Hawaii and Other Happenings!

Ok, so we have been lame for a long time!  Where did February and March go or the last years? They both flew by. I feel like we did a lot but didn't really document it with pictures. Jer and I just aren't that photogenic. We will try to be better in the future.
The highlight of February was our trip to the ballet. Jer bought season tickets to support the dancers he treats and it has really been a treat for me! I love being able to go and watch such amazing talent. We went to Cinderella and LOVED it! As we were leaving we both were lamenting over the fact that we didn't have any little girls to share this with and then Jer realized that we DO have beautiful little girls we could share this with. So he got to work and made sure everyone was available and then he sent us to the ballet! We wished so badly that Sai, Britt, Brit, Peri, Kendra, Taytum, Elle, Logan, Kellyn, Taylor, Brette and my mom could have been with us too! It was so fun to watch the girls watch the ballet. They made my month! I feel so blessed to have such a thoughtful husband and fun family to be with.
March flew by too as we anticipated our trip to Hawaii with the Billingsley family. Can I just say this trip was amazing! We stayed at the Hilton Waikoloa in Kona. We thought that it would be the perfect place for a family reunion someday. There was so much for the kids to do and for the big kids like us too! We spent a lot of time down at the Lagoon snorkeling and sunning. The lagoon is ocean fed so we swam with multiple sea turtles, eels, and beautiful fish everyday. It was so fun to snorkel around.... I didn't really appreciate the large eels but Jeremy got a kick out of watching me frantically swim away from them.  We did a lot of exploring too! We went to a couple of different overlooks. Our favorite was the Waipio Overlook and road. It is beautiful! You can drive down into the valley if you have 4x4 drive. Let me just say the road is NUTS! I can't describe how steep and windy this thing was. I was sweating bullets as we went down and I wasn't even driving. We got down to the bottom with a LOW Fuel Light flashing and so we were disappointed to have to turn around without really exploring but this is not a place you would want to be stranded. There are a few taro farms at the bottom and a beautiful black sand beach but nothing else. The road was even scarier as we went back up. It felt like our Jeep would flip over backwards. Such a fun and exciting adventure.
We got to go to church in Waimea, eat the most delicious Porteguese donuts and pancakes the size of hubcaps. We also went down to Hilo with hopes of making it to the Volcano as well but ran out of time. While in Hilo we went to their Farmer's market and found lots of fun souvenirs. Jer got to speak to some cute Phillipino ladies. It is always fun to listen to him speak his mission language.
Jer got to do two dives while we were there with Adessa. On his day dive he saw a 6 ft reef shark. On his night dive (yes in the dark of the night) he hung out with 27 manta rays as he held on for dear life 40ft down with a strong current. The footage is amazing so I have included some of it for you to see. I know this is something he will be talking about for a long time. He has a nice little mark on his forehead from being hit so many times by the rays as they passed over him to catch plankton. What did I do while he was out diving you might ask? Well, I went running through some amazing lava beds and beaches. I hung out and snorkeled with Brooklyn and Audrey in the Lagoon and chased sea turtles. I also went to this incredible beach... Hapuna and boogie boarded until I had no energy left. The highlight of that beach was watching two whales just off shore play for about 30 minutes. I was so mad that I didn't have my bigger lens on my camera but I did get some good shots. It was like they were having headstand contests to see who could keep their tails above the water the longest. It was so fun to watch!
What a great vacation! I am so glad we were able to go and so thankful to have spent Easter with amazing friends and the Polynesian people. The ward in Waimea had their testimony meeting on Easter Sunday and it was so neat to feel of the peoples' spirits and hear their testimonies of our Savior. It was a beautiful day and week.
No other news in our world.... we just keep moving forward. We have had 3 unsuccessful IUIs and are planning to take a break this month. I think we just need to breathe a little. We sure love all of you so much and feel so lucky to have all of your support.
Have a happy week! Jer and Mands
Follow these links for a view of Jer's day dive and night dive with the manta rays:
White Tipped Reef Shark
Manta Ray Night Dive

 Beautiful Sea Turtles

 Polulu Overlook

 Jer ready to snorkel!

 Can you spy the whale tail?

 Billingsley Family

 Hapuna Beach 

 Hilton Waiokola

 Waipio Valley Overlook

 Akaka Falls

Playa Del Carmen

Life gets busy and I get behind on the blog... but I had to share our most recent (it's only taken me 3 months to post these;)) adventure from over the Spring Break and Easter holiday. It all started on Valentines Day when Jer surprised me with a red file filled with pictures of a resort and a plane reservations. We were headed to The Banyan Tree Mayakoba in Playa delCarmen. So the countdown began and then finally the time came to pack the swim suits and board the plane. We arrived in Cancun to 90 degree weather and found a shuttle to get us to our hotel. Our resort was amazing and everyone was friendly right off the bat. We were immediately taken to our villa complete with our own private yard and swimming pool. We spent the rest of our first day exploring the resort and ate diner at Tamarind a restaurant in the hotel. We then headed over to the spa and went through their "rain forest experience". It was very fun. We started in a steam room infused with eucalyptus. Then we went into a shower room that changed temperatures and intensity. We went through several different steam stations and shower rooms and ended in a long pool. The pool had "bubble" beds and various hot tubs. It was pretty cool because you have the whole area to yourself. It was really unique. On our second day our friends the Billingsleys came over from Cozemel and spent the day with us. We went to Tulum and saw some amazing ruins. We had a great guide... was the stake president of the area and his name was Leumuel. He has a brother Helaman, a sister Alma, and a nephew Nephi. He told us all about the ruins and how it ties into the Book of Mormon. He also took us swimming in a cenote or sink hole under a cave. It was so neat to snorkel through clear, fresh water. We spent the evening in town. The Billingsleys took the ferry back toCozemel but we hung out walking through Playa Del Carmen and taking in the sites. Our 3rd day we went over to Cozemel and spent the morning at the Billingsleys resort. The ferry ride over was wet and fun. You are on this gigantic boat going across some pretty choppy water so we got a little wet! The morning was spent swimming and snorkeling the bay in front of the resort. Then the Billingsleys headed to the airport to go home and Jer went off to scuba dive. I stayed at their resort and sunbathed while Jeremy was gone. He had a blast and saw Eagle rays, turtles, and barracuda. We then rode the ferry back to Playa and headed to our resort for dinner and relaxing. Day 4 was spent at our resort... finally. We rented bikes and headed down to the beach for the morning. We then rode back up and spent the afternoon at the spa for some much needed pampering. Unfortunately both of us were sunburned so there was a bit of pain but still oh so relaxing! We had our treatments done in our own little bungalow over the water. We had Thai massages which were amazing! Everything was perfect. Our 5th day was our final day... we spent the morning on our bikes and at the beach. Sadly we then had to pack up and head to the airport. We had so much fun being together and enjoying a new place. I just have to let everyone know how lucky I am! This vacation came at the perfect time. I needed time with Jeremy and a place to get away from it all. Jeremy is an amazing husband and has been so patient, kind, and loving through all of our little challenges. He is so considerate of my needs and takes such good care of me. I appreciate his thoughtfulness in planning and surprising me with this wonderful trip! I am the luckiest girl in the world to have a man like him!

The beach at Tulum.

The beach and pool at our resort.

Riding our bikes down to the beach and pool.

Waiting for the boat to take us to the beach and pool. You can either walk, ride bikes, or take a boat.

The lobby and boat area at night!

The front entrance of the hotel.

Our villa, pool, and backyard.

Cool little plunge pool.

Our bedroom.

The bay in front of Dodge and Adessa's hotel in Cozemel.

Cozemel.

Downtown Playa Del Carmen, street vendors.

The girls at Tulum!

Ruins of Tulum

Tulum Beach

Billingsley Family and us at Tulum.

Welcome 2011!

Christmas Dinner!
My parents home in Murrieta.
A tree we loved during a walk we took.

The holidays have come and gone... "I cry the day I take the tree down!" We had so much fun in California with my family. Aunt Connie came and spent the holidays with us there too which was so much fun. If I could cook like her Jeremy and I would definitely plump up! She is certainly one of the best cooks I know. It really was wonderful to be with family and to celebrate our Savior's birth together. A new family favorite... singing The Twelve Days of Christmas. Imagine all of us singing parts... especially Andy Dad singing about Lords a Leaping. It was pretty funny. The other favorite was having a marshmallow "snowball" fight with the Oberhansley family! It was so much fun and wore us out before Santa came.

With this new year ahead of us Jeremy and I have set our goals in hopes that this year will be productive and full of love and fun. We hope that each of you have also reflected on the past and are excited to move forward making each new day one to be proud of. It is going to be a great year full of adventure and open doors! We love you all and hope that you know that our door is open and we would love to visit and spend time with each of you in the upcoming year.

Christmas is Just Around The Corner

It has been FOREVER since we have blogged. We have been very busy with school and work and more work. Jeremy's buy out went through and he is now finalizing everything for his practice. We went to Lake Powell the end of September, had my parents come up during Conference and our anniversary, spent Thanksgiving here and went on our annual tree hunt. We have been busy this month with Christmas parties, sing a longs at school, trips to visit family and such. We head to California later this month to spend Christmas with my family. During this busy time of year we hope all of you have a very happy holiday season and remember the true meaning of Christmas. Take time to enjoy family and the love you share and remember how blessed we all are! We truly feel blessed to have each of you in our lives and again hope you enjoy your holidays!

Love, The Wimmers
Beautiful Lake Powell
My favorite picture from our Powell trip... Haillie playing in the water.
Fall Pictures...

My parents and I up at Snowbird for our anniversary brunch!