Hawaii: Part 1

Wow, it has taken me long enough to finish these posts!!  We took a trip to Hawaii with Matt's family in October.  His parents were awesome to organize it all and it was so fun to meet everyone there for the week of our lives!  This trip was such a blessing for us.  Matt was burnt out in school and after our failed IVF it was so nice to have something to look forward to!

Getting to Maui was exhausting.  Here is an outline of our journey:

1. Drive 2.5 hours to Chicago

2. Stay in a hotel

3. Wake up at 4 am to catch a shuttle to the O'Hare airport

4. Chicago to San Fran flight is delayed and we stress about making our connection

5. Fly 4.5 hours from Chicago to San Fran

6. Barely make our flight from San Fran to Honolulu

7. Fly 6+ hours from San Fran to Honolulu

8. Airlines won't transfer our bags so we run through the airport, collect them, and take a shuttle to another terminal where we go through security and run through the airport to catch our flight.  I can't complain too much though because the rest of the family missed their connection in Honolulu and we made ours even though it was close.

9. Fly 30 minutes from Honolulu to Maui

10. Wait for a couple hours for everyone else to filter in

Lots of prayers were answered along the way.  There is no way we should have made some of those connections.  In the end, I really can't complain because we WERE traveling 4,261 miles to HAWAII. :)  I've never been to Hawaii so I soaked it all in.  It really is paradise.  I took lots of pictures so I had to split the trip into a few posts.

We were grateful for the neck pillows we bought for the flights--Matt liked mine better...

So fancy! ;)  And they say REAL men wear pink... more like REAL men wear leopard print.

The resort where we stayed did not disappoint.  It was right on the beach and everything there was beautiful!

We arrived in Maui late (for us) on Friday night.  We didn't realize there weren't ovens in the rooms and grabbed some uncooked pizzas on the way in from the airport.  Matt and James were responsible for this mess.  Good idea guys...

This was our room.

And, just in case you aren't convinced that our resort was pretty awesome, this was the view from our window.  I just kept thinking about how grateful I am for this beautiful world we live in--it's incredible!

They had a few different pools and waterfalls, but we spent all our time at the beach.

Here is the view as you're walking out to the beach

And, just another view from the other side of the resort.

On Saturday Christian and Steph went surfing--they were awesome and it was so fun to watch.  They are more brave than I am.  I was terrified of sharks from day one.

We swam while they surfed and I lost one of my water shoes.  Yep, my first time wearing them on day one of the trip and I lose one. :P  After surfing we went back to the resort and did some swimming and snorkeling there.

Matt and I on the beach!

This was Matt's first time snorkeling and he was obsessed!  We started joking that he needed to start attending Snorkelers Anonymous to address his snorkeling addiction. :)

While snorkeling we swam with and pet a sea turtle--it was incredible!  We also saw some sting rays and eel and a ton of other fish.  It was awesome.  I was always done after about 15-20 minutes and Matt would easily snorkel for an hour.

After swimming for most of the day we made our way to this cute town and went to dinner at Cheeseburgers in Paradise.  It was this cute little restaurant right on the ocean.  The food was delicious and there was live music.

Christian, Michael, Me, Matt, Stephie-Lynne, James, and Stacie

Matt's dad kept talking about this cruise ship so we had to get a picture with it.

And, then we had to take a picture of it for posterity.  :)

Stephie, James, Mom, Dad, Stacie, Christian, Michael, Steph, Me, and Matt at dinner.

And here we are!  Looking a little worn out after a long day in the sun.

On Sunday we got up and went to church.  It was really cool to attend church in Hawaii and there were SOOOOOO many cute polynesian babies.  It was the best.  It was a really spiritual meeting--the people there are so humble.  After church we snuck in a little more beach time.

Steph and James

Me and Stephie--love her

Haha, then we made James and Matt pose together and they tried to pretend they didn't like it...

Until the GQ in them came out in full force.

And... here is Matt snorkeling again.  Big surprise. :)

No one wanted to snorkel as much as Matt so sometimes people would just keep watch and be his "buddy" from the shore.  Here is James fulfilling buddy duty for Matt.

Ahh... the beach.  It's good for the soul.

I thought it was kind of funny that I happened to be reading this book while laying on the beach in Hawaii.

  Yes, yes it is.

Stay tuned for more posts coming soon!