Wrapping up Hawaii

Okay, so this is my last post about Maui, I promise. In the evening, after our adventures surfing, with spiders and getting sun burnt, my parents decided they wanted a night out to dinner by themselves. Justin and I got the jobs of watching Katie (mostly me) and cooking dinner for ourselves (mostly Justin) while Betsy worked on stuff for a class or something...who really knows :) jk. After Katie was asleep, we got out the ingredients we had gotten at the store that afternoon and made a delectable meal of teriyaki salmon (not my favorite, but whatever), coconut rice and sauteed vegetables. It was a lot of fun. We put on some music, danced around the kitchen and cooked, adding a little of this and a little of that. We got a little loopy and at one point Justin grabs me by the shoulders, looks me in the eye and proceeds to describe to me his passionate love for mushrooms. he was like "Danielle, I think I love them. I don't know why and I don't know what to do." I then explained that we may have to have an intervention...that didn't go over too well haha. I worry about him...Oh, yeah we're sophisticated...we even had some Bach playing in the background at this point. Well, we are almost sophisticated...





The next day, we went to this cool little pancake place called the Gazebo for breakfast. While we waited for a table we managed to amuse ourselves...


My mom's camera's exposure freaked out in the sunlight and these were the result, but I think they turned our super cool...especially the bottom one.

We plan on starting a band, since we have a potential cover for our album :)

There was a giant checkered board where you could play with coconuts while you waited, so Betsy and I decided to play. By the way, that is not a reflection from the board on the back of my legs; they were literally that red from the sunburn I got while surfing. One of the most painful things of my life. Cute, Justy, cute. Yummy breakfast pose? Here is some cool guy painting a watercolor...I liked the scenery.

So, after breakfast, we embarked on yet another adventure up the the hills for a ziplining/challenge course excursion. Since Gary didn't go, he was kind enough to sign the four of us (Mom, Justin, Betsy and I) up for the challenge zip course and who knew what that was. It was just us four and then another family of four that did it, but basically it was an obstacle course about 200ft up from the ground. Of course you were harnessed on, but you still didn't want to fall off because it was pretty tough to get back up when you are just hanging there. The guides ask who is the fastest and would like to go first as to not slow everyone down. Justin immediately goes "Danielle is fast and would love to go first!" So, i get harnessed up to go first and as I step out onto the wire, they call for the next person to step onto the platform. Justin pushes past Betsy saying he wants to go next so that he can "help me". The minute he got out there on the rope he was jumping up and down and swaying it left and right to try and throw me off. Unfortunately it worked once and I fell off; I got back up though and then tried to throw him off, but also unfortunately I weigh less than him and couldn't bounce the rope with him standing on it. Eventually I got him back by gathering all the ropes for handholds so that he couldn't move any further on the course. Great stuff. Betsy was glad she didn't go in front of Justin because she had enough problems with the obstacles as it was. The final challenge was going back down to the ground and then climbing up the the top of a totem pole looking thing, standing on top of it and jumping off, trying to reach a bar to grab on to. It was intense...obviously you were harnessed in, but you still didn't want to fall off and hit the pole or something. It was really hard to stand up on it at the top too. It was just big enough to hold both feet side by side and there was nothing to hold onto while you were trying to stand on it. Balance was key. No one in our group grabbed the bar (it was six feet up...no way I was making that without a running start haha), but it was still fun to try.

Here are some pics of us when we were out and about in Lahina one night. Going out to dinner proved to be more exciting than any of us thought. This night, we ended up eating at a cute local burger-Hawaiian type place that was all outdoors on the second floor and complete with live music. However, while we were deciding where to go, we were walking along the street out in front and all of the sudden this car stops, two guys get out and start yelling at these other two people crossing the street in front of them. No one saw what happened to start this, but two of the guys started yelling at each other and then fighting. One of them got thrown down in the middle of the street and all the men walking began yelling at them to stop. Everyone just turned and watched. Gary and Justin were so funny and got all protective, grabbing my mom, Betsy and I by the arms and pulling us upstairs. It was weird to see them so defensive. Eventually the guys got back in the car and left, probably figuring out that there were mass amounts of people around that could intervene or call the police, but what an exciting start to dinner...kind of nerve-raking. why doesn't he just smile? haha

Oh, mom, what are you doing? haha :)

Oh, I also scraped my knee while we were were going to dinner...how exciting...and random

Another night we were also going to go out to dinner, but since it was so late, we were thinking we might just get take out because Katie was tired and no one wanted to sit there with a screaming 4yr old. My parents were inside looking at the menu and the rest of us were outside, trying to entertain Katie. Betsy was spinning her around by her arms and then Justin turns to me and goes "Hey, Danielle, I bet we could do that." I told him that I didn't think so, but that I would try it (what was I thinking???). So, being us, we go into the middle of the asphalt covered parking lot, instead of the grass that was 100 yards farther. He actually did spin me around a couple times, but then lost momentum and my knee collided with the ground, oh, and did i mention I was in a dress? Seriously, what was I thinking haha? I didn't even know I had hit the ground until Betsy, laughing on the sidewalk goes "Did you touch the ground?" I said I wasn't sure, then looked down at my knee that was covered and dripping blood. Yeah, I'm hardcore :) Justin felt so bad and kept apologizing. I told him it wasn't his fault and that it didn't even hurt. Then he goes "I can't believe you actually tried that. You are pretty tough." Why thank you. :)

So, I think I'm going to have a pretty awesome scar...now I need an awesome story to go with it. Preferably one that doesn't show my stupidity. :)

Well, it was an awesome trip! And I'm leaving Friday morning for Zion National Park, where we are meeting the fam from Utah. So excited!

Justin serenading our dinner with "You Take My Breath Away", while I try to preform an intervention between him and the sauteed vegetables...

one of the FUNNIEST things i have EVER witnessed!

i thought this story should warrant it's own post.

so, we are on our way to Kanapali beach to take a surfing lesson and had just all piled in the mini van a little later than we anticipated. we are driving down the road, out of the hotel property with Justin and I in the back, Betsy and Katie in front of us and then my parents in the front. as we come to the end of the road and I buckle my seat belt, I see something out of the corner of my right eye move. I look down at the patch of seat right next to my leg and this gigantic brown spider is sitting there! My first reaction was stunned silence and then a shocked"oh, my god!" escaped me (nothing too drastic). Betsy and Justin both go "what", turn, see what I'm looking at and both go into utter hysterics. here is the recap:

me: "oh my god!"

Bets and Jus: "what?"

upon setting eyes on it...

Justin: "OH HOLY ****!!"

Betsy: hysterical screams of bloody murder

Both of them: "stop the car! get out! we have to get out!"

all while they were screaming, my parents are freaking out because they have no idea what is going on. Justin grabs my arm, trying desperately to pull me away from the spider, sees that I'm still seat-belted in, gives up and shoves Betsy (who is still screaming) out of the way so he can exit the car. honestly, their reactions scared me more than the actual spider. i couldn't stand up i was laughing so hard. we went to the bellman for help to get it out because it had run up into the side of the car (probably to escape all the noise). he wasn't able to get it out, but he did see it and told us it was a wolf spider so we looked it up and sure enough, this is what it looked like. yes, rather terrifying, but still their responses were ridiculous.

i will NEVER let them live that down. i wish so badly that i had a video of that. so great.

lets go surfin' now...

Friday morning we all got up early to go surfing! Betsy and I had done it before, but that didn't stop Gary and Justin from making comments about how bad we were going to be and how they were going to have to help us. Once we got out on the water, we showed them. Gary had the most trouble with it and barely even got up twice, while Betsy and I got up every time, which was a lot. Justin was somewhere in between; he held his own, but not quite up to par :)

Kate played on the beach with my mom, who watched and took pictures.

There goes Justy.

And we actually managed to get one picture of Gary; it was a miracle

This is me

And Betsy

Lunch right on the ocean...how can you beat that?

The beautiful view from our balcony. The landscape out there is also where we decided to have a little adventure. Justin and I heard that there were some trails down there, so we wanted to go exploring. We talked Betsy into going, saying that we would play frisbee for a bit, but it became way to windy. So, then we just started walking around and came to a fence. We thought that we had somehow wandered off the hotel's property and so we climbed the fence, hoping to find some beach access. We wandered down to the edge of the cliffs, hoping to find a trail and instead ended up wandering right into someones backyard, where a bunch of people were having a bbq. Awkward! The guy was really nice though and goes "Oh, you can't get to the beach from here if that is what you are trying to do." After explaining to us that we were on private property, he said he had no idea how we got in here and then offered to walk us to the gate so that we wouldn't "have to jump the fence". We three exchanged looks and tried to stifle our laughter. Once we got off of the gated community's property, I wandered off towards where it looked like the cliffs offered a trail down to the rocks and tide pools below. Justin and Betsy followed me through the bushes, with Betsy complaining all the way. I found a place where it wasn't too steep and began the climb down. Justin then suggests we walk out to the end of the rocks and then swim over to the beach. I was ready, but Betsy had, had it and so Justin and I left her with all our stuff and said we would meet her at the pool. We wandered down through the tide pools and finally came to the end of the rocks, where there was a bay with no beach. We decided to swim across rather than walk along it and jumped off into the water. The swim was a lot farther than it looked and after getting about half way we decided that we would have to get back on the rocks at the other end rather than swim out around the peninsula to avoid from being swept into them by the tide. Easier said than done. We only had flip flops, which obviously are not great water shoes and when the waves are coming in, it is really hard to get your footing on slippery rocks without stepping on any sea creatures. We both did a lot of falling and a lot of catching of one another, but we finally made it to the other side and then jumped back in the water and swam to shore. What an experience!

When we arrived back at the pool, we told Betsy she would have hated it (which was true) and when she asked why, I go "oh, because we saw a shark."

"Oh my gosh! Really?"

Justin: "Oh, yeah it was just swimin' out there in the bay"

Betsy: "I would have just stopped swimming, screamed and died. What did you guys do?"

Me: "Well, what could we do except swim faster? We were in the middle."

Oh, she is so gullible sometimes :)

Maui: Days 1 and 2

so, i'm back from the island of Maui! what a great trip it was! we did so many things; i'll do my best to relay them on here.
we arrived on tuesday afternoon and ended up just driving to the hotel from the airport and staying in that night, unpacking, exploring the resort, relaxing and such.
bright and early the next morning (6:30am to be precise) Gary, Betsy, Justin and I headed out to the front of the hotel to be picked up by the biking company. up the volcano of Halakala they drove us, so that we could bike back down it.it was so beautiful at the topwe were above the clouds, looking down on the islandjustin and i went off on one of the trails to explore the view from higher up. man, was it windy! almost got blown off the mountian there ;)getting ready to bike downa veiw from where we ate dinner that night. so lovely!the next day my mom got to go on the event, while Gary stayed with Katie. we went hiking through Maui's rainforst!here you can see me showing off our stylish water bootswe also got to jump off cliffs! welcome to the jungle

later when we were back at the resort, we went to play in the pool for a while

Katie is such a little fish!

Justin and I had just come back from snorkling down by the beach