exploring maui: the blowhole

 The second or third day of our trip (it all kinda blurs together now...) we drove North from our hotel, 
to find some neat beaches, cliffs, and a blowhole.

The parking lot is just a little dirt pullout on the side of the road, and here's the "trail."

And you gotta love the official signs posted along the hillside: 

Thoroughly warned, we made our way down the rocks.

 The way the ocean spray has eaten away at these rocks was fascinating. It looked like an alien landscape of some sort.

 And then, we found the blowhole. And it was awesome.
Water from the ocean gets forced up into lava tubes below the surface and it comes blasting out of this hole at the top.
It took some patience, but we did get to see it really shoot out a few times.

I liked standing on this side best: the spray from the water was great for cooling me off. 

 As we started our hike back up the hill, I noticed a couple of people off to the left. 
The best part about traveling without kids is that you have time (and energy!) to explore--no where to be, no one whining, or needing to use the potty...
I clambered around the corner and found this:

 A perfect heart shaped hole in the rock! I couldn't believe it! (I'm still not 100% convinced this is entirely naturally made....)

We didn't have any water left after this little hike. It was 92 degrees that day and humid. So as we drove back home, when we saw a man selling ice cold coconuts,
we just had to stop.

 And crossed off something from Kent's bucket list: drink from a coconut.
We paid for one coconut to share, and as the (huge!) Hawaiian man was chopping it open with his machete, he asked us where we were from. 
When we told him Utah, he asked if we are Mormon.
Yep.
He got so excited about that. He told us his parents are active members, and then he gave us another coconut and a big bunch of apple bananas for free.
I'm pretty sure that was the first time I've received a gift just for being LDS. 

When we got home, we spent the afternoon swimming at our beach, then
we ended the night with a massive slice of Hula Pie and a sunset.

Maui: little favorites

 Buying fresh fruit from roadside stands: a Hawaii must-do. Kent loves the passion fruit, while I go for the "apple bananas."

 We weren't huge fans of Front Street in Lahaina--lots of shops and restaurants and "tourists" (I know, I know, I was a tourist too, and I'm being judgy....but I wasn't drunk, or wearing a neon pink Hawaiian flower-print strapless mini dress and a shell necklace, buying overpriced souvenirs, or asking where I could watch a Luau....)
BUT, we did go there a few times because we'd heard amazing things about Ululani's Shave Ice. 
And people, all the things we heard were true.
This is ice turned into something unbelievably creamy, with flavors that were so perfect, so tropical. Put some coconut ice cream on the bottom and some Mochi on the top and...mmmmm.

We found a tiny little spot of beach between two restaurants, and that became "our spot" where we'd sit and watch the waves in the dark, eat our shaved ice, and just talk. Perfection.

 Just the two of us, exploring the island, trying to find a particular beach with some crazy rocks.
We didn't find the beach, but we did find a hammock. 

At the end of the week we agreed that Maui has the best beaches of the islands we've been to. The beach our hotel was on (Ka'anapali,) was our absolute favorite. Crystal clear water, soft sand for about 10 feet out, perfect for just swimming, and then a gorgeous reef with lots of fish, and lots of turtles!

We did so much snorkeling on this trip, we actually ended up just buying our own snorkel gear. We went out a couple of times a day to snorkel, and our beach was our favorite place to go.

 One night, we attempted to go night swimming here at our beach.  
But as we got closer and closer to that dark, dark ocean, I got less and less brave about the idea.
The moon was full and bright, though, so we stood in the surf for a minute (just up to our ankles!) and watched the way the moonlight sparkled in the waves. Gorgeous. And then, a very large, slow-moving shadow swam past us, only a couple of feet from our toes. 
We backed out for certain then.
I'm pretty sure it was a turtle. Yeah, I'm going with a turtle.

 The day we did the Road to Hana (amazing!), we were so exhausted when we finally got home, that a restaurant sounded very tiring. So we found a place making pizzas in a brick oven in a parking lot (Pizza Connection for anyone interested-we highly recommend it!), bought a couple of fantastic pizzas, some lemonade, and took them down to our beach to eat in the sand while the sun set.
We ate in the peaceful golden light, watched tiny crabs come out of the sand, and it felt so good to just relax after such a long long day.

Getting lost on Hawaii is always fun. This awesome pine-lined road was not the way were supposed to go, but it was super cool!

Fresh juices. POG (Passion-Orange-Guava) is our favorite. I think we went through three or four cartons of it while we were there.

Also on the good list: 
Melona Bars. Also known as "Paradise on a Stick." Honeydew melon flavored ice cream bars, from Korea, I think. SO good.

Napping. Any time of day, whenever we felt like it, with no little ones to object, we took a nap.  Sometimes more than once a day.  To my recovering-from-first-trimester self, this was glorious.

Leoda's pies.  If I ever go back to Maui, it might be because of these pies. Mini pies: banana cream, coconut, key lime, chocolate macadamia...we'd buy them, then take them back and eat them on our balcony, or on our bed while we watched HGTV late at night. I've seriously never had a better pie than that banana cream was.

Fabiani's pizzeria, in Kihei. We ate here on our way to the airport on Tuesday night, and we were wishing we'd gone earlier, because we would have been there over and over again! What a place--all the food was amazing, but the best part was the lilikoi (passion fruit) roulade: 

Strolling hand in hand after the sun went down.  Midday it was actually pretty hot (think 91 and 75% humidity,) so that was typically when we'd take one of those naps I mentioned. But after the sun went down, and with a slight tropical breeze? Just lovely.

early morning catamaran

Our very first morning in Hawaii we scheduled an "early-bird" snorkeling cruise to the Molokini crater.  

We figured we'd still be on Utah time, so waking up would be no problem, and we were right. I was up at 3:30 that morning, wide awake and ready to go!  

 The catamaran picked us up right on the beach, and we got to watch sun rise over the mountains as we waited for the boat to pull in.  
That early morning light on the ocean? I think it's one of my favorite things about Hawaii. The colors are incredible!

Going in the early morning is the way to do it, we decided.  Our boat had about 30 people on it, and it was just us out there, exploring the crater and swimming all around.  

The boat crew said that later in the day, there can be as many as 1500 people at Molokini.  The crater isn't really that large, I can't even imagine that many people there!

This part of the island, Kihei, was about an hour away from where we stayed, but we both agreed that it was one of our favorite areas. So beautiful, green, peaceful!  (So much like Kauai....which is still my most favorite island.)

After our boat trip, we drove to a restaurant to try out the eggs benedict, a favorite dish on Maui--most restaurants served their own "famous" eggs benedict. We arrived at the restaurant, then drove straight back to the beach where we'd gotten off the boat.

Kent had left his credit cards in the bathroom there when we changed out of our swimsuits.
This type of thing typically occurs (from either one of us!) at least once on every trip we go on, so it was nice to get that out of the way on the first day. (And at least we weren't on our way to the airport this time!)

We retrieved Kent's wallet, then headed back to the restaurant again.  By the time we were finished, it was only 10 am.  Waking up early each morning was so fun to me--we could do a ton of stuff, and then we still had the whole day ahead of us!

why this trip was different

Our trip to Maui was all about relaxing.
We did lots and lots of exploring, because that's just what we like to do,
but we also did lots of relaxing.

Normally, when we travel, we're fairly adventurous.
Our trip to Mexico last year included cliff diving, cave swimming, renting wave runners on the ocean, deep sea fishing and snorkeling, and an unintentionally long beach hike.

As we planned our trip to Maui, we considered ziplining, biking down a volcano, surfing, scuba diving, hiking, horseback riding, and even spear fishing.

But we didn't do any of that.
Because

we were protecting a tiny special Someone,
who we can't wait to meet,
sometime around St. Patrick's Day, March 17th.

We're over the moon excited.
I just love babies.

we're back. and sleepy.

 We left Hawaii at 10:30 pm last night (2:30 am Utah-time...) and arrived home today at 3 pm. 
We're sleepy.
And still kinda sluggish from the island life we got to enjoy for the past week.
Driving home from the airport today we realized we were going five under the speed limit and hanging out in the slow lane, and we were okay with it! (If you know Kent, you'll understand how uncharacteristic this is.)

We had the most relaxing, happy, refreshing, lovely week on Maui.

I've always said, there's just something about Hawaii that gets in your blood. And no matter how many times you go, you'll always be longing to go back.

The phrase I said the most often on this trip was a sigh followed by, "I just love Hawaii."  
And I do.

There's lots to tell you about, but for now, a few pictures of this place that I love.  I need some sleep before I can write coherently about the rest.

the little ones

Kent and I are home alone tonight. 
We just dropped the kids off with my parents,
our flight to Maui leaves early early early tomorrow morning.

It's weird to be home without the little ones.

A few days ago, I pulled out my camera every so often and took pictures,
just of our day.

This life, as a mother, 
is hard.  It's hard and it's glorious.  These little ones need me,
and I need them.

Because, with each bathtime, each mealtime (six or seven times a day it seems!), each tantrum, each time I have to fish a toy out of the toilet, each time they throw their beads all over the floor right after I cleaned up, each time out and each lesson, each walk around the block, each storytime, each underdog on the swings at the park, each time I sit down and deliberately teach them something, each squeezing hug and each slobbery kiss on my cheek,
I'm becoming more of the woman I want to become, the woman my Father in Heaven wants me to become.

It isn't easy. Far from it.  And most days I have moments where I feel like I'm going to go mad with the repetition, the do-a-job-then-do-it-all-over-agains.

But I've been trying, in those moments, to think of a scripture:

"Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these, my brethren,
ye have done it unto me."

"For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty and ye gave me drink...

"Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me."

(Matthew 25: 35, 36, 40)

It's hard to stay frustrated with the tiresome parts of my job when I think about these verses. As I serve them, feed them, clothe them, nurse them, teach them, and refill their cups each time they're "firsty," I'm serving these dear ones and I'm serving my Savior.  How can I resent my work?

These little ones.
I love them so.

And when we come home in a week, I'm going to remind myself to gladly clean up their beads, just so they can dump them all out again in a few minutes.  And then I'll work on teaching them to clean up for themselves, even when they're suddenly "SOOOO tired!"

Because that's what mommies do.