**2011**

{Day one!}

We left 12 INCHES of this yucky white stuff behind and boarded one of these.....

Rode on a nice relaxing 5 hour flight until we saw this......

 At which point we got super excited to see that shore line because we knew there were going to be many of these......

 Which made us wanna go straight to lay on one of these......

After which, we drove around and saw the gorgeous Island till we couldn't see any longer!

This was going to be fun.

We woke up and headed to church.  What an awesome experience to be able to go to church here!  I loved it.  Flip flops and flowers all over the place.   Totally not your typical Sunday meeting.  The Bishop looked pretty legit though, so that counts for something ....right?

Cool trees all over the place!

 Our backyard for 2 weeks :)

We decided to go to the beach behind the condo and take a swim.  AWESOME.  Lawson had never been in the ocean! I enjoyed the sunshine from the beach, while the boys swam!

Maui has the MOST BEAUTIFUL flowers ALL over the place. I couldn't get enough!

After an amazing day of sunshine, of course an AMAZING sunset should follow....and it did.  Oh.I.am.in.love. 

 {again.}

{and.again}

{and again.ahhhhhh.}

Then nothing like finishing off a night devouring these yummy things in bed. Heaven.  (not to mention how much YUMMIER they are in humidity!They make the SUPER SOFT! {thanks babe!}

We started the day out by heading up to the IAO state park and saw the famous mountains! 

This is called the IAO needle!  It was SOOOOO pretty up this canyon!

After that, we got to see the GORGEOUS CITY of Kehei! I loved this.  Huge beautiful flowers all over the place!!  Gorgeous communities!!  And best of all...I got to spend the WHOLE day with just my Rexy seeing GORGEOUS Maui!

We went back to the heart of Kehei and did a little shopping on the main street. We found some fun things for the boys and then headed back to the hotel.

We went for a late night swim down at the pool! I loved being here because you can hear the ocean waves right behind us! oh I love MAUI. I wanna live here!!

Just waitin' for my ride to pick me up!

Starting the ROAD TO HANAtoday! Now this was FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!

{That little island you can see way out in the water is called Molikini!}

Saw a lot of these gross gross things all over!!

Along the way, we stopped on top of the mountain and decided to take pictures.

This cliff we are sittting by and I'm looking over...yeah it is REALLY HIGH. 

like really high.  I am clenching the rock with my feet :)

This is the road we got to drive on!  For those of you who haven't been on the road to Hana....let me paint a picture--

Its right along the shoreline around the back side of the mountain.

And when I say along the shoreline, i also mean it is a few hundred feet up.

And it's a ONE LANE ROAD they whole way.

And you have to back down to let people pass. 

Yeah, it can be a little crazy/scary sometimes!

You can see the outline of the road as we are coming around the end.

Of course there is like NOTHING along the way, so when we see Kaupo general store, we are all over it.

{even if those ice cream bars and 2 bottles of water cost us 11 BUCKS!!!!}

The store was like a mini museum with all this retro stuff! Way fun place! Kinda ghetto though.

The famous black sand beaches! 

I loved seeing the highway just lined with these! (Isn't that funny that this horrible road is considered a highway!)

Can you spot the white jeep coming down? Pics just don't do its justice for truly how high up and close to the edge you are!!

The 7 SACRED POOLS!!! 

This is on the way to Hana.  It's so pretty.  It's a fresh water stream that has lots of waterfalls which dump into 7 little tranquil pools of water.

Remember this pic?  I was trying to update as the trip went.  As you can see, it didn't happen.

We could have played in the waterfalls all day! 

We found this little hidden beach! This truly had the SOFTEST SAND IN THE ENTIRE world!

I could have walked along this beach forever!

We were trying to capture the softness of it!  My feet just sunk! I loved it!

We decided to stop right here along the road and get a coconut!! 

This guy was workin hard at cutting it open for us! Bless his lil' heart.

Yum. Drinking the coconut milk!

This is in the actual city of Hana.  Gorgeous home just sitting in the middle of the city. Across the street was this.....

The church!! Woot Woot.  Super cool looking!

This was a little back road off the main city road.  It was crazy how DARK it was down streets like this, even at like 4 in the afternoon! It's so lush!!

This is a picture we took as we were coming around the back of the mountain. We were on top of it, right next to the edge.  FREAKY. LIKE REALLY FREAKY.  But it had the most breathtaking views! Absolutely GORGEOUS.  This was definitely an ALL DAY thing to drive this, but I'd do it again in a heartbeat.  

{Warning:  Not for the faint of stomach! It is VERY TWISTY, TURNY,CURVY,}I had to drive it so I didn't get sick!

Once we finally made it back about 10:00 that night, we DEFINITELY needed a fresh Pina Colada! 

We ate a this fun little place called Aloha Mixed Plate.  The ocean was right behind us...can you see the lights on the ships?  

{Don't judge us for how we look.  We'd been driving for over 10 hours and still in our swim stuff from the 7 sacred pools.  We looked awesome. ha!}

I really came to love this breakfast.  Why has no one told me about these parfaits??? So good!

We are eating at a place called Pita Paradise in Kihei.  Oh this was SOOOOO GOOOOD! Total hole in the wall, and if you blinked you would miss it, but we were lookin' for it.  And we found it! YUM!!

I swear, all we did was eat.  Maybe thats why I look like I've gained 50 in all my pics :)

Notice this lil guy?  Yeah he is on that railing behind me in the above picture.  Can you see him??

We sat and watched these guys for a long time!! They are DANG good at this!!

This is just a regular city road for residents of good ole' Maui......Talk about gorgeous scenery. I'd drive all day if I lived here.

We visited the front street MULTIPLE TIMES.  We loved shopping here! It was such a fun atmosphere!

Forrest Gump, with his awesome runninnnnnnnnng shooooes and box of choc-O-lates. 

Where's Jennnn-AY?

My first purchase.  A HUGE beach towel.  :) Can't wait to use this at the pool this summer!

Ok, first of all...please ABSOLUTELY FORGIVE me for this hideous quality on the pictures.  When we booked this tour, they told us not to bring our valuables. So I just brought this little underwater disposable camera! And it was all I had the whole day! 

 We went out to this little half moon shaped Island called Molokini. We had been told so many times that this was the best snorkeling! Minus the slight bit of sea sickness that hit me on the boat ride back, I'd still do it again!!!!

On the way out, we saw whales jumping all around us! It was amazing how HUGE these things are!! The above pic is a whale doing some tail slapping!

We are underwater swimming right along the reef.  The fish loved swimming here.

These fish were so cool! They just followed the leader!

The fish love Rex.  They let him follow them everywhere!  This water was so CRYSTAL CLEAR!

We tried getting a cool picture. Unsuccessful.  Holding a camera still underwater is nearly impossible!

I kinda like takin' pictures of my own fish.  He was fun to watch ;)

The coral was just amazing.  I wish the picture would have captured its justice!  Like I said, the camera was definitely only worth $14.99.  Oh well.  It was still an AWESOME day!!!  

We went to an area called Makawao.  It's totally upcountry and has a "hawaiian cowboy" theme.  It was kinda a cool atmosphere. 

 (Have you noticed that I think everything here is a cool atmosphere?)

We were told by a local to visit this place....

and try these things.....

So we did!!

  The place isn't much to look at from the outside or the inside for that matter, but WOW. The Hawaiians do know how to bake! We also tried sugar donuts on a stick and those were EXCELLENT. mmmmm!

 Then we had a miracle happen.  Truly. The picture below carries quite a story.  Lets just say, someone was lookin' out for us.  

Short recap:

We had just stopped along the road. Walking around.  

Decided to move our car over a little further away from the road.

We heard sirens and turned around to see this car coming at us quite fast.

The person driving this was speeding away from police.

Just as we arrived back to our car, he sped past us.

Then we saw the above scene about 500 yards down the road.

He was hitting everything and anyone in his way, to get away.

We would have been in his way had we not moved.

Luckily, this was not us.  

 On a happier note..... We went to a SUPER FUN place for dinner!  This little 50's diner was AWESOME! Such a fun atmosphere and goooooood food!

I loved all the memorobilia

Then we came home and set up a theater on our balcony and watched movies! 

After all this eating we were doing...Running was a  must.

Doesn't Rex look thrilled as I am talking him into going.  It's only 7 in the morning! Come on!

After a good run....it was time to do what again??..... 

EAT BREAKFAST!! :)

We went to a place on Lahaina front street called Cheeseburger in Paradise. It overlooked the ocean. Super fun view.....

So after we finished eating, we went to the beach!  Kaanapali Beach to be exact.  This was AN INCREDIBLE beach.  Even if it was murky water and we found out later, that shark feed here. Sweet! It was still fun!

The tide was comin' in STRONG!

I love the water spot on the camera here!  Kinda cool. :)  

These kids were showin' us how boogie boarding is REALLY done.  Crap, do you see how HIGH they are????

We caved.  We got our suits on and had to hit up these rockin' waves!!!

Or more like...They hit us up.  They took Rex right out!

He tried desperately to stay on top of the water. It wasn't happenin'!

While he was gettin pushed around in the waves, I went exploring.  Found this INCREDIBLE RESORT.  I think I know where I wanna stay when we come back.

Right behind that beach is this little place called the Hula Grill!  Super fun! The floor is SAND!

All that wave playin' makes us hungry. Like real hungry.  Do you see all that food??? Well It was good. Every bite of it!  

Even after a stormy, rainy day....we got spoiled with a sunset like this while we were eating.......

Gorgeous. Super romantical :)

I couldn't believe the colors.

It truly was this BRIGHT.  This was hands down my favorite sunset the whole time. Ahhhhhhh.

We had to go back to that beach.  We loved it way too much, to not to!  Plus the sun was shining!  The waves just weren't the same this time. 

So we did a little bit of kickin' our feet up.....

Snorkeling at Black rock in much clearer water.

Gettin' ready to go under!

And of course....hittin up the Hula Grill again and totally actin' like a local. (and texting.) 

We seem to really be enjoying ourselves here.  Well Rex was enjoying that plate of ribs. Ha ha.... we were in goofy  moods.

Super RELAXED day today!  Took a walk on the beach in a POURING rain storm.  Now, that was FUN. Wish i had taken a picture. But I didn't have the camera!  Probably better that way anyway! 

Rex ate a whole bunch of these.  (He did that most the trip actually :)

 We watched the BRIGHT orange sun from the day, go down  minute by minute.

 Shopped at a place called Whalers village. Where we bought Cameron's HUGE SEA TURTLE :)

Then watched this little mini luau they put on!

 Headed home and acted like dorks. (here is the proof)

 Ate a WHOLE BOX of these.  (on more than one occasion.:)

 And really enjoyed them.

Every. Last. Bite.

We spent most of our day in an area called Kula, which is so different from any other part of Maui!  It was so fun to see how different everything was up here! It reminded me a lot of Park City! We had to make quite a climb to the top of it!

We were high enough up to see a view where you can see the ocean on BOTH sides of the Island! 

 Then a little higher....to see these bad boys!

 A girl can dream right????

And a little higher up....yeah, now this just got creepy.  Hard to believe you are in HAWAII right here!!!

We saw LOTS of different fresh produce all over!!  Here's some pics of it!!

 Gorgeous sunset, yet once again!

 Even high up on the mountain....I still managed to find some palm trees :)

After a day of mountainish rugged terrain..I was ready to signs like this again~ :)

Rex was more in the mood to eat good food. :) 

And this was YUMMY. 

We hit this little hole in the wall place called "Alexander's fish and chips"....and WOW. It was AWESOME.

 We headed over to our FAVORITE beach again!  We staked out our spots nice and early!

 Snorkeling early in the morning pays off......

I was out swimming around,  stood up and turned to my side and saw this MASSIVE dark thing in the water, 3 feet away!

first instinct: 

SHARK!!! 

But, then he popped his cute lil head up and it was a SEAL!!!!!

Awesome. :)

 (yes, not our best...but,I told you.  It was early!)

 After playin' all day on the beach

 we headed home, got ready to head to dinner

looked out our window.... 

and saw this sunset in the works....

So dinner got put on hold.

The beach needed us.

Look close....My florescent fingernail polish is GLOWING!. Ha ha. I know, I know. I'm a dork. 

 I had a feeling this sunset would be awesome! 

Looking back along the shore line.....Our hotel is the one at the very back! I loved twilight time out here!!!

ROMANTIC!

 There were a bunch of sea turtles swimming around these rocks!

What is it that makes these sunsets so dang A.W.E.S.O.M.E.????? 

 I was really hopin a turtle head would end up in a pic. No luck!

 My favorite. :)

Nature just doesn't like Rex sometimes :) 

But I love him ALL the time.  Even when I do have to steal my sunset kisses.

This was hands down the:

BEST.

BUSIEST.

LONGEST.(23 hours to be exact.)

CRAZIEST.

SCARIEST.

WORST.

day. of. my. life!!!

How is this possible, you ask????...Well let's walk through it. :)

We started out doing some WHALE WATCHING at a point of a Mountain which we drove past EVERY day and never stopped.  Whales were jumping ALL over the place.  They are migrating up to Alaska. These creatures are AMAZING.

Remember this sign?? It inspired me. so......

We headed over to Kihei and found this AWESOME little shop that did surf lessons! 

Maui Wave Riders! 

 I have wanted to learn how to do this for as long as I can remember!!  It was EVERYTHING I ever dreamed of...

 AND MORE!!  

AMAZING!!

Words can't even describe how fun this is!  I had the COOLEST surf instructor! EVER! Ina was sooooo much fun! We chatted it up for at least a couple hours and in the end he totally was the "in" to everything around town!  He told us where to eat at, what to see and where to go!  

We'd been trying to get in a Luau, but EVERYTHING was booked out. He said he was performing in one and he'd reserve 2 spots for us under his name TONIGHT! We were thrilled to say the least!  I couldn't believe it!

Yeah, He was awesome.  Oh and did I mention, He's famous.

A week ago, he totally gave Gerard Butler surfing lessons for an upcoming movie called "Mavericks" that he was going to be in!!!!

Yeah, I knew this was gonna  be fun!!  

 It was awesome cause I got such awesome ONE-on-ONE instruction!!  Got up my 2nd try! I am proud of that stat, only cause I didn't think I'd even be able to do it!

I could do this ALL day long!! 

So the pictures are from far away cause I didn't want Rex jeapordizing our camera!!!  He did pretty good considering how far out we were!! Most shots he got were when I was finishing riding the wave!

Since Rex was taking pictures while I was learing....Ina INSISTED that Rex try it out!  

He wasn't about to let Rex not try SURFING!!!!

Secretly...Rex wanted to try anyway. I knew it. He was just being my super nice husband that said he wanted to take pictures of me :) :) :)  (oh I love him.)

So Ina gave him the rundown on the "how-to".  And......

He was A PRO. 

Surfing is definitely a WORKOUT!!  So of course....that made us hungry! Ina told us he was going to Cafe O'lei for lunch and we should try it! So we headed over there and he was RIGHT.

 IT WAS DELICOUS!!! 

We finalized our plans with him for the luau that night and then we had 2 hours to kill until it began....So what do we do???

Well of course DEVOUR yet ANOTHER fabulous Gelato. Oh my heck. 

I could eat these ALL FREAKIN' DAY.

They always had such a cool lil atmosphere! I loved lookin at all the stuff!

Then we started driving around and I may have fell asleep (I told you, surfing was a workout!) When I woke  up, Rex had found MAKENA BEACH!

 A white sandy glistening beach!!!  Seriously the water here was 

GORGEOUS AND SO SPARKLY!

wrote love notes in the sand......

built sand castles and played in the water......

and maybe a little heel clickin' (that beach was WIDE OPEN!)

THEN......

THE LUAU!!

This was the sunset as we were sitting at our table! I loved it!!!!!

We made our own LEI'S!!!!!! They smelled AWESOME!

Showin' them off. We were proud! :)

They showed us how they cook in an Imu (which is an underground Hawaiian oven!)

They cooked this HUGE tuna and a TURKEY!  After the luau we saw the results!

This is him prepping the tuna in the leaves they had.  They BRAIDED THIS! 

Then they cover it and wait for it to cook!!! Look how HUGE those leaves are!

Then we got to eat YUMMY HAWAIIAN FOOD and smoothies!!!!!

The show started and we saw these amazing dancers! (the one in the middle is my fav!)

Rex was called up on STAGE!!  They taught him some Hawaiian moves!! He was SHAKIN' IT!

They must have liked him, cause they called him up once again!!

This time, to eat coconut with the MC~

YUMMY! 

Ina (remember, our surf instructor!).... in costume!!! 

He was AMAZING!!!! He made this show awesome!

Then some fire dancin' and back to the Imu to try the turkey and tuna!  Which were DELICIOUS! They had a smoky flavor and they were SO GOOD!

Ina & his FAVORITE surfers ;)

The day couldn't have gone ANY better at t his point!! Oh we absolutely LOVED it.EVERY MINUTE. 

UNTIL WE GOT HOME......

then we heard the news. 

the TERRIBLE NEWS. :(

We had just walked into our condo for the night and were winding down....

 when we were told to turn on the news.  

A massive earthquake had hit Japan. 

 As we sat in awe looking at the devastating footage of the earthquake and Tsunami take over peoples lives, we then noticed a scrolling message the bottom of the TV:

"TSUNAMI WATCH FOR HAWAII  IS IN EFFECT"

I looked at Rex and said, should we be worried about this???  We weren't sure, but as we continued to watch unpack from our fun filled day, the news continued to break, they talked more and more about the effects...When it hit us....

 Tsunami heading towards Hawaii. 

Now we understood why we saw so many cops on the way home from the  Luau, and why Rex even said "Do the roads seem busier than usual? The packed gas station outside our condo. It didn't make sense at the time.....but now,

They had now announced that the WATCH was now a 

WARNING and to seek higher ground.

Sirens all over Maui were sounding.  People fleeing. We were packing our bags to get out. 

PANIC. SET. IN. (ME)

From favorite day ever to FREAKED out day!!! 

I was a mess.  I will not do well in a disaster.  Rex will have his work cut out for him!

I couldn't even put myself together to start packing...

"How was this happening?? What would happen? Where will we go?  What will happen if we get stranded?? Why did my DAD make me prepare our WILL before we left????????  What if I can't find Rex when its over? Do we have water? Do we have gas in the car?  I had 3 million thoughts running through my head and they weren't stopping. 

I was bawling.

Rex was packing.

I kept picturing Cam and Korv's face.  I couldn't stop worrying.  I just wanted to be home.

I never wanted Utah snow so bad in my life.

ugh. Get me outta here!

It was a feeling unlike any other sick feeling I have ever had in my LIFE.

It dawned on me..I hadn't said a prayer.  No wonder I was a mess!

So we prayed right there. In the middle of chaos. 

Peace came over me.  I gathered myself enough to start packing. I wasn't focusing on the horrible thoughts as much. I started thinking logically. 

Call Dad.  Tell him our location. 

Pack important things.

Pack Lots of water.

Remain calm.

Once we got everything from 2 WEEKS packed in less than 10 minutes, we were running to the car.  We didn't get far till we saw this.....

We weren't going anywhere anytime soon. But Rex knew the roads, and knew the front street.  So we headed down it, and it was wide open! (granted it runs RIGHT ALONG the shore line, but we knew we had 4 hours before it was supposed to hit. Even though it was traveling at almost 535 mph! We headed to the church we'd been going to and parked and waited.   We knew we weren't high enough up but we felt we should stay and wait there.  After about 30 minutes. a guy (name John) walked up to our car and asked if we were members.  He told us he was also a member of the ward and that he wanted to see if he could help us.  He had parents that lived at the top of a hill and we could go up there with his family for the night.  

This was a blessing.  We were slightly panicked about where to park for the night (that we wouldn't get our car broken into. The news had been warning everyone to protect their items at times like this because the law enforcement was stretched thin.) We also weren't sure where would be high enough.

John seemed to have all the answers we needed.

We followed he and his family to the top of the hill, which was 175 ft. above sea level. 

We parked.

And waited for 3:23 A.M.

and waited....

and waited...

and waited.....

and waited.....

And while we waited....We got to know lots of people.

  But these people especially.  They were from Provo. :)

And the Hawaiian guy next to me?  Well that is John.  Our lil miracle man. Thank you to him a million times.

At this point, I felt ok. I felt like we would be fine. Granted I was runnin on NO sleep at this point.  Sleeping was impossible at a time like this.  

Rex remained calm through the entire thing,and continued to assure me that everything would work out.

3:23 ARRIVED. FINALLY.

As I could hear the waves crashing up on the beach, I just waited and hoped I wouldn't see a drop of water.  Finally around 4:15 A.M. (talk about LONG NIGHT)

So...that would put us officially on:

We had heard that it had passed but that there could still be effects.  Rex felt fine about it, so we started heading back home.  

We made it back to the condo around 4:30 AM and crashed on the bed with the news still on the TV replaying the Japan footage.  I couldn't sleep.

I waited and waited for them to take away the warning alerts for Hawaii, but until they were gone, I wasn't sleeping.

Finally, around 10:00 A.M. We had woke up.  I guess I crashed after all that. 

I looked out our balcony, to see this:

If you remember the first picture on Day 1 of our view, this reef is NOT PRESENT.

Their was so many things that you could tell made this Island a different place.  The feeling in the air just wasn't the same after all that.  I still just didn't feel at ease.  The wind was blowing extremely hard and the waves were still crashing.  I laid by the pool, imagining what life would have been like if that Tsunami had been as horrible as predicted.  Scary thoughts.  I didn't take many pictures today.  

We did however go back to "hill" that we called home for the previous night and took some pictures.

Then we headed to dinner and did some last minute shopping where we found this shirt:

{why did I NOT get this memo?} :)

Then we hit the bed EARLY. We were ready for SOME SOLID SLEEP after all that.  

We had big plans for our last Saturday. 

And nothing was ruining it. :)

Today was our last day before we boarded the plane to head back home....So we made the MOST of it. We were told by MANY people to try "the Gazebo" restaurant.  But...it's only open 7-2 P.M. so.....We set the alarm and headed over EARLY......... (this was hard for us after getting NO sleep of the previous 2 days!)

only to find this LINE waiting for us to stand in.....

But after a 75 MINUTE WAIT ....

We got these DIVINE, DELICIOUS, HEAVENLY MACADEMIA NUT PANCAKES

with super SUPER SUPER sweet and yummy cream along with...

COCONUT SYRUP. 

MMMMMMM. absolutely heaven.

Rex ended up helping me devour these babies.  ohhhhhhh sooooo gooooood!!!!!!!

The Gazebo overlooks this reef, so we wandered down and watched the waves.....

They were still huge from the Tsunami effects! The curl was amazing to watch! This pic doesn't even do it's justice!

A bunch of sea urchins were living in this pool behind me! Gross!  Yeah, definitely don't wanna slip here.

Just some last random things we saw while drivin' around.  Then we might have stopped at our fav beach once again for another few hours  to get some more snorkeling and sunshine in :) 

Oh how I will miss this beach. A lot.

 I took this pic because it amazed me what a GORGEOUS and CALM day it was only 12 hours later after such a disaster on the island! 

 I had to get in just one more lil shopping trip. Oh my heck. I mean, sure I LOVE shopping, but I really LOVED shopping in Hawaii! ALLLLLLLLLL THE TIMMMMMMEEEEE. It fascinated me! (Rex couldn't get enough of it while we were here ;)

{Ok, honestly, the only shopping he truly enjoyed was probably in this lil store to bring home that sweet MAUI GOODNESS of a Maui Gold pineapple!  If any of you have ever had this, you know what i'm talkin about here. Pure SWEETNESS. AHHHH.  My mouth is watering!

And well, those chips I'm holding. Holy crap. Soooo dang good. (why do you think they offer to ship back 12 bags to your house for only a mere....$75 bucks?) Cause they know people pay it. So worth it!  

I ate about 54 bags out there.

 And it shows. :)    

So I said my goodbyes to these lovely things..... ( Does anyone know how to keep one alive here???)

I was spoiled one last time by the Island to see another phenomenal sunset.  I think this was Maui's way of saying goodbye to  me and making me promise to come back again.  I said OK. :) 

We watched the sun go down second by second. Amazing. I have a picture every 15 seconds of it happening. 

Don't worry,  I spared you. :)

But this..... I'll miss most.....

  Holding hands with him, while walking along the beach, listening to the waves crash up on our feet and seeing that gorgeous Maui  sunshine go down.

We FINALLY made it HOME!  

And when I say finally, I mean finally after delay after delay after delay after...(you get the picture)

Because of the Tsunami, flights were EXTREMELY delayed and we were told it'd be Monday morning before we could even fly out.

 No.freakin.way! 

I was NOT waiting another SECOND to see my boys!!!! 

 So we stood in... 

line 

after 

line

after 

line

after 

Line 

trying to get us on earlier flights, which eventually got us on a stand by flight leaving San Fran at 1:01 pm.

and....

we miraculously made it on that flight!!!!

Then, after what felt like the longest drive home from the airport.....We snuck in the back door, only to find 2 sweet lil boys playing so sweet at Grandmas......

  their little glistening eyes met mine.....

IT.WAS.HEAVEN.

I missed these 2 more than ANYTHING IN THE ENTIRE WORLD! I was so happy to scoop them up and kiss them 3.4 million times on each cheek, leg, arm, belly, toe, finger.......Oh I love them!!!!!

We arrived home only to find that someone had broke into our house (with keys :) Sweet Aaron & Charee welcomed us back with

 LOTS AND LOTS of love!!!!!!

We found many signs like this....all during the week!

Of course nothin' beats the 4 year old discovering snorkeling equipment and asking Daddy to deep tub dive for sea turtles with him! :)

{Priceless}

Although, I'll DEFINITELY MISS THESE....... 

LIKE. A.LOT.

But, believe it or not....I missed snack time with these sweet boys more....

A huge THANKS TO EVERYONE who helped us with them!!! We couldn't ask for better family and friends!! You are all amazing! We love you!!!