Maui Day 6 (Road to Hana)

We have been off the grid for the last two days because we wanted to do the Road to Hana. And on that side of the island there really isn't any internet or cell phone service. So two days later we are back at our condo and taking a day of relaxing because we played way too hard the last 2 days. So prepare yourself for a long post.

I took SOOO many pictures over the past few days and obviously I can't put them all on here. But I hope the ones I have chosen will give an idea of everything we did and saw. I lost count of how many waterfalls we saw. I read in our guidebook that you an actually get waterfall fatigue from the amount of waterfalls that you could see on the Road to Hana.

To give you an idea of where we drove on the first day I made this map from our condo in Ka'anapali down to Hana. Pretty much on the complete opposite side of the island. But really is was about the journey, not the destination.

Once we started down the Hana Highway (Saturday) we could see why people were telling us it's just beautiful. That side of the island is thick jungle. Along the highway there are a lot of stops. Some are short hikes up to a waterfall and others were longer. Some were even right by the narrow road. We stopped as much as we thought fitting and what we wanted to see.

Our first stop was to Twin Falls. This is what the trail looked like as were were walking up to it. It was only a 1.5 mile round trip trail.

And here is Twin Falls. It was a really busy one. I think because it was the first stop and and easy little hike. We were reading in our little guidebook(which came in very handy on this highway) that everyone spends alot of time at this falls but there are better ones ahead. So we didn't linger very long.

 Our next stop was to go hike to the Na'ili'ili-haele Falls. We had struggles trying to find the start of the trail. But can you blame us?.....(picture below)... it was hidden by all the greenery.

 Once we ventured into the greenery we found ourselves in a bamboo forest. The deeper we got the bamboo got fatter and fatter. It was pretty cool.

This trail actually led us through and along a stream. Before we made it to the first waterfall we talked to a couple that were coming back. We asked them about the trail and the man explained that once we get to the first waterfall there will be a trail up on the left had side with a rope to aid in climbing up to the second waterfall. Then to the left of that there was a ladder that you climbed up to reach the third one.

So this us at the first waterfall.

 Climbing up the rope wasn't too bad. But all of the rocks were wet so finding sure footing was tricky and a little nerve racking. I'm not usually nervous when hiking on rocks, but being pregnant I really didn't want to take an unfortunate fall.

Take a look at the picture below of Jesse looking out over the second waterfall. Do you see the sketchy latter off to the left? It didn't seem so bad until we started climbing up it. Jesse went first and he was even nervous to go up it. There was a rope holding it up around a tree root and the rope looked like it wasn't going to last for much longer. Jesse tried to tie it around better just in case, but it still made us nervous to climb it. Haha, but did that stop us from doing it? Nope. We are crazy.

Climbing back down it got our hearts pumping though. It was one of those things I couldn't think about it or else I probably couldn't have done it. Especially when your husband is climbing down it saying "This is scary". Haha.... I just had to ignore that and just get down.

 These falls were really cool. It was a fall into a pool into a fall into a pool etc. So pretty. And on both sides of it was lined with thick jungle. Quite the experience.

 We made it back to the car after hiking for 2 hours and we were just pooped. Luckily there wasn't anything we wanted to stop and see for a little while so we could rest and eat our packed lunch.

The road hugs the side of the cliff most of the time. And there were some beautiful views of the ocean. If you take a closer look at the green cliff in the background of this picture you can see the road cut in to it. Pretty awesome huh?

Before we know it we had made it to the half way point. YAY!!!

 At the halfway point there was a stand that had homemade Banana Bread, coconuts, fruits and snacks. We were told by a lot of people that we had to buy some Banana Bread when we had the chance. So that's what we did. And it was REALLY yummy.

 This waterfall we could see from the bridge. It's called Waikani Falls (AKA the Three Bears). We were able to park on a small pullout off of the road and climb down to get a good picture of it. This one was pretty cool.

 Ok, this part will have to be the highlight of our day. And we owe it all to our little guidebook that revealed some secrets for us. We stopped at Pua'a Ka'a State Park. Which again we could see a waterfall from the road. But in the book it was telling us that there was a muddy trail up on the right side of this falls that we could take and it would lead us up to another Falls. So we wanted to do it. It was only a ten minute hike to get there. When we got there we had this over look of this secluded waterfall and pool. As we looked down into it was saw a couple down there. So we tried to find the trail that led us down there. By the time we found it that couple was leaving. They told us that we were the first people that they had seen in 2 hours. WHAT? That's so awesome. All of the other falls were just packed with people so we were excited to have it all to ourselves.

All of the other pools hadn't been very tempting to jump into. The water seems kinda mucky and dirty. But this one looked clean and clear. And we were feeling hot and sweaty so it sounded so refreshing to jump in. We knew it would be cold and so we knew we just had to jump in, instead of slipping in slowly. I think we stood on the edge for awhile just giggling about being nervous to get cold. Haha. But we finally found the nerve and jumped in.

And yes it was cold. But it was really refreshing at the same time.

Just past the State Park we found a the lava tubes that Jesse wanted to climb/crawl through. We barely missed it because it was just this little hole in the side of the mountain right off the road. Not going to lie I was a bit nervous to go in. It was pitch black in there. Jesse had brought his head lamp so we did have some light.

 I was grateful that the tube was only 140 feet long. But when we came out on the other side we were in a field of tree roots.

 This is a picture of us as right before we made it back to the road.

 Funny weather we had all day. We had moments of down pour rain, moments of misty rain and sunshine the rest. But there was one moment when we came around a corner and saw this beautiful rainbow. It was incredible to see the ENTIRE bow.

The rest of the drive there wasn't a whole lot left to see. We did go down a road that had a freshwater cave that we didn't spend much time at. I didn't even take a picture because there were several people and I couldn't have gotten a good shot of them not being in the picture. And besides we were feeling anxious to check in. We wanted to find our place before it got to dark.

 

We stayed at this little one bedroom cottage called the Hideaway. It was perfect for our one night stay. 

We went to dinner at the only restaurant in Hana called the Hana Ranch restaurant. It was surprisingly really expensive. I think that was the most we had spent on dinner our whole time we have been here. My Parmesan Chicken was actually really good. The veggies were cooked perfect. But I didn't think is was $25 worthy. Jesse wasn't too thrilled with his $23 Pork Quesadilla.

After dinner we headed back to our place, showered and went to bed. We were beat!

Maui Day 5 (Beach Day)

Jesse really wanted to Boogie Board while we were here. So a few days ago we had stopped by Costco and bought us a boogie board for $25. Yes, we bought one. Renting one was about $15/hour, so we decided it would still be cheaper to just buy one and have it the whole time we were here. And then before we leave maybe we could sell it for cheap, or just give it to someone. Pay it forward kind of thing.

 

So after breakfast and packing our lunch we headed down to Lahaina area to check out which beaches had the best waves also with some sand. We stopped at Launiupoko Beach  just south of Lahaina and thought it would be great. Got everything unloaded and all settled on the beach. The waves looked kinda sad, but Jesse thought he'd go try it out anyway. And to his disappointment they were just too slow and low to carry him.

 

He came back to the beach where I was reading and was saying that he kinda wanted to find another beach. I kinda laughed at him because we had just hauled all our stuff and get settled in. But we googled where some good boogie boarding beaches were and most of them were on South Maui. Which was about 30-40 minutes away from where we were. So we got all our stuff back in the car and headed down that way.

 

From our Maui Guidebook and from what Google was saying that the best beach would be Kama'ole Beach III was the best option. So that's where we stopped. It was bigger and the waves did seem a lot bigger and the beach seemed a lot better.

And you can tell it's quite popular as well. As I watched Jesse boogie board it was making my laugh to watch everyone catching the same wave as him and this line of people all riding that same wave.

The boogie boarding waves were off to the left of where we set up "camp". But to the right of us were these rocks and it seemed calmer and promising for snorkeling.

I was worried about boogie boarding because I didn't know how easy it would be not to put pressure on my belly. So I opted out.... at first. After watching Jesse and all the other people having so much fun I really wanted to try it. Plus I was getting to hot from sitting in the sun. So I went for it. I just put the base of the board below my baby bump and instead of laying flat on my tummy I would keep my elbows bent so hold myself up and keep the pressure off baby. And it worked.

After boogie boarding for a little bit then we read our books. When Jesse got to a stopping point in his book he went and got the snorkel gear out of the car so we could go check out that area. It had quite a bit of current going south, but we worked our way through it.

There was actually a really awesome reef through that area. Lots of fish. We even saw a puffer fish. Jesse tried scarring it so it would blow up... but no success. But the cool part about that area is we saw about 4 different turtles. One of them in particular was really big and just took his time sailing through the water so we were able to hang out with him a bit.

 These pictures don't do him justice. He was honestly Huge. We didn't dare to get close to them because we learned that you aren't suppose to touch them (oops) and your suppose to keep a 10 foot distance from them. There were times when some would just swim right by us so we couldn't help that 10 foot rule.

There honestly was one in particular that came in from my left and startled me because of how close it came to me. Snorkel masks give you very good blind spots and he was right in it until I saw him at the last minute. Pretty cool though. Every time we have gone snorkeling we have seen turtles. Makes me happy. On that note as well, every single day we have been here so far, we have seen whales blowing their spouts, jumping, splashing etc. Pretty awesome. It's like the norm around here and we have to remind ourselves how spectacular it really is to see whales and turtles everyday. It's amazing.

 

We finished snorkeling and then we decided to get out of the sun and clean ourselves off. Above the beach was a big grassy area with picnic tables, swing sets, showers, and bathrooms. We weren't quite ready to go eat dinner, so we cleaned up and just parked ourselves on a picnic bench to read and/or check out the restaurants that were around us.

 

As we were sitting there I was admiring the palm trees with the sun starting to set in the background. I snapped this photo and didn't even edit it. It's just simply beautiful.  

 

We found a Mexican restaurant just down the street, so we went for that. You can never go wrong with Mexican food. I love a lot of the restaurants around here are all right on the beach, so we get that sunset feel during dinner. It's nice.

When we finished our meal, we walked across the street to watch the sun go down.....

...and get a picture of us as we were wrapping up our day. 

We headed back to our condo and on the way got some gas and some groceries in prep for tomorrow's Road to Hana trip.

Maui Day 4

We woke up yesterday morning to a rainy day. Right outside our condo we could see a large rainbow right over the ocean. Even though it was a cloudy and rainy morning it's still beautiful here. 

With it being a rainy day we weren't sure what we should do today. We hung out until 9:00ish when we decided to go check out the Maui Ocean Center. It's an Aquarium that is in Ma'alea. I had a client tell me that this Aquarium was the best one she had ever been to. So we thought we'd go check it out. That way we had something to do besides hang out in our condo all day.

 The aquarium was a little disappointing. I think we felt that way only because we had to pay $26/person to get in. For what was there, it didn't seem worth $26. But maybe because we didn't any kiddo with us. There were some things that we saw that we kept saying "Oh Ryker would love that."

I guess a lot of the fish, turtles and coral that are on display eventually get put back in the ocean. So I liked that part about it.

 After we left the aquarium we wanted to go check out the Nakalele Blow Hole. On the way there I got a little sleepy and fell asleep. I woke up to the rain on the car coming down really hard. Ahh poop. I wasn't feeling in the mood to hike in the wind and rain.

We ate our packed lunch in the car and then we headed down the hill to see the blow hole. We walked down to this over look of it and it was super windy and rainy. I came unprepared with no jacket, so I was not feeling like I wanted to be out there much longer. As Jesse headed further down the hill to get a closer look I went back to the car. I know, wimpy.

I sat in the car finishing the rest of my lunch and reading through our Maui Guidebook thinking he would be back any minute. As I sat there waiting for him the rain stopped and the clouds seemed to dissipate a little bit. The longer I sat there I was coming to the reality of my wimpy-ness. So I figured I better get my butt out there and be with Jesse. No fun for him to be checking it out on his own while I sat in this car.

I grabbed one of our beach towels and wrapped that around myself as I walked down the hill. That did the trick. It helped me not feel so freezing.

About half way down I saw Jesse coming back up the hill. He met me and took me back down the hill with him to show me the blow hole. I was feeling grateful that I had him there to push me out of my comfort zone and see it up close. I really didn't think it would be that much cooler up close, but it was. Plus the scenery was way better as well.  

As we got closer to the blow hole I didn't dare take my camera out of it's case because it was really misty. So thankfully Jesse had his GoPro Camera and we took some video/pictures from that. It was hard to get a good picture of the blow hole shooting up when we had our backs to it. But you get the idea.

Another cool feature that was down there was this heart shaped hole. I'm curious if it was made by nature, or if it was carved by man. Maybe both? Either way, I really like it.

Again, I feel blessed to have Jesse as a husband. If it wasn't for him I would have just chilled in the car the entire time. And the thing is he didn't even get mad or anything when I told him I was going to go back to the car. But know him he would have loved to have me down there. So without even knowing it he helped me grow today. And that's one of the great things about having him as my companion. He'll always help me become a better person. I'm grateful for his adventure like attitude in life. It's taught me a lot. Here's to 10 years of marriage (almost....a few more weeks and it'll be officially 10 years)!!!!!!

 After the blow hole we wanted to go find some tide pools that were close, but we somehow missed the start of the trail, so we just kept driving. It was fun to see the scenery anyway. The further we drove we thought it would be fun to just make our way the entire small part of the island. So we just kept going. The road eventually turned into a one lane road. It was pretty tight in most spots, but there were still areas that you could pull off to the side to let on-coming cars pass by.

Everything was so lush and green. I loved that about the drive.

What I love about him driving is I always feel safe. Not only does he make me feel that way when he's driving, he makes me feel that way in life. He's got that calm demeanor that is very reassuring.

 I found a map online and drew on it where we were today. So we are staying in Ka'anapali (left of the green circle) and we drove down to Ma'alaea to the Maui Ocean Center (circled in red). Then we drove back towards our condo up to the Nakalele Blow Hole, then finished off the rest of the circle bank to where we started this morning. A lot of driving, but that's ok. How else are we suppose to see what's on the island? On Saturday we plan on doing the Road to Hana and around. So then we'll get to drive the entire way around the big circle of the island.

On our way back to the condo we had to stop for dinner. Jesse remembered a Kitchen and Pie shop that we had passed on the first day we came. It was in Lahaina just off the highway. I looked it up on Yelp and it had fantastic reviews, so we thought we would check it out.

Jesse has been on a burger kick this whole time we have been here, so he has ordered a burger every night (but one) since we have been here. Haha. I was feeling like a salad tonight. And when it came out I just had to take a picture of it. It was almost too pretty to eat. But that didn't stop me. And it was just as yummy as it looked.

 

I love that we didn't really have any major plans today, but we were able to make it a fun and memorable day.

Maui Day 3 (Whale Watching/Snorkeling)

Yesterday morning we got to be lazy. We did go to the Farmer's Market up the road (which was fantastic). The produce was amazing and things were much cheaper than at that fruit stand we went to the day before. So we will definitely be back there to get more produce throughout the week.

 

Pretty much after that we were able to just hang out at the condo until noon when we needed to leave for our Snorkeling and Whale Watching Tour. I was actually happy to get a chance to be lazy, especially since my tummy was still recovery from dinner the night before and I had a headache come on. I was able to get a short half hour nap in before we had to leave. Once I woke up I was feeling much better.

 

We made our way to the Maalaea Harbor to check into the Pride of Maui Tour company. Once everyone checked in we were able to board the yacht and get all settled. I thought that the tour I paid for was going to take us to the Molokini Crater, but when we got on board and they were going over some safety items and such, they mentioned that they weren't. What a bummer, we were looking forward to that part of the trip. I guess I misread what the tour provided. The Molokini tours were in the morning and I had picked the afternoon tour.  

 

They took us to "Turtle Town" or they also called it the Cleaning Station. I guess turtles go to this area where the fish will clean off their shells. And throughout the duration of the 3 hour tour we were whale watching. It's mating and breeding season and there are tons of whales, so it didn't take long before we saw some.  

When we arrived at Turtle Town we anchored could just jump into the water to start snorkeling.  Jesse went first and recorded me jumping in (I had no idea he was doing that). So we got this snap shot of me jumping in (It's a good shot of that baby bump).

 Snorkel Selfie. Haha. The snorkeling in this area was rather disappointing. Truly there weren't very many fish to see. But that's ok. Getting to play in the ocean is just as fun.

But we did get to see 3 or 4 different turtles. So that was cool. I liked getting to see them swimming along with all the fish munching on the turtle's shells. They were a lot more shy than the one we saw on the first day. They hung out at the bottom usually and when they needed to come up for air they would only take one breath and go back down. But I think it has a lot to do with the fact that there were 10 people in a circle watching him, I think it makes them nervous to come up with that many people around them. We were told by the captain and the crew that we were suppose to keep our distance from them so that they could come up for air.

I love this picture of Jesse. He's so good at diving down really deep. Me on the other hand I'm not so good. It just kills my ears. I try to equalize them, but I struggle. I just need to practice some more.

 

After snorkeling for an hour we all got back on the yacht and they had lunch prepared for us. Burgers, Hot dogs and Chicken. It was actually really good. I feel like snorkeling makes me super hungry. So I probably would have enjoyed anything they served us. Haha.

So while we were waiting in the food line they spotted yet another whale. It was really hard to get a good picture. Most of my pictures were too late and all that I captured was the after splash. But I didn't happen to get this calf breaching. We saw so many calves breaching and you could also see their mama's right by them. The calves were so playful. I loved it.

K, then things got really cool. They spotted this whale slapping it's tale over and over again on the surface of the water. I captured this picture and then decided to record it. I got a 3 1/2 minute video of this whale doing this. Granted the video is a little shaky because then boat was trying to get closer to it. I struggled trying to counteract the  bouncing of the boat to keep the camera steady. But it's ok. I got it and that's all that matters.

When you go whale watching you live for that one small moment of breaching. But on this day we saw whale after whale. I can't even count how many we saw. And then to end on that amazing moment of that whale slapping it's tale on the water over and over.... SO COOL! I could watch that video over and over again.

Maui Day 2

We had the best day yesterday. I wanted to post last night, but I was so tired by the time we climbed in bed for the night that I just didn't have the energy to keep my eyes open. That and I had a stomach ache from dinner. So I just needed to go to sleep.

Well yesterday morning I woke up at 5:00am Maui time. Couldn't sleep. Jesse was sound asleep so I just decided to get up and hide in the bathroom and watch a show on Hulu. My internal clock is so regulated it's hard for me to adjust to new time zones. Maui is 4 hours behind home time. So my body was thinking it was 9:00am and was ready to wake up. Anyway, so I grabbed a yogurt from the fridge and sat on the bathroom floor watching my show until Jesse woke up. I think he's good at sleeping whenever because of his job. He adjusts pretty well because he has to.

Around 7:00 is when he woke up and I was able to go in the bedroom and hang out with him. We talked about our plans that day and then made protein pancakes for breakfast.

We decided that we wanted to go find a local fruit stand to buy some Mangos, Pineapples and Papaya. Then we wanted to go hang out on the beach and go to the Black Rock area where we saw that turtle the night before. Maybe we could see some more?

We found a fruit stand and were surprise how much the fruit was. I know Hawaii is expensive but we just figured that the fruit would be cheaper since they were grown here. This one stand charged  $12 for a large pineapple and $10 for two mangos. Eek. Well we heard the fruit was so good here that we just bought them, They were really amazing. But I think we might try and find another stand that could be cheaper. We heard from a couple that we met with on the beach that there is a outdoor Farmer's Market up the street on Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays. I think we might go check them out and see if things are cheaper.

After all our running around we were eager to just go play in the ocean and hang out on the beach. We made it back to the condo, packed ourselves a little lunch and headed out there with all our gear.

We got all settled and first thing we got in the water. That first initial time getting in is shockingly cold you can't just ease in, you just gotta go for it.

Jesse asked me if I could hear the whales singing under the water. I told him I couldn't, but it was because I could only hear my breathing through the snorkel. But when I held my breath and listened I could hear the whales as if they were right next to me. It's the coolest thing.

As we slowly made our way around to "Black Rock" we saw a decent amount of fish. Black rock had tons, but that wasn't the cool part. On our way over there we are swimming along with nothing much to see when Jesse all of a sudden points down to the bottom of the ocean where there was this dome shaped metal piece of a ship or something. He had seen some movement and sure enough out comes this sea turtle and it's coming to the surface. RIGHT in front of us. It was almost like he wanted to come say hi.

He came up and just hung out on the surface for a few minutes taking breaths every once and a while. We were able to be right by him and he didn't even care. I was able to get right next to him and look into his eyes and feel his shell and flippers. I had seen a couple of sea turtles in Barbados last year, but they just swam away when you tried to get close to them. But this guys was so friendly and happy to let us check him out. I'm not going to lie, it started to make me emotional. It was just amazing.

Thanks to Jesse and his GoPro camera we were able to record the whole thing and later take these snap shots from the video. I took the camera from him for a moment so I could get him in it with the turtle. Then the turtle took it's last breath and headed back down to the ocean floor. What an unforgettable experience this was.

I really like this picture. Jesse had swam down below me and the turtle to get a look at us from below. It's so cool with the sun above us.

After that we made it to the "Black Rock" area. It was packed with fish and packed with tons of snorkelers. Quite the popular area. People were also jumping off the Black Rock into the ocean. We stuck around for a bit then started to head back to our beach. Mostly because we were hungry (and when I say "we", I really mean "I"). I get hungry instantly so I was on a mission to just get there. All I could think about was my turkey sandwich. I may have left Jesse in my wake just determined to make it.

We ate lunch and then just hung out on the beach for a bit. The sun felt good at first but then it was feeling so hot that we wanted to find some shade. And that's where we met that couple that told us about the Outdoor Farmer's Market. We talked with them for a good while and then headed back to our condo.

We stayed there for an hour or more watching our turtle footage and figuring out how to get the pictures from the video. We were amazed when we started watching the footage that you could hear the whales in the footage. I love it. So now you won't think we are crazy but that we actually heard the whales singing. Once that was done we just grabbed our towels and books and just went out on the beach to read.

About an hour or so of reading (napping) and watching whales from the beach breaching and making lots of splashes on the surface,  we walked down the Beach Walk to find a place to eat. We came across the Cliff Dive Café that had tables right by the ocean. The timing was perfect because we were able to eat dinner as we watched the sun go down.

I guess every night at sunset at this Café, a man runs up the Black Rock and lights the Tiki torches and then dives off. Apparently it's a big deal, but we just happened to be there so we got to watch it. From the picture it's kinda hard to tell that it's a man and not just a cross at the top of the rock. But right before he dove in head first he spread his arms like that.

After a satisfying and very filling dinner (I feel like I can't waist any food we buy because it's pricey) we walked down the beach walk some more and found our way to the Whaler's Village Mall and just browsed around some stores.

We walked past this one store that had some kids clothes. Jesse stopped and grabbed a little Hawaiian girls dress and just mentioned that he really hopes we are having a little girl. I thought it was so sweet. Granted I know and God knows that if we have a 3rd boy we will be just as happy.

As it got later and later we needed to head back to our condo which was about a mile away. I didn't mind because it's good to get a little exercising in.

When we made it back to the condo we showered and just crashed in bed by 9:00pm. But what a day. I loved that we just were able to fly by the seat of our pants today and have such a good time. So far Maui has not disappointed us. I mean how could you complain? It's practically paradise here.

Short Sale Home Interjection

After we landed in Maui, Jesse checked his phone and he had a text from Kristen that the bank had approved everything for the new house. So that's Great News! I can totally see the Lord's hand in all of this. How could you not? All in one weekend we get under contract with both the houses. The Lord truly is blessing us.

It's been a good day!

Anniversary Trip Day 1

Well today was the day we have been looking forward to since January. It's hard to believe we are officially in Maui. It's been quite the day. I don't say that in a negative way. It's just a weird feeling when your destination is 4 hours earlier than your home time. It felt like yesterday that we were waking up to get to the airport. But it was all in one day.

 

Our first flight was from Salt Lake City to LAX. Our hour layover gave me just enough time to update about the house selling. Then we were off to Maui. 

The flight to Maui was about 6 hours long. I have to admit it felt much longer than that. But it's ok. We napped a little here and there, read our books, talked to each other or our neighboring passengers and then it was time to land. Thank goodness.

After we picked up our luggage at Baggage Claim (so grateful everything arrived) we headed to the rental car place to pick up our rental car.

By this point we were dying for a meal. We had been munching on beef jerky, apples, trail mix and protein bars for the last 9 hours. So we were ready for a real meal. Thanks to our awesome technology smart phones we were able to find a Café that had really good ratings and great food. Both of us downed our burgers like we hadn't eaten in days.

Our next stop... Costco. We needed groceries so we picked up what we could from there without too much bulk and then headed towards our condo. Along the way we stopped at Safeway to get the rest of the groceries on our list. Then we were able to go check into our condo which is in Ka'anapali.

Even though we were feeling exhausted we decided we should go for a walk on the beach. It was only 5:00ish in Maui, but for us it's 9:00pm. But we couldn't go to bed yet. So a nice walk on the beach to watch the sun go down was perfect. Jesse had brought out his mask to get in the ocean, I wasn't feeling like getting in tonight.

Anyway, Jesse said when he had his head under the water he swore he could hear whales. He came out to tell me this when out of the corner of his eye he caught a glimpse of a whale's blow. We both looked out towards where it came from and then a whale BREACHED! Never before had we seen a whale breach when standing on the beach. Pretty cool.

As we walked down the beach some more and got closer to some of the rocks there was a guy that was saying there was a Sea Turtle swimming around there. So Jesse got in and was watching this turtle swim around. Pretty neat! Here we were just going for a night stole and we get to see a whale and a turtle.

I was able to get some video and pictures of Jesse in the water with the turtle. We plan on going back tomorrow and bringing the GoPro to get some underwater pictures. I guess these rocks are known for sea turtles being around them, so wish us luck tomorrow that we see some more.

Now, I no longer belong to the "I've-Never-Been-To-Hawaii" Club. And I'm ok with that. Aloha and Mahalo. 

Showings after showings..... and then..

This month of March hasn't been super exciting. We have had so many people come look at our house, which is fantastic. It makes us anxious because we hold on to the hope that someone will make an offer. Also we have been counting down to the day that Jesse and I left for Maui. Which is today. I am currently sitting in the LAX airport typing this. I figured I better give an update before I need to give a report on our Anniversary trip.

Friday night we were suppose to have someone come look at our house between 5:00-6:00pm. I was working till 6:30 that night so it was up to Jesse to get the house all ready and leave. Around 6:00 Jesse called me to tell me he didn't think that anyone had even gone to look at the house. I guess he drove by 3 or 4 times throughout that hour and never saw anyone in front of the house. I guess after he got off the phone with me he got a phone call from our realtor (Kristen) to tell us that the couple had been there to look at it, but the lock box wasn't working to allow them to get the house key.

So when I got home from work around 6:30 Jesse was prepping dinner and he filled me in about the conversation he had with Kristen. I guess they wanted to come back and look at it even though we were there. Haha, kinda weird.  But hey if they don't mind our dinner out on the counter then by all means, come on over.

We just hung out in the back yard while they looked through the house.

Fast forward 24 hours when we got a text from Kristen asking us to call her when we could. Jesse was at work and I couldn't get him to answer, so I just called her and she told me we had an offer. And it was from that couple that was there the night before. Haha. Crazy.

Their offer wasn't horrible, they had offered $500 above our asking price, but wanted us to pay their $5500 in closing costs. We decided that we would counter $2000 more than what they offered and still pay the closing costs.

All that paper work was sent to their agent yesterday before we left for family dinner at the Smith's house at 5:00.

No joke, on our drive there we get a call from Kristen that the couple had accepted our counter offer. WOW! Talk about a fast response from them. They are serious about it.

So it's kind of a relief that we have our house under contract before we left on our vacation.

As for the new house, we are still waiting to hear back from the bank's approval on everything. Technically they had 45 days to respond and today is the 45th day. Kristen said she would be surprised if they responded today. Which is guess is ok, especially since we have our house under contract.

Now we are just hoping the timing will work out so we can move out of our old house and into our new house all at the same time. It wouldn't be the end of the world if we had to stay at an extended stay hotel or something, but it would be a pain. But we will just do what we have to do, when the time comes.

Anyway, that is a quick little update. Our plane is starting to board so we better go. Next time I post, I will be posting in Maui. Ahhhh.

"Four" real?



Cy's birthday really snuck up on me this year. I don't know if it was because of the house situation, or just February flying by too fast. My mom had called me sometime last week asking me when we were celebrating Cy's birthday. I told her "Oh probably the Sunday before his birthday." She then said to me "Um, that would be this coming Sunday.".... Oh ok. I guess I should let everyone know that. Haha. Thankfully everybody, but Tyson and Jessica were able to make it to our last minute party. Even Manda surprised us with a visit. I guess it's a good thing Cy is young enough to not realize my flakiness. Or even know when his real birthday is. So I was safe this year.

 

 

I was going through some old pictures of Cy to put on a poster board for his Preschool class this morning. And I couldn't help but feel kinda sad to see how grown up he really has become. He really was the prettiest baby. Biggest brown eyes you ever did see. I look at these pictures and wonder who this little boy is? I have forgotten him. So sad how quickly we forget. Seeing this newborn picture of him did make me really excited for baby #3 to come. I feel excited to have a new baby in our family again. 

Oh he's such a handsome little boy. But don't be fooled by those angelic eyes of his. Behind them is the makings of a mischievous and troublesome boy. Oh don't get me wrong, he most certainly has his sweet moments that melt my heart. But when he isn't being sweet, he's causing trouble.

Sunday March 1, was hiss birthday celebration. He was beyond thrilled to have everyone at our house and of course he was excited to open presents. I was laughing because we had all these little boys (Ryker, Cy, Sterling, Max and Arie) there together, and they were all dying to play with Cy's new toys he was opening. It was almost painful for them to sit back and just watch.

I love these 2 pictures of Cy. He was so into us singing him Happy Birthday. Then when he attempted to blow out his candles, he had to blow about 4 times to get all 4 candles out.

I was told by Heidi that Cy wanted a dinosaur cake. Huh. He never informed me of this desire. So thank goodness for Amazon Prime because I was able to find these cute Dino cupcake kits that came in time for the party. They were a hit. Everyone liked them, especially Cy.

One of the sweetest things on Sunday was Ryker realizing he didn't have anything to give Cy. So he wrote him a little message on a sticky note... Folded it up and wrapped it.

Just in case you have a hard time reading Ryker's handwriting his note reads:
Dear Cyrus
I hope you have a good birthday and I love being a big brother.
Love Ryker

Ryker will be a good example to Cyrus on how to be a big brother.

Today Jesse and I went to the last 30 minutes of his preschool class to present our little poster of things that Cy likes to do and some of his favorite things. Then they each got a Dino cupcake.

Another crazy thing today is that winter finally started to come. It was snowing like crazy this morning. We got about 5 or 6 inches of snow within an hour or more. It's kind of a bummer because we have really enjoyed the warm 60 degree weather. But we really need the water for this summer.

Anyway, I'm still in awe that 4 years have come and gone. I think in my mind I haven't let Cy grow up. Like he's still 2 years old in my mind. But no.....he's 4. Crazy!

Happy Birthday Cy Guy! We love you to pieces. Our family would be really dull without you in it.

Back to square one

The house inspection was done on Wednesday this week.  It made me very anxious to find out if anything would be wrong with our cute little home. Thankfully everything came back clean. But Thursday night we received a phone call from Kristen that our buyer was backing out. And the worst part was she was able to keep her Ernest money. Lame.

We were feeling frustrated that she put us through this whole process and we took our house off the market..... Then backs out. Not cool.

On the flip side I do see the silver lining in all this. It gives us a little more time as we wait on our other home. Which we are anxiously waiting for the back to approve everything.

Yesterday morning I woke up early do I could clean up the house again to get it "show ready" again. After it went off the market we got relaxed again about having it super clean. But, now it's all really clean again.

We had two showings yesterday. So that's great for it only bring back on the market for a day.

Well that happened fast...

Our cute little home sold in a week. Crazy. So it's currently under contract.

It's taken me a few days to let it settle in my mind. I knew our home would sell, but I didn't expect it to only take a week. Our house went up on the market the morning of Tuesday Feb 10. And the next day this older woman walked through it and then made an offer by Thursday. Over the course of the week we negotiated back and forth. And she finally accepted our last counteroffer. Which we didn't think she would.

March 17th is closing day. I think we have 48 hours to get out.

And in the meantime we are anxiously waiting to hear from the bank on our offer on our other home. I'm praying we can just move from this house to the new one. It wouldn't be the end of the world if we got an apartment in the mean time. But it would be very nice to only move once.

And in top of that, Jesse and I leave for Hawaii March 23. So I'm going to be packing up my house to move and packing a suitcase at the same time. Haha. Everything comes at once right? In the middle of the whirlwind it feels crazy and stressful. But once we come out of it, I know we'll think "it wasn't that bad" or "we did it".