Hawaii Jan/Feb 2014

For Christmas this year/our 10th anniversary, Josh surprised me with a trip to Hawaii to visit my cousin! Now you might wonder why for our 10th anniversary celebration did we not go together? Josh knew that I wouldn't be able to leave Jake with someone else for that long. He needed to be in a routine, in his home and with people he is comfortable with. He's a mammas boy and was still nursing at the time, so it was going to be hard enough to have to wean him to go, but to have to worry about him while I was gone, would have been too much. He's just too young and kind of a high maintenance kid. josh knew I would be fine if it was his own dad holding down the fort. It was perfect! I went with my sister and we had plenty of much needed girl time.  Brittany took us to all of the fun stuff around the island, so we could experience it without paying for all the expensive touristy stuff.  Perfect :)

Stop one, kind of a rainy/cloudy day so we hit up the macadamia nut farm.  Inside there was no grass or dirt, just broken nuts all over the ground.  Haha.

Valley of the Temples

A little bamboo forest where we left our mark along with the many other tourists!

Cherisa being a beach babe while I play around with my new lens.  Little Ben is such a beach babe too, with his flowing curls and chill attitude, t was so fun having him tag along on all our adventures :)

Just being goofy at sunset :)

This is where we went whale watching.  "The point" of the island where they whales like to play. 

Gorgeous spot overlooking the beach where the sun sets.

Most beautiful sunset ever!

Ben was fearless and so intrigued by this chicken and baby chick!  He followed them around for a long time, haha!

At the Dole plantation.  Pretty much just went for pineapple ice cream and a picture

The result of the whale watching.  I wish I could have gotten closer!

Froyo truck.  Yeah we stopped there a few times.

 

Ben likes to be naked :)

We climbed the stairway to Heaven, a hike that is forbidden for reasons I am not totally sure about.  apparently many years ago they rebuilt the stairs, spending nearly a million dollars to make it safer.  Once it was complete, they just never opened it back up, according to the Internet it is something to do with the neighbours complaining about all the traffic.  So we searched on Yelp and talked to Brittany and Maikal, and apparently if we go in the middle of the night, before the guard arrives, then we can get through.  We really wanted to see the amazing sunrise from the top of the mountain, so we woke up at 1:30am the first Saturday we were there, and headed out on our adventure.  It was awesome.  Hard.  My calves ached for the whole week after.  But so worth it.  The only thing that would have made it better is if it had not been so foggy and raining, so we could have actually seen the sunrise at the top, instead of being stuck in a big cloud!

Beautiful view by the temple on our morning runs.

Pearl Harbour.

It rained a lot while we were there!  But still better than being in Alberta in the bitter cold and snow!

Drinking coconut water form a fruit stand.  You gotta experience it!

I loves seeing the turtle washed up on the beach.  They were huge!

The ride home through the night was exhausting.  I suffered through one cancelled flight but finally made it home safe and sound, and super excited to see my hubby and kiddos!

Thanks Josh for the wonderful experience and for holding down the fort while I was gone.  And thanks to Brittany and Miakal for letting us stay with you and being the best tour guides ever!