Molly & Ben

These two weeks in Oahu were much needed. We really packed our time tight to see people in SLC and it was time for a break. As much as I LOVE this lifestyle we are living, we often say the same thing when people ask about it. So staying with David and Cristyann was a breath of fresh air. This is such a beautiful place, I can’t believe we are going to be here for 2 weeks!

Packing for this trip was interesting… We needed to pack warm enough for the cold weather in Utah, but bring warm weather clothes and bathing suits for Hawaii. We actually shipped stuff back to our Airbnb in Atlanta from SLC, and I ended up going to Platos closet and getting some other things to wear. Oh well!

We were actually able to overlap some time with Bens parents who were also visiting. It was December 31st which is New Year’s Eve so you know what that means?

Nothing, because we are in our 30s!

Just kidding. Their apartment was near the Disney resort and they were doing fireworks. Everyone went down to watch except for me. I was way too tired to go and knew I would be grumpy if I went. So I slept!

It was really nice to spend time with Bens Folks. Our trips only overlapped for a few days but we always have fun together. They borrowed a car from a cousin who is going to BYU – Hawaii and let us borrow it after they were done. It wasn’t in the best shape, but it helped us get to a waterfall hike on the east side of the island. Other than that we really didn’t use it much.

Polynesian Cultural Center

As a family, we drove up to the PCC which stands for the Polynesian Cultural Center. This is owned by the church and represents all the islands in the pacific. It has a lot of college students working here but it’s a really exciting environment. I remember going here as a kid but MAN it has changed. Everything was really fun and informative!

The park is laid out in sections for each individual island and culture. There is a presentation than activities you can do.

This is a river show where they had rafts from each culture do a dance. Worth seeing even though it gets crowded.

That night, we went to the Hawaiian Luau, and even the fire festival. The food was pretty good, but the pinapples were the bomb!

If you have to choose between the Luau, and the Fire performance at night, go to the fire performance. So many talented dancers!

Hanauma Bay

One of our favorite beaches was Hanauma Bay. We left super early in the morning so we could get into the park for free, and watch the sunrise. As the morning went on, we played with the kids and eventually went snorkeling. The fish were friendly and I even saw an octopus!

Disney Resort

The Disney resort was worth just walking around in. The beaches there are public property so you can walk along all the lagoons and see watch the sun set. They even had some performances from other hotels on the beach that you could watch from a distance.

Diamond Head Hike

This is the highest point on the island and gives an amazing lookout. It’s a fairly easy hike and we were able to do it with kids.

Funny story, as we got down to the bottom, a group of Asian ladies were taking a picture together around the Diamond Head sign. Tyson, our little nephew, decided he needed to be in the picture with them. So he just ran in and posed. The ladies loved it, and so did Tyson.

Climbworks

You might remember from our post back in November, we met a family who owned a zip lining company here in Oahu and offered to give us some passes. We asked if we could also include our Brother and Sister in law to come along. It was his birthday so worked out perfectly. We dropped the kids off and headed to the north part of the island.

This was a 3 hour zip-lining tour through the jungles of Hawaii. Our guides helped us every step of the way so we never felt unsafe. If you are in the area DO THIS! It was such a blast. I even bought a T-shirt which I never do.

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Secret Beach

We worked a lot and during the day, and when David got home from work, we would usually walk down to secret beach. This was a “Secret” beach that the locals knew about. It wasn’t very big, but perfect for a small family to go hang out on and watch the waves. Sometimes all you need in a day is a good sunset.

Turtle Bay

One of our last activities was going to Turtle Bay!

Sometimes turtles come to this bay and warm up in the sun. It was a cold day and the beaches were closed as the waves were really high. Because of these circumstances, we weren’t sure we would see anything BUT! We had Olivia Dawn the turtle come and hang out with us.

We had to stay far enough away and there were actually locals that were roping things off.

Hawaii was blissful… We had so much fun with the family, and especially these little boys. Thank you David and Cristyanne for having us! See you soon!

I do love coming home for the holidays. Most of my family still lives here, and some of Bens family lives in Pleasant Groove so it’s a good meeting place for everyone.

Time really seems to fly. We had something planned everyday and had A LOT of family time. Because of this, I didn’t take a lot of pictures… Here are some of the highlights of the trip.

Dads House

Dad is a total bachelor right now, and every once in a while, he needs some help. I told him I wanted to help him organize and clean the house. He was open to it, and it was fun to spend some quality time with him.

Acro Yoga With The Nieces

Not sure where this started but the girls LOVE doing this with me. Essentially, it’s doing fun poses on top of my feet.

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Top Golf With Friends

Rather than hitting up dinner with a bunch of friends, we decided that we would host a party at Top Golf. I am not huge into Top Gold but it’s a good spot for lots of people to interact and hang out.

We invited a bunch of people from different times in our lives. Ben had some friends from Philly, snow college, and even BYU Idaho home. I had friends from different Singles wards from Salt Lake City and from Austin. We really weren’t sure how things were going to mesh but it turned out really fun.

So glad everyone could make it!

Babies Everywhere!

Ok… I got a little baby hungry when going to SLC. We visited Mary and KP some good friends from Austin who were staying down in Provo and got to meet her little girl named Lucia. She is a great baby who seemed a little too serious in this moment.

Little Lincoln

This is my newest Nephew Lincoln. He was born in October and was recently diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis. Before this time, I had no idea what CF was. It was a hard pill to swallow for the family as it’s a very serious genetic disease. However, research is being done and those with CF are able to live full lives. That is our hope and prayer for this little guy. He was so cute and content.

His breathing was really loud as he has some flesh blocking his air pipe. This isn’t related to the CF but makes it harder for him to breathe. Because CF is an immune disease, we had to be really careful when holding him so we had to wear masks and hospital suits. We didn’t mind.

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Bowling With The Becks

Because we spent most of Christmas with my family, the Beck side organized some activities. We all went and saw Aquaman together which I loved, and then another night we went bowling with the Bens sister and brother. They both have kids so it made things real interesting.

A White Christmas

I really am slightly embarrassed with how few pictures I took. We were honestly so busy during this time, I rarely thought about how we were going to document this. Good thing we booked a vacation in Hawaii!

Here we come warm weather!

I told you there were some big plans for the holidays. We are going to leave our RV in Atlanta as we fly to SLC for Christmas and visit family. On December 31st we are going to fly to Oahu Hawaii and visit Bens brother David. After that, we will fly back to Atlanta and head to Florida.

Because we have been in such cold weather, we are thinking about calling it quits in April when we are back in Austin. RVing isn’t as fun in colder weather because you feel stuck inside a small space all day. So we will see. We won’t decide until February.

What about the RV?

So glad you asked! We dropped it off at a repair shop to get some work done while we are gone. It wasn’t easy to leave our house with someone we didn’t know! It was a sketchy part of town but it had good reviews on google so we just had to make a decision and go with it.

Our Airbnb was in Hapeville close to the Airport and my Dad got really excited when we told him where we were staying as he worked close by the location in the past.

The internet was fast and we could walk to a coffee shop. Sean (the Airbnb host) was really nice. We were able to leave our car in the garage so we didn’t have to pay for airport parking. For the win!

So here we go! This will be a nice change to get out of the RV for a while and be around family. I am excited to see my new nephew Lincoln!

The Thousand Trails campground we stayed at near Nashville was the first park we really struggled with the internet. As you know, it’s our lifeline. We have to have the internet to work our jobs, especially Ben. If the internet is bad, we can usually go off of the hotspots on our phone but even the phone reception was terrible. We asked around and no one had a solution. There was an adult lobby that we could work in but that was inconsistent. Planning on staying for two weeks we decided to leave early but not until we visited the country music capital of the world Nashville!

We knew we needed more than a day to discover all that Nashville had to offer so we booked an Airbnb as well as some tickets to the Opry at the Ryman.

Ben had a few meetings so I went to the temple while he was out, then we met up after and went to lunch with the sweetest southern gentleman named Mickey. He took us to Bonefish and we had the most incredible Bam Bam shrimp I have ever had in my life.

Grand Ole Opry

That night we splurged a bit and booked tickets to the Grand Opry. I told Ben that Toby Keith was the highlight artist and he got really excited. I had no idea he liked Toby so much!

I really enjoyed what they do at the Ryman. They have a performer come out and play two songs and then move on to the next. It was fun to see so many different acts and different talents.

Toby Keith did not disappoint. He was even asked to come out again with another singer. We were both surprised how little security there was. Someone actually went right up to Toby and tried to give him a present (?) He didn’t take it.

The GayLord

The next day we had about a half day before heading back to the campground. We heard about the Gaylord and decided to check it out. It was a HUGE indoor hotel. Since it was so cold outside, Ben and I were not complaining. It was incredible inside! An indoor river and everything.

We spend about a half day there but didn’t participate in any activities. There was ice sculptures, a water park, and even skating. We spend our budget the night before so we just decided to admire from afar.

We did enjoy walking around and seeing all the decorations!

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The Parthenon

On our way out of town, we stopped by a replica of the Parthenon. Really crazy how big it is, just sitting in a park. It’s some what close to downtown but felt more residential.

We didn’t go inside as it cost, but just walked around. It was good… Not sure I would go back but it was cool to see!

Change Of Plans

Back at the RV park, the internet wasn’t any better. Rather than suffer through it longer, we decided to head closer to Atlanta. We have some big plans for the Holidays so stay tuned!

Being from the west, both Ben and I were not familiar with the smokey mountains, or how big Dolly Parton is. Let’s start from the beginning.

We went to church on Sunday thinking it was Kevin and Melora’s ward. They were off with her family in Nashville and not able to attend. We sat behind a couple with 4 kids who were doing their best with the young ones during sacrament. Afterward, the husband turned around to apologize (which he totally didn’t need too) and we got talking about our adventures.

He is a part owner for Climbworks, a zip lining company that has locations in Gatlinburg (which is close by) as well as Oahu (where we are going in December). He extended some free passes and we were ecstatic to try them out in Hawaii! What a neat family!

To say thank you, we offered to bring their family over dinner. As we sat around eating Indian food, we learned that they have a tiny home business and offered to have us stay for a night! We were honestly shocked. How cool is this?

They bought 16 tiny homes and assembled them on their property and doing really well. This is a very visited area and is second to the wedding in LV. So pretty much they are crushing it. We asked them about things to do around here and they mentioned Dollywood. Ben and I were on the fence but the couple offered their season passes so we got a good deal. There are so many good people in this world and we are lucky to have run into these guys.

We accepted their offer to stay in their tiny house after we went to Dollywood the next day. So here we go!

Dollywood

It was cold… like in the 30s cold. We went early in the morning because we wanted to get the most out of this experience and MAN this place was a huge amusement park. Rides, shows, restaurants, stores, a steam engine train, and even her old RV tour bus! I had no idea this place even existed.

We HAD to see what Dolly’s RV bus was like inside… I have to say, I like ours better.

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Because it was so cold, none of the rides were going which was disappointing but it was still fun to walk around and see the shows.

Every aspect had some sort of fun theme.

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Tiny Homes

At the end of the day, we felt frozen. We had layers on but it still felt like we were cold to the bone all day. After Dollywood, we headed over to the Long Springs tiny homes which were SO NICE! The RV doesn’t have great insulation so it was nice just to walk in and instantly feel warmer.

This location is really central to everything in the area. It has a small playground, outdoor games, and a fire pit if you have a group of friends that want to stay, we highly recommend this place!

Thanks, guys for everything! We are really excited to try out Climbworks in Hawaii. Also, those pulled pork nachos you recommended at Blue Moose were AMAZING!

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Funny story, as we were leaving, the worker Justin checked our oil levels and we were almost out of oil! If we would have driven the RV any further, I think we would have been busted down on the side of the road somewhere. Luckily, he pumped up the tires and helped us fill the LP and oil tank. Little miracles do happen.

Let’s go to Knoxville!

Kevin and Melora got a cute little country home and it was so fun to stay. We stayed just outside of Pigeon Forge which was an interesting and entertaining town. We had no idea it even existed!

We are staying at a place called The Eagles nest in Pigeon Forge, about 30 minutes away from where Kev and Melora live. We had no idea that this was such an entertainment center. It was really like a mini las vegas! There were tons of race tracks, museums, plays and there is even something called Dollywood we might hit up!

We went over to Kevin’s house on Wednesday (the day before Thanksgiving) and helped make pies. Their house is adorable! Such a cute country home. Melora has done a great job decorating. Kevin even made the table with his own two hands! After helping make pies, Kev came home early and we prepped things for Thanksgiving and for Melora’s family to arrive who flew into Nashville and were driving out.

We ate an amazing meal of fajitas and headed home.

Thanksgiving!

It was a bright sunny day and we were excited to have a lazy day of eating and family time! The table was beautiful and the food smelled delicious. After dinner, we played games until about 10. It was a great time.

We had to spend the next few days working and catching up from our days off but Melora and her family went to Dollywood and explored the area. We joined them on Sunday for a hike out in nature and found some unique rock formations. The Weeks family is from Wells NV and have two twin boys in highschool. They are a fun group and we loved getting to know them better.

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After the hike, we made our way into Knoxville to check out some of the local scenes. The leaves are amazing these days! Because everyone jumps on the Christmas bandwagon right after finishing pumpkin pie, we saw some fun decorations which got us into the spririt.

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Before we left, Melora took some family pictures of us. So fun that I have a husband to share these moments with. Ben is my favorite person. He really amazes me. I am so happy we found each other.

We really enjoyed the time we can spend with family and are so grateful and “Thankful” that we have this opportunity.