Honeymooning in Hawaii

I want to say a very special thank you to my parents for all the help they were while we were gone. They handled the kids, school, homework, baseball, church, choir practice and Rich's business. The boys haven't stopped talking about all the fun that they had. Thanks mom and dad...for all you did. It sure made it easy to relax. You are a blessing and we know how fortunate we are to have you there for us.

So, Rich and I celebrated eleven years of marriage this past week on the beautiful island of Maui. This has been a dream of ours, actually since we took our first honeymoon. I don't want to down play the romantic drive to Colorado at 21 years old, leaving my parents standing in the driveway of my childhood home at 2 a.m, driving a U-haul truck full of my bedroom furniture, towing my "race car" (aka 1986 Toyota Camry) while frequenting truck stops to pee... and I should mention we were in a hurry to get there, as neither my new husband or I had a job or a dime to pay our new found rent, but....Hawaii was better. Yeah I know...it was a toss up for me too. We couldn't help but run into amazing views and awesome photo opportunities with every turn. This was our first evening venturing out...and more importantly where I concluded it was pointless to to anything with my hair out of the shower. Not a great hair place for me...but you can bet I got over that really quick. You'll notice my new hat in the slide show to follow.
I did a short run in the mornings (most) followed by the most incredible swim ever!! It puts any other open water swim I have done to shame...(gotta love red tide in HB). I was swimming just a few feet from the shore, the water was so clear and full of beautiful fish. Rich finally got over the fear that I would be eaten by a shark and stopped walking along side of me (after a couple days mind you). The upside? He got some great photos and people probably thought he was my coach...you know, minus the stop watch or instructions of any kind other than "Are you tired babe? Are you ready to get out?."
Here we are (my feet and I :) lounging at the pool. Rich was in the jacuzzi after a snorkel. We just couldn't get over how relaxed we were...but the two of us kept imagining how much fun the kids would have had on this trip too. They'll be on the next one for sure.

The Road to Hana was pretty incredible. It was an all day trip into the rain forests of Maui and the quaint little village towns on the island. We were amazed to see tiny shack like homes amongst what had to be multi million $$ homes on our excursion. These small villages bordered the shoreline and were occupied by generations of natives who are very proud of where and how they live. Banana bread, fresh fruit and hand made crafts were a big seller to tourists . The Food was delicious.
Like I said...the scenery was breathtaking, the sunsets setting the tone for a perfect night.
It was fun playing with my dad's little camera and ISO to get different versions of the same type of shot. I picked my favorites for the stills.
This was taken on our last night there. It was then that we decided it would be great to just have the kids shipped to us. All good things must come to an end...and this was great!
Right after I took that last sunset picture, I turned around to walk up the beach and saw this! The picture is pretty cool, but does not do this sight justice. We are so thankful and blessed to have taken this trip...to reconnect with no interruptions in a gorgeous place... to crack up laughing, to revisit that first honeymoon (that really was fun at the time), and to remember all the reasons the Lord has chosen us for each other. The rainbow really just summed up our trip and was the last picture on my camera. We are grateful and give Him the glory!!

Mahalo babe!
Until next time...Aloha!

Check out the slide show below