Hawaii (Heaven)

Last week, Brent & I took a long-awaited trip to Hawaii for our (early) fifth anniversary. We stayed for a whole week on the "Big Island" of Hawaii. It was a glorious week of rest and fun. Some of the highlights were relaxing all day by the pool, reading a book a day, going to the spa, eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner outside, whale watching, hiking to waterfalls, and ordering room service. Now we are home and getting over jet lag (we slept 14 hours last night!). I'm banking on my relaxation lasting as far into the next weeks as possible. I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story!

It's a long flight to Hawaii. Thankfully, Brent & I have been saving our American Express points for most of our marriage. We finally got enough to fly first class to Hawaii for free! First class was a ridiculous luxury that I am willing myself not to get used to! Every little thing was unbelievable to me. The space was amazing... to put my purse under the seat in front of me, I had to throw it a little bit because I couldn't reach!

Here is Brent making a pretend very important call to a very important client which he is very serious about.
This was my LUNCH on the plane! I also took pictures of the appetizer, salad, bread, and drinks, but I spared you those.

Y'all... they wheeled a CART of ice cream fixings down the isle. They would make you a sundae with whatever you wanted! It was crazy.

One of my favorite parts of staying at the Four Seasons is arriving. They greet you at the door and instead of going to the front desk, you sit on a comfy couch while they bring you a drink, a snack and your check-in papers. In Hawaii, they also gave us both a lei.

Here's me with my delicious welcome drink. Yes, please. And thank you.

This is the "beach tree" on the property which is kind of the center of the resort and the namesake of one of the resort's restaurants. It almost looks fake!

A view of the lobby

Our room's outdoor patio

The bathroom that Brent wants to recreate in our house someday. If you look out the window above the tub, that's an OUTDOOR LAVA shower!! It was so cool.

Our first night there was one of my very favorites. We were exhausted from the trip, so we sat on our patio, drank champagne, and ordered room service.

Enjoying our celebratory champagne

Here's the view from our breakfast table the next day. I mean, seriously?

You know I love food, so I had to get a picture of this ridiculously good breakfast with fresh squeezed juice.

Here we are before our first of many days at the pool. (That's the pool and ocean in the background.)

Paradise, anyone?

This was another favorite night... we spent hours at the "Lava Lounge" sipping martinis and ordering sushi. We closed the place down!

This was the best pool I've ever been to.

Y'all, they actually bring lunch to your lounge chair! Here is a view from my lounge chair before I ate those delicious fish tacos.

One day we rented a car and drove around the island. Here's Brent in his rental pride & joy - a Mustang convertible.

Self portrait on our waterfall hike

Me in front of the three-tiered waterfall

The waterfall tour was not actually as cool as we thought it was going to be, so we had to make our own entertainment. Per Brent's request, here is me on the hood of the convertible.

Back at the resort, here is the "Beach Tree" restaurant

Brent feeding an eagle ray

Me feeding an eagle ray. If you know me, you know that I was completely terrified to do this. I had to watch 20 children do it without dying before I could get up the courage to do it. And still, when the ray sucked on my fingers like a vacuum, I squealed a little bit in fright. Embarrassing. But I did it. You can see its icky long spine tail in the water.

Before one of our last dinners

About to enjoy my shrimp scampi

View of the island from our whale watching boat

Checking out the natural rock arches on our whale whale watching trip. We did see whales, and it was pretty cool... but it was too hard to get anything on camera, so we just enjoyed it without stressing about pictures.

I can't leave this post without publicly thanking my amazing husband. He never ceases to spoil me. I have to tell you a little story. Almost eight years ago, we were not dating yet, and we were on a ski trip with a bunch of friends. We were having a conversation about vacations, and Brent said that when he got married, he was going to take his wife to the Four Seasons, specifically in the Maldives. I had never heard of the Four Seasons at the time, but it all sounded very magical. While Brent was talking, I didn't say anything. I do remember, however, as clear as it was yesterday, what I thought. I thought, "Well, it's not going to be me, but Brent's wife sure will be lucky." I could almost imagine the mystery girl in some plunge pool at the Four Seasons with Brent. And I was a little jealous of that mystery girl. I've thought about this conversation a few times since we've been married. On one of our last nights at the resort, we were talking about where we should go for our next vacation. I brought up that conversation from long ago, and we laughed about it, and then I just started crying. I mean, I couldn't stop! The poor waitress must have thought we were having a fight or something! I just became so overwhelmed with God's immense blessings in my very undeserving life. And I still can't believe that the lucky girl I was silently envying... well, it's me.