Hawaii!!!

Todd and I have always wanted to go to Hawaii, but you know once you have kids and jobs sometimes it is hard to find the time to go.  Earlier in the year Todd was on a business trip for work and his flight happened to be oversold.  They offered him $1,300 in flight vouchers to change his flight to the next morning.  The vouchers expired in a year and since we knew I was pregnant and we didn't want to take a new born on vacation with us, we decided that we needed to go soon!

We went at the beginning on June are were there for 5 days and it was magical.  It was so great to be able to relax and just spend time with each other. Jeffery and Brooke, Kimberly and Jace, and Todd's mom all took turns watching the girls while we were gone.

We left on a Wednesday afternoon, right after Emma's second preschool graduation.  We were pretty excited and Todd was in charge of taking pictures.  We took our fair share of selfies and decided after that selfie sticks maybe aren't as ridiculous as I once thought they were.  We grabbed some Cafe Rio for lunch and then I quickly downloaded a book on my Kindle to read on the plane, and we were off!

Todd decided that he could sleep better with his sunglasses on to block some of the light.  We had a layover in Seattle.  Our plane from Seattle to Maui was a new plane which made Todd super excited, our seats even had outlets so he could charge his phone.  I was excited because our flight wasn't full so that meant we got our own row and I got to lay down and take a nap.

We arrived in Maui at about 10:00 in the evening, grabbed our rental car and headed to our first hotel! We were both very tired since it was really 2:00 in the morning for us and we are way too old to stay up that late!

On Thursday we slept in a little and then got ready for our first day.  We headed down to the beach first thing and checked out our snorkel gear since we had heard that it was best to snorkel earlier in the day.  There was some great coral right off of the shore behind our hotel so we had a great time! After snorkeling, we got our beach chairs, towels, and umbrella set up for us and just relaxed and read books.  It was just perfect!

Todd purchased a frisbee for us to play with while at the beach.  He was patient with my serious lack of frisbee skills.  I was a lot better by the end of the trip though.

 For lunch, we walked to Manoli's pizza and shared a delicious honey hawaiian pizza.

After lunch we went back to the room to take a nap.  By we, I mean I took a nap and Todd watched the first half of the first game of the NBA finals.  After my nap we hung out by the pool for the rest of the afternoon.  Our first hotel had 5 different infinity pools to choose from.  They were all so great! After the pool we went for a run along the beach boardwalk at probably the hottest time of the day but we still had a good time.  I was starving for some really good french fries after that so we found this little burger place that was delicious, even if it had weird green lighting.

On Friday, we had to check out of our first hotel at 11:00 so until then we just hung out at the beach and pool.

After we had checked out we headed out to do a hike on our way to our second hotel.  We were going to do a few hikes on the "Road to Hana" but I still get pretty nauseous in the car so we only ended up doing the first one at the very beginning and then had to turn around, those roads were too windy for me!

Todd really loved the entrance to our hotel, it looked even better all lit up at night.

 We did the "Twin Falls" hike which really was more of a walk but we did enjoy swimming under the falls at the end!

Of course Todd would climb up something like this along the trail.

There were signs all around where people were parking warning that there had been a lot of recent car break ins so to not leave valuables in your car.  As we were walking back to our car after, we saw that the city had put this sign up along the side of the road.  I am sure it has deterred MANY thieves.

After the hike we headed to our second hotel to get settled in.  We of course, had to go check out the pool and explore a little bit.  After, we went to dinner at Roy's which was pretty close to our hotel.  It was probably the most we have ever spent on a meal for just the two of us but it was very delicious. The dessert was my favorite!

 On Saturday we woke up at 4:50 in the morning to head out on an early morning snorkeling tour to the Molokini Crater and to what the locals call "turtle town".  It was so fun, despite the fact that I think it is against the rules to wake up that early in the morning.

We saw lots of fun things while we were snorkeling.  Lots of different and colorful fish, eels, an octopus, a shark (!), and 4-5 huge turtles.  It was so fun!

Todd with our boat in the background after the tour.

When we were done snorkeling we headed back to the hotel and I passed out for a little while by the pool.  Todd was so great to let me rest when I needed to even though I am sure he would have much rather been doing other things.  When we were done with the pool we went shopping for a little bit to look for some souvenirs for our girls.  We of course had to grab a shaved ice while we were out! As a side note, this particular shaved ice shack was giving away a stuffed penguin if you spent $10, which we did, and the girls love that penguin more than the dresses that we picked out for them so we should have just brought them that!

I realize that I have three chins in the picture but Todd told me all my sleeping needed to be documented, as well as my emerging baby belly.

 After shopping, we continued down the beach so Todd could do some cliff jumping off of Black Rock.  I decided to sit that activity out.

As we were walking back along the beach to our hotel, we saw this beach competition going on and stopped to watch the relay race that was happening.  It was pretty fun to watch.  Some of the legs we saw were kayaking, paddle boarding while they were on their knees and paddling with their arms and not a paddle (I don't know the correct term), swimming and then finally stand up paddle boarding.

 That night for dinner we went to Merriman's which was amazing.  It was right on the beach and since we told them we were there celebrating our anniversary (which is how we justified this trip, as an early anniversary present) they gave us a great table! When we were making our reservation, we noted that we didn't drink alcohol so the waiter was telling us about their non-alcoholic drinks.  We didn't really heard the name of the one that we ended up getting and then we thought it was funny when we got the check and saw that it was called a "kiddie" cocktail.  It made us feel pretty great about ourselves.

In our hotel lobby while we were waiting for our car.

On Sunday we headed to church in the morning.  We got there a few minutes early and were surprised by how full the chapel was.  I guess they get a lot of visitors every week from people on vacation.

After church, we headed back to our hotel and relaxed for most of the morning.  In the afternoon we drove to the Iao Needle to look around.  We were told that it was one of the wettest places in the world and quickly found out that could be true as we got rained on the whole time we were there, even though there was no sign of rain really anywhere else on the island.  It was beautiful though, and so green!

Todd was really concerned about my phone getting wet so he wrapped it in his shirt and then put in in our bag.  What a gentleman!

We were completely drenched and covered in mud by the time we were done but it was really fun! We grabbed a quick dinner and then watched a movie in our hotel room and went to bed.

Monday was our last day.  We hung out at the hotel until it was time to check out.  Then we drove down to a beach that we had heard had pretty good snorkeling and place you could rent paddle boards.  We didn't end up going snorkeling but while we were out on the paddle board about three feet from the short we saw a sea turtle, which was pretty exciting! He hung out there for about 25-30 minutes.

I got this picture right as he was coming up for air so that is what the water/air bubble is from.

If you look closely, at the bottom of this picture you can see the turtle.

 Todd made me get on with him so we could get a picture of the two of us and then he proceeded to push me off as soon as the picture was taken.

When we were done, we headed back to the hotel to shower and pick up our bags.  I also had to get one last shaved ice because they are just my favorite. We took a picture of the penguins in our lobby because we thought the girls would think it was cool.

We headed to Lahaina to do some more shopping and grab some dinner before heading off to the airport of our red-eye flight home.

It was such a great trip!  We missed our girls but were happy knowing that they were having fun without us at home.  Thanks, Todd for such a great trip!