P.S.

Mikey and I gave blood today! 

Haha, we are awesome. Also, when did those health questions change?

Love,

Ashtyn

Be the Change You Want to See.

It is almost the weekend! Yay! I am becoming quite the sleep addict. I have been getting 8+ hours of sleep this entire month, and I am so looking forward to sleeping in (til 8am I'm not a total bozo) this Saturday!

This photo has nothing to do with this weekend or sleeping in, but it's one of my all time favorites. I think we look sooo cute!

 This photo does have something to do with this weekend. This is a picture of Clistles beach, it's also known as Bikini beach at school (all the boys wear bikinis here for some reason), the beach is right next to the Point. Look closely at the picture above again.

Did you notice the dismembered cow head? Yeah, I took this photo over a year ago, when we lived at the Point. You may wonder what this has to do with my weekend, but I have scheduled a Human Rights Organization activity to clean this beach up. This poor cow is long gone, but for some reason this beach is rarely cleaned. It's common for Huki Lau Beach in Laie to be cleaned, but this beach is continually neglected. Which is a shame, this is one of my favorite beaches and where we catch the sand crabs with Riley.

So, if your on Oahu this weekend come help clean up the beach so my dog can continue to enjoy the beauty of this place. Plus, you'll be taking care of your home and my home, and that kind of service can't be beat. 

Love always,

Ashtyn

Find out more here:

https://www.facebook.com/events/420903891324963/

Mo'Ole Valley Hike

      On this wonderful three day weekend, we went on a fun hike to Mo'Ole Valley which is off the old school Pali highway near Kaneohe. We went with Gwen and Cory Jensen, which was AWESOME. They were super fun. 

     The hike was not very long, and it wasn't very steep either. However, due to my awesome sense of direction we took a two hour detour down a boar hunting trail. Due to this slight misdirection, the hike ended up taking four hours total. Unfortunately, when you begin the hike their is this huge gulch to the right hand side that looks like a GIANT hiking path, but really its just a dried out canal that makes for a very treacherous and strenuous walk. We did end up finding this incredibly strong tree/branch that was strong enough for all of us to swing on. Way crazy.

     Once we actually got onto the trail it was really quick. However, there was this crazy scary tunnel we had to go through to get to the falls. It was fun, but very frightening. We only went to two of the eight falls, because the second one is the tallest of the falls. It was a really fun hike, great company and some gorgeous views of the valley.

     Here's a video I made of our adventure. The beginning is us climbing up an archers tree to hunt boars. Enjoy!

 Love always, 

Ashtyn

Kaipapa'u Gulch Hike

Last Saturday, we went on a hike with Tonie and Nora in Hau'ula, HI. During Thanksgiving weekend, we got in trouble for going to Sacred Falls in Hau'ula, so we've been forced to find more legally accessible hikes. (In case you were wondering, we had to pay a $50 fine, and it got lowered to an "unknown citation" when we showed up to court.) This is why we went to the Waimanu Falls over Christmas and then Mikey found this other one near Sacred Falls that is totally open.

http://punynari.wordpress.com/

Here's the blog, Mikey found that showed us where to hike.

This is was the waterfall at the end of the gulch. It was superb. I have never seen a waterfall this majestic.

     The hike was a lot of fun, it is 7 miles round trip and a 900 elevation gain, but it is not steep except the very beginning on a paved road. It was really fun except it took us so much longer than we planned. We started hiking around 9am and assumed we'd be done around 3 or 4pm, but we ended up setting a pretty slow pace and not finishing until 6:30pm, I would recommend going very quickly at the beginning and taking it easy on the way back. Once you're on the trail you start crossing back through the river about 40 something times. It's not hard, and you should just commit to getting wet to making the pace quicker. The first twenty or so we tried to stay as dry as possible instead of getting our feet wet, next time I'm just trampling through that water. 

    The trail also curves back, so every turn you expect to come upon the falls, and it was a little discouraging to get to the falls, but once we arrived, it was all worth it! This waterfall is amazing! We went swimming as soon as we got there before we got too cold and we were able to swim under the falls. We even saw a frog hiding in the rocks under the waterfall. This was a truly memorable experience. This is the only legit waterfall I've swam underneath, and I couldn't imagine a better one. The water was freezing, don't get me wrong, but it was really refreshing once you numbed up to it. Riley was exhausted by the end of it, but she does it about three times because she is constantly running back and forth between us. Everyone should do this hike at least once while you are in Hawaii if you are capable, it was easy and gorgeous (a little long), but a very manageable hike! 

    Here's a video I made of our hike. I tried for three days uploading it only on my computer, but finally had to give up and use youtube. The three songs are my favorite right now, but the audio from the videos got a little messed up.

Love always,

Ashtyn

NPO: Community Hands

 

     Last semester, I took Public Management 499. It's a senior seminar class, and our main project as a whole was to create and execute a functioning non-profit organization. I asked to be a director of it, and we decided our focus would be on the food shortage in Hawaii. As a class, we created an order of leadership and roles for everyone and we were able to run an effective food drive on campus at BYU-H and a food pick up around the community. 

     This is us at our first official meeting. We made signs for our food donation booth. 

Our initial interaction with the community began by handing out flyers and raising awareness on campus. Following our flyer hand out, we ran two weeks of food donation booths on campus. Since there are only about twelve people in the class (and maybe 8 active participants), it took a lot of effort on everyone's part to ensure a good turn out. 

 

     Following the food donation booths, we dropped off bags around the Laie community on Thursday and picked them up the following Saturday. Not counting the lack of participation of a few class members, this is where we met our biggest obstacle-- three other food drives taking place on Saturday. Unfortunately, the scouts had done the same thing, but according to our professor they decided a month and half after we did (one week before the event). Not to sound like a brat, but it was just frustrating putting in effort and asking people to donate their time to the non-profit and then have the other food drives pick up food intended for us. But it all worked out because we know the food went to the people who needed it.

 I made these t-shirts with help from Michael who created the logo and then helped me iron on them. (Just so everyone knows Office Depot has great iron-ons for fairly competitive prices)

     Even with the other local food drives, we were able to raise 451 lbs of food for Hawaii. It was a great experience working with the class, and an eye opener on how to lead and guide people in an organization. It really helped me learn how to define a goal, utilize people's talents and guide people to it.

I also got to write about leadership and management strategies for the A+ program on the north shore. It was a very useful and applicable class for where I want to go in the future. Here's our facebook link in case you want to follow us in the future. 

https://www.facebook.com/CommunityHands

 Love always,

Ashtyn

Aloha Oe 2012! Aloha 2013!

     I am so excited for a new year, and the third year Mikey and I are sharing together! 2012 was not a good year for updates, but it was a wonderful year for learning opportunities and memories that will live in our minds forever. . . and also in the 1,032,567 pictures I saved onto my hard drive. (One day when I am in bed rest -- I'm thinking pregnancy, or post graduation) I will organize and print my photos. Mikey and I agree that although we love seeing images digitally, we love our hard copies more.
     Mikey and are 14 weeks away from graduation! On April 13th, 2013, Mikey and I will be walking together at BYU-Hawaii. All are welcome, because we need leis. A bunch of them. So you can come, possibly crash on our couch in exchange for 10 or more leis. I will finish with all of my classes in April and Mikey will tentatively be done in August. After graduation, Mikey and I plan on going AWOL and being bums in Hawaii.
     This semester, I'm doing an internship with the Human Rights Organization on Oahu, and writing a mentored research paper about intergovernmental disputes in the United States. I only have three credits on campus, and the rest are online or with my two internships which means I have a lot of unscheduled time. I'm very excited to be in my last semester of school, but now that it is here, I want to make the most of what I've done and leave a "legacy of excellence" in my relationships this year.

     These are my hopes and a little bit of what is to come in the Rummler family, but to reflect a little bit on last year, I want to brag about our Christmas break. Minus Mikey getting sick and going to the ER for the flu he contracted, it was a really great break. Mikey was sick for three days with a high fever so on Christmas eve eve we went to the hospital to get them to break it. After getting a liter of saline water, his fever finally broke and we were onto recovery!
    Once we were healed, we enjoyed Christmas and then we set out for hiking Waimano Falls, stand-up paddle boarding with Tonie, Koko Head crater hike, and surfing at Puena point. Yeah, I mean both of us surfing, not just my stellar, awesome, pro surfer hubby, I went too! And we were both able to stand up together. It was phenomenal. I am incredibly grateful to be able to share experiences like this with the love of my life, from emergency room visits, to rainy hikes, to learning a new skill, I couldn't imagine a better companion!

Here are some photos from this break!

 

Stand up paddle boarding with Tonie, including a rope swing jump!

Who can resist this face!?

 

Have a great day!

The Rummlers