Halloween...yeah a little late

Tomorrow rings in the last month of the year! Holy Shamoly! I just can't seem to wrap my head around the fact that 2010 is quickly coming to an end! Some ways I truly am grateful for a new year to begin yet sad, hard to believe to see this one go.

Eric and I were just talking about this year packed in a lot! But anyway that's for another time.

Since today is the last day of November I had to throw in some fun Halloween pictures.

T-Rex had a trunk or treat at preschool. That morning he tried on every little outfit we had and finally we landed with a life guard.

Then we had all our school parties on Friday, G was a little on the Halloween bum hum bug, and didn't dress up! Turkey! The girls, however, dressed up. Bee chose to be a chef and Two was a witch (Bee's outfit from last year.  T dressed up like spider man for the day care Halloween bash.

Saturday we went to our ward's trunk or treat and then hit the neighborhood with Tina, and her son and a few other boys from the hood.

The kids got way too much candy but had a blast.

I love Halloween, but not as much as Christmas. So fun to sit here in my decorated house. Thinking about leaving the tree up all year! Well probably not a little too much clutter for me.

The Rest of Maui

I never got around to finishing our Maui trip. Maui was one of my favorite life experiences so far. But actually greater than that was the hug I got from G-Man when I came home, he ran to me and hugged me so tight. He was so excited to see me. And I was excited to see them. But I truly did have a blast.

So Monday morning, we kind of just lounged around for a little bit, then packed up and headed out to Hana. We stopped in a little town on the way out to get a picnic lunch. Then we headed on our way. One of the first beaches out of town is a big surfing one, and it was full of surfers. Eric and I stopped and watched the surfers for a little bit.

After that we started en route, to stop at mile marker 6 to have a private swim in some falls and natural pools Kind of funny, well not totally, I had my camera, walking across the wet slippery rocks, when Eric said to me "You are not going to take your camera out there? you will slip and get it wet."  As I turned back to put it down, I fell flat on my back! It started to rain shortly after we were there so we headed on out.

The road to Hana is beautiful, windy and did I say gorgeous?  Stunning. Anyway lets just say I took a lot of pictures. We stopped several times and then finally made it to our little bed and breakfast that was literally across the street from fields and a bluff to the ocean. Unfortunately there was construction going on, Mrs. Hillary Clinton awarded some federal funds to restore all the old bridges on the road to Hana.

We hung out in town and sat on the beach for awhile. Then had dinner at the only restaurant in town.

The next morning we got up early and headed to the Halelakala National Forest and hiked up to the falls. It was amazing. I had never seen anything like the bamboo forest! And then the falls that we ended at were truly awesome. We went under them, and the water was quite refreshing, maybe a little chilly. And as we stood under a rainbow literally encircled us. Majestic.

We hiked back down, and went swimming in the pools below for a bit. Then off for some roadside local bbq plates. Then home for a rest. Then out to dinner again.

Our last day we woke up and headed back out of town. We noticed a car stopped on one of the narrow strips and they had a camera out, and four other cars between them and us. I thought "seriously you are taking pictures?" Then I found out there had been a land slide. It took them about 50 minutes to clean it up. Then we started moving. Then around the next bend, I watched the truck two cars in front of us drive off the road, trying to get around little cars. He literally went over the metal guard rail, and knocked out a portion of the rock wall and was jammed between the two. Took another 50 or so minutes to get him loose. It was crazy. Especially because we were planning to have a lazy relaxed day in town.

We finally started driving and made some pretty good time leaving town. Though we did stop at one black beach. Oh it was amazing! The start were fairly good lava rocks, that turned to more rounded stones, that eventually wittled down to black grains of sand.

We even walked through a little cave to see the waves crash on another part of the beach.

Then we went down town and got a hotel room on the ocean. We were leaving that night but not until ten. So we hung on the beach for awhile. Where Eric "adopted" a baby fish. It just swam up next to his shirt and followed under his arm the whole time we were in the water. It made me giggle. Then something big snapped at my butt, and bumped eric and we ran out of the water. I guess the little fish was trying to tell us something.

After the beach we swam in the hotel pool and sat in the hot tub. We ended up talking to several people, some from Texas. It was kind of funny because Eric commented on that is why he liked our little secluded places that we stayed, we never had to socialize. 

Laundry, rest, dinner then the airport. That's how it ended. What an amazing adventure. And for your enjoyment some pictures.

Maui: Sun Rise, Sun Set

Sunday morning we woke up early, wasn't too hard since Saturday we lay down for a nap at 3 and slept through the night. So we got up, dressed, well actually I was already dressed, since I fell asleep dressed. Anyway we drove up to Lakalahala (have no idea how it is spelled) the highest point in Maui, 10,000 feet.

 It was dark and chilly, ok cold. Notice the outside temperature. We left our place and  it was 65 and we showed up and it was 46. Quite chilly but very clear and beautiful out.

 And here comes the sun, I took over 100 pictures of the sun coming up, and for some reason this is the one I chose....the clouds were amazing, and the black here is the dormant crater part of the volcano. It was truly gorgeous!

 And here are our silhouettes with the rising sun.

 That would be me, standing out in the cold wind, behind me, all the clouds and well that is maui down below the clouds...

 Eric at the summit. And after we drove back down the really winding road, we got dressed for church and headed on out. It turns out it was stake conference, and the stake here includes the whole island of Maui and the neighboring islands of Lanai, and Molokai.  When we arrived to the stake center we were a little late, and the place was packed full of people. One of our twelve apostles, Elder Holland was speaking. It was a great opportunity to hear him speak. 

And after church we headed over to the town of Lahaina. Gorgeous little town. We had stopped to get lunch, and walked on the beach. As we walked we watched boats pull up to shore, and Eric and I looked at each other and said, "i'd love to go on one of those." so we went up and spoke to the boat cruising lady, and scheduled a ride. We had an hour and a half to kill before the ride so we strolled the town a little.

You may wonder why I took a picture of this rock? Well it has some great history.

 This is a birthing rock! Can you imagine, all ready to give birth and your doctor or midwife grabs you and takes you out to sea, to welcome your child into the world among the rocks, waves and crabs, yes there were lots of crabs down there.

 Beautiful town!

 The American II our boat that we sailed on. It was an amazing sail. Did I mention we saw a humpback whale too? Yes we did, it was playing around in the harbor while we were waiting to get on the boat. It truly was amazing, and very sad I didn't get a picture of it.

 At some point during the sailing, I literally was standing, and Eric was on the other side, sitting, getting soaked by the water, a little fear entered me, causing me to feel like the boat was going to flip but it didn't but you know its a great sailing day when the captain who has been doing these tours for 12 years, pulls out his camera and takes pictures. It was awesome.

 So this is me, and if my battery weren't about to die, I'd post all the pictures I took while Eric was driving. He was pretty good about pulling over for me, but I got to the point where I just rolled down the window and shot away.

 We did stop along the way and put our feet in the sand and the water, Eric wrote in the sand, "Eric loves corrine" actually I wrote it and he pretended like he did for my picture :)

 Isn't it gorgeous!? Such a beautiful beach. Love the black sand.

One of the many beach pictures I took along the way. I love the water, it just fascinates me. I could sit for hours and watch the waves crash.  Though interestingly enough we haven't spent much time on the beach. 

Maui: Sea Life, Ocean, Mountian Side and water!

If you are ever in Maui, where ever you may be staying, might I strongly recommend the Tasty Crust. Truly a local experience.  And reading the reviews one might get the impression that locals only should go but I loved it.  Still craving my fried rice with breakfast meats. It was delicious, and the banana pancakes exploded with flavor in my mouth. Yeah the place is a little run down, old time cafe, not been updated since its opening, but that is what gives it, its charm. Loved it!

 After breakfast we headed to the harbor, not sure which one, or where, but near the island of Lanai, and not too far from the aquarium.  We took a boat out to a little crater thing called Molokini.  Its near another island, can't think of its name, but was used for bombing by the US army and is no longer in habitable.  But anyway on our way out, the dolphins came out to play. I have to say if I were an animal, a dolphin I would be.  They just amaze me, with their playful personalities, beauty and athleticism.  I love to see the jump, dive, splash, flip and spin.  Watching them in the water, was like watching a bunch of teenage boys playing on jet skis in the wakes. So full of energy and life!

This here is a mother spotted dolphin with her calf, they stay so close together and their movements just match each other.

There were so many of them and all over, and the captain kept circling making more wakes, I wish I was able to hold on and take more pictures, but was so happy to see I captured this one on a dive.

 Here we have the back side of Molokini, where we had done some snorkeling. I love being in the water, and just watching the fish swim.  I could spend hours, but we only had 1.5. So after snorkeling we got our lunch on the boat and drove around the "island". 

And on our way back the sea turtles were popping up for air. Did you know they can hold their breath for up to 5 hours? Amazing.

here is my handsome guy on the boat. didn't get to many pictures of the boat or ourselves. but who wants to see a bunch of pictures of us right?

 After our boating, we took a little scenic drive up to Iao Valley. Beautiful lush green mountains, where a famous Hawaiian war took place. The water from several different water falls, converged to form a pretty raging river. The beauty amazed me. I think amazed is the word of the day.

After we walked around and even picked some fresh guava, Eric hadn't had it before, and don't think he ever will, since he spit it out. It is an acquired taste, and thanks to Heather S. J at BYU-H and our hikes behind the school, I grew to like it. We headed home, to shower up and go to dinner. As we drove, we saw the most amazing full rainbow, it was a double but I don't think I got the twin in it.

We arrived home, Eric lay down for a nap and I showered, got ready to go out again, but decided to lay down too, we slept til the next day at 3 am, when we got up and headed out to watch the sun rise. I guess we were really exhausted!