MyHeritage DNA: Getting Started

Ryan and I have always been curious about our ancestry, and what that means for our future kids. We know that Ryan's dad grew up in Mexico, but we don't know much more through that line of the family. He's been bugging me to do a DNA kit for a while, so when MyHeritage reached out I asked for 2 kits! That way we have an idea of what our future family will be made of :)

It was an easy to process to follow with vials, swabs, packaging and step-by-step instructions in the box. Make sure to not eat anything for an hour leading up to it! Ryan accidentally ate a banana so we had to wait another hour so it didn't come back that he is 60% banana haha 

Yosemite National Park

Back in August Ryan and I went on a trip with my family to Yosemite National Park, since Ryan had never been. We stayed in Curry Village (which is now Yosemite Village) and went on a hike to Mirror Lake then biked around the ground floor. It was BEAUTIFUL. How would I even be able to explain the grandeur of all the mountains and trees? That's why I took lots of pictures ;)

Unfortunately since it was towards the end of summer, there wasn't enough water to fill up the lake or to do some river rafting :/ We still had a blast by driving up to Glacier Point to check out the view of Half Dome from the top of the mountains. Then we hit up our reservation at the Grand Yosemite Hotel for their amaazzzinnggg brunch. OMG. It was delicious, wish I could eat that all over again! 

After hiking, biking, and brunching; we decided to make a detour for our family trip and hit up Santa Cruz which was only a 2-3 hour drive from Yosemite. I'll save that for another post, but in the meantime, here is a huge picture dump ;)

^ Of course I needed a picture of my mountain-inspired nails next to Half Dome. All the hardcore hikers thought I was crazy haha

^ Half Dome!

^ Where we had brunch, it was breathtaking. A massive grand hall with all-you-can-eat brunch, live piano music, and a view of all the trees outside. All the heart eyes! 

Grossman/Rios Family in Hawaii

A little late posting these pics...about 2.5 months that is! It's been that long since our family Hawaii trip and I can't believe how fast the time flies. I had everyone to get dressed up and asked a random lady on the beach to take our family pictures. It was a little risky, especially since she was holding the camera all crazy ways; but they turned out and that's all that matters! Glad to have more pictures to fill my frames with :)

Jesse's Birthday & PCC

Our second day in Oahu was Jesse's 19th birthday! Last time we were in Hawaii (10+ years ago), it was also during Jesse's birthday, lucky duck! We stopped by the well-known Hukilau Cafe in Laie for some bomb pancakes. Coconut, macadamia nut, blueberry...yummmm.

We walked around the Laie temple grounds and it was BEAUTIFUL. They had just finished some reconstruction in the main grounds area, and it was gorgeous. 

Most of our day was spent at the Polynesian Cultural Center in Laie. We had the best tour guide, our family friend Brother Hanneman who helped make the PCC what it is today! He is in his late 80's and was speed walking around the entire PCC to make sure we got to all the shows on time and got the best seats. He was a complete hoot! 

We made it to almost all the shows, then we went to a luau to eat some awesome food! I really came to love taro bread...and taro island bread pudding? AMAZING. After the luau we went to the night show at the PCC which was so fun to watch! It was one jam-packed awesome day :)