Adventures of the Frome's!

Hi all! So we are not in Hawaii anymore (much to my disappointment at this current time due to cold weather and, yes, snow!) However we did have a great time.  Overall we spent two weeks on the Big beautiful Island and then a week in Oahu, with my cousin and her wonderful family!! We had a blast, but knew that Hawaii wasn't going to be our home, just a great vacation place! Though we will definitely be going back some day! We came back to the mainland the end of February and have been spending most of our time since in Evanston helping my parents finish up on projects in their business and home. We had the chance to spend a week in Star Valley putting up a green house for Kim.  Though, I do have to note that, that week it started snowing the day we got there and didn't really let up all that much until we were done and leaving Star Valley! So as ironic as it was, we had fun putting up the greenhouse in the middle of an amazing snow storm!  We are now starting to pack up (again!) and we are headed, first, to Oklahoma City, to do some jobs for Casey's brother-in-laws dad, and then we will continue down to Texas to help his sister with some projects and, hopefully, get some other projects down there from some other people! Casey is also hoping that some opportunities will open up down there, if so then we may stay down there for a while!  As of now we are planning on staying there until June! We have had a lot fun and work in this area, but it's time to move on I suppose! Hope everyone is enjoying the cold and snow in spring!! 

More fun in Hawaii!

More updates from the Big Island! The fun of camping has ended for now, to Casey's dismay (I'm sure) and my....well pleasure! (I really, really like showers and a soft bed!). We have found a room to rent in a house in the Kailua Kona area on the Big Island, so we will be her for at least a month! During this time Casey and I will look at the possibilities of employment and see how practical it would be for us to live here! For now her are a couple of room pictures....it's dark right now so I don't have any house pictures...

No I wasn't trying to capture the tv in our room, this is our personal entrance into our room! Yep, pretty exciting!

So here is the last camping spot before we moved into our humble abode! Here is a picture of the sunset on Spencer Beach, which is just north of where we are....this was our last campout meal! It was a beautiful sunset...and yes, I took A LOT of pictures!


Today we went to some garage sales early....apparently people take it pretty serious around here! I filled out the worlds longest application for a job and then we went to the beach! It was a beautiful day here in Kona! We did some snorkeling and Casey did some of this:
Casey's castle did survive the waves up until we left!

We hoe all is super swell back home! We love you all and we would love to hear how everyone back home is!

Oh Yeah, this is on the road to Spencer Beach, nothing like parting a vehicle on the highway...if only we needed something!

The first days

We flew into the Kona, HI airport on Wednesday evening. Warm winds welcomed us as we stepped off the plane onto the airstrip (and yes, we did actually step off the plane onto the airstrip, not into terminals, and no, we were not greeted by flowers.) We slept in a 5 star hotel the first night called a KIA Optima. Look it up, it's a great hotel, it offers first class beds with a console in the middle! And to top it off, our 5 star hotel is portable, we only had to move it once due to.....unusual, curious, maybe even suspicious events around us. Here is a picture of our second hotel location of the night and pictures of flying into HI.


Thursday, our first full day in Hawaii we woke up to do some exercises on the beach, yes, it was all that it's cracked up to be! It was warm and we had the ocean right next to us! It was beautiful! We then headed over to the Hilo side to pick up our tent and sleeping bags that we bought. After obtaining those we took off to tour that side of the Island as well as to find another 5 star location to sleep! While exploring this side of the Island we went over to where some older lava flow areas and not only was the sights pretty neat (it had wiped out the entire road and a town about 20 years ago) we also found a lot, and I mean a lot, of squatters hangin out in the lava fields as well as some people that decided this was prime Real Estate and built houses here, not my idea of a great investment in some of the areas, but hey, whatever works for them!


That night, we cooked some delicious food of chicken fried hamburgers and really watered down pork and beans (not quite as good as I had imagined!). Then we went to sleep with the sounds of frogs....croaking, I guess would be the term, but it was more of a chirp, and the ocean in the background! We woke up to the ocean and some beautiful sounding birds chirping! We then did some exercises on the edge of cliff that overlooked the ocean, and we were able to catch the sunrise as well!

Friday, after packing our stuff we headed to the Volcano National Park to catch a glimpse of the volcano and some lava....we didn't exactly get to see any lava because two weeks before we got here the flow had went to a different vent that we couldn't access. But the volcano was pretty neat, it doesn't look anything like Dante's peak, but I was expecting something like that to happen at any moment! The volcano is kicking out a lot of steam right now, it's quite the event, and if you look around the land, there are steam vents everywhere! After marveling at the steam blowing volcano we decided to do some hiking. We found a hike to a lava tube that is absolutely amazing! It's huge, but the best part is that the park left a good chunk of the tunnel untouched, but they let you go down and explore the rest of the tunnel if you want! Flashlights are definitely needed, but it is neat! It goes back for a long ways too! So after some hiking it was getting decently late so we headed to a camp ground near the volcano and set up for the night.

Saturday we took some more hikes and explored the volcano area a little more in depth! We did a 4 mile crater hike that was really neat. It started in the rain forest, then we hiked down the side of the mountain to the bottom where the lava is and where one of the craters is, then we hiked back up the other side of the mountain through the rain forest to get out. It was great, but definitely not a hike I would want to do in the middle of the day because the bottom can get pretty toasty! We also did a drive down the coast through some more volcanic paths. We also took a short hike to a historical sight where there are petroglyphs from native Hawai'ians.



Saturday night we stayed at a really pretty botanical garden type of campground in Hilo, it was so pretty, they had several different camp spots plus a little lodging house too.

This is me trying to stay calm and take a picture when there are tons of spiders and spider webs around this area of the garden we stayed at! Other than the spiders, beautiful spot!

Sunday we went to a church ward in Hilo, we met some great people there! We met a guy that was going to let us tag along with him when he took the zone of missionaries to a really pretty valley (Can't spell it or I would name it!) Monday, but unfortunately that didn't work out, but when they do go he is going to give us a call and see if we are around! So Sunday night we headed to the North East tip of the Island and camped out by the ocean, going to sleep with the CRASH of the waves to keep us company all night long! This place used to be a town, but the tsunami of;46 completely wiped out the town. It is now a beautiful park with a monument to the town and the people who lost their lives. Since the tsunami, the town has been moved up the hill more out of harms way.

Monday we headed across the tip of the Island, explored some caves, did some whale watching, hiked to some waterfalls and camped at a nice camp spot, but it had no water due to an earthquake in 2006...but it was beautiful and the whale spotting was plentiful!

We may, or may not have spent a LOT of time in a dark cave trying out different things to get these types of shots! I have a lot more pictures like this, only funnier! If you need some blackmail on Casey, just talk to me! This picture sure is cool though, there are four poses in this one!
This one is kind of creepy right? By this time, we didn't have to spend as much time figuring out how to do things to get this cool shot, we had already been taking pictures like these two for about half and hour!

I think we may have taken more pictures in the cave then out of the cave!

Today we spent time coming down the west side of the Island, we stopped at a national park to learn a little more about a temple the first king of Hawai'i built. We also stopped at a more secluded black sand beach! We had to go through a gated community to get to it, but it sure is a pretty area! Tonight we hunted for a camp spot, but the pickings are slim where we are now. We are on the south west area of the Island and there are about two camping sites, the first was EXTREMELY busy, and the second was a VERY uninviting spot, we had to drive 5 miles down a VERY winding, steep road, and we drove through something that resembled a community, but it is, what our guidebook would call a "local beach". According to the author it was not too taboo to go to during the week, but it was best to leave it alone during the weekend, I would say just leave it alone period! I kept having the feeling that we might get mugged! Luckily, we didn't, but needless to say I put my foot down and we are now staying in a very nice hostel in Captain Cook. We hope all is well back home, we also hope, dearly, that everyone is enjoying their COLD weather, and we will sleep easy tonight knowing that we are about 70 degrees warmer than all of you! We love you all and good night!
Here are a couple of more pictures from our trip so far!

I saved this picture for last because it is the best picture EVER! After seeing the whales for the past two days we had the perfect opportunity to sit and watch tons of them in a bay area, this is the best shot out of MANY shots that Casey took, we were on shore when they were frolicking around, but Casey got zoomed in just enough to get a great picture.

Cause We're Leavin On a Jet Plane.....

It's true, Casey and I will be leaving on a jet plane soon! February 3 to be precise....Destination?.....Hawaii!! We are both very excited, and we don't know when we will back! We hope to go over there and find some jobs and stay a while, or we'll just have a very long vacation! Either way, we are both VERY excited and look forward to the journey ahead. Though we will miss our friends and family, we are excited for our next, crazy, fun move!

Times Fly

This past year sure has flown by! I can't believe it! As most of you know, I graduated in August and Casey graduated with his Bachelors this December in Business Admin with a minor in Spanish and Accounting. Currently, I am still working at Gem City Bone & Joint, I am still learning a great deal, and it has been a great job for me! I still look forward to a time when I can better put my degree to use helping families and communities, but I suppose that will have to wait a while! Casey has been experimenting in different types of jobs, he started a job as a car salesman here in Laramie, however he quickly decided that wasn't a good fit! He has continued his own business, "All Things Repair", and most currently has done some odds and ends at a hotel here. He has been searching for and applying for jobs, but nothing has worked for him quite yet, however, we are still waiting to hear from one, so cross your fingers, I certainly am! Casey has also had the chance to do some ice-fishing, which he has been dying to do the last couple of years again! So he went out a couple of times the last couple of weeks and he actually caught a big rainbow trout (that's what he told me it was!).

So I baked it up for dinner and we had a great feast! However, Casey did have to stop his ice-fishing escapades for a while because of the -30 degree weather we have been having almost this entire week!! So, instead of fishing, he decided to fly to Texas and do some work at his sisters house in Elgin! So he flew there yesterday morning and he will come back next Saturday! So I have decided that I am going to get some fabric and start working on a quilt I have been itching to try to sew while he is gone and enjoy the warmth of the fire!! So to all our family and friends out there...have a superb Saturday, stay warm and we love you!!