Maui Hawaii with Oma

This year Hyrum and I went to Maui for his annual medical conference and we decided to invite his mom to come along. We had a very relaxing week and enjoyed the sun and sand. Oma went for a nice long walk along the beach each morning and found some treasures from the ocean she could bring home. I enjoyed lots of fish tacos and wonderful sunny days. We have been to Maui so many times we didn't have any "must see" to do lists so we just took it easy and enjoyed our time. I love Hawaii!

Enjoying the sun poolside on our first afternoon in Muai

Sun, sand and waves...a beautiful morning on the beach

Fish tacos for lunch? Yes please!

A wonderful afternoon for a hike in the forest at Makawao Forest Reserve

A rainbow on the beach:)

We had a bunch of fun watching the kite and wind surfers at Ho-okipa Beach.  Those guys make it look so easy!!

Tuesday was VERY windy so we went to a museum we hadn't been to before. The Baily House was interesting but kind of sad and run down. 

Beautiful quilt at the museum

The historic Bailey House

Windy, windy day at the beach. It was gusting up to 50 mph and the sand came flying at you and it felt like you were in a sand blaster on your legs and face!

Windy day in the Iao Valley...love Hyrum's hair:)

This giant tree is barely hanging on with it's roots over this river, such an amazing tree!

We stopped at Kepaniwai State Park, which we hadn't been to before. It was very interesting. It was a park dedicated to all the immigrants that came to Maui to work on the plantations and each culture was represented by a garden or little building. Such beautiful setting and great little park to walk around.

We walked around the Haleki-i Pihana Heiau, again, it was a place we hadn't ever stopped at before because it's always been super low on our list of things to see. But it was a nice little spot with a great view of the ocean. The Heiau's of Hawaii are ancient temples where the priests would perform ceremonies and royalty gave birth to future kings. Even though not much is usually left it's always neat to see a piece of Hawaiian culture.

Foundation of the Heiau

Hyrum and I had walked along the boardwalk at Kealia a few years ago but we had to go back this time because we had read that a bacteria outbreak had turned the water a deep purple...it did not disappoint. The scientists have sampled the water and don't believe it is toxic to the wild life but it sure looks crazy!

We spent the whole day on Wednesday at the beach but this is the only photo I got. We snorkeled and saw 3 sea turtles!! So glad we took a whole day just to relax at the beach and enjoy the ocean.

Wednesday evening we drove up Haleakala to see the sun set. I love the beautiful silver sword plants at the top of this volcano!

It's sooooo cold 10,000 feet up!

It's worth freezing for this gorgeous sun set you get to witness from the top of the world! It looks like you could just walk off the edge of the volcano and walk on top of the clouds!

Haleakala Crater

Even though it's freezing and the wind is blowing and you just want to get warm, it's worth it to stick around until the sun completely sets because the sky changes and you see so many amazing colors!

Fish tacos for dinner:)

Thursday we drove a bit of the Road to Hana. We made it to Keanae Peninsula before turning around. It's always so fun to see the waves crashing on the old lava formations here on the peninsula.

We paid to get a fresh coconut...it's a lot of work to get the meat out of these coconuts!

Of course you have to stop at Aunty Sandy's banana bread stand on the peninsula...best banana bread in Maui! It's fresh and warm when you buy it!!

We stopped at Keanae arboretum for a little walk. It rained off and on but it was still a fun little stop. I love all the unique plants in Hawaii and how they look like they come from the age of the dinosaurs!

The rainbow eucalyptus trees are my favorite

Crazy looking banana tree

When we got back to our car after the arboretum walk we noticed our tire was completely flat. Hyrum had to change it out for the spare tire...I'm really glad the rental car had a spare tire! We must have run over something sharp but we couldn't remember running over anything...just bad luck I guess.

Saying goodbye to our Condo on Friday morning...

One last shave ice before heading to the airport. Aloha Hawaii until next time!

October: hiking, pumpkin patch, eclipse?, book club, fencing, Halloween

I had a fantastic October...even if it all started with my very first colonoscopy 😆...I'm all clear and don't need another one for 10 years but it was pretty terrible to prep for! I enjoyed some sunny days and we had a great visit with our twins and a wonderful Halloween!

First meal after the colonoscopy, I was soooo happy to eat again after only having jello for 2 days!

A gorgeous day at Canon Beach with my fun little hiking group:)

One of my friends had a birthday and we organized a surprise 10K run for her.  We all joined up at different mile points along the route (I joined for the last mile...it has been way too long since I have run and even one mile was tough!) It was a beautiful sunny day and we all had a lot of fun!

I took Julian and a group of his friends to the Sauvie Island pumpkin patch. It was actually almost too hot on this day, can't believe this weather was in October!

Taking a hay ride out to the pumpkin patch

These kids are all so fun

It's always nice to end a fun day with pizza:)

We drove down to Corvallis and picked up the twins so we could attempt to witness the "partial eclipse" of the sun or "ring of fire" eclipse.  We drove all around hoping for a break in the complete cloud cover but we never lucked out and only saw small glimpses...we still had fun hanging out, even if we didn't get to see the eclipse.

We decided to go to a pumpkin patch in Corvallis as a family.  This fun hay ride took you out to the pumpkin patch...

...once we got out to the pumpkin patch it was so muddy and wet we decided we didn't want to tromp around looking for a pumpkin...

...so the boys just picked a pumpkin from the display in front of the farmhouse:)

My book club read "Rock Paper Scissors" which takes place in the Scottish highlands so I made a Scottish feast for everyone:)

Julian's first fencing tournament

He tied for 3rd place!  I was so super proud of him!

It's that time of year when we pull the Skinny Dan out of the water for the season

Motoring to St. Helens marina where we can pull the Dan out

Getting ready to load up the Dan

St. Helens has a fun "Halloweentown" every October so we enjoyed walking around and seeing all the fun vendors and decorations.

Hyrum and I went to see the Opera "The Marriage of Figaro" in Portland.  It was sung in Italian but there were subtitles displayed at the top of the stage so it made it really easy to follow along. I loved it, and I wasn't expecting to love it...so that was fun!

Julian drew the face, Hyrum carved the face

Fun Halloween pumpkin

Hyrum and some of his co-workers on Halloween.  This is about as "dressed up" as Hyrum will do:)

Ready for trick-or-treaters to come!

The twins sent us this photo from Corvallis.  They carved their pumpkin to look like Peter the cat...I love it!!