Aloha!

Wowza! In a matter of two years I went from having never been to Hawaii, to having been twice now. I feel like one lucky girl!! My first experience was with Ben in Honolulu and I was just 6 months pregnant with E. It was our last hoorah before giving birth. This time Ben, E and I went with Ben's brother Josh +Joshua Lichty , wife Maria +Maria Lichty  and son Caleb. The two little ones are just 4 months apart and since Josh's family lives in Utah we don't get to see them very often. So this was a great time to get together and create some fun memories while staying in paradise.

We were little uneasy about the 5 1/2 hour plane ride with Easton. Our dream included E sleeping his way through over half of the flight since it left so early in the morning. Reality dictated that it would include a 20 minute cat nap. Now what to do with the remaining 5 hours and 20 minutes?!!! Thankfully there were no major screaming fits or meltdowns to remember.

Our second day in Maui, Maria booked us a private tour of the Ali'i Kula Lavender Farm including a delicious breakfast of lavender scones and tea and a private cart ride through the farm.

Our tour guide Harrison was nice enough to cut us the most beautiful flowers along the way and wrap them up in a bouquet to enjoy the remainder of our stay in Hawaii.

One must do excursion that we heard constantly from locals and tourists was to drive to Hana. It is considered the most natural and "untouched" area of Maui. With every recommendation also came a warning. The drive to Hana is over 3 hours long and longer if you stop to admire the views and take pictures. If that wasn't bad enough it is over 3 hours of the windiest roads imaginable, making it the perfect equation for some severe car sickness. Early in the trip we had decided that we just would not be taking that gamble, especially with a finicky 1 1/2 year old who is already less than enthused about his car set. But, as each day came and went we decided that we needed to at least give it a try; this might be the last time we would ever be in Maui and we didn't want to leave with any regrets.

I am happy to announce that we survived the drive without even a hint of car sickness. It was probably because we were so focused on one of the most incredible and beautiful scenic views of all time. Pictures can not do it justice!!

Finally we made it to Hana Bay Beach, boy were we glad to be out of the car! Now for the 3 hour ride back home!!!

Most of our vacation was filled with lots of beach and pool time and tons of relaxing.

I just love E's little sand footprints

One of my favorite shots that Ben caught was E walking in between our shadows.

Pool time

These two little dudes had a blast together!

And of course we couldn't leave without at least trying some local delicacy! Spam lovers might want to skip ahead. Bottom line we did not finish the spam... definitely not something our pallets could get used too.

Lots of sunsets in paradise.

Goodnight and goodbye Maui...until we meet again!