HAWAII! {part one}

I feel like Hawaii should just always be written in all caps... HAWAII! With an exclamation point, too, of course...!

So, we went to HAWAII! Just Stephen and I for five and a half days. Again, just Stephen and I...! That deserves an exclamation point, too! Stephen and I hadn't been alone together for more than four hours since our trip to California for his Stanford interview almost two years ago! The trip was long over due (especially since we never had a honeymoon!) I had never been away from Ezra and never from Uriah for that long, so I was a little really nervous. Not about their well being - I figured even if they were unhappy they would be well taken care of and loved! - but about my well being! I was worried that the leaving would be so hard and sad that it would carry over into our trip and keep me from enjoying myself. You mommas know how it is - how do you be yourself and enjoy yourself when part of yourself is missing?! Well, I didn't find it very difficult. Which maybe makes me a terrible mom or maybe just means it was about damn time for a break...! but either way, I knew my kiddos were happy and safe and I was just so very excited to be alone with my hunny to miss them to the point of worry or pain. Leaving was hard, yes, and Uriah almost convinced me to stay with his Friday night bedtime routine - "I don't want to go to sweep because then it will be tomorrow and you will leave" I think I cried all the way to the airport - but once we were there and checked in, it all felt real to me and I was able to leave my sadness in San Francisco! And off we went!

We landed in Maui around 11 and made our first stop at a local Hawaiian restaurant for lunch. I couldn't recognize or pronounce anything on our plate and pretty much stuck to the rice (though I did try it all!) but it was a fun first outing all the same.
We went straight to the beach once our tummies were full. Sugar Beach is one of (maybe thee...?) longest stretch of sand on Maui, so it was a great place to stretch our legs after traveling. I have never been to Hawaii (HAWAII!) and was so surprised by the sand...! It's called 'Sugar Beach' for a reason, folks! It was like walking through brown sugar! (I think I pointed that out every time we set foot on a beach during our stay!) The sand was so incredibly soft and the water so incredibly warm. It didn't take long to convince me we should go back someday ;)
After a stop at the grocery store, we were able to check in to our place - a local airbnb place in Kihei. The place was cute and the location was pretty great, but... It didn't have air conditioning! We knew that when we booked the place but figured, well, we live here in California without air conditioning and all the reviews claimed that between fans and windows it wasn't that bad. Well, it was that bad! We checked in around 3 and it was hotter inside than it was outside. Had we been able to afford it, I would have canceled, left and booked something else last minute. Between the hot house and the forecast of rain every day during our stay, my mood started to go down hill pretty quickly after checking in. I felt terrible for having chosen the place, but Stephen was so sweet and optimistic and forced me out of my negative Nancy mood (mostly - I never did grow fond of the place!)
We left the house for cooler weather and found it at the beach just south of our place. Stephen convinced me to go for an ocean swim (I have a large love but great fear of the ocean!) and we spent who knows how long swimming just past the surf making each other laugh - forcing Stephen to hold me, spitting out sea water, somehow always failing to float, jumping over the waves (or trying to!) and stealing kisses in the surf. We filled our tummies with fresh fish tacos afterward before heading back to our places for (cold!) showers.
We watched our first Hawaiian sunset that night as we walked along the coast line of Kihei, stopping in the sand to take a selfie (or five!) and watch it disappear behind the water.