Maui - Day 2

Tuesday we wanted to sleep in, but of course bc of the time difference we were ready to go by 6am. So we headed out for breakfast with Matt and Beth. We decided we wanted to go check out the twin falls, so we ventured to the other side of the island. Twin Falls is one of the first stops along the Road to Hana...let me explain this road. It is as windy as you can imagine and goes on FOREVER. They have lots and lots of places to stop at along the way, but there is only one road that goes around this side of the island. You typically need 6 hours to drive it in and out, and that's with hardly any stops. By the time we made it to Twin Falls, we decided that since we were there we might as well take the time to drive to Hana and see the other sights along the way...BIG mistake. HUGE mistake. Twin Falls was closed bc of high water so that was a bummer. We drove, and drove, and drove. There was one other place we wanted to see...the 7 sacred pools. So we bypassed a lot of the other hikes and things to see bc we wanted to get through it. We were all car sick bc it was so windy. And of course we got to the sacred pools and they were closed as well due to high water. Such a bummer!!! Nothing like wasting 3 hours driving just to see that it was closed! We ended up going around one of the gates to take some pictures but we weren't able to get in and swim. Such a disappointment. Oh well...at least we can say we drove the Road to Hana!!! Instead of going back the way we came we took our chances with going on the "non-insured" road for rental cars. It wasn't bad at all...just a little dirt road for a couple of miles. That drive still took 2 hours to get back to our area, but it was so much prettier and less windy. Instead of winding through the mountain we were on the cliffs looking over the ocean for the majority of the drive. It was still fun, although we were so hungry we were all a little ornery. We grabbed dinner on the way back to the hotel and just relaxed for the rest of the night.

 Josh and Matt jumped into the water here based on the recommendation of all the drunk people standing there. They showed them the under water caves and Josh said it really was awesome. Beth and I, on the other hand, stayed on this little cliff with these drunk people that were definitely getting a little too close. Luckily Matt and Josh finally showed back up and we were able to make it out of there without a problem!

Maui - Day 1

We have been looking forward to this trip for months! Josh won it at work, but the rest of the employees voted to go in February. One of Josh's buddies happened to win the Mexico trip, but bc his wife is pregnant and bc of the Zika virus they let them go to Hawaii instead. So we ended up going to Hawaii now with them instead of in February with the rest of the group. We love Matt and Beth and get a long with them great so we thought this would be more fun. They flew in to Maui on Sunday, but bc I had a meeting and had to teach in church we flew out Monday morning. They picked us up from the airport and we headed straight to dinner. We were starving since we skipped lunch bc of the flight. We found a small little strip mall and had tacos and teriyaki chicken. It was actually pretty good. We made it to the hotel and settled in for the night. The hotel felt more like a resort...it was beautiful. The rooms were super nice and we were right on the beach which was a lot of fun.

Brynlee's Early Birthday

We were so busy all day with the baptism, and continued the craziness into the evening! We are leaving for Hawaii on Monday and will be gone for Brynlee's birthday. So we knew we had to make it up to her and celebrate it before we left. We gave her the option of what to do and she wanted to go to Menchies! So we opened all her presents then went out for ice cream. It was fun to spend the evening together celebrating!

Brooklyn's Baptism

We spent all week getting ready for Brooklyn's big day. We were able to go over early and get some pictures with her before everyone came for her baptism. It was a wonderful meeting and special to see Brooklyn baptized and confirmed. We showed her little video from when we got her pictures taken and had everyone write little notes to her. Afterwards we had everyone over to our house for lunch and we were able to visit with everyone for the afternoon. Josh had to step out for a bit to take Brayden to his basketball double header, then came back to watch the BYU game of course. Congrats Brooklyn on deciding to be baptized!

Fernando and His Clan

Fernando and his family drove up from Mexico to bring their daughter, Cynthia, here to stay for a couple of months. We invited them over for dinner and ended up with 3 times as many people as we expected. Javier stopped by with his mom and sister, 2 other families came with Fernando, and we invited Steve from next door to come over and meet them all. We did our best to feed them all then we were able to visit with them for the evening. Fernando was one of Josh's ward mission leaders while he was on his mission and they became close while Josh served with him. They came and stayed with us for 3 weeks 8 yrs ago, so it's been a while! It was fun to catch up with them and see how much their kids have grown.

Quick Cabin Trip

Another crazy weekend! We had so much going on we weren't sure how to do it all. So Josh ended up taking the 2 little ones up to the cabin with Michael and his little ones on Saturday morning. I stayed back and took Brooklyn and Brynlee to their dance pictures in the morning, and then we went to Brayden's basketball game in the evening. We then headed up to the cabin with Natalie and Mckinsley. It was fun to just be with the 3 older ones for the day! We had a fun night playing games and hanging out. Sunday we spent the day listening to conference and relaxing. We went on a few 4 wheeler rides and we are still loving our new 4 wheelers! Most of Josh's family all came up at some point on Sunday. We celebrated a couple of birthdays in the evening then headed home! Once we were home the 2 little ones found the sink so we just let them play for an hour till bedtime!