,
Mom

Letters

When I was a kid, I used to write letters to my future husband. They were shy, timidly honest, and incredibly hopeful. I would hide them in my journal or in my underwear drawer, and blush horribly if anyone for some reason came across them. In fact, once my oldest brother got his hands on one of my letters and asked me what it was (I kept the envelopes blank with small numbers written in the corner). I snatched it from him, ran to the bathroom, locked the door, tore the letter up and flushed it down the toilet.

Needless to say, I was a dramatic little girl.

My brother wouldn't have taunted me, had he found out what it was; I'm blessed to have siblings who aren't too cruel to the baby of the family. I'm not sure why I was so afraid of what people would think if they knew. The first time I wrote a letter to my future husband I think I was probably 8 or so.

I tried to find my letters the last time I was home, but I couldn't; I must've hid them well.
The first one was probably a poorly written series of questions:

Dear Future Husband,

Where do you live right now?
What is your favorite color?
Do you like dogs? I hope so.
Do you like to watch Gymnastics?
If you do, maybe we should watch the olympics together.

Love,
Alyssa
Your Future Wife

My first letter was, more or less, something like the above.
A series of letters would follow, the content maturing slowly along with me. I would hide them together, but would often change the hiding place; paranoid that my parents, or worse my siblings would find them. I (as far as I know) was the only one in the family that wrote letters to a person who I hadn't met, and it was a secret I wanted to keep.

The last time I wrote a letter to my future husband, I was around 15. I don't know exactly why I stopped. Maybe because when I started going on dates with boys, my whole idea of what a future husband would be changed. Maybe I thought it was a silly idea. More likely, however, is that I thought my future husband would think my letters were silly.

When Gideon and I moved to boise, I found a letter, just one, crumpled and stuffed in a small suitcase filled with socks, undies, and dance leotards. I don't know how I've missed it all these years, but I'm pretty sure it was the last one I wrote; it had handwriting that looked like I was trying to impress someone, was carefully spell checked, and smelled like perfume had lightly kissed it years and years ago.

...perfume.

What an old fashioned girl I am.

Writing love letters to boys I've yet to meet, spritzing them with perfume,

then hiding them away, never to be found again.

Except this one.

When Gideon found out what it was, he sweetly begged me to read it to him, but I wanted to read it on my own first. It had been over 8 years since I had written it, placed it in the envelope and sealed it carefully. It was actually unfair of me; the letter was technically addressed to my future husband. But Gid didn't mind that I wanted to read it in private before I shared it. It was like meeting my younger self in a way, and I was a little apprehensive to do so.

The letter was naive in places, but I was surprised with the overall maturity that I found in it. And when Gideon read it silently to himself, and I saw how much he loved it, I was a little sad that I had stopped writing them.

Hopefully someday when I'm at home looking for Christmas decorations, or some other dusty artifact in the attic, I'll come across a secret bundle of letters, and I'll be able to give them to the one they were meant for.

In the mean time.

I think I'm going to start writing letters to my future children.
They might (understandably) think they are silly.
At first.

But I feel confident, that as they grow up, they'll begin to cherish the letters I've written them.

If they're anything like their parents, they certainly will.

Hawaii Part 3: Adventures.

I hope everyone is ok with my

ranting and raving

about hawaii in obnoxious parts.

I promise the day will come when I'm not blogging only about hawaii.

Until that day...

 Some of our

Hawaiian Adventures:

Sailing around

the Island

This was Gideon's first time on a boat

without

 getting motion sickness!

...Hawaii must be magical.

Waimea Canyon- From the boat.

We had such a

lovely

 blast.

Here is what is called 

The Grand Canyon of Hawaii.

And Here is who I call the

Grand

  love

of My Life.

Waimea Canyon again!

Same canyon that our boat sailed by. 

It was super rad to see it from the ocean and then from the top of the other side.

The view from our hike to a

hidden beach

on the

kalalau trail.

There are lots more adventures, and a zillion more pictures,

but I don't want to bore you too much.

There's already so much more to come.

Happy Tuesday, lovely people.

NEXT on my list...

is the great Andrew Chaffin.

Andrew, like Joe, is really a friend who I was able to meet through Gideon. Originally, I planned to put Joe and Andrew in the same post, but there's too much awesomeness between the two of them for a single post.

...My blog would've exploded into a soggy mess dripping with stud-juice.

Andrew and Gideon's families were both in 

salmon, idaho 

while the boys were growing up, and are still close.

I asked Gideon if he had any stories about Andrew that he wanted to share. He proceeded to give me multiple experiences of Andrew being a good friend throughout their years in Salmon, into college, and now- into our post graduation years. 

I would share, but I don't think I would do them justice as Gideon was tired, mumbling, and falling asleep. My husband is adorable. Period.

The summary of the stories confirmed what I already know about Andrew Chaffin: 

He's basically just a really good guy.

It must be said early in the post that Andrew's mother Nancy is one of the 

most incredible women I've ever met.

andrew with his wonderful mother

I just adore her. She's a wonderful example of charity, and is full of a lovely energy that brings out the best in people. She (without effort) has the ability to put those around her at ease, and make them feel truly important. I hope someday to share some of those qualities. Needless to say, Andrew was raised by incredible parents, which explains the sort of person he is.

Andrew has been a tremendous example to both Gideon and I of

strength,

fortitude

and perseverance.

 I've seen Andrew tackle situations more difficult than I could imagine with positive determination, and it inspires me to be brave with any trial that could come my way.

Andrew and I happened to take a class together in college. Within the first few discussions, I could tell that he was SMARTER than average, and had a lot of higher education in front of him because of his brain's capacity. Now, normally with these type of people, I have a strange desire to set them on fire after they've set the bar (or worse, the grading curve), but with Andrew, I mostly felt impressed. There are some people (my eldest brother is another example of this) who's intellect has nowhere to go but up. They're made to learn, and especially, to excel.

I, on the other hand, am made to eat snow cones, sleep, and dance on stage in foreign countries. What can I say? We all have our strengths. Andrew's are just a seemingly more impressive than mine...

andrew with his wonderful sister

I actually took a different class with Laurel, Andrew's sister. I remember I liked her very much because a) she was quite pleasant to be around, and b) she always had snacks during class and often would feed me. Turns out, sharing food and being pleasant runs in the Chaffin family. Andrew also carried food with him, and was always willing to share. Good guy. I could write a post just on how much I appreciate food sharing, but there is so much more good stuff to Andrew than the food that he shares with others.

Andrew is chalk full of ambition.  That plus his ability to learn and work could be a pretty lethal combo. He just finished an internship over on the east coast and now he's working in research over on the west coast.  After that- who knows?
A little bird told me EUROPE was a possibility.

...Well traveled much?

Ambition is, in my opinion, the best thing ever. Next to snow cones. And yes, I know I already mentioned snow cones. I like them. Get over it.

Andrew is a good friend. This last weekend, we were able to see him

at one of our friend's roommate's weddings. 

I remember when Andrew made the trip out to our wedding, as well.

Gideon sure knows how to pick stud groomsmen.

...and clearly, ones who know how to have fun. 

I don't know Andrew really really well, but I know this about him: he loves his family and he's very loyal to his friends. I can't express enough how much I admire people who are aware of how important family is. When I've seen Andrew around his family, or talking about his family, I can see how important they are to him. Likewise, I know that Andrew's family are nothing but loving and appreciative of him. So many families could learn from this example.

Keep an eye out for this one, my dear bloggie buddies. 

Should you see a handsome man on a european bound flight, 

at a Chaffin Family Outing, 

or on the cover of some magazine entitled 

"I'm Awesome, and You Can Learn To Be Too"

you should mention that you read 

all about him on my blog. 

He'll be nice. He's a good guy.

Hawaii Part 2: The Garden Island

Kauai is known as the garden island.

So naturally, we had to visit some gardens.

...ask me if I could control my photo trigger happy fingers.

Ask me if I had to take pictures of everything that was beautiful.

... and of course, everything was beautiful.

I'm not actually sure how many pictures I took.

...these are only a few.

It reminded me of what the Garden of Eden must have been like.

And how sad it must have been to leave.

It was hard for me, just to leave this little garden.

More to come.

Hawaii Part 1: Aloha

I'm taking a little break from my 20 people who inspire, because Gideon and I are taking our first real vacation since our honeymoon. Our anniversary isn't till September (oh glorious fall), but we're pretending this is our one year anniversary vacation.

It's such bliss to be in love.

After a early morning two flights (one, as you know, very loong), we were in Oahu. We were so blessed to have some friends of ours pick us up from the airport and allow us to stay with them for our one night stay in Laie.

In 30 short hours, we were able to:

-have a FABULOUS photoshoot on the beach, in the jungle, and everywhere else you can imagine. (more on our shoot, and more importantly our incredible photographers later)

- experience LAIE DAYS, a community celebration with music, dancing, and food.

- see "HA- The Breath of Life", the show at the Polynesian Cultural Center.

It was nothing short of phenomenal. I laughed, I cried, and now want to learn how to be a fire throwing man dancer.

-check out the campus of BYU-H.

...any campus with long board racks has got to be super rad. Am I right? I'm right.

These flags represent all of the different countries BYU Hawaii students are from.

And we enjoyed this overpriced ice cream as much as we absolutely could.

I love the spirit on that campus. It was just beautiful. 

We were also blessed to be able to visit the Laie Temple Grounds, and the incredible visitor center.

Around 9:00 at night, we got on a plane headed for Kauai, the Garden Island.

More to come on our adventures.