Aloha!

Much to our boys dismay, Ryan and I left them with his family and went to Maui at the end of May. Rex in an effort to talk us into taking him with us told us that he liked to go to the beach and he liked to snorkel so he should get to go to Hawaii too. Try explaining to your 6 year old why Mom would have more fun without him. Not easy! But we did leave him and Jett and Asher and enjoyed our adult time very much. Since our 10 year anniversary was coming up we didn't feel to bad splurging on the trip and since my cousin LeeAnne and her husband Rhett's anniversary just past we made them come along. They came in super handy when Ryan and I didn't agree on just how long was too long to go snorkeling. Rhett was a great "buddy" for Ryan because they both like to play. Plus they make a cute couple.

So I was in charge of booking the hotel for the trip (Not a good idea as I have a terrible track record with Orbits-just ask Trevor and Elizabeth who stood outside of there hotel for a couple hours on there honeymoon night while we explained to the hotel that I had booked the hotel for the night before...funny now, not funny then. Well in my effort to be cheap I booked the second cheapest hotel (the first being the resort with Gay in the title) and was reminded that the saying "you pay for what you get" should be taken seriously. In my defense there was defiantly some false advertising going on. So if you find yourself wondering if the Aston Maui Lu is a good idea for you please see the following pictures instead of the ones on their web sight. After one night at the Lu we decided it was worth bunking up with the Udall's for a night in order to get into a better place. Everyone was much happier after that.

On our first day of adventure we went on the road to Hana. This is my favorite part of Maui. The road is a 4 hour drive down some crazy ravine that leads to a small town called Hana. It takes so long because you stop along the way at different beaches and waterfalls plus the road is often one lane around turns that you have zero visibility. Here are some of the things we got to see...

cool trees... more cool trees... Ryan swinging from the vines that grew up cool trees... lots of picture ops... this is LeeAnne dreaming of being home were she rules.... super awesome beaches... crazy waves... me proclaiming my love for my Ryan in the black sand... Ryan and Rhett jumping off cliffs... feet on black sand beaches.. my hottie and me ...

A local told us that instead of turning around in Hana and heading back along the same road we should just keep going. She said the road was bad but no biggie. We had a jeep so we went for it! Boy were we sorry! Instead of taking us the 6 hours to make the round trip it took us over 9. This was the same local that gave us 150 dollars to listen to her time share spill. I think she was trying to get even. Her wasted time for ours. Mahalo.

Some pictures from our snorkeling. I will spare you the under water ones we took. We had a 7 hour layover on the big island so we rented a car for the day and headed out to see the sites. Our flight came into Kona which is not the swankiest part of the island. This is us on a beach in Kona. We could not find much to do but it was better than sitting in the airport for the 7 hours. We ended up shopping at a Target to pass time. We were so ready by this point to get back home to see the kids! This is the temple in Kona (who knew there were two temples in Hawaii?). It was so pretty but all locked up for the memorial day holiday. A blast was had by all. I will leave you with this sweet picture of our hubbies showing up the Hula Hunk from our luau. Boy was he surprised!