Trying to adjust

We're safely back at home trying to adjust to the cold and snow. We had such a fun time in Hawaii, thanks so much to Brent and Jolene for the housing and also for being great tour guides. Thanks so much to my Mom and Dad for staying with the kids so that we were able to go on this unbelievable get-away, the kids had a blast as well. Thanks especially to my awesome husband who works so hard so that we are able to go places like this, we had such a fun time just being together and leaving all of the cares of the world behind for a few weeks. Love ya tons!! Well for now it's back to the real world (our real world really isn't too shabby just a little bit cold). We both loved it so much and had so much fun that we are planning another trip in two years (don't worry I won't put the countdown up quite yet)!!




It wasn't easy going from this....
to this.............overnight but we're adjusting.

Thought that this was funny. Chad refused to change into pants before we left.

Exploring Hana

Wow this tiny town has a lot to see. We started off by checking out some waterfalls.

Chad says that even in the middle of nowhere, I can always find a place to shop.

The Seven Sacred Pools

Crazy that palm trees can grow out of rock

Checking out some blow holes

Black Sand beach

Tomorrow we are going to take advantage of all the sun that we can get. We are so sad to be turning sunny beaches back into blizzards and ice storms but are so excited to be back home with our kiddos!!!

Road to Hana

We survived the road to Hana!!!
You'll cross 56 bridges and go around 617 hairpin turns on the Road to Hana. That's part of the fun and why it takes three hours to get there and it's only 52 miles.



Kite Surfing

Surfing

Fresh Fruit Stand at the start of one of the trails to the Water Falls.

Headed to the Falls

Giant Man eating plant or possibly a giant pineapple

One of the falls

Mom hiding in the bushes. These leaves are HUGE

Keanae

Hafway there we had to stop for some Shave Ice.

We made it! A view from the cottage.

The Cottage

Submarines, Cruises, and Whales

Today we had lots of fun, we started off by going on a semi-sub ride (the bottom is sub

merged but the top is out of the water. It was a lot of fun. We were able to see a Sea Turtle, some really pretty fish, and a baby Octopus.

There were two divers that would go down and get things off of the bottom to show us. This is a big piece of Coral.

Oh No!! Just Kidding it's been here for a long time

Ohhhhh so sweet!
We went to lunch today at the neatest little place called Hula Grill. It sat right on the Ocean. Our table was in the sand, so while the kids were having a snow day at home we were having lunch on a beautiful island at an ocean front restraunt in our shorts. OH YAH!!!

I just had to take a pic of Chad at this super cute phone booth.
Since we've been in Hawaii Chad and I have fallen in love with Haagen Das' "Pacific Plunge" smoothies. They have pineapple, coconut ice cream, fruit juice and sorbet. We're going to go into withdrawl when we get home

Ahhh liquid paradise!!

Tonight was absolutely incredible. We booked a Sunset Dinner Cruise. It was a cruise that was suppose to take us out, cruise around a little, feed us dinner, and bring us back. Well they cruised us over to a spot where there had been a lot of whale activity earlier, and OH MY GOSH it was the most spectacular thing ever. At one time we had about 8 humpback whales around our boat. These things are massive. The average size is between 30 and 40 feet long. The boats are not allowed to get closer than 100 yards away from a whale but at one time one surprised us and jumped probably only about 25 yards from our boat. It was so awesome usually all you'll get to see of a whale is a spray or a tail slap. We had them jumping clear out, we had one that did 23 tail slaps in a row(tails are 30 to 40 feet long tip to tip as well). We even had a mother and her baby (the mother would do something and then the baby would do the same). I just can't even begin to describe how awesome it was to see. We didn't get too many pics because there's no warning when or where they'll come up.

The sailboat that we went on

We totally cheated and took this off the internet but this is exactly what we saw more than once.

Tail Slap

Sprayin

What an amazing trip!

This Naval Ship was doing some training.

Somewhere over the Rainbow there is a beautiful Island called Maui

Chad on deck

Can't finish without a sunset pic

Tomorrow........ The Road to Hanna. If I don't blog you'll know that my head's in the toilet.