Aaaaaah Hav-aii

One month ago, we were in paradise: Maui. Still not sure why we came back unless it was to share all our fabulous pictures. I am ready to return, already. We took over 700, yes seven hundred, pictures. I will spare you and try to hit some highlights.

This was our favorite snorkeling spot, Honolu'a Bay and Makulei'a Bay. They are in a marine life reserve and the snorkeling was amazing. The water was so blue, the pictures don't do it justice. My mostest favorite thing was an octupus! It was gi-normous and we followed it around for the better part of an hour, just watching it changes colors and textures. So very, very cool.


We saw schools of fish and every tropical fish you could imagine, Parrot fish, butterfly fish, trumpet fish and on and on.Somehow this little spot gets the fish that you normally only see deep-sea diving but it's an amazing sheltered reef so we lucked out snorkeling. Oh, and we saw an eel. An 8 foot moray eel! Ewwwwh. Luckily it was swimming away from us.



I can't decide what was my next favorite thing. Perhaps the luau? Or maybe the beaches? Or Hana, the tropical rainforest. Let's start with the luau. Yummy food and great show. And just a really cool picture:
I had so much fun using the Digital SLR camera. I went "tourist" all the way. But I'll spare you most of the luau pictures.


I really loved driving through Hana. It's this rainforest on the backside of Hawaii. It has hundreds, thousands of waterfalls, huge bamboo and other vegetation and the road winds like you woldn't believe. The road trip is probably less than 100 miles and yet takes 6 hours to drive. Here is the first waterfall we hiked to: Many of the waterfalls you can see from the road but when you hiked back, you got to walk through all the cool trees. This is one of the newer bamboo forests, most were 20 times taller.














And here is another waterfall:













And as you drive higher up the moutains you could stop and look out over the ocean.

And every look out is prettier than the next.


Just a cool pic that Brad took:



I am having a hell of a time narrowing down the pictures, as you can tell. Only two more things on the road to Hana. The black sand beach was really cool and REALLY hot, as you can imagine black sand would be. I don't know what my fascination is with toes in the sand but I always take this same picture whenever at a beach.









This is from the beach looking out back at the rocks and beach:


I had forgotten how lush and vivid everything was.











And last, after the road to Hana, there was the seven sacred ponds, or in the off season, the seven sacred holes where water might have been but now there are exactly 2 ponds with a million tourists crammed in.

From all the pictures in the brochures, it could be really amazing.......if you go in the right season which is November - March. Guess we'll just have to take another trip here again soon!

Oh my hell. This post is getting super long and I've only covered 3 days! Ok, I'll try to do the rest in fast forward:

Sunsets; gorgeous every night




Fabulous beaches. An amazing one right across from our hotel in Kihei:



Super fun little seaside shopping district in Lahina. I mighta been not so keen on posing for pictures:

And right there in Lahina is one of the oldest bayan trees in the world. It spans an entire city block. One tree. It was very cool in person. The tree gets so big that it sends roots out from each branch to the ground to support itself. Again, a must see in person.


Here is one of the few pictures of Brad and I. We were eating at a yummy resturant right on the beach. There was just so many wonderful things to take pictures of, that we forgot to turn the cameras on ourselves!

There are about a million other things we did but I'm tired just remembering it all! It was the perfect trip with the perfect person. The last picture is me showing my love for the hubbie, writing in the sand. So very sappy.

Buffalo, deer & bears, oh my!

Although you might find yourself in the middle of a June snowstorm, West Yellowstone Park is worth the 6 hour drive from Salty. We were not ready for the 20 degree temps and had to rush to the closest Wal-mart and get some warm clothes.


For years, our friends, the Williamsons', have been inviting us to come to their beautiful cabin in Island Park and we finally saw what we'd been missing. I've been to Yellowstone Park as a child and my memories were that of a hot, sweaty road trip in a 1985 Dodge Caravan. Not would you would call "fond" memories.

I had forgotten how cool it was to see the buffalo, deer and bears roaming through the park. Admittedly, it was also a wee fun to specualte which tourist was going to get too close and get chased. (Not mauled or anything. Just scare them a bit.)



And then on to the hot pots. How did I not remember how beautiful they were? I'm sure, as a kid, the only thing I could do was plug my nose. If you haven't been there, think of steamy rotten eggs, maybe served in a stinky gym shoe? Yeah, pretty bad but worth it.




Of course, we saw the "Old Faithful" gyser (which is either getting smaller or my memory is exaggerated). Still fun to photograph, I suppose.
















Thank you Bill, Collen, Bart, Angi and Mia! Wonderful trip with wonderful company!

It's raining men!

Somehow we managed to have 4 boys in our family, all with April birthdays. (Get it? April showers? Raining men? Oh, shut up.)



Forgive the excessive amount of pictures but clearly, my wit is lacking today. The birthday party itself was little more than candles, cake and ice cream but as always, plenty of laughter.

2 of the BDay boys, Brad and Tracy blow out their candles. Ethan is playing Fire Marshal, given the extraordinary number of candles required for both geezers. Somehow, Josh, who was also a BDay boy, managed to escape the candle picture.

It was really fun to celebrate my nephew, Raine's first birthday. And he is so stinkin' cute that he needs a separate slide show.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOYS!

Jolly's Friday

Last Friday, after a decent/good day at work, I climb into my car and look over at the passenger seat to see this:



My sweet husband had left me my favorite chocolate covered fruit and the cute little rabbit. Which I immediately named "Jolly" for obvious reasons. Damn! I am one lucky lady!

The one thing

There is only one thing that would make me leave the house and into public looking this "fabulous". And that one divine thing is c.o.f.f.e.e. Blessed coffee(drive-through, of course). Girl has her pride.

I feel pretty, oh so pretty!

I believe that there comes a time in every woman's life that she realizes she has run right into her 30's without even considering the consequences. For me, it has taken 2 full years to understand how different things are going to be.

Not that I was ever some great beauty but I can be honest and say that on a regular-basis men flirted and hit on me. Sometimes they were good looking, sometimes not-so-much. But at the very least I had my moments. Then, at 28, I met Mr. Right and no longer cared if I was turning heads. Recently, it has come to my attention that perhaps the reason I haven't noticed the "male attention" isn't just the wedding ring. I am now entering my middle-aged-ness. A fact that I have been lamenting for the last few months. But alas, today, my self-esteem took a rise.

On my way to work, I noticed my tire was very low. So, I stopped at a near gas station to fill it up. Now, mind you, I was on my way to work. I was wearing a black, baby-doll style DRESS. Yes, dress. Luckily, with my 32-years has come a little self-respect and I made sure that nothing was being flashed as I filled my tires.

Then I hear some guy call to me. He's in a fancy silver SUV and about to drive out of the parking lot. I look up and see a rather nice looking man with his window down, hollering to me. Ok, so he was hot!, but nonetheless. I couldn't understand him-with the air pressure in my ear and all- so I just shook my head a few times and he drove off. (I'm thinking to myself that he was probably offering to help but I shook my head. But, duh! I'm in a dress, on a windy day, trying to fill my tires. Of course I need some friggin help. Do you really need to ask?)

So, I finish up and am about to climb in the car when Mr. Hottie pulls up next to me. (Again, my thoughts were that he really was nice and came back to help.) He rolls his window down and pulls out his phone. I smile, ready to decline his offer and thank him anyway, when much to my surprise and sheer delight, he says, "Do you think I could get your phone number and call you sometime?" I am caught so completely off guard that I am speechless for a moment. He then notices my ring and says (very disappointedly), "oh, are you married?". I want to scream from the top of my lungs, "I feel pretty! oh so pretty!" Of course, I politely tell him I am happily married but I am flattered. And did I mention that he was hot?

Oh, how delicate the female ego.

Just so you clearly understand how very good looking he was, let's pretend like this was him:



My thanks to you, Mr. Hottie for the restoration of my self-esteem!

Valentine's 2009

Aka, another fabulous day that you get flowers! Even as fabulous as my husband is, he is like most men in believing that flowers are too expensive and a general waste of money. And like, most wives, I tell him he is wrong. And since he loves me, he sucks it up and makes the day special. He outdid himself this year, so I dedicate this post to my wonderful hubbie.

The flowers:



















The jewelry (I love colored pearls):














The spoiled wifey (with the very big grin!):














We went to the Melting Pot fondue club for dinner and it was fabulous! We celebrated with some of our favorite friends, Summer & Brian. The restaurant did a special for Valentine's Day, with the "Valen-tunes". Hee hee. A group of high school boys singing Acapella. The restaurant had a special sweetheart menu and gave us great little gift bags. It was really well done. I would recommend it but get reservations like 3 months in advance. Well worth it! And the best part, dessert that we could have bathed in, the harmony chocolate pot:






And lest you think that I didn't give any love to my man, I sent him yummy gourmet cheesecake and chocolate covered strawberries: And I didn't even expect him to share (which of course he did anyway!).