Oh Hawaii.

I love you. So much. Almost as much as Ike and my children. It's that good there.

Me and Ike are coming up on 10 years of Marriage, so to celebrate we were lucky enough to be able to go to Kauai. Without kids (thanks to Lindsey and my mama)...for 9 days. In paradise. Yes, paradise.

I had never been to Hawaii before. It was even better and more beautiful than I could have imagined. If I had lots of money, and could bring all of our loved ones with us, I would move there in a heartbeat.

In all of the pictures from the first day I look tan. Compare them to the last day I look white and 10 lbs heavier. I have to say, spray on tans are too much work to only last a day or two. I'm not sure I'd do it again. But I would order the Pork Sandwich with Pineapple again. That first night there was so exciting.

Everywhere we drove it was beautiful. We were surrounded by at least 100 different shades of green plants. We loved driving around the Island and visiting all of the landmarks. Me and Ike just looked at each other in amazement as we drove around.

Everywhere we went there were chickens and roosters running around. I sorta loved it...until we had to sleep in the room where the rooster would crow the early early morning away right outside the window. Then I didn't like it so much, and I wanted to shoot them. I actually had dreams that I did.

Sorry to Jordan and Kate who had to deal with that more than we did. Thank you.

I loved seeing trees like this in the middle of no where.

and drinking fresh coconut, even though it was warm and gross.

One of my most favorite parts of the trip was our Raft Tour of the Napali Coast. Sadly, I didn't get any pictures of it. We were able to watch dolphins jump and spin in the air, drive under waterfalls, and in and out of sea caves. We ate lunch and hung out on an ancient villiage. We snorkeled and saw sea turtles, a reef shark, and lots of beautiful fish. The tour guide had to dump a couple of freezing cold water bottles on Ike's head to keep him from throwing up on the raft...but other than that is was amazing. Loved it every minute of it.

{sorry you have to see a body shot of me in a swimming suit}

This is the view while we ate dinner one night at a restaurant on the beach.

A favorite place we visited was Waimea Canyon. It was almost like a painting. I felt like I could jump into it, it looked so fake. As we were there it started to rain, and a few minutes later a big beautiful rainbow was covering the entire canyon.

At the very VERY top of my favorite list is the beloved shaved ice. This isn't just any shaved ice. It is very finely shaved with flavored syrup, with a scoop of Macadamia nut icecream underneath, and topped with sweetened condensed milk. We tried about every one we passed, and there are lots of them there. We probably had 2 a day...hence my change in weight. The best was JoJo's.

Ok, really above all {Here comes the cheese} was spending time with Ike. We had a wonderful time together, and it was such a nice break from our busy schedule back home with work, callings, and kids. We sure love spending time together.

It was truly paradise.
Coming back home was paradise too...we sure missed those kids.

And here is a favorite video of mine. Love me some Jack Johnson...especailly while laying on the beach...