30 & Maui

Well the 3 of us just got back from our fabulous vacations! Mia got to spend the week with cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents on both sides. She got to run around the farm chasing chickens to her heart's content. She got to go trick-or-treating to the trunk evening at the church and also went out on Halloween. She was a mermaid which was fitting since... 

Brad and I were in Maui all week! Yup. This was our first trip without her and it had it's highs and lows but overall it was really special to get away just the two of us. We have been working hard and sometimes we feel like time together is pushed to the back-burner far too often. It was great to reconnect and talk about our upcoming plans and just spend that time focused on each other. I turned 30 on our trip and the biggest thing I desperately wanted to do for my birthday was to go scuba diving again. We dove two days, two tanks each day. It was such a surreal, beautiful experience. The last time I went diving I was cold, it was dark, and my ears wouldn't clear. Diving warm water exposed us to a completely different world. We saw eels, octopi, huge purple starfish, too many types of fish to name, manta ray, eagle ray, turtles...then we dove with the endangered monk seal and that was just the cake all by itself. We spent 4.5 days there and it wasn't all bliss with the variable weather and just life popping up here and there (darn that it followed us to Hawaii lol) but we really had a great time just being together. 

The Banyan Tree in Lahaina

Ululani's shaved ice...I never knew a "snow cone" could taste like that. It was something out of a dream. So very very fantastic!

I'd love to say I suddenly became super graceful in the water hahaha no, not really 

Me with the monk seal

We facetimed with Mia on my birthday...she cried a little at first then she warmed up and started talking to us on her 'phone' and dancing haha

Second day of diving...me with a huge conch shell we found

Brad and I...the water was SO clear!

I love this picture of Mia. I've probably looked at it a hundred times. We both regretted not being there for Halloween. This was a mermaid costume I found at Costco (you can just barely see the fin in the back) that I just couldn't resist. She was adorable in it! We missed her beyond words...that was one of the most challenging aspects of the trip, for sure. So when we came home and got these smiles...we were two happy parents!!!

Mia was an angel on the 8 hour drive each way. An absolute angel. Oh we missed her soooooo much!!!! It's good to be home :)