So Tena's dad's family in Tahiti is splitting up the land they own in Huahine. He wanted Tena to be there to help him choose what piece to take and to just see it and know where it is in case anything ever happened to him. It will be passed down to us, so we wanted to see it anyways...and it doesn't make a bad vacation, either! ;)
It was *such* a fun trip. Instead of being a luxury dream vacation like our honeymoon, we stayed a bit more like the locals, which turned out to be really neat and very rewarding. Here is a quick run-down of what we did each day...
7/1) My cousin Mathis, who had been serving a mission in Madagascar for the past 2 years, came home today. So we got all packed, drove to the airport, and got to see him come home before we left to LAX. When we got to Cali, we met up with Tom and Brenda and had dinner. Then it was off to Tahiti!
Waiting in the SLC airport.`````````````````````````
7/2) Arrived in Tahiti, stayed with Tena's uncle and aunt on the main island. That night we went to the Heiva (a big festival/competition of dancing and drumming).
Arriving at the airport in Tahiti.
Music is an important part of the Tahitian culture. There is music everywhere: the airport, grocery store, along the streets, people will pull out a uke and start playing if they are waiting for something, often shopping centers have live music, and people carry iPod docks while riding their bikes...`````````````````````````
7/3) Went to church with uncle Leon, left to the tiny little island of Maupiti. We toured the island, went to the tiurai (kind of like a state fair) to eat dinner, and was taught all about the stars by our pension owner.
The airport is on a small island next to Maupiti so we had to load everything in a small boat and be taken over.
This is a row of restaurants at the tiurai.
This was our room at the pension.`````````````````````````
7/4) Happy Fourth of July! Went on a historical tour of Maupiti- saw the petroglyphs, biked around the whole island (only took about 30 min.), played with the millions of crabs on the sides of the road, pension owner had made us dinner when we returned (delicious!), then we biked to the tiurai in the pitch-black darkness to eat a bunch of cakes and pie for the 4th :)
The pension owner telling us about one of the petroglyphs.
A beautiful beach on Maupiti.
Me biking and a little crab trying to cross the road.
Our very generous pension owner made us a delicious fish dinner!
Our 4th of July celebration! Cakes galore :)`````````````````````````
7/5) Flew to Raiatea, had a gorgeous bungalow room on the beach in a nice hotel, walked to town, a restaurant owner drove us all to the tiurai to eat (he thought we'd like that more...nice nice guy), walked back at night in the pouring rain.
A rainbow for our last day! So long Maupiti, I'll miss you.
Our bungalow in Raiatea. The hotel grounds were beautiful.
To the left was a window that looked out over the ocean, to the right were stairs that led down to the bathroom.
Downtown Raitea.
We ate lunch by the ocean.````````````````````````
7/6) Slept in, drove around the whole island, went to town, ate at tiurai, rode the bumper cars.
Touring the island!
Raiatea was so lush and green! I loved it. 
Part of the tiurai in Raiatea.`````````````````````````
7/7) Woke up to a bad storm, but when it cleared out it was a gorgeous day, Tena and I went kayaking to a little motu, we missed our flight so we stayed another day in Raiatea, went to dinner, came back to our bungalow, watched the uke festival on tv.
This was my first time kayaking! It was a blast :)
The little motu on the left is where we kayaked out to. 
That's me in downtown Raiatea.````````````````````````
7/8) Hiked to the top of a big mountain- at the top we could see out so far, we saw 3 other islands (Huahine, Bora Bora, and Tahaa)- beautiful hike, then we flew to Huahine, saw the land, went to our pension, Tena and I snorkeled on the beach in front of our pension, went to the tiurai and heiva.
Top of the hike. 
Top of the world :)
Our land in Huahine. 
The beach in front of the property. Great view of the pregnant woman in the mountains. 
This is the pension we stayed at in Huahine.
This was our room in the house. 
Enjoying the heiva.
Dancers at the heiva.
Drinking from a coconut.````````````````````````
7/9) Toured the island, went snorkeling, our truck broke down at the top of a BIG hill (had to coast down it backwards...it was slightly terrifying), ate at a family friend's house for dinner.
Tena and I snorkeled ALL over this area. It was awesome. 
This is the big hill where we coasted down and waited for help. At least it was scenic!
Eatin good. `````````````````````````
7/10) Ate ma'a tahiti (traditional Tahitian foods), played at the beach, checked out the land again, ate at the family friend's house again (when you're asked to eat with someone, it's considered rude to not accept). They were pretty good cooks though!
Waiting to try my first ma'a Tahiti! So excited :)
The room the food was in. Pretty cool.
I know, I know...it looks kinda gross. But it actually tasted really good! I liked most of it. 
We had a nice view of the ocean from the restaurant. 
And later that night for dinner... pork cooked in bamboo. Yu-um.`````````````````````````
7/11) Flew to Bora Bora, snorkeled and hung out at the beach in front of our pension, went to tiurai for dinner.
View of Bora Bora from the airport.
Me snorkeling in the warm, blue water!
This was our room at the pension. Nothing special. This was my least favorite pension on the trip.
A little lizard we saw on the way to the heiva. He was so cute :)
Tena looking over a menu at a tiurai restaurant.
There were a lot of people at the Bora Bora tiurai!
Heiva dancers.
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7/12) Biked to airport (Tom left his bag in Huahine so it was shipped to the airport), ate at Tom's friend's restaurant called Ben's on the way, met a guy named Moise at the airport- turns out he is a member, we talked a while and told him how we wanted to go on a lagoon tour, he said that's what he does, he said he'd have his cousin come pick us up tomorrow and he'd take us on the tour, ate at tiurai.
Enjoying some cotton candy- which Tahitians call barbe a papa (papa's beard) -from the tiruai last night. I think I got cotton candy every night...it was sooo good. And I always loved saying barbe a papa ;)
This is Ben's restaurant. Tena's dad's friend from BYU Hawaii owns it. He made us a delicious lunch. 
A gorgeous beach in Bora Bora.
An amazing mahi-mahi frites (mahi mahi with fries) dinner at the tiurai. This was one of our favorite mahi-mahi frites that we had (and believe me...we had A LOT).`````````````````````````
7/13) Moise's cousin, Henry picked us all up and drove us halfway around the island, he dropped us off and we got on the boat to do our Lagoon tour- first the coral gardens for some *prime* snorkeling, then Moise took us to swim with the stingrays, then we went even further out in the ocean and swam with sharks...that's right...real, live, wild, sharks. It was pretty amazing- a once in a life time experience. As we cruised back in, Moise cut up some fruit and some ipo bread for us to all eat. When we got back, Henry drove us around and showed us all the cool sites in Bora Bora- the U.S. bunkers and cannons left from WW2, the shapes in the mountains, etc. Since Moise refused to let us pay our $150 each for the lagoon tour (he's such a good guy, he said 'zero dollar'), we invited him and his cousin to the tiurai to eat whatever their hearts desired that night with us. It was the *least* we could do. They were so good to us, we actually became really good friends and invited them to come stay at our house if they're ever in Utah.
Heading out!
Our awesome captain, Moise :)
I like this pic Tena took. 
First stop...the coral gardens! Some of the absolute best snorkeling I've ever done. Such pretty fish and the coral was amazing! It felt like I was living an episode of Planet Earth :)
Tena on the boat.
Next up...stingrays! I love these guys. I swam with them in Grand Cayman with my fam and here in Bora Bora and I can't get enough of them.
Looks like Tena made some friends.
And finally...the SHARKS! Bring it.
Oh yeah... This was really one of the coolest experiences of my life. We jumped out of the boat and just swam around in the shark infested water. It was amazing.
Tena getting up close and personal with the sharks.
Yum... Pamplemousse, coconut, ipo bread, and watermelon. A perfect end to a perfect excursion :)
One of the canons left over from WWII that Henry took us to see. We also saw a bunch of old bunkers.
Dinner at the tiurai with our new friends- some of the best guys I've ever met and will never forget. `````````````````````````
7/14) Chilled on the beach, snorkeled, met an old guy who invited us over to his house to play music with him- he gave Tena and I a really neat piece of coral, he drove us to the grocery store, then we just went back to our pension and ate delicious coconut ice cream with mango jam on the beach.
The next morning, Moise took his tour group closer to shore that day so he could wave to us at our pension.
Playing drums, ukulele, and tambourine with the old man we met along the road. He was very nice. 
He gave Tena and I this huge piece of coral. It is pretty dang cool (and heavy!). I was thrilled. 
Eating coconut ice cream and other things we bought at the store that night. 
I put some mango jam and a mini banana in mine. It was DELICIOUS! I really miss that ice cream. It was so creamy and the mango jam was crazy good too. `````````````````````````
7/15) Happy Birthday Tena!! Tena went kiteboarding for his birthday. It was pretty cool. We flew back to Tahiti, celebrated Tena's b-day at the tiurai with cakes, went to a heiva the stake was putting on at the stake center, ate Salmon des Dieu (salmon of the gods)- possibly the best fish we've ever had...- at Chez Aro with some friends of Tom's, then we got crepes at a little place by the beach, the owner let me come over and make one (haha, I had no idea what I was doing, he walked me though it step by step, pretty cool...I made a delicious crepe!), we spent the night at Tena's other aunt's house.
Getting set up.
Yeah! Go Tena :D
Leaving Bora Bora :(
Singing Happy Birthday to Tena at the Tahiti tiurai.
There it is... The famous Saumon des Dieux. Best. Fish. Ever. If there is fish in Heaven, it will taste like this. 
And this is were we had the most amazing crepes.
Here's mine- I went simple with a brown sugar one. Ooh it was good though!
And here is Tena's. He got a maple syrup one. It was way good too.````````````````````````
7/16) Had a delicious Tahitian breakfast at auntie Kat's house, went shopping in downtown Papeete and the marche, went to the airport, left for LAX :(
This was SUCH a good breakfast. There were all kinds of good things: fish, rice, hot coco, baguette w/ butter & jam, bananas, pamplemousse, poisson cru, and cereal. 
One of my favorite places to shop in Papeete, Tahiti- the marche! You can get all kinds of cool Tahitian things here.
A lot of Tena's family met us at the airport and brought shell necklaces to us to see us off. It was so sad to go.````````````````````````
7/17) Landed in Cali, flew to SLC...sadness.
Landing in Cali. It's always so depressing :(
Some of the souvenirs I got. We also got a bunch of books. `````````````````````````
We really had an amazing trip. I have grown to love and respect the Tahtian people SO SO much. I have never met such humble, happy, down to earth, good people. They were so self-less and treated us like close family members- even though we were complete strangers to them. There were many times we'd be walking down the street in the rain and at least one person would offer to give us a ride. One time we were pushing our luggage down the street (long story) and another hotel's shuttle service pulled over and gave us a ride for free to ou r hotel. If that happened in the states, he would have just kept on driving and not even thought twice about offering a ride.
It was an unforgettable trip. It made such an impression on me; Tena and I have talked and we would really like to live in Tahiti some day. We are very serious about it. We are trying to pay off our house as quickly as possible so we can move out there.
The way of life is so much happier in Tahiti, than in the states. Here, you get to be 65-70 and look back on your life and think, "Huh, I haven't done anything but work my whole life away, and now I am too old to do anything fun" But in Tahiti, the people may be a little bit poorer, they may not have a huge house, a luxury boat, a big truck, new furniture, etc, etc, but they are a thousand times happier. When we were at a grocery store, I saw a woman fall off her scooter- it fell over and got scratched. Instead of getting mad and embarrassed and maybe cursing or something, she started laughing! I looked around and everyone around her was laughing too! I was shocked :)
Another thing I notice is they totally go out of their way to say hi to people on the street. You will hear honking all over town- and it's not to say 'Hey get out of my way'...it's to get someone's attention so you can wave and say hi!
They value family and friendship more than anything. They don't care what you look like. They could care less if you have designer clothes on that are the latest style, they are just glad to see you. It's amazing what a difference it is. I heard a quote once that sums it up pretty good I think, it said-
"They made my body leave Tahiti, but my mind refuses to go"
