Our Week in Paradise

We just got back from the most amazing week in Hawaii. We had so much fun, the weather was 85 degrees and beautiful everyday, and it went by way too fast. Here's a few pictures from our trip...

This was on my birthday. We got up early in the morning, went for a run, went shopping, and went to the beach. That night we went to the Four Seasons Resort to eat at the most amazing restaurant called the Pahu i'a. It's right on the water, and watching the sun set was a great end to a perfect birthday. (I can't believe I'm 24. I'm getting so old, but I feel like I'm still 18. Weird.)

We were shocked when we walked into the place we rented out for the week. We never expected it to be so nice! We were seriously giddy to stay here. The kitchen was decked out with everything we needed. We went to Costco and another little local grocery store for food for the week, and it was nice to be able to pack lunches for our daily adventures and cook dinner on the BBQ. ( Although I think we all got sick of Cheerios and sandwiches.)

The boys were especially excited about the huge TV, which we didn't end up using much because who wants to be inside when it's so beautiful outside! They wondered whether or not the owner would realize it was gone if we took it home with us:).

Every night for the first few nights we tried to watch Stardust, but for some reason we were all out cold 5 minutes into the movie. I think the boys finally finished it by the end of the week, but it was funny how tired we were by the end of the day.

I wish we would've taken pictures of our meal that we ate out here on Valentine's Day. We had pasta with Italian sausage. It was yummy. I couldn't think of a better place to be on this day of love than with my wonderful husband in Hawaii! I love him with all my heart and think he's just so cute.

Sweet bathroom...we ended up having to take turns showering because the other shower didn't have hot water. It was ok cuz we were rarely in a hurry to get ready. Wait, did we ever really get ready?? Maybe once.

Isn't it so nice?

Pahu i'a, the restaurant at the Four Seasons. JD kept saying, "You know you're at a nice restaurant when the head coach of the Seatlle Seahawks [whatever his name is] sits next to you." He and Josh were quite star-struck.

Me and Meggy. How come I look like the pregnant one in this picture?

"I'll have the lobster." Don't know why I did it, just thought I'd splurge cuz it was my birthday. In the end it was quite delicious, but Josh and I both decided we didn't really love lobster, and it for sure wasn't worth the price! JD was more than happy to finish them off for us. It is so hard for me to spend a lot of money on food. It's gone so quickly, and I need to stop thinking about all the shirts I could've had instead of the plate of food! It drives JD crazy!

Megs and I have been friends for probably close to 20 years. We're more like sisters now, and I love having a friend like her that knows me so well and still likes me. It's so nice that Josh and JD have become such good friends because we all have tons of fun together. We probably need to start branching out more often so we don't lose our other friends :).

This was on our first hike. We drove through a cool little town called Hawi, got ice cream and shaved ice, and ended up where the road ends and you have to hike down to the beach. One day I really want to do the 8 day hike that takes you from here to Waipio Valley accross like 5 gorgeous remote valleys. (You can kinda get the idea in the picture below). I'm such a little kid when it comes to this, but I always want to go places no one really goes because it makes me feel like I'm discovering it.

You can't really see me very well in this picture, but while we were exploring the beach we found some rope swings. This one was the craziest because if you fell, you'd fall very far down a really steep hill. It looks like I'm flying!!

The men playing baseball with rocks. It's a good thing I stuck to soccer because my hand- eye coordination is just not good.

Beautiful sunset at Puako.

Cool tree and me, trying to be artistic.

The four of us with the cool tree. Ahhh! Why do I live in Utah??

On our way to Waipio Valley, we stopped off at a farmers market and ate some yummy treats. This crepe was heaven, but the nutella kinda made me sick.

Waipio is this beautiful, lush valley that you have to have 4 wheel drive to get to because the road down is crazy steep and you have to cross little rivers to get to the beach. I have some anxiety issues with 4 wheeling up steep places probably because we almost died with Eric driving a jeep at Lake Mead, (Remember that Sam?) but JD did amazing driving the truck and I'm so glad we went. This was the entrance of the hike we did up to some waterfalls.
You can see the waterfall through the trees. I think it's like 420 feet high and we were actually able to swim underneath it. It was a truly exhilerating experience. (Besides getting eaten alive by mosquitos! I counted 28 bites.) I'll have to get the pictures of us swimming from Megan.
Looking down from the top of Waipio.This was another great adventure. Poor JD was really sick this day and wasn't able to come with us to Napoopoo Bay and Captain Cook's monument. (Good thing he got his golf in the first two days.) So Megan, Josh and I piled onto a two person kayak and crossed the bay to snorkel the most beautiful reef on the island. I'm always amazed by how vibrant and unique the fish are. On the way over we looked for dolphins because they usually come there to play or whatever they do. We didn't see any, and were a little disappointed, but on the way back we got more than we bargained for...Right in front of us, all of the sudden there's a blow hole and then a massive humpback whale comes to the surface. Megan and I were freaking out! Josh wanted to get even closer, so he started paddling forward. I, on the other hand felt we were close enough to this giant thing, so I was paddling backwards as fast as I could. It was just so cool and so scary, and I'll never forget that moment! The picture is us trying to look scared.

This was our last day. We had to soak up every last bit of it. I could stay in that water forever. It's like a pool.

At the shops in Mauna Lani, the resort where we stayed.
Eating pizza at Cafe Pesto, one of our favorites when we lived there.

We spent many hours like this. What I would give to be doing that right now!

Great book to read while laying out. I think it's the pre-quel to DaVinci Code. I kinda wished I had something more girly, but this was fun. It gives me very action-packed dreams.

What a cute face. I just love him. I felt so bad that he was sick during our vacation. There's nothing worse!

Our last day our cousin Doug told us about this lava lube you can swim through with flashlights. It was pretty freaky, but that's what makes it fun. When we got back to our condo, we jumped in the pool and spa. We still had to pack, clean up, and get ready for dinner at Roy's Steakhouse, but we just were not ready to leave! We had a great dinner with JD's cousins and barely made our flight.


Aloha Hawaii! What a wonderful trip. Now it's back to real life. Good thing real life is great too :).