HAWAII, Part 1

Get ready....for LOTS of pictures!! How can I not post a lot of pics. after a wonderful trip to Hawaii?!?! I will post in parts, so check back :)
We started off our trip staying in Hana, Maui for 5 days at the home of my parents friends. This is the house from the front.



The grounds of the home are breathtaking. It is an Asian themed home and the gardens are Asian as well. It was so beautiful.







This is the view looking out of the kitchen. How could you get tired of that? The ocean is literally in the backyard. The walls of the house open during the day and the breezes from the ocean cool the house. I love that sound of the waves! These pictures do not even do the grounds justice.

There's not much to do in Hana but enjoy the beauty of it, so one day we hiked thru the bamboo forest to the top of this mountain. At parts in the bamboo forest, it was almost pitch black and we could hear the "clicking" of the bamboo above us. It was surreal.

We made it to the top!! Here is our group standing at the waterfall. It was worth it!

The thing about Hana is that it is a tropical rainforest, so it rains a lot. The good thing is, it rains 3 or 4 times a day for 5 minutes and then it is completely sunny. It's bizarre. Here is what we worked on when it rained...we never finished it though!

Hana is also known for beautiful natural pools. This one is called the "Venus Pool" and the water is so clear. The boys jumped in with me and we swam to this rock with my sister. Jason had to hold Brooke....we were on the side of a cliff, so it was a little dangerous!

Another thing I loved about this home was the meditation garden. It is a walk-thru trail that they built and imported many species of palm trees in to the garden. I tried to walk thru it everyday and notice something new.

Jackson walked with me thru the garden one day and showed off his muscles on a rock!

Brooke and I in the meditation garden in front of one of the biggest aloe plants I have ever seen!

Just a cute picture of Brooke playing in the yard.

We cooked almost every night while we were there. Hana has one restaurant and we ate there the first night. Here is the gang during dinner one night :)

Another day, we went to the black sand beach where there were a ton of caves. We are getting ready to crawl out of one.


Stay tuned.....much more to come!