Ahhhh .... Hawaii
Jeff and I spent 10 glorious days in paradise. It was A-Mazing! Everything we did was fun, everything we saw was beautiful! It was an incredible vacation! We had a couple of fun excuses to go on the trip... mostly it was for the fun of it, but we were also celebrating our 9th wedding anniversary, and we were celebrating the fact that we survived the baby years - no more middle of the night feedings - woohoo!
I also just like this guy a lot and love any chance I can get to hang out with him! :)
I still can't quite believe we pulled it off. Being gone for 10 days from a full time job (Jeff) and away from 3 very young children (me) is no small feat. I need to say a huge MAHALO to my parents for keeping all three of our boys for such an extended stay and for having so much fun with them that they didn't even miss us! It definitely helped reduce some of my mommy guilt knowing they were having such a good time! We tried to call them every day. It was always so fun to hear their sweet little voices. Cooper would usually cut us off after a few minutes by saying, "That's enough words." He was only into a phone conversation for so long. :)
We went with Tim and Beth (Jeff's brother and sister-in-law) on a 7 day cruise, island hopping Hawaii. It was a great way to see a little bit of all of Hawaii! We started in Oahu where we visited Pearl Harbor and then boarded our ship Pride of America.
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| The Memorial at Pearl Harbor |
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| Pride of America |
Our first stop was Maui where we spent two days going to a beach, a luau and whale watching.
It was so fun riding around the island in our convertible! The drive was gorgeous. Every island had so many different regions. There were ocean views the whole way but it was like we drove through several different states in one hour. Grassy plains, rugged mountains, rainforest - but always next to a ridiculously clear blue ocean. So pretty!
Whale watching was spectacular! I have a good zoom on my camera but not that good. These whales came right up next to our boat. And there were so many around the area. You just had to watch the horizon for a short time before you were bound to see a blow spout, a tail, even a full breach!
The next island was The Big Island where we stopped in Hilo and Kona. We visited Volcano National Park, toured a macadamia nut factory, shopped an orchid nursery and went snorkeling.
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| Steam Vents at Volcano National Park |
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| Lava Tube - a huge tunnel created after one of the eruptions |
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| Beth & Me |
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| Our Tour Guides :) |
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| Shopping around the Kona Harbor |
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| A fancy dinner one night aboard our ship |
The last stop was by far my favorite. Kauai was gorgeous! We hiked, found a Secret Beach, saw a waterfall and drove around Waimea Canyon (the grand canyon of the Pacific). If we ever get to go back this is where I want to spend all my time! A day and a half was not nearly long enough.
This was my view the last day. Sitting on the pool deck with a good book, a crazy pineapple drink and the coastline of Kauai. What a way to end!
Dinner that night included a beautiful sunset over the Cliffs of Napali. Incredible!
Then the next morning it was back to Oahu and sadly we had to disembark. All of us had red eye flights back to the mainland so we spent the day driving around the whole island. We walked around the Dole pineapple farm and watched some surfers take on the Bonzai Pipeline. Our waiter later told us how terrible the waves were that day. They looked huge to us!
It's always a little disappointing to leave such a beautiful place then come back home to dusty ole Midland. I had a moment of "We live here?!" when we first landed. But wow I was excited to see my three little guys! It was an incredible trip but we're so glad to be back home with our family. Here's to hoping we can do it again one of these years!
