The Fire

I wrote to Mary and Destin (my siblings on missions) this right after we got evacuated so that I could remember how I felt and everything that happened before the memory faded/became less exciting.

Thursday evening a fire started above our neighborhood at the shooting range. It grew quickly but wasn't too bad and crews were working on it so I wasn't too worried. Friday morning we woke up and could barely see the sun there was so much smoke. So I started thinking "I should probably get some stuff together like important docs etc. just in case something happens." but then I realized Maddie was out of formula and diapers so I figured I'd run to the store and do it after I got home. So as we were leaving the neighborhood I looked back and saw the fire line was right there. Super close to the top houses. I went for my phone to take a picture but it wasn't there. I wasn't planning on wanting to take a picture so I left my phone at home. Lame. So I drove in marveling at how dark the sky was. I picked up the things I needed, plus a few extras like pj's and yogurt and other random things. Then, as I was walking out of the store I overheard a security officer say something about starting the evacuation. My stomach dropped, I bought my stuff and rushed home. As i drove home i turned on the radio to find out that the fire was dangerously close to an explosive plant right behind our neighborhood. When I got close to my neighborhood I saw a barricade of police in front if the entrance and a huge line of cars waiting to get out. So I pull up to get in and they ask me if I need to get medication or children. Rats. They got me. I had my kids, and didn't really need anything. I asked if I could just get my cell phone do I could call my husband. The cop said unless in getting meds or people he couldn't let me in, but he let me use his phone. I had time to call Chris and tell hi we're had to be evacuated and he said come to his office and the cop said he needed his phone back. So I drive away watching a huge plume of smoke rising behind my neighborhood, feeling completely weird about leaving with pretty much nothing but my kids and the clothes on our back. This was just supposed to be a quick trip to the store! I was so close to tears not from fear but nerves. I felt like my house would be ok, but with fires you never know. I started to calm down a little when I realized everything in the house could be replaced and the pics that were priceless to me were online. I figured since I was supposed to watch Camie's little boy and I didn't have a cellphone I'd drive to her house. She was sweet enough to give me a change of clothes for Boston (he was in flannel pajamas and the temp was already 90 degrees) diapers and wipes. We then left and headed over to Qualtrics. I had a feeling that once my family was all together I would calm down and I was right. As soon as I saw Chris I calmed down. We hung out for a bit, then headed over to Target to get me something to wear other than my flannel pj's. The rest of the day was kind of a blur. We dropped Maddie if at Chris's parent's house and took Boston to go see the new Disney movie Brave. While we were there we found out that the evacuation would last for 24 hours. Normally, that really wouldn't be a big deal, however Chris was supposed to leave for London the next day at noon. So after the movie we dropped Boston off at a friend's house and decided to at least try to get in to our house. We figured attempting would be better than going out and buying an entire new business wardrobe, which was our only backup plan. In the way we hear that they've completely closed the road. We were so close to throwing in the towel and just going to Khol's but now we are so glad we didn't! There were four cop cara blocking our neighborhood, but we pulled around one of them and as we rolled down the window to explain why we needed in (we were fully prepared with a rebuttal and resorting to begging)  but the cop standing right there was in our ward. Chris told him he was leaving for London and they let us through, not even a police escort! We ran home grabbed all the dirty laundry (all of Chris's clothes were in there since I had put off doing it until that day) packed his luggage, grabbed bathroom stuff, stuff for the kids, and anything else we needed/felt was important and threw it in the car and left. We were lucky. Most weren't allowed back in and had only two minutes to grab what they needed during the evacuation.  So our kids were safe, and we had everything we needed to survive if we lost everything. Now we just needed to find a place to stay. We were amazed at the outpouring if support from friends and family. Some called and offered us their house for the weekend others offered any help they could. By the time i grabbed my phone i had 25 calls and several messages fron people checking to see if we were ok. We ended up staying the night at Dan and Kim's house. In the morning we got Chris off to London and then I took the kids to hangout in Cedar Hills. We played I. The river, watched movies and just had fun until we got word that the evacuation was lifted, but with a caution that if we came back we may still have to be evacuated in the middle of the night if anything changes. When we finally got home there was still ash in the air and it's still heavy with smoke, but not like yesterday. There is a fine layer of ash on everything outside and I was going to go outside tonight and spray it down but when I finally got the kids to sleep and went out there the wind is blowing hard from the south and still carrying ash straight toward us. So I'm going to wait until they put out the fire to spray off the outside of my house.  As I drove away from my house on Friday I couldn't help but think about the pioneers who were driven out from so many places without time to pack. Many only had the clothes on their back and sang praises to the Lord every step of the way. It's amazing how when you have the possibility of losing your earthly possessions the only things you care about are that you have your family around you.  *today only sacrament meeting was held because so many decided not to come home until today. The spirit was so strong and I almost started crying when we sang the opening song Count Your Many Blessings. I really am so thankful for Heavenly Father and I know he watches over us! FYI the fire is now 70% contained and not one house was lost!  It really was this black. These are firefighters sleeping at the entrance to the neighborhood. The kept watch all might to make sure our homes were safe. This is what the air looked like when they evacuated.  One street up from our house. It's right over the ridge. The view from redwood road. This is up by the Sants house at the top of the neighborhood.  That last one is of an incredible picture showing how close it got. It's only the picture nothing else so you should be able to go there.

Chocolate Oatmeal No Bake Cookies

I know everybody has their own recipe for no bake cookies, but I'm sharing these anyway because I honestly am counting down the minutes until they're cool enough to eat. Could be because I haven't eaten all day, but I'm pretty sure I would be salivating over the peanut buttery/chocolately goodness regardless.

I got the recipe from pinterest which took me here. I thought I have all the ingredients for these so why not? It's a perfect Lazy Sunday dessert.

I started making them only to discover I only had about two cups of oatmeal so I had to improvise, but I'm glad I did. For the last cup of oatmeal I used  betty crocker oatmeal cookie mix. So good. Try it out. It's honestly so good!

Chocolate Oatmeal No Bake Cookies
1/2 C Butter
2 C Sugar
1/2 C Milk
4 Tbsp Cocoa
1/2 C Peanut Butter
3- 3 1/2 C Quick cooking Oats
2 tsp. Vanilla

 I'm going to go back to hovering over these cookies with Chris until they're ready to eat. 

Potty Training

I feel like potty training is probably harder for the parent than it is for the child. Seriously. As the parent you're the one who has to constantly be on the watch for the potty dance, a quick grab, a tiny drip, or for the clock to tell you it's been long enough that they should be losing it any minute. Sometimes you get them to go, and sometimes you don't. As the parent you are constantly changing wet underwear, doing laundry to keep clean underwear coming, and cleaning up any accidents that happen along the way.

I feel like this has been my life for the last week. We've been trying for a while now to get this kid to go potty, and he has not been interested. Not only has he not been interested, he screamed like he was being tortured every time we sat him on the potty. So I borrowed my neighbors little potty, and let him sit in the family room, and play the ipad while watching a movie just hoping something would accidentally come out and it would all click for him. It didn't. He sat on it for hours, and nothing would happen.

So we decided to bribe him. I took him to Toys R Us and let him pick out a toy. Chris told Boston he could pick out ANY Lightening McQueen he wanted, no matter what it cost. Well we walked through Toys R Us and found the coolest Lightening McQueen. When Chris said no matter what the cost, I doubt he knew this lightening existed. Notice the price tag. For a kids toy. Apparently he talks to you...but does my three year old son care about that? Nope. He grabbed this Lightening and threw him in the cart. I don't know about you, but I was pretty sure we could find a cheaper lightening Mcqueen. It took me 30 minutes and two tantrums to convince him that we should run over to the Disney store and see if we could find a "Better Lightening".

So we headed over to the Disney store where we found A huge plane with Finn McMissile, the same one our neighbor friend has that Boston LOVES. As soon as Boston saw this plane, Lightening went out the window. Thank Heavens. Sidalee the plane was only $30, still expensive, but way better than $65. Boston grabbed the plane and walked it right up to the register and set it on the counter. The workers there were laughing so hard. I let Boston pay for it, and Carry the monster bag back out to the car. When we got home I sat the plane on the counter where he could see it everyday and we talked about how he would have to go potty on the toilet for 3 days before he could open it.


Have you ever seen anybody so happy? So we tried and tried, and nothing happened. This kid was determined though and literally sat on the potty for a full day and nothing came out. We both were a little sad about that. For four days we tried to "get the water to come out" but couldn't. For four days I pumped him full of Chocolate milk and he held it. No accidents. He would seriously hold it until I put a diaper on him for nap time or bed time, then let it lose. One day he woke up from his nap completely soaked. That's how much he was holding. So we took a break. We went on vacation for a week and a half to Lake Powell and Colorado (posts on that to come) and tried it again when we got back. Same thing. I could not get him to go in the toilet. So I decided to go get his very own potty. I brought it home and quickly discovered that it was almost too small for him. Right as I was packing parts of it back up, Boston ran up, pulled down his pants, and went right there. So much for taking it back...except as he sat there he yelled "THE WATER'S COMING MOM!!!!" And sure enough, it had. He was so excited. Chris and I were probably more excited. Then we started the next few days of him going, he did awesome when we were at home, and he even went at Walmart! Then we weren't home for one day and he struggled. But yesterday he not only went number one, he went number 2 in the potty. Granted, he missed because it was too small, but we still celebrated and let him open his plane. He kept running around yelling "Mom, I'm so pwoud of you for opening my plane!" It was awesome. The rest of the day he made it to the potty each time, but forgot to point down, a concept I never thought of, so he would miss the bowl and spray everything. So I spent yesterday cleaning up bodily functions. The life of a mom. But Still so proud of my little guy.

I love that he's so happy. We still have a lot to work on, but he's getting it. 

Better for you Man Pleasin' Sandwich

It's a poor picture I know. Trust me, it's good. And because it's broiled you can just pick it up and eat it without it falling apart. :)

I love this recipe from Mels Kitchen Cafe (LOVE) http://www.melskitchencafe.com/2008/01/man-pleasin-sandwich.html, but since her version's not fatty friendly ;D I changed it up so I could still have this yumminess while trying to lose weight. Whoever said you can't enjoy eating while losing weight is crazy. Yes, it may be true that if I didn't eat things like this sandwich I'd probably lose faster, but I'm having to lose weight because I LOVE FOOD. That's not going to change, so I have to learn to eat the things I love, and create them so they're better for me. 

WWP+: 9ish points  depending on the meat you use. 

INGREDIENTS:
2 to 3 pounds cube steak (tenderized round steak that’s been extra-tenderized) or you can substitue flank steak that you've tenderized since it's leaner)
1 large onion, thinly sliced

1 red pepper, thinly sliced

1 green pepper, thinly sliced
whole wheat pitas (2 points)
Beef Broth (I didn't measure, I just eyeballed, and put in what I felt like would be good)

Butter (you can cut this completely and probably won't miss it. You could sub Olive oil to get your healthy oils in for the day)
Lawry’s Seasoned Salt (for steak, if you have it)
Worcestershire Sauce
Mozarella/provolone cheese, sliced (2 points)

DIRECTIONS:
Slice onions, green and red pepper and cook in 2-3 TBS of beef broth and tsp butter until soft and onions are light brown. Remove and set aside. Slice cube steak against the grain. Season with Lawry’s. Heat 2 TBSP beef broth and 1 tsp butter over high heat (in same skillet) until melted and beginning to brown. Add meat in single layer. Cook one side until brown (don’t stir, just let the heat carmelize the meat and do it’s magic!), then flip and cook until brown, about a minute on both sides.

Add 1/2 cup (at least) Worcestershire sauce and 2 TBSP beef broth. Add cooked onions. Stir to combine. Butter halved French rolls and brown on skillet. To assemble,slice pitas in half and open up. Stuff meat mixture into pita halves and set on a tray. Lay half a slice of cheese over each pita half. Broil on low until cheese is golden brown.

Try it.  You and your man will love it! :)

I Am a Woman of Steel!

*Most of my pictures are blown out. I apologize. I forget to check the camera setting before I gave it to my mom. Ooops. 

A few months ago a friend of mine invited me to do a triathlon with her. Since I've always thought it would be kind of fun to do something like that I said yes. I got one of my other friends to do it with me as well and we all started training. Over the last three months I've developed a love hate relationship with training. One the one hand I really like running, biking and swimming. They are really fun and great workouts! On the other hand I hate feeling like I have to do something. But overall it's been really, really good for me. 

Yesterday, May 19th, was the big day. As it started coming closer I began to get a little nervous, but not nervous as in I can't do this or what have I done nervous, more like nervous I am so excited to see how I do kind of nervous. 

We had to be at American Fork rec center sometime between 6-7:30 in order to get all set up. I didn't want to have to wake the kids up at 5:30 and take them to my in-laws so I decided, at the last minute, we'd sleep at my parents house that night. The kids were already at my parents house so at 10pm I had to drive home and pick up diapers, clothes for the next day, and all my triathlon gear. While I was getting ready for Saturday I realized I'd forgotten to get a bike helmet. I looked everywhere for Chris's, and couldn't for the life of me find it. 

It's always when you need something...

So at 11:00 I drove to Walmart and picked one out. By the time I got back to my parents house it was midnight. So much for getting a full nights rest. I felt like a kid on Christmas Eve. I was too excited to sleep. Finally after hours of tossing and turning, I decided to switch beds. I moved into Mary's old bed and was finally able to go to sleep. 

I woke up around 6am and was so excited. I decided to practice my transition from the swim to the run and see how quickly I could change. Many people just ran in their swimsuit, but mine didn't have enough support and usually gave me a wedgy, so running in it was out of the question. I decided to put my jogging bra on under the swimsuit and was planning on wearing my running underwear under the swimsuit too, but that morning, I decided it would be nice to put on dry underwear for the bike ride. I practice changing out of my swimsuit and putting on my running underwear (think boy shorts) underneath my towel. It worked perfectly, and I was able to change from my swimsuit to all my running gear in about 90 seconds. Perfect transition for a first timer. I ate a small breakfast, drank a bunch of water, got all my stuff out to the car and had my mom take me over and drop me off around 7. 

I got tagged with my number, 774, on both my arms and my age got stamped on my calf. All with permanent marker. Something I can't get off very well. Oh well. 

I went over and set up my bike, and probably set up my clothes 6 or 7 times and then hung out with Laura and Becky until it was time to head to the pool. 

It was finally time. The three of us, and 900 other competitors headed over to the pool in all of our swimsuit glory. Now I'm no Michael Phelpes in the pool, or my friend Becky for that matter, but I'm decent. The last time I timed myself (a month ago) I could finish in about 9 minutes. But I was nervous because I had never swam it in 50 meter laps, only 25 meter laps. So I placed myself with the other 9-10 minute swimmers. Laura stayed with me and Becky was at the front with the 6 minute swimmers. Finally they announced it was time and the first two swimmers were in the pool. These girls were pros. You could tell. For the first 5 minutes the women knew what they were doing and were all fast. Then I women got in and started doing backstroke. She was much slower than the women around her and started to back things up. We watched as more and more women got in, who had obviously lied about how fast they were, and created blocks in the pool that were impossible to pass. Then some women got in began running in the shallow ends creating more blocks for those women who could actually swim! 

I started to realize that I had placed myself with swimmers who were most likely going to be too slow. But I was still hopeful that being towards the back there wouldn't be as much congestion. Finally it was my turn. I stepped over the mat to active the tracking device on my ankle and jumped into the pool. The first 100 meters were a breeze I was so happy I hadn't run into anybody at all and was super excited to not have to worry about it. I was swimming away when suddenly somebody's feet were right in front of me. So I checked to see if I could go around them. Four women were backed up behind one slow swimmer. There was no way I was getting around. So I waded (ha, get it waded instead of waited, which in this case is totally true) until we all got to the wall. At the wall I was trying to create a little space so I could actually swim again, but then suddenly more slow swimmers were passing me. I had no choice but to swim again. It was frustrating, and tiring since I kept running into feet and couldn't really swim at all. Ughh. Live and learn. 

Finally I finish. I jump out of the pool and grab my stuff and head over to the transition area. On the way I begin stripping off my swimsuit and get it down to around my waist. I get to my bike and drop my stuff. I put my running top on over my lovely, wrinkled post baby shriveled balloon stomach and make sure the towel is tight around my waist  so I can strip and put on my jogging underwear. Easy right, I had practiced this. Wrong. I forget to take in to account the fact that I would be wet, and that my swimsuit would be clinging to me for dear life. It probably took me 5 minutes to pry the stupid thing off while trying to maintain some sense of decency/privacy under the towel. Once I got it off I began to put on my running shorts, guess what? That didn't go so well either due to the fact that I was dripping wet. I probably wasted a full 10 minutes in this transition.

Next time I will be much smarter, or get a triathlon suit. So I'm finally dressed, I grab my bike, strap on my helmet and start heading out. Suddenly I realize I don't have a clue how to change the gears on this bike I rented and have never ridden. I start looking for a dial or switch or anything to change the gears. Nothing. So I ask somebody and she shows me a little lever hidden under the brakes on each handle. 

Awesome. I'm ready to go. I jump on my bike and start pedaling. The bike is in first gear and so for 90 rotations of my legs I'm going two feet. At least it felt like it. One woman passed me and tried to encourage my by yelling "Come on! you can do it! Don't give up now, push!" Thanks lady for that. I started trying to switch the gears and finally got it to a level that got me going a respectable speed with every pedal. Then came the hills. They weren't huge, but one was a decent size. On the first one I tried to drop the gears, but ended up raising them instead. Awesome. I got to the bigger hill and was probably in gear 6 or 7. I was pushing with everything I had, and when I got 20 feet from the crest of the hill I could barely get my bike to move. So i got off and walked up the rest of the hill. At the top I jumped on again and began trying to figure out how to drop the gears, only to accidentally raise them yet again. So by this time I'm at a 9. Super awesome. So I'm riding along and I see a sign that says bikes then an arrow pointing to the right. So I turn right. Suddenly I'm the only one on the street, but I didn't really think too much of it until I got to the end of the street to see bikers coming from the north. I had gone off course. I wasn't sure by how much, and I thought great, I will probably be disqualified. I considered back tracking and getting back on the proper course, but I thought I probably wasn't too far off so I just jumped right back in where I was. I zoomed down the hill trying to make up for any lost time. My gears were still stuck at 9 which gave me an extra push while going down the hill, and I decided to leave them since I knew I had to do the hill again but didn't want to risk making the hill even harder on myself. I raced through the second loop, and yes, I had to walk the last 20 feet of the hill again, but I flew down the hill again. It was a nice break and my favorite part of the whole thing. :) 

I got back to the transition area, put my bike away took off my helmet and started running. I made it about 30 yards when something felt off. I was suddenly having a hard time breathing.  This completely caught me off guard. When I finished the bike I wasn't tired or out of breath at all! So I tried to calm down, get control of my breathing and started walking. I tried breathing through my shirt, but it wasn't helping. I could tell I was beginning to panic and in my head I was thinking, I'm not going to be able to finish if I can't get this under control. It was getting worse, and suddenly it sounded and felt like I was trying to breath through a coffee straw. I could barely get enough air to walk. So I turned around and started back towards the tents to find a medic. On my way back I heard someone call my name. It was Laura's husband Jim. I thought, oh good, he can find help for me. As he got closer he began to tell me that Laura wasn't too far behind me, I cut him off and between gasping for air told him I was having an asthma attack. He came over to help me and a guy sitting on a lawn chair in the middle of the street suddenly jumped in and said, "I have an inhaler, you want it?" I looked at him and shook my head. I took that first breath and it was amazing. Everything relaxed and I began to be able to get air again. I took a second long breath with the inhaler and I my lungs and throat were completely open again. It was amazing. I thanked the man and told him he was a life saver! I was so thankful for a stranger to who helped me out. I didn't have an inhaler because it's been almost 10 years since I've had an attack this bad. I have been running, biking, and swimming every week for three months so it wasn't like I wasn't used to what I was doing. I was so caught off guard, but was saved by using a strangers inhaler. I love that man for making it so I could finish. 

Once I caught my breath I began walking. Once I could feel I wasn't struggling I decided to try running again. I was a little nervous to have another one, but I knew my body could do it. I ran to the base of each hill and then walked up, just to be safe. At one point I thought to myself, I can't do this ever again. Before I could even finish the thought, I yelled at myself saying, you'll do another one of these, you know you can finish. The day before I found out that we weren't allowed to listen to music during the bike and the run. No music during the bike, fine. But during the run? I was pretty sure My negative self talk would overcome my body. But as I was running I was amazed at how clear my head was. I wasn't counting the number of songs I had run to in order to figure out how long I had been running for, I had actually been thinking about whatever I wanted, and how good I was feeling. I actually ENJOYED running with out music, and just with myself.  I ran in my new awesome shoes Chris gave me for Mother's day, Nike Free 4.0 (amazing), and as I was rounding the last corner one of the race workers said, "You're almost there! Just a bit more than a mile left and it's all down hill!" Wahoo!!!! I could totally do that! So I ran. It was so fun! As I came up on the last stretch I could see the top of the finish arch. It took everything in me to not sprint towards it. I knew I was still too far to sprint the whole distance without getting super tired, and I wanted to sprint at the end. I finally came down the last stretch and hundreds of people were cheering us on. It was reenergizing. I sprinted towards the finish and when I crossed the finish line I almost burst into tears, and then I couldn't breath again. Lame. Luckily I got it under control with out any medical help this time. My glorious moment ruined by my lungs, almost. It was still glorious actually.

Me Crossing the finish line. Not the girl on the right. 

Sprinting to finish.

I have never been more proud of myself. 

Becky and I at the finish line! 

My sweet dad brought me a big bouquet of flowers. I love him. 

Glad to be done

Me and Laura on the podium. Couldn't find Becky, but we were so proud of ourselves! 

My Mom. She is so wonderful. I couldn't have done it without her help. She and my mother-in-law Connie are more of my biggest supporters! 

My biggest supporter. Chris flew back from New Orleans that morning and sped from the airport to get there in time to see me 5 minutes after I finished. 

My time was 1:38:06.5. My first transition was 9 minutes. My swim was 11. Lame. Those two things killed me. I placed 19th in my division. There were over 50 competitors in my division. I'm already trying to figure out another one to do. Maybe the River Rampage June 30th? Or there are a few in August that look fun. Chris and I are going to do one together later this summer. Anyone interested? 

Heaven on Earth

For the week of April 8th, we got to spend a week in what I like to call Heaven on Earth, Hawaii. Chris had always wanted to go, and I had lived there before my mission so I was dying to go back. Right after Maddie was born we used all of our skymile points and bought two tickets to Maui. We had a count down and could hardly wait until we got to go on a very needed, just the two of us, vacation. Finally, April 8th arrived! We woke up early that morning and did a fun easter with the kids! Maddie didn't care, but she got a super cute dress.

Boston was so excited that the easter bunny hid candy all over the house, until he saw a little toy that the E.B. brought, Francesco. After that he found all the candy but didn't care even to eat it. I'll keep that in mind for next year...

After that we packed the kids up, and dropped them off with my mom to spend half the week with her, then half the week with Chris's family. Our plane left at 3, and we were almost giddy! We landed in Maui around 8:30pm it was rainy and a little bit chilly (for Maui mind you). We got our rental car and drove to our amazing, awesome hotel, The Westin Maui. When I lived in Maui, this was the place I always wanted to stay if I ever came back, and I got to! It's AMAZING! i don't know if I'll ever be able to stay anywhere else in Maui ever again!

I had a list of things we could do while we were there like sunrise at Haleakala, hike Iao Needle, road to Hana, Snorkling, etc. Then I had a list of things we must do which involved mostly beaches and amazing food. We figured we'd play it by ear each day. Monday we just hung out at our hotel pools and Kaanapali beach. I love this beach. It is one of my favorite, and I can't tell you how much time I spent here. I worked within walking distance of Kaanapali beach and would spend lunch breaks just enjoying the sun there. It was almost exactly like I remembered it, the only thing that was different was that boats were able to go right up to the beach and I don't remember that ever happening. Seriously, does it get any better?

We also popped by my old store, Del Sol, at Whalers Village. It's no longer Del Sol, but they still have a little section dedicated to Del Sol apparel. It was fun/weird to be back.

Our favorite place to hangout was the hammock. :) Monday night we ate dinner at Leilani's grill on the beach. I love this place! I used to walk up and get 3 rice balls and some shoyu (soy sauce) during my lunch breaks. I love their sticky rice! The reason we went there was for their Hula Pie. it's really a mountain of chocolate goodness.

We also had some of the most amazing sweet potato fries there. I could have eaten those every single day! That night we just hung out in the hammocks a bit more and enjoyed listening to the sound of the waves. Tuesday morning we went on a whale watch. I was super excited when I found out the whales were still there. I thought they left at the end of March. So I made Chris come on one with me. We had a great time! On our way out to see we saw a HUGE Navy cargo ship. The picture really doesn't do it justice at all.

We also got a great show by a few mommy whales and their babies. They came right up to the boat! I tried to get Chris to let me use his phone to take pictures, but he was afraid I'd drop it in the water. No faith in me at all.

Obviously I didn't take this picture, I just thought it showed a mom and baby really well. :)

That afternoon was a little windy, and we ended up going on a little hike. On my days off when I had a whole bunch of time to kill by myself, I would drive up the coast past all the touristy stuff and head out to the cliffs. There was this one cliff that I would sit on the side of for hours and just read or hang out while I watch the surf coming in and out. It was so calming to me and usually I ended up reading Chris's letters there or writing him. I always felt like I was watching the ocean breath in this particular spot. It was neat to go and hang out with Chris there. While we were there we got a free show by a bunch of whales.

That night we went back to Whalers village for a free show. I used to step outside the store and watch this at least once a week. Good Times. Wednesday, we bagged going to Haleakala and just hung out at the beach. We decided to go snorkeling at Honolua bay. So Beautiful! I was really hoping to see a turtle, but no luck. I'll be honest, snorkeling makes me super nervous. In fact, I have to focus on not hyperventilating for the first 5 minutes. It makes perfect sense why becoming a marine biologist didn't work out.

That night we hung out on front street and ate at my ALL TIME FAVORITE burger joint, Cool Cats. If you ever go to Maui you have to eat here. Best. Burgers. Ever. My roommate, and long time friend, Kati, would go here at least once a week. I had to get The Duke, because it's blow your mind fantastic! As usual, it didn't disappoint. My mouth is watering again, just thinking about this burger.

Thursday We hung out at the pool, and then headed over to my favorite beach ever, Big Beach, with some boogie boards.This beach is not only beautiful, but it's not crowded, the water is super clear, the sand is never hot, and there are big waves that break right on the shore which makes this beach super fun/a little dangerous to play in. Kati and I drove to this beach as much as we could, and almost broke multiple bones/lost swimsuits while swimming here. I was so excited to bring Chris here, and he loved it as much as I did!

That night we went to a luau. It was fun to eat food like Kalua pork and sticky rice, and even poi. I even ate a little ahi poke (sushi). Yup. I ate raw fish. What can I say. It's worth eating when it's fresh. Friday we played at the pool and the beach all day.

That night we went to my FAVORITE Gallery EVER, the Peter Lik gallery. If you don't know who this guy is click on his name and check him out right now! If I'm ever a super-duper-quadruple millionaire I'm going to fill my house with his photos. Just to give you and idea of the price, my favorite picture is going for $18,000 right now, and that's not even a big one. But I tell you what, it would be worth every penny!

Sunset on Front Street.

This vacation was amazing. No kids. Just play. All the time. There are days where I wish I could be back on the beach, just the two of us, enjoying the peace and beauty of it all. But then I see my two cute babies, and here is pretty awesome too. :) *So, I just noticed that the pictures aren't lining up with the words. Sorry about that, but I'm just going to try and move on so that I can get caught up. :)