Maui

We were blessed to go on another company funded trip this year. Rob's company provided us with a condo in Maui this time. Our friends Jake and Ashley fly for free (he's a pilot) so we invited them to come and crash the place for a few days. We met them there Tuesday afternoon. After a quick trip to Costco to stock up on groceries, we made it to the resort. It was by far the nicest place we've ever stayed at. We had a great room overlooking a huge koi pond,

the pool, and a slice of the ocean!

We spent the day hanging out in the pool. One of the pools had a water slide. It must be designed for kids because none of us could go very fast down it. We had some pretty good laughs watching each other skid down the slide! After grilling up some burgers for dinner, we headed down to the spa, for a nice relaxing evening.

Wednesday we went to Boss Frogs to rent some snorkel gear. We went and snorkeled on the beach right in front of our resort, and it was amazing all the fish we saw. We even saw a turtle! After Ashley and I had our fill we went to hang out on the beach while the boys snorkeled some more. They were out there forever!
When the boys finally came in we got cleaned up and headed out to get some dinner at Kobe Steakhouse.

Thursday morning we had reservations to go zip lining. They started by getting us all geared up. The guys were cracking us up as they were striking a pose, showing off their accentuated backsides!

Once we were ready we hiked up some stairs to the first platform. They hooked us all up, and we were off. I won't lie, I was pretty nervous going the first time, while Jake and Ashley looked like pros...

Rob was pulling off some sweet moves of his own...

I must say, we did look pretty awesome in all that gear! :)

We spent the afternoon split between the pool and the beach, and then went down to Lahaina to the Cool Cat Cafe. It was a great little place with great food and a live two-man band that was really good. After dinner we spent the evening walking the main street with all the shops, and came across this park with a huge banyan tree. Banyan trees grow horizontally and shoot down roots from the branches to create more trunks. It was planted in 1873 and now covers 2/3 of an acre and has 12 major trunks. It was pretty amazing to see. I wish we could have been there during the day to get a better picture of it.

Friday we the boys rented snorkeling gear and we drove up to Honolua Bay. While the guys snorkeled Ashley and I hung out on the beach, got some reading in and worked on our tans. :)

Later that evening we were invited to attend a Luau with Rob's coworkers. It was at the Hilton down the road. After we checked in we had some time before they would seat us, so we went for a walk to check out the hotel grounds. There was a great park like area with some flamingos just roaming around. Can you see them behind me??

The luau was fun. We watched them carry our pig right past us. I was drooling! (over the pig of course... I know you were thinking it!)

The food was so good. The roasted pork is just amazing. I was ready to go for another plate before Rob! The show was great too aside from the cheesy host all luau's seem to have. Their fire dancer was the best we've seen, he was so fast!

Saturday was Jake and Ashley's last day with us so we decided to make the trip to Hana that everyone said we needed to see. We hopped in the car and settled in for the 3 hour drive.

The drive was pretty spectacular. The road winds around the edge of the island, and you can see some amazing views.

We stopped off at a waterfall, and we were glad we brought our really stylish water shoes for the hike down!

The water was freezing! Ashley and I enjoyed laughing at the guys as they got in, but they were determined to dive off some rocks!

When we got to another lookout spot the rain was coming down pretty hard. We decided to send the boys up to take some pictures why we stayed warm in the car. They did get some nice shots...

...but then I found a series of goofy pictures, I guess boys will be boys.

We stopped at a few more waterfalls along the way.

The boys kept getting braver and making us more nervous, but they had a great time.

All along the drive there were road side stands selling food. Part way their Rob thought he needed to try one out. We stopped at a place and Rob got some ice cream. They served it with a coconut shell as a spoon. He offered me a taste, and I nearly threw up. One of the worst things I have ever tasted. It was chocolate and a spicy chili flavor. Sooo gross! Rob didn't seem to think that it was that bad.

Next we stopped at honokalani beach. It is an awesome black sand beach that is made up of tiny little lava pebbles.

There was a sea cave you could go into,

and a spot to climb up through for a good view. Rob and Jake wanted to jump from up there and I'm glad they decided not to, the waves hit so hard there.

We finally made it to seven pools at the end of the road. We hiked up and saw some more waterfalls.

It was starting to get late and we had to get Jake and Ashley to the airport so we headed back. We were sad to see our friends go, we had so much fun with them!

Sunday morning we went to church. It was interesting to see such a huge congregation, but to also notice that so many of them were visitors! I would imagine that it would be hard for the locals to consistently have so many tourists each week. After church we took it easy the rest of the day. We debated over what to do the next day since it would be our last full day in Maui. We decided to go to bed early because we knew we would be getting up early.

Monday morning started very early!!

We were in the car by 2:35am to head up to the 10,023 foot summit of Haleakala, Maui's sleeping volcano. It took a couple hours to get there, and it was FREEZING! I had on a t-shirt, 2 sweaters, 2 jackets and a blanket doubled over and wrapped around me and I still was frozen! I couldn't believe the difference in temperature from the rest of Maui.

Even before the sun came up the view was amazing. We couldn't believe how bright the stars were! We could see the milky way so clearly and a few planets too. We could see two different planets right where we were watching for the sun to come up.

The sunrise was awesome. As the sky started to light up, the clouds almost looked like ocean waves rolling in.

There is a huge crater up there. Once the sun was up we were able to get a good look at it.

We started heading back down the mountain, and quickly started peeling off layers. It was nice to feel our fingers again! We spent the afternoon down at the pool soaking up the sun.

That night we met up with Rob's coworkers for a sunset cruise. It was fun, until I started getting nauseous. I don't do too well on rocky boats.

The sunset was beautiful though.

After we got back to land we decided to walk the beach back to our hotel. Then we went out for a late dinner at Leilani's, a great restraunt on the beach. So yummy!

Tuesday we packed up our stuff and headed for home. I've never seen the sun set from a plane. It was pretty cool!

We were anxious to see our boys, so we headed straight up to the high desert so we could see them first thing in the morning! I'm so thankful for my sister and her family for taking care of them for us!! I think they had just as much fun as us!