Happy Easter!

Aloha Family and Friends and Happy Easter!

We hope you all are having a wonderful Resurrection Sunday! Glory! He is risen!

Last week my Aunt Leesa (Kelsey's mama) came out to visit for her Spring Break and we took a little hike in Waipio Valley. Talk about BEAUTIFUL! This was seriously my favorite place we've seen on the island so far. The 'road' we hiked down was for 4WD cars only and had quite a serious drop off! Let's just say we definitely got our work out in hiking back up that hill..

Valley of the Kings

the long trek down into the valley

Waipio Valley!

Wild horses we pet!

the river we crossed to (that crossed the road..)

In March we also celebrated my 24th birthday :) I had a great day, nice and relaxing with Andrew, Kelsey and David. We picnic-ed on the beach and watched the sunset...can't beat it.

24!

my birthday party

my homemade birthday cake (lemon poppyseed with a raspberry filling and cream cheese icing!)

Andrew and I will be back in Colorado for his sister Maggie's graduation at the end of May into June. We'd love to get together with people when we're back so if you want to see us- send us an e-mail andrewhaley.hendrickson@gmail.com or give us a call/text to set up a time! We are so excited to be back on the mainland and around family and friends so soon!

We'd love some prayer for 'what's next' for us. We're in the process of trying to figure a few things out and just really want to be where God wants us. We both trust that He has a plan for us, we just need the strength and wisdom to listen to what that is.

Also, Haley is photographing a wedding this next week in Virginia for a good friend from college and would love prayer for no complications in travel as well as creativity and working gear for the wedding!

Love you all!
Andrew & Haley

Volcano!

Aloha Family and Friends!
Today Andrew and I took another adventure around the island to Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park! No, we didn't see any lava :( In all honesty, we didn't spend that much time in the park itself...but the whole day was our adventure! Here is the mapped-out/visual version of our travels today :)

The big loop we did today (starting at the Northern most green star)

beautiful pastureland we came across on the south side of the island

our little trooper of a car

wow

no idea which beach this was but it was incredibly picturesque!

Kilauea!

inside a lava tube

a mufflon sheep on the hillside

views of Mauna Kea over Saddle Rd. 

the Kohala Mountains

Hope your day was as epic as ours! By the way...Hawai'i does NOT follow daylight savings so we are now 3 hours behind West Coast, 4 hours behind Mountain, and 6 hours behind East Coast. 

Love love, 

Andrew & Haley

March Madness

Aloha Friends and Family!
I can't believe it's already March! Spring is just around the corner now!..not that'll make much difference here on the island. Although we have been getting some rain which is rare for this side of the Big Island..

Here are the top 5 things you missed in February:

1. We here at the Hendrickson/Poole house have been blessed to have some visitors again. Andrew's grandparents came out to visit a few weeks back with some friends of theirs from Nebraska. We really enjoyed having them stay with us for part of the time and it was really nice for me to get to know Nana and Bana a little more :) Here they are with their friends Judy and Lyle on the boat whale watching! (Thank you Captain Casey for the photo!)

2. We had a Holo Holo on the boat one evening...complete with a beautiful sunset, whales, and pupus!

3. Andrew took 3 trips to Honolulu in February to do some more training with Aflac. While I missed him each of his trips, he really learned a lot and gained more confidence to pursue this career. (Here is a picture from his hotel room overlooking Pearl Harbor). 

4. Uncle Mike came to visit! Okay, so really he was only here less than 24 hours on a layover (he is a pilot) but we got to hang out for a day! We all love seeing him...even though it was too short :( 

(oh yah...I'm blonde now. just try and tell Kelsey and I apart now!)

5. We bought tickets to come back to Colorado for a visit May 24-June 5! We are coming back for Andrew's sister's graduation and then we really want to spend time with family and friends. When it gets a little closer we'll let you all know which days we'll be in Foco and which days we'll be in the Springs. 

Andrew and I were able to have a few date-days and spent some time planning out our future. We would really appreciate prayers in this area. We are trying to make some decisions regarding jobs, re-locating, timing, etc. Really we just want to go where God leads us and we're asking for the wisdom to be able to follow Him. We're hoping to have made some decisions by the end of this month so we'll keep you all posted! Thanks for thinking of us. 

Love, 

Andrew & Haley

Aloha Family and Friends!

First of all, I would like to apologize for the delay in writing a new post. Nearly three weeks of static is simply unacceptable! But I do have a good reason- my parents were out to visit for the past week and a half! 

Andrew and I truly enjoyed having them here on the Big Island with us. It was a nice little piece of home. Plus, it gave us a good excuse to explore more parts of the island we hadn't seen and...for the first time since we moved to paradise...take a little vacation :) However, there was one thing I didn't account for on our little 'holiday at home'....food. So. Much. Delicious. Food. We feel so spoiled after the week with my parents and I must say, my new year's resolution suffered quite a bit! We love you mom and dad, come visit again soon!

Andrew has really started gearing up at his new job at Aflac. He is currently spending his days memorizing Aflac approved sales scripts and tagging along with his mentor, Glen, for some on-the-job training. This week Andrew has the PACE event, which is kind of like an in-company competition to see which pair of agents can score the most appointements in a two day period. We're so excited for him to actually START working! Our prayers now are that Andrew is able to get his own niche on this side of the island and be able to make some sales. After the work day..poor Andrew..has still been dealing with the repercussions from our car break in. 

So here's the update on the car: Andrew called a handful of mechanics to get a quote on what it would cost to replace the driver side window and door handle. Each quote was about the same...$3,000! We didn't even pay that much for our car! Needless to say we did not accept that as our only option and Andrew (being the wonderful man that he is) set to work bidding for windows and handles on e-bay. Roughly $200 later he found both window and door handle...a much more affordable option! Also, thanks to a co-worker of mine, we found a mechanic who lives in our neighborhood and works out of his own garage, charging very reasonably for labor. Praise God for His provision! 

I'm still chugging along at my job- and loving every minute of it :) The whales are here in full force now and I have been lucky enough to witness some spectacular action! Baby whales breaching (where they launch themselves out of the water)... male whales competing over a female with awesome displays of tales slashing and head lunging (kind of reminding me of some cheesy wrestling smackdown on TV)...and whales singing! Did you know humpback whales sing? But only the males! It is said to be a sort of challenge to other male whales in a duel over the female, but this past week I found it to be much more. I was reminded of a verse in scripture that talks about all creation singing praise to God. The earth and all of creation is literally groaning for Christ's return and now, everyday, I get to listen to part of the song. What an encouragement for me to join in! 

As far as prayer requests, we are both really missing being a part of a church/small group. We'd love to find someplace to plug into and meet some more believers, especially in our age group. Also, I just officially launched my first website (haleyhendricksonphotography.com) and would really like to drum up some business here on the island. I miss photographing regularly and I really think this is something I'd like to do long-term. 

As always, we miss all you mainlanders very much (thanks for the skype date Lauren- it made my day!)

Let us know what we can be praying for (phone is great and we always love skype but if you just have a prayer request we can keep in mind e-mail us at andrewhaley.hendrickson@gmail.com).

Love you guys!

Andrew & Haley

P.S. CONGRATS TO MAGGIE HENDRICKSON FOR GETTING ACCEPTED TO REGIS UNIVERSITY! We're super proud Mags, love you!

The damage :(

Mist over the Kohala Mtns

Tiki torches and sunset

love my parents <3

beautiful pali (cliffs) in Havi!

tad bit windy..

textures in Hawaii

Coy fish patterns

Mister Hollywood ;)

Miss you guys already!

Learning to Trust

Aloha Family and Friends!

Welcome to another episode of "Hendrickson's in Hawaii"! Today's show features mini road trips, new jobs, and a story of trust. Get ready!

 As I mentioned a few posts ago, Andrew recently passed his exam and submitted his results to the state of Hawaii to become a licensed producer for insurance. Well, as of yesterday Andrew dotted the i's and crossed the t's and officially signed a contract with Aflac! Andrew will start his training on Monday. He is really excited for this opportunity (and is thankful to his friend Britton Johnson who recommended him for the job..thanks Brit!) Aflac sounds like a great company and Andrew is excited to get started. He even gets to go to Oahu next month for some more training! Thank you all for your prayers in this, I know they were heard :)

On a less happy note, our car was broken into today while I was at work. The thieves not only took my new purse (which was buried under the driver's seat) and busted out our driver side window, but also took a crow bar to the driver side door handle. The damage is pretty severe and unfortunately our insurance doesn't cover repair work on the car. That's the bad news. The good news is my wallet was in the glove box and not my purse! Credit cards, cash and ID are all safe- what a blessing!

Even with all the chaos today, I couldn't help but feel at peace. We are so thankful that God provided Andrew with a job this week. We are thankful that my wallet wasn't stolen today. And we are thankful to know that God will never leave us or forsake us.

Thanks for your prayers.

Love,
Andrew & Haley

P.S. The following..eh hem...several pictures are what I like to call "drive by shooting" from our mini roadtrip to the other side of the island (most are taken from the window of our little car). All the pictures were taken between Waikoloa and Hilo (about a 2 hour drive) It was so amazing to us to see all the beauty in the landscape and the creativity that God has! How crazy is it that we went from deserts, to forests, to green rolling mountains, to green pastures with cows, to jungles to beaches all in 2 hours!?