A week in paradise!!

We had a chance to go to Maui with some good friends 

of ours for a week in July. 

(just so happened to land on our 6th anniversary!)

 ~We flew into Maui at 9:30 pm monday night,  stopped to

 get our groceriesand then drove to 

the condo, in Kahana.

The following morning we woke up to a beautiful view!

Our "master suite"

divided from the "main room" by the sliding door

(to the left of the picture!)

and divided from the hallway to the Wyeth's room 

and bathroom by a shower curtain... 

Yes! SHOWER CURTAIN!!

(we didn't fly 5 1/2 hrs to Maui for our room!!:)

(yes, we did end up pushing our beds together!!)  ;0

The view from our "master suite!!"

Tuesday we drove around to see the area, rented 

snorkeling gear, and boogie boards. 

We hung out at the beach most of the day!

~it was so nice just to RELAX!! :)

Here is Bryan and Jen posing in front of Black rock...

here is where we did most of our snorkeling!!

Ryan and Bryan "body surfing" 

Jen has video of this on her blog (click here)  its pretty funny!

That night we went to eat at Bubba Gumps 

(we had such a pretty view on the water at sunset!) 

Afterwards we went to a comedy magic show. 

We all loved it, the guys were so good and 

so funny!

We were so lucky to have Jen with us! She is such an 

amazing photographer! (most of the pictures from 

this trip were taken by her 

with her camera!) 

Thanks Jen! :)

Wednesday morning we got up early and went on a boat 

for a day trip to Molokini 

( a crater about a hour south of Maui, with "great snorkeling" )

~here we are just starting off the trip... and so far so good!!

Ryan and Bryan

Jen and I 

Here we are "trying" to snorkel... 

it was a windy and over cast day so the water was 

so "choppy." 

The drive out I got SO sea sick and lets just say I 

"fed" the fish from the side of the boat!! YUCK!

After snorkeling for about 20 min I had to get back in 

the boat, the choppy water was making my sickness 

even worse!

~here we are on the way back... I slept most of the 

way unless I was "feeding" the fish! :(

The water DID finally calm down and I was well enough to 

see all the sea turtles! 

~ they were so cute and would come up for a breath! 

Thursday morning we got up early and made the drive to Hana!

Hana is a 3 hour drive from start to finish with different stops off 

the road with beautiful sights!

~Luckily we had our "trusty" guide Bryan with his

"Maui bible" to show us all the best stops!!  :)

Here we are starting off our day!

One of the "stops" was a black sand beach!

At the black sand beach there was a cave in the

side of one of the mountains... we crawled through

the opening and found this beautiful cove!

~ our next stop was the bamboo forrest! I loved the 

sound the bamboo made when the wind would blow! 

It was so pretty!

Through bamboo forrest there were beautiful 

waterfalls!

~ another stop was the red sand beach... it reminded me

of Sedona, Az (the coloring of the mountains!)

Ryan "took one for the team" and climbed 

down some rocks to get a picture of the waves 

crashing behind him!

"ARIEL" 

(all he needed were some sea shells!)

Friday we took it easy, hung out at the beach, 

went shopping...

that night we went to a Luau at the Sheraton! 

~This is a picture of Ryan, and one of the Hawaiian dancers.

He was teaching us how to play a game. 

You throw a spear and try to get it to go between two little 

sticks in the ground?!?

(not bad for a first timer!!)

Before the Luau started we walked around and took 

some pictures. There was also items that the local 

women make... (i.e. jewlery, purses, hats...)

It was neat to see how creative the women are!

Here is our DINNER!!

 I was a little nervous at first about the food...

but it was delicious! 

Another great photo taken by Jen!

and then the show BEGAN!!

This was my first time to a Luau.. those girls are

AMAZING!!!

... toward the end this fire dancer performed! 

He was unbelievable!!!

The luau was one of my highlights of the trip!

I loved watching them perform!  

of course we HAD to get our pictures taken 

with the dancers!!

 I was a little intimidated of this guys...

good thing Jen came with me!!

As you can tell, Ryan was not intimidated

by this dancer!! ;)

Saturday morning we woke up early to go parasailing!!

I was REALLY looking forward to doing this!!

 I started to get a little nervous after I heard Ryan tell the 

guy he wanted to go 8oo feet up and YES he wanted to get

DUNKED!!!

Once we got up there it was so peaceful and the view of the island 

was so pretty I forgot how far up we really were!

... then we started to float down towards the water...

I started to get a little nervous!!

We got SOAKED!!!

It was so fun and would totally do it again! 

We loved it!!

Here's the four of us on the boat, after

we went para sailing!

Ryan and I had such a good time with the Wyeths, although

toward the end of our trip we all began to miss

our kids, just a little. It was so nice to get away for a little

and not worry about diaper bags, sippy cups, bottles, and wet wipes!

We appreciate all who helped with Blake and Kenzie... although

we came home to TWO SPOILED kids!!! :)

They both had a great time on their little vacations!!