Quenalee and Dale's Wedding -- Kauai, Hawaii

Ryan's Mom, Quenalee, got married to Dale Mickelson on May 4th in Kauai, Hawaii. We could not be happier for them! It is so great to see Quenalee happy again! It has been a hard 4.5 year since Ryan's Dad, Galen, passed away, and we are so glad she isn't alone anymore. Dale is just amazing. So kind. We are excited to have him in the family and the kids are SO excited to have him for a Grandpa!!

They paid for all of their kids and spouses to come to Hawaii for the wedding, and we were happy we go to go! Our friends Kacie and Craig Berrett watched our kids for us. It was so nice to know they were in good hands. It was hard to leave the kids, but everything went great and I am so glad we had the opportunity to go because it was amazing! :)

                             We were met with Leis at the airport, kinda fun :)

We arrived in Kauai on Wednesday at noon. We headed straight to the Lihue Marriott that we were staying at. It was beautiful! Here is our first pic, in front of the pool, with the beach in the background.

We grabbed a hamburger at a little hamburger/shave ice hut nearby and we were glad we did! It was so good and the home-made taro bun was delicious!



We had a couple hours before our room was ready so we decided to go on a helicopter ride. We have wanted to do one for a long time and I'm so glad we did. It was AMAZING!!!

I think this is Jurassic Falls from Jurassic Park. There have been tons of movies filmed there and it was neat to see where all of them where filmed!

This canyon was so beautiful! We hit the light just right to see the rainbow right over it!

This coast is only reachable by air or boat. No roads lead to it, and it would be pretty near impossible to hike! It was so pretty to see it up close.

Would have loved to land here and take a look around this secluded beach!

Some of the water falls we saw were over 2,000 ft high! I wish I could of got good photos of them... but I had to take a camera break cause I was getting nauseous!

After the helicopter ride we headed back to the resort and our room was ready. It was so nice and had a beautiful few. We also had some yummy fresh fruit waiting for us!

We met up with Travis and Lacey that night and had fun walking outside and enjoying the nice weather.

Later we met up with two of Dale's sons and their wifes. We had a fun time chatting with them at dinner. Brent and Kristin, Scott and Krisit, Ryan and I.

The next day we headed to the North Shore and went on a beautiful hike. At the beginning we found this cool cave with a pool of water at the bottom. I wanted a picture of the water but it was so dark I couldn't get a good one!

Bottom of the cave

Just LOVE this view, such an amazing hike!

Travis and Lacey did the hike with us and it was so fun to get to spend time with just them before everyone else arrived. We are usually busy taking care of our kids while we are in Idaho so it was fun to have some time just chatting with them.

The hike ended at this beautiful beach. There were warning signs everywhere saying not to get in the water because of strong under tows, over 80 people have died there.

We just dipped our feet and didn't take our chances in the water :)

Afterward Travis and Ryan showed off by swinging on the vines... Travis ended up falling flat on his back when a vine broke! He ended up being pretty sore the next few days.

Some of the warning signs before the hike :)

We met up with Anna, Alex, and Greg after the hike and went to this beach. Anna and I had fun posing on the beach :)

The waves were crashing so loud and the view was just beautiful.

I was wishing the kids were there to enjoy the beach, I just know they would have had so much fun!

On the way back to the resort we stopped at this view point with pretty crop fields in the distance.

Friday before the wedding we headed to a nearby town to get the famous "Puka Dogs". I wasn't really wanting one, but they were SO good! The bun fully encircles the sausage, and then the fill them with their home-made relishes. Mine had pineapple relish and spicy jalapeno.

The day of the wedding! About an hour before heading to the beach for the wedding, most of girls met in Quenalee's room to give her a a couple gifts before the wedding. After raising 6 boys and gaining 6 daughters through marriage she now has 5 more Mickelson daughters!

Quenalee and her 6 boys! Andy, Jeff, Alex, Greg, Q, Ryan, and Travis

Heading to the beach for the wedding!

The ceremony was short and sweet! Quenalee was pretty emotional leading up to the wedding, but after the wedding was all smiles!

The happy couple! And we couldn't be any happier!!

The whole Mickelson and Nelson clan! Brian, Holly, Luis, Dayna, Scott, Kristi, Brent Kristen, Kyle, Wendy, DALE and QUENALEE, Becca, Ryan, Anna, Alex, Becca, Jeff, Lacey, Travis, Megan, Andy, Becky, and Greg

The girls! I loved getting to spend time with all these amazing ladies!!

The guys!

The Mickelson family!

The Nelson Family!

I just LOVE this picture and seeing how happy Quenalee is! Just so glad she is happy again :)

After the wedding we headed to a Luau. It was fun and the food was great!

Q and Dale got called up to dance and I was glad to have them get a dance as married couple!

The kids had a great time with Kacie and Craig. Kacie LOVES ice-cream so it wouldn't have been a good weekend with out a few ice-cream cones!

She sent me these pics of the kids, and I loved getting to see their cute faces and know they were having fun!

Kacie took the kids to the park with her sister-in-law Nikki and her cute girls. The kids had SO much fun with Chloe and have talked about her ever since!

First thing Saturday all 24 of us headed off on a kayak trip up the river to a waterfall. It was fun and beautiful. The Hawaiian's call this the "compatibility test" to see if you can actually row up and down the river together... I'd say we passed :)

We made it up river together! Yay!

After kayaking and hiking we made it to this beautiful waterfall!

I thought I would get in the water, but it was freezing! So I decided a pic near the bottom would suffice!

The whole gang! We had a little detour on the way back and lost our guides! But we all made it back safely!

Afterwards we all went to pizza, and it was AMAZING! Too bad I'll have to go back to Kauai if I ever want it again! Maybe one day :)

After pizza we headed to the see this beautiful waterfall. We saw it from the air and it was fun to see it from the ground. I would have loved to stand at the bottom of it!

Late Saturday after our kayaking trip a bunch of us headed to the beach right at the hotel and had a lot of fun trying to ride the waves into the shore.

Our last night in Hawaii we had to take advantage and headed to dinner with several other couples. We got the famous Hawaiian pie with Coconut, chocolate, and macadamia not ice-cream. Yum!

Sunday morning we got up and went to church. I love that no matter where we go we can go to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and feel the Spirit in the meeting. It was a great meeting, but the end was my favorite part. They had all the visitors stand and the congregation went to the front and sang a beautiful farwell song to us. Then ladies walked around and gave each visitor home-made Leis. It was very touching to see the love of the saints in Hawaii! 

We got home at 1 am Sunday morning to find this adorable sign waiting for us. SO grateful to return home and find our kids safe and sound! It was an amazing trip and I'm so glad we were able to go!