Aloha!!

I guess I should start off by saying, "Aloha!" as Todd and I just returned from a fabulous

trip to Maui.

Thanks a TON to "Grammy" who flew up from Oregon to watch the kids for the week. I could do a whole separate post on the "Rowell Olympics", games they played, croquet tournaments, each kid getting to pick meals for the day, etc. etc. The kids had a blast and

so did we! Thanks Grammy, you Rock!!

Picture of Grammy with Nathan & Tyler at Christmas

The night before we left, Nathan kept waking up during the middle of the night crying that he didn't want us to leave. We tried to comfort him and put him back to bed, but a little while later, he would be back up crying. He even told us that he was going to say a prayer that we wouldn't go to "Who-why". (That is how he says Hawaii) Since our plane was leaving at 6am, we had to get up at 3:30 am. We could NOT go to sleep, we were just too excited. We kept saying, "I can't believe that we are going to be in Hawaii tomorrow! " We FINALLY fell asleep at 1:30am, and that is when Nathan's visits began. So after getting about 2 hours of sleep, I put on my

"Beach or Bust" shirt and off we went to the airport...

Re-enactment photo

We flew into Seattle and then on to Maui. Because of the 3 hour time difference, we arrived in Maui at 11:15 am. We drove straight to our condo right on the ocean in Kahana, marveling that we were really in Maui. We opened the door to our condo and were thrilled as the Hawaiian music was playing as the ocean waves were crashing below us. It was awesome. We looked around a bit and decided that we would go straight to the beach. We went to one of our favorite beaches to swim at... Napili Beach. We played in the water and enjoyed being together ALONE. We stopped for sandwiches on the way home and took them back to eat on our lanai (that is what the Hawaiians call a balcony). We decided to lay down for "just a few minutes" and then were going to clean up and watch the sunset. We woke up 2 hours later and it had already set. We were exhausted from no sleep, and the time difference...

Saturday we woke up and went to our favorite breakfast restaurant, The Gazebo. It is right on Napili Bay and worth the wait. And you really do have to wait awhile. One of their specialties is Banana Macadamia Nut pancakes...

After breakfast, we headed over to the Maui Flea Market (Todd's favorite part- ya, right) and stopped at the store on the way home. Then we headed over to a beautiful beach called Kapalua, that is known for it's awesome snorkeling. We saw lots of cool fish, including the biggest puffer fish I had ever seen!! We went home and got cleaned up and went to one of our favorite restaurants for dinner, Leilani's...

It is right on the ocean in Kaanapali, and we were able to watch the sunset there.
Very romantic!

On Sunday, Todd made us breakfast and we ate on our lanai.

We decided that we would drive part way to Hana. Those of you who have ever driven the whole way to Hana, know just how long it takes. They even sell shirts that say, "I survived the road to Hana!" There are a lot of one lane bridges, beautiful view, twists and turns, and waterfalls, beaches, etc etc. We had driven the whole way about 10 years ago and so we just went part of the way this time...

We stopped along the way and hiked up to Twin Falls, it was a really pretty hike. But I probably should have picked better shoes than flip flops to hike in.

The waterfalls were really neat.....

And those much braver than us, jumped off the top... NO thank you!

This is a peninsula on the way to Hana. It is one of my favorite places. There is all this black lava rock, and the water is the most beautiful color. The waves just crash against the rocks, it is absolutely amazing!

We ate our sandwiches there, in the car, because it was just SO windy. You wanna know just how windy it was? Check this out...

LOVE the hair!! My kids think this picture is pretty funny!

The views were fantastic...

The flowers were beautiful...

But, the company was the best!

See? Windy!!

We drove home and decided that we would watch the sunset on the beach right outside

our condo...

I LOVE this picture!

What a fun day!

"Zip" on by later in the week to see what what we did on the rest of our trip...