Hawaii Day 7

We started off Thursday morning with one of our favorite places, Waimea Bay.

We swam some laps in the bay, did some snorkeling, saw a ton of turtles, relaxed and jumped off the rocks.  We decided to be adventurous and dive off a section of the rock that most people don't go to.  You have to swim out to it, then climb up.  As I was attempting the climb, a wave came in and smashed me into the rock.  It wasn't a big deal, but when I got to the top Scott had an alarmed look on his face and he asked me what happened.  I didn't know what he was talking about until I looked down at my leg that had blood rushing down it.  I got a pretty good gash across my shin.  I still have a faded gash there.  Maybe it's dumb, but I'm secretly hoping it turns into a scar so I can think back to this trip when I see it.

That cute boy is mine.
I'm lucky!

After Waimea, we decided we wanted to go surfing again. Our teacher from our lesson the Saturday before, Buttons said he gives rentals to his students for super cheap, so we decided to go find him and rent some surfboards and try it out ourself!  More on that below...

After surfing, we indulged in a nap.  Then we went to the Waimea Farmer's Market, which was a really big deal.  There were tons of vendors selling a lot more than just fruits and veggies.  There was one shop we couldn't stop visiting.  A lady made cutting boards out of reclaimed Hawaiian hardwoods.  I was in LOVE!  I think this makes me sound really dorky.  They were super expensive, so we walked away.  I couldn't stop thinking about them, so we came back to look again.  Again, too expensive, so we walked away.  This happened again, and this time we even drove away.  We got two minutes down the road and we turned around because we love the cutting board so much.  We are really embarrassing.  We justified it by calling it my Mother's Day present since that was in a few days and a trip to Hawaii was definitely not enough of a present.  Ha! Anyways, I am in love with my cutting board, though I'm too afraid to use it because I want it to stay perfect forever:)

 After spending an hour and a half and too much money focusing on a cutting board, we headed out for some dinner. We were going to go out for a nice dinner, but after spending a small fortune on a piece of wood, we opted for a cheap nacho dinner.  We even had some dining buddies.  These chickens wouldn't leave us alone.  So classy.

We had the best mango cream soda!!!

Remember, how he loves his drinks?!

 Now onto the surfing portion...

All of these pics are from our first lesson at the beginning of the trip, not from the time we went out alone.  Buttons had an assistant, Dominic, who was great! He had an underwater camera that he took a ton of pics of us with and he sent them to us.

Scott looks like a movie star/professional surfer in all of his pics (He's in the white shirt).

I look like a total loser in all of my pics (I'm in the red shirt).

I felt soooo much cooler than I really look. Oh well.  At least I had a good time.

Me with Buttons

He always picked out the perfect waves for us!

Let's just pretend that that cute girl in this pic is me.
This would be the best pic ever if it were me, but alas, it's not:(

We had so much fun surfing!

Definitely the highlight of the trip.

We were super lucky because when we went out the second time on our own, Buttons was out there giving someone else a private lesson.  His student wasn't very interested in the lesson, so Buttons basically gave us another lesson.  We did a lot more of it on our own than the first time, but he helped us pick out the perfect waves, which was the thing we were struggling with the most.

We surfed at Chun's Reef and there's a place kind of close to the shore where all the beginners learn how to surf.  We were definitely staying in that area.  Then there's a place a ways out from there where the people who actually know what they're doing surf.  On our second time, Buttons took us out there!!  Not only did we attempt it on the bigger waves, but we actually succeeded.  It was so much fun on the big waves!  If only we had pics of that day.  I'm almost positive I would've looked cool in them:)