Paradise in Maui!!!

This post is long overdue! Oh my gosh. But with moving and a new house, birthdays, trips and holidays, I am finally now doing it. Jake and I went on a "second honeymoon" to Maui in May to celebrate our 6 year anniversary. I haven't posted about it yet because literally right when we got home we moved to CA! And all my pictures were taken on my father-in-law's super nice camera and so I had to get the memory card back to get all our Hawaii pictures. Anyways, I took hundreds, but these are the ones I have uploaded so far.

I wanted to post this on my blog in 2011 before it hits 2012 because this trip was definitely the highlight of 2011! These pictures can't even do it justice. Maui is really heaven on earth, paradise in every description. It was everything I hoped it would be and dreamed it would be. Jake and I had the most amazing time. We call it our second honeymoon, our first being to Cancun after we were married, because it was the second big trip we've gone on, alone, somewhere far away, with each other. It felt just like a honeymoon, even though we have 3 kids in 3 1/2 years under our belts. It was so easy to let the world slip away and be in this paradise island for 8 days together. What a dream come true. It is now our goal as a couple to go on a fantastic trip each year (or as best we can when there are no babies or pregnancies). It was the perfect time to get away and we had been looking forward to this trip for so long!  Each trip we go on we will count it as another honeymoon, so the next, will be our 3rd honeymoon :) I love that 6 years later it still felt the same, if not better, than our first honeymoon and I know it will always be like that with him until we are old and grey folks.

The kids did great while we were gone.(Taking them would have changed the entire trip!) I was a little nervous leaving Caleb who was17 months at the time. But he did great, thanks to Grandma Rae and many friends who helped us!

We stayed in a beautiful two bedroom, two bath condo right by the ocean. I have pictures I need to post of that when I have a chance to post the second half of this trip. Each day we hit the beach, explored the island in our little rental car, ate at amazing restaurants, met wonderful people, and fell in love all over again and with Maui.

Long walks on the beach, watching the sun go down, heaven!

Our first day! When we landed the view from the airplane was exactly as I pictured Hawaii. My heart was pounding, being my first time ever here, Jake has been a couple times, but we were so excited! We dropped off our luggage and hit the nearest beach!

When we checked in I received a box of my favorite things.... chocolate covered macadamia nuts with caramel. And on our pillows in the condo there were more! My lucky day.

Stopping by the fruit stand by Big Beach for some delicious fruit! Mango and pineapple, best ever. Meet our new friends, big mama, and humu. haha.

Very south end of Big Beach, before you hit the one lane roads of volcanic rock, our favorite beach. So beautiful!

Just breathtaking!

I don't think I have ever seen a more beautiful beach. Everyday we came here and ate lunch, drank our Guava juice that I became addicted to, surfed on boogie boards and basked in the Hawaiian sun!

Makena Cove is so beautiful! This is where we snorkeled and saw so many beautiful types of fish and coral reefs. It was very private and serene, you would miss it if you didn't have locals to tell you the best places to go!

The views from any place in Maui are perfect. Got my flower above my left ear, which means I'm taken and my kukui nut necklace, which used to be a sign of royalty :)

Every sunset was fabulous, every single one! After a long day we would head back to the beach near our condo and watch it go down. I hope I can watch sunsets with him forever.

Luau at the Marriott Resort. This resort was fantabulous! When we take the kids someday, we will be doing it here! It has the best views, and the most amazing kids play area that has a little fake beach for them to play in that sits right by the real beach, over looking it! Also with beautiful, white, flowing, elegant cabanas for mom and dad to relax in nearby. Amazing. The Luau was everything I dreamed it would be as well, and I had high expectations! It was amazing, entertaining, (yummy!) and so much fun! More pictures to come of that!

Jake's favorite thing to do :)

Loved the palm trees everywhere

Another highlight besides snorkeling, our Luau and boogie boarding, was our romantic dinner cruise! Jake surprised me with this and it was sooooo fun. We set sail right before the sun started going down, were served an amazing dinner for two, more guava juice and desserts, while a man played his ukelele near by on the boat. We watched the sun go down as we sailed right towards it. A dream. More pictures of that as well to come.

We also went para-sailing, which I have to get my water camera pictures uploaded to share. That was an amazing adventure, such a thrill! It was so exciting being 2000 feet above the ocean with a whole view of  Maui! Jake and I laughed so hard and shouted messages to each other no one would hear and held hands as we flew in the air being pulled by a boat.

And last but not least.... Hula lessons! I am proud to say I graduated from hula dance lessons and earned my official certificate :) My instructor even said I have natural talent and if I lived there would want to train me for competition. HA! Maybe I will. It was so fun though and I learned the dance to the song, "Oh we're going, to a Hukilau!" Don't ask me to show you though. I love the Hawaiian culture, so much! Everything they do has so much meaning and symbolism. They are so relaxed and happy. The meaning of the song was explained to us, along with the movements. Such a neat story. The Hukilau was an expansive luau organized by members of the Laie Ward of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as a way of raising money to rebuild their chapel, which burned to the ground in 1940. The word \"Hukilau\" literally describes the process of pulling (huki) the ropes from fishing nets, woven with leaves (lau) along the outside, in from the sea. So neat!

We can't wait to go back to paradise. Part 2 coming soon. Merry Christmas everyone!