me and my boys!

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Hawaii Adventure, Thurs April 12

Awh... Finally to Thursday! Thursday was the day I had labeled "our lazy day" - at least the "day" part. We rented a cabana for 4 hours and laid in there and I finished the 2nd Hunger Games and Ryan read my next book - Dave Ramsey's "Total Money Makeover" - it was so nice to just relax and watch the waves roll in and rest... I was so happy to just be so lazy.

That evening, Ryan and I went to Warren and Annabelle's Magic Show. I thought it seemed a little funny to be in Maui and go to a magic show but Ryan and I love all things like this and it was rated SUPER high on Trip Advisor, so I didn't want to miss it. Before the show, they schedule a "lounge" time and you can sit and drink and relax before the show. While we were there, we matched up with one of the only other couples there under the age of 50, and they were SO much fun! Joy and John Paul are both nurses from Ft. Worth - and the same age as us so we really bonded w/ them. After we had been hanging out and talking for a little while, the show staff asked us if we would "help" Warren in the show - turns out we are actually part of the act! It was SO much fun! I laughed so hard it hurt. We still cannot figure out how he did almost all of those tricks! Magic is really super cool!

After the show, we all decided to go have a few drinks ... So much fun!

Having a little too much fun!

Monday, April 23, 2012

Hawaii Adventure, Wed April 11

On Wednesday - Ryan and I got up early again - and headed for the boat dock! We were scheduled for SNUBA! I haven't ever scuba dived before but I have snorkeled so SNUBA is a combination of the two... for beginners like me. You're hooked to a tank but can only drop 10 feet max. Ryan and I were attached to the same tank but he's been scuba diving for years, so he wasn't half as nervous as I was! It was cool to get to see further down into the ocean, but I can't say that it's for me... I was really really nervous the whole time... But Ryan was in heaven... and really cute in his swim suit. :)

After our day in the sun, we went back to the hotel and I did something that I never, and I mean NEVER do - I took a NAP! It was incredible... The sun just kicked my butt, combined w/ my high anxiety over the snuba.. So I slept blissfully for 2 hours while Ryan played at the beach. That evening, we attended the Old Lahaina Luau - the best Luau in all of Hawaii (according to reviews - it's the only one we've been to!). It was even better than I remembered! We watched as they dug up the giant pig from the ground and we feasted and feasted and watched an AMAZING Hula Show with a history of Hawaii! It was absolutely an awesome night!!

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Hawaii Adventure, Tuesday April 10

On Tuesday, Ryan and I got up early and went to the airport to take a helicopter ride around Maui! It was unbelievable!!! Ryan videotaped and I tried taking pictures (bad glare) but the view was insane! We fly for 60 minutes - over all of Maui and then over to Lanai and Molokai. Molokai has some giant cliffs and valleys - oh.my.gosh! It was spectacular! We also got to see a whale out in the ocean... Ryan's first time to see a whale... We also got to spot a double rainbow!!!

When we got back from the helicopter ride, we had the rest of the daytime to do as we please! We had a yummy lunch at Duke's Beach House and then hung out... It was a little rainy so we hung out on the balcony and read for awhile.. Then we went to get some famous Hula Pie - a Hawaiian specialty.. YUM.

I heart cloudy Maui sunsets.

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Hawaii Adventure, Mon April 9

The second day of our 9 day Hawaii adventure was planned for driving the road to Hana. When we were in Maui before, it was one of the things we regretted not doing so we got our cool Ford Fusion and off we went! It's a long, windy road - but we were up for the task. We googled it and everything we read "strongly" advised that you don't drive all the way around because the roads are "treacherous" etc etc... blah..blah.. We were doing it... and doing it right. So we left around 830am. It wasn't long onto the actual road that we figured out why people love it so much. The views were incredible and the road was extremely curvy -think 10 mi/hr turns! Ryan and I stopped many times to take pictures because it was just so beautiful there... I wish I would've had my new cool lens! One of the beaches we stopped at was a black rock beach - just crazy! It was also extremely windy for the first 3 days we were there, so the waves were enormous!!

At around 130p (after driving since 830am) - the road changed from curvy, paved, narrow, sometimes one-lane to a abandoned, country dirt road with cows all over the place.. Those last 2 hours of driving were the worst because we couldn't move very fast and it seemed to go forever - plus I was tired of sitting after sitting on the plane for 11 hours. Ryan, however, was in heaven - loving every min and wanting to stop constantly to take pics... One time, I was so grateful he did stop because he found this old church off the road - gorgeous with the views of the ocean...

When we got back into Lahaina, we had dinner at Moose McGillicutty's - and watched the sun set.. Then we decided to go watch the Hunger Games movie since we had both just finished the book.... It was such a fun day - a LOT of driving but so good to get to see God's beautiful land.. Maui is just unbelievable.

Friday, April 20, 2012

Hawaii Adventure, Sun Apr 8

I had been planning and counting down til Easter for so long... and when it finally came, I found myself doubting if I could really leave my boys. My mom had picked them up the night before since our flight left early - and when she left I called her bawling that I had made a bad decision to leave them... and maybe I needed to come tuck them into bed one more time before I left. She laughed at me and talked me "off the ledge" - I knew Ryan and I needed this trip but how was I going to leave the 2 little souls who are attached to me 24/7? Well, I walked away from the ledge. After I finished packing, I put together little gifts for the boys for each day we were gone - and a little one for their "caretaker" - which was my mom for the first week and Ryan's mom for the last 3 days. I just wanted to make sure the boys knew we were thinking of them and they had a little gift to encourage them to keep being good for their grandma... It took me forever to get this all organized but it turned out to be a hit - so I'm glad I did. Our neighbor Josh drove us to the airport that morning and when we got on another plane at DFW - we were stoked to check out our 1st Class seats! They reclined all the way flat for the long 8 hour flight to Maui... so I immediately pulled out my Nook and began the first Hunger Games book.... Unfortunately, we had an aisle between us but we didn't care...After a 3 hour delay - sitting in those seats still at the runway at DFW (lightening storm) - we finally took off. We were supposed to land in Maui at 330p but we ended up there at 630p and after we got our rental car and the 40 min to our hotel - It was after 9p. We were grateful to finally be there! It actually worked out well because Maui is 5 hours behind Arkansas - so at 10p when we finally went to sleep, it felt like 3am! We were exhausted, but it landed us on track time-wise. Last time we went to Maui (10 years ago!) we woke up at 3am every morning ready to start to the day - cuz it felt like 8am... but the city was shut down. So this time, we were right-on-time! I planned our entire trip pretty carefully so we had a very very busy week ahead of us... We took almost 500 pictures, so I'll update day-by-day so as to not cram it all into one blog post!