Wow. The anticipation of this trip didn't kill me. That in and of itself is kind of amazing because I counted down every minute. To say that I was exhausted would be hyperbolic as an understatement. My body, mind and soul needed a break from my 4 wonderful children. Brian and I needed the recharge. We go out to dinner 1-2 times a week, but dinner is not the same as the bonding that occurs when you spend days and days together. We left on this trip that we had planned two years before and I thought that my heart might explode. Of course, we had to balance that with the immense sadness (and the second guessing) of leaving my kids to get on an airplane for the first time.... but balanced we did and away we went. I pulled it together and relaxed immediately upon sitting in our seats.
My cute honey bunny listening to his book and resting.
As we were getting off the plane, Brian pulled out a card that Landon had made for us. I took a picture and sent it to Rachel to show to Landon. I was thinking about how much I must trust Rachel. I handed her my car keys, my credit card, the kids' insurance cards and my children. Then I got on an airplane. That is blind trust and she is truly the best person for the job. She loves my kids and we are SO blessed to have her!
Beautiful flowers at the airport while waiting for our bags.
We got lei'd as soon as we arrived at our gorgeous hotel.
This is how we were greeted - mint ginger lemonade, pineapple and cold towels.
Our view from our room - that's our little bed!
We had an indoor bath, indoor shower and an outdoor shower. It didn't photograph amazingly, but it was gorgeous!
We went on a walk to explore the property. There were just little places like this where you could sit and read or meditate....or make out ;-)
A hula dancer and live band were at the restaurant every night.
View from dinner. We were the very front table.
The torch lighter.
Oh I loved my food there and I took photos of a lot of it! This was fresh snapper and a light salad. So yummy.
I found this guy in the tide pools the next day. The tide pools made me think of my little nugget, Landon. He loves to explore them with me. So does Hunter!
We went for a long walk every morning before breakfast and it was incredibly gorgeous.
Eggs with swiss chard, onion and farm fresh tomatoes. Delish!
After breakfast, we grabbed a cabana at the quiet pool and relaxed all day. We listened to our books, walked around, explored tide pools and swam in the quiet pool. We spent a lot of time talking to one another and bonding.
Aren't my toes purdy? My friend painted them!
Green sea turtles are the only turtles that will lay on the beach for hours. All other turtles only leave the water to lay eggs. These turtles are so cool!
There are 5 turtles in this photo but they are hard to spot.
Meanwhile, at home.....
Back to Hawaii. We were not really missing the kids yet. It took many days to feel refreshed again to even imagine missing them. We called twice a day for the first several days.
I love fun drinks in pieces of fruit! I don't remember what I had, but I loved it.
Working in the evening. What better place to do it?!
Ready for dinner!
We went to a steakhouse, where I had fish. It's kind of my thing. As I get older, I have a harder time eating different kinds of foods. Fish is easier to digest and I love it!
At home the boys were attending their first day of golf camp! How cute are they?!
On our walk, Brian had to stretch his ankles.
This was the 15th hole of a golf course. It's surrounded by lava. Yikes!
Meanwhile, at home, Rachel was setting up her Kinder classroom and brought Ms. Maisy to help. I missed this face pretty immediately, but not her screaming and yelling.
The berry plate! It was so delicious!
CUTIE!
So they have 4 pools at this hotel + the beach which is called the "ocean pool". I went snorkeling in it so that I could see the giant Eagle Ray that they keep in it. Wow was it cool and it kind of freaked me out too.
What's more gorgeous than this?! And the ocean too!
Turtles!
Lunch means a break from the pool. Oh it is so hard!
Grilled chicken breast with avocado, tomato and celery leaves. So yummy!
These were neat - they were selling fresh young coconut! I loved the little stand.
I had watermelon juice instead. BTW, we moved to the adult pool instead of the quiet pool. This way my favorite place to be.
Not bad, huh?
The 2 of us! Brian was very consistent with his drink of choice - a strawberry smoothie - whereas I jumped around a lot.
We went on a pretty awesome tour up to the top of Mauna Kea. If you look at Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, they are actually the 2 tallest mountains in the world. They actually smoosh the tectonic plates that they sit upon, which becomes part of the mountain and makes them about 50,000 ft tall! Here we are on the tour bus. We went for dinner at this abandoned area. It was really interesting and we had a picnic dinner before heading to the top of the mountain. The mountain sits just below 14,000 feet above sea level. We watched the gorgeous sunset into the clouds. It was truly incredible and one of the most unique things i have seen. The pictures don't capture it.
Meanwhile, back at home....
On top of Mauna Kea there are 8 huge telescopes (more like buildings) and a radio telescope like the one used in Closer.
This is the one that is part of a network of 8 telescopes around the world including Chile, etc.
Where we had dinner....it had a bee infestation!
On top of Mauna Kea - it was freeeeeezing!
This is a specific kind of plant that is endangered. It's only found in Hawaii and only blooms once every 25 years. This one is in bloom. Now you've seen it.
Meanwhile, Rachel was working on her classroom with these little helpers.
The adult pool....
My lunch - we ate at the lounges this day. I had a grilled and chilled shrimp salad. It was pretty good! I love healthy fresh seafood and healthy fresh produce!
I also love (adore) these 2 faces.
Me and my new suit! <3 p="">
So one Tuesday we did something SUPER special! First of all, we had a private consultation with the chef to plan our dinner on Thursday (more details later). On Tuesday night, we had a special chef's dinner. We sat at a private table in the middle of the dining room and the main chef of Ulu prepared an 8 course meal in front of us. He explained about all of the local, organic ingredients and how they were used. It was one of the coolest meals of my life <3 p="">
Before our Chef dinner!
Brian rowing us ashore. Oh...wait....we ARE ashore!
Love love love this cute man.
The fresh ingredients to begin our dinner.....
We started with a fresh ahi poke. We had never experienced poke before and it was exceptional. The chef, Shaun, said it is important to always make sure that it is fresh.
Chef Shaun Acosta
Ahi Poke with purple yam chips!
Next up: tropical fruit gazpacho! AMAZING!
He's not big on gazpacho, but he tried it. yay Brian!
dragon fruit!
Next was citric cured fish. I can't remember the name of it. I should have taken notes!
Our view.
This was a special Hawaiian technique whereby they put the ahi in sesame seeds and seaweed and then sear it. It's served with bok choy and amazing.
Next was Brian's favorite - meat and potatoes! An awesome Parker ranch filet with broccolini and smashed yukon gold potatoes.
Up next was a lemon torte with ice cream inside. It reminded me of baked Alaska but it had papaya on the side. it was yummy, but decidedly not dessert given that it wasn't chocolate soon
They then brought out some little chocolate mousse squares that were delicious!
And of course, chocolate truffles!
Us and our amazing waiter, Chad, and the fantastic chef, Shaun. We had such a good time!
The next morning we had to wake up early for a helicopter tour. This is my "I just woke up" face but Brian thought I looked cute, so here it is. I was STUFFED from dinner, so I didn't eat much.
Off we went over the top of the volcano to see live lava flow. It was really neat, but the highlight was seeing the lava hit trees and the trees were burning! Because it is so wet, it doesn't start a big forest fire but rather burns the trees a few at a time.
When we landed we went on a bus to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park where we explored the Thurston lava tube.
And hiked to see this plume, which is so large that it can be seen from space. Because it gives off sulfuric acid, and covers much of the park, most of the roads around the park were closed.
Then they took us to a coffee plantation for lunch. This is how coffee beans look on the tree.
Out of the shell.
This was a black sand beach - don't ask me why my pictures are all shuffled. I have NO idea. They are supposed to be time stamped.
That night we came home and were pretty tired. We went to the Resident's beach house for dinner. It was super cute and, as you can see, about 10 feet from the sand.
We had ahi as an appetizer and it was YUM!
Isn't it so cute?! I loved it here!
And I LOVE him! <3 p="">
Crab!
Turtle! I was sitting at breakfast and saw this turtle in the tide pool. I had to go explore.
And this gorgeous shell!
Our breakfast spot. Not terrible.
This pool was PRETTY amazing. Definitely a favorite spot.
We made some friends who took this picture and emailed it to us on our anniversary. How sweet is that?
On our anniversary we spent the morning in the pool and then had lunch. I had an ahi burger (no bun) with mango salsa. Seriously. Can I eat this for every single meal?!
We were getting ready for our couples massage in a little hut and we were pretty excited.
This was afterwards. Doesn't he look happy?
They served us mango tea, cantaloupe, macadamia nuts and shortbread. It was awesome.
I am obviously MISERABLE. Where does this guy take me?!
Plumeria - a favorite of my Brian's.
This little area is made for massaging the bottoms of your feet. It was too tickly for me.
This was from earlier at lunch. I don't know why he took this photo, but here it is! <3 p="">
Dinner that night was amazing. It was, quite honestly, the best night of my life. I bought this dress for the night because it is white and beachy and I knew he had something special planned. We had met with the chef on Tuesday to plan our 4 course dinner. We each had our own choice of anything we wanted and we have completely different courses! I was all seafood and he was more meats. So, let me tell you about it. The hotel set up a loveseat in the sand where we could sit and chat. He had a professional ukulele player/singer come for an hour and serenade us. We sat with our toes in the sand, watching the sunset while listening to the ukulele and the player. It was an incredible way to spend our 10th wedding anniversary. Then we moved from the loveseat over to the table and were served by our personal waiter. How amazing is that? They supplied us with an endless amount of Martinelli's and Fiji water.
Oh we also got these amazing plumeria leis. They were so gorgeous, I should have taken a close up.
Our table
Peli - our incredible ukulele player
Torch runner
A turtle came to visit us during our dinner!!! I love these turtles.
Brian had lobster bisque and i had sushi. Yum!
We exchanged gifts. We each got a new ring. It was very special.
The second course: Brian had kalua pork with soft Bao bread
I had snapper in coconut curry sauce. Oh my goodness - every meal, I tell you.
For the third course I had a fish trio. I don't remember what they all were - Mahi, snapper and some Hawaiian fish. It was pretty good, but I liked the first 2 courses more.
Brian had a 32 ounce Tomahawk steak! Look at that bone!
Then we had a warm molten chocolate cake with fresh churned ice cream. So delicious.
So in love <3 p="">
Relaxing together - and never wanting to leave. It was an exceptional night of love and romance - celebrating this bond we have forged over the last 14 years - and 10 years of marriage. We are so lucky to have one another. Although marriage isn't always easy, with him it is always worth it.
Turtle!
Our lit walking path. I really did NOT want to leave.
We came back to Martinelli's and more chocolates. Good thing too - we were starved! I also love that the hotel has a note in our file that we don't drink, so they only send us Martinelli's!
The next morning I had a delicious and light egg scramble. It was so yummy. The food on this trip was outstanding. We left shortly after breakfast to move islands. We loved the Big Island of Hawaii and will definitely go back with fondness and love. Off to Maui!
Good by to Kona!
And this was Rachel's life!
Here we are in Maui! We arrived!
Off to dinner that night!
I had the charcuterie buffet and the salad bar. It was so good and I got to pick exactly what I wanted.
B got a lobster bisque that was out of this world
And a rib eye with brussel sprouts and lobster mac n cheese.
It was neat though, because he got to pick his steak and the rub and everything. Different.
This was the fish station.
Oops - I ate the "Happy anniversary"
Gorgeous, right?
We went up to the adult pool - because we COULD! We actually went up there every day of this part of the trip. We made friends who went to the Fountain pool and were repeatedly hit in the head with a football while relaxing in their lounges. Best to stay at the adult pool.
Listening to my book in the pool. What's better?
Kissing in the pool might be better ;-)
For lunch we shared the ahi poke (which wasn't amazing) and the roasted vegetable plate with hummus. It was pretty good.
That night we went to Spago where they are known for these ahi cones. The cone is made out of all these flavorful sesame seeds. Incredible. So flavorful and delicious!
B was pouting about the view. I took a picture of it.
We shared a creamy mushroom soup that was delicious!
And they brought us a cookie plate because we didn't order any dessert.
Sister Hales came over to watch the kids for a bit for Rachel. Rachel needed the break and I think the kids were happy to get the time with Sister Hales. Love that woman! <3 p="">
My cutie pie.
Showing off the ring. Because I made him ;-)
He really wanted to do the Road to Hana. Off we went - an 8 hour day in the car. It was.....long. Is that an acceptable description? We went because he wanted to go and I think he enjoyed himself, so I guess it was worth it. I'm lazy and wanted to lay by the pool.
This is called the "whale spout" and when the tide is high the water shoots out of it! Cool, huh?
Look - a 200 foot waterfall.
Some random religious statues on the side of the road.
We got back to the hotel in time to go to the Italian restaurant. Italian. My favorite.
And we watched the sunset from our table.
These were meatballs and they were to die for!
And a burrata and prosciutto salad with pears and aged balsamic. It's making me hungry.
We shared the grilled snapper with onions and grilled potatoes
And a homemade lobster sauce and pasta. The pasta won. I don't usually eat carbs ;-)
For dessert they brought us a tiny chocolate cream puff - you know - for our anniversary.
This was our last day and I was enjoying the bubblers in the adult pool - basking in the quiet and solitude that would soon be gone.
Dessert was sent to out room to thank us for staying. Nice.
And this was our last night. I'd been saving this dress for the last night and it was a little more snug than I remembered it. Oops. Too much chocolate!
Our view! No pouting tonight!
We shared fried quail. I don't eat fried food so this was quite a big step for me. My tummy wasn't super thrilled.
But he was! Yum!
Then we had a beef and pork ragu over homemade pasta. Delish!
And I had some kind of snapper with a lobster sauce and tomato coulis.
B had lamb chops with a sauce. They were yummy. I could barely eat 3 bites of my fish. Do not eat fried foods, if you are me.
Meanwhile, my kids helped carry in all kinds of stuff, do stickers on notebooks for Rachel's students and otherwise be helpful in the classroom. I am so proud of these kids, and by the last day I couldn't even talk to them on the phone without crying. I really needed the break and I am glad I took it because I'm a much nicer mom now, but I missed them immensely.
Goodbye to Maui. We were flying home, ironically, in the same shirts we wore on the way to Hawaii. We will miss it there. It will always have a very special place in our hearts. We loved it and we love one another even more because of the time we could spend talking and reconnecting. It's amazing how much you need that from one another, and you need the experiences and memories to build together. I love having a life with Brian outside of our children. Our children are THE most important thing to us as a couple, but the other one is the most important to each one of us. Does that make sense? I loved taking the time to serve my husband and fuss over him and care for him and put him and his needs first. I love this man and I am so blessed to be married to him. Seriously. I am so lucky.
And Rachel took the kids, with her own money, to the aquarium. How cute is that? She is truly an awesome person and we are SUPER lucky to have her!
Back on the airplane and heading home - missing the kiddos but so relaxed and happy.
The top photo is of us on the way to Hawaii and the bottom photo is of us on the way home. Funny, huh?
We got home to these little faces - he loves his new Hawaiian duds. I missed this nugget!
And this cute face is a velcro baby - she hasn't gotten off of me since i cam home (except to sleep and let me go to PT).
And then there is this cute face -number 1 helper. Sweetest little boy. I love him!
I guess i didn't upload any pictures of little Ms. Independent. Aspen is too sweet and special. Each of my kids is special and I am super blessed to be their Mama. And to be Brian's wife. And to live where we do and be blessed to travel and take the time for one another. I'm feeling lucky and happy and full (of love, not food).
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