ALOHA

 Aloha!  Last week Ryan and I knocked off one of the items on my "bucket" list and had a wonderful and relaxing time in Hawaii! My company offers a sales award trip every 2 years and I qualified. It is hard to say no to a free trip so away we went! The destination for myself and a guest this year was Oahu, Hawaii! Ryan was my lucky guest! We had always said that Hawaii would be a great place to go for our 10 year anniversary. Our 10 year is here this September so we extended the trip to explore another Hawaiian island, Maui!

 The first day we were up very early with the time change.  We decided it would be a good day to hike the volcano, Diamond Head.  Although it was a little cloudy, the views at the top were breathtaking.

 

Tuesday we spent the day on the beach and went to a Luau that night.  It was a fun experience.

We received the typical shells and leis when we arrived!

 On Wednesday, we took a tour of the north shore where some of the top beaches in the world are found...or so I am told!  We had a great tour guide that showed us spots where Jurassic Park, Lost and Forgetting Sarah Marshall were filmed. The views were breathtaking! We spent some time on a couple different beaches and even went stand-up paddling. We were supposed to go boogie boarding as well but the waves were to big.

 Waimea Bay

One of our stops was at Pipeline where the worlds best surfers surf. It was fun to watch them and more interesting, they had an ambulance waiting on site. The waves were huge!

A quick stop to visit the Hawaiian Green Sea Turtles on another beach

 

 On Thursday we island jumped to Maui!  That is my favorite island of the two so far.  I cashed in all of my Hilton points and we spent the next 3 nights at a beautiful resort, The Grand Wailea, A Waldorf Astoria hotel. The pool area and beach area were wonderful! I felt like I was on my honeymoon all over again! As much as I missed my kids, it was fun to be just Ryan and I for a week!

 The view from the lobby of our hotel

 My fruity drink concoction at dinner!

Ask Ryan where the best Mai Tai is! He tasted many that week and can tell you his favorites!

We went on a sunset cruise one of the evenings!

We were lucky and a lot of whales were out swimming and showing off! Ryan caught one in action with his camera!

 The sunset was beautiful!

Our last full day in Maui was spent eating, drinking and soaking in as much sun as we could! The morning started off right with mimosas on our balcony.

 

 

 Listen to the waves crash and feel like you were there with us!

 A view of the sunset from our hotel

Ryan's old roommate, Brady and his wife Kim were visiting Maui the same time and were 4 hotels down from us. We were able to get together with them by the pool and for dinner on our last night.

 Brady and Ryan

Ben and Alex were having fun with Nana and Papa while we were gone!  Unfortunately, they were busier with the kids than they thought they would be! Alex was sick from Friday before we left until the following Thursday and was not able to go to day care. Two doctor trips later, he was diagnosed with a double ear infection.  I hope you were able to enjoy your extra Alex bonding time Nana and Papa!  Thank you so much for taking such good care of the boys so we were able to get away!

 Fortunately everyone was healthy by the weekend, in time for one of my Huettl cousins wedding. Ben and Alex were able to represent our family.  I think they had more fun without us anyways!

Lindsey had 2 dates for the evening!  

 

I am told that Nana and Lindsey had fun teaching Alex to dance!

 Home sweet home! I missed these boys! It was so nice to get my arms around them again!

Until the next time Hawaii! I am already dreaming of going back, especially since it is negative degree temperatures here!