.. mAuI ..

With all the wedding madness and stress of living in a house with two consecutive weddings, Cody decided that we should travel to Maui to celebrate my birthday this year. I didn't really mind it either way and just thought it would be fun. Cody mentioned it to his parents, and they decided to join in and count it as my birthday celebration weekend.

We left Provo on Friday morning at 4:30 am. Yes I was pooped and didn't really want to do it. We arrived at the airport just before 6 and hustled through the lines and made it to our gate. We even had time to pick up some breakfast there. We then flew to LAX to connect to Maui. We waited until the whole plane loaded and got lucky and claimed the last 4 open seats on the flight. It is a nice 5 hour flight out there and we got seated to a few teens going there with their parents, one of which was terrified of turbulence. *fun*. We watched the 'Joneses' which turned out to be very interesting, took a few naps and I read and Cody watched Family Guy. We arrived in Maui at 11:30am their time. We hustled and got to the rental car shuttle and were off. It was a nice 85 degrees with 80% humidity. Talk about a change in the weather {since it was raining hard when we left Utah}. Since by this point we were all starving we promptly found food, at McDonald's.

After we ate a snack we took off for our home for the next 3 days. Lahaina. Cody and I had visited there in February when we went for Valentines. We stayed in the same hotel, which was great and even got the airbrush decorated room complete with a Murphy bed. We walked around downtown while our rooms were being prepared and I am pretty sure all lost like 10 pounds to sweat!! At 3 we hustled back to the hotel, and changed immediately into swim gear. We hit the ocean and hung out for a while. We had dinner at a fun cafe next door called Betty's Cafe. I would highly recommend the chicken quesadilla. {yum} After dinner, Cody and I went for a walk on the beach and enjoyed the sound of waves. At 8:00 we were both so pooped we decided to call it a night.

.. betty's cafe ..

.. gecko we found by betty's cafe ..

The next morning, my birthday, Cody got up and left the hotel with his parents, sneaky sneaky, and went and got me breakfast. He brought it back to our room and surprised me with breakfast on our balcony at like 6:30 that morning. It was great! I had french toast and fresh squeezed lemonade. {delicious} After breakfast, Cody and I went exploring. Cody was determined to find Big Beach which was on the other half of the island. We took off in the rental and did some searching. We found it around 8 that morning. It was a beautiful beach. The water was crystal clear, the sand was super soft and the view was great. Big Beach is known for its waves breaking on the shore, which made for an interesting time for me. I tried to wade out with Cody and every time a wave crested I about got knocked over. A few times I did and drank some yummy salt water. Cody loved doing the whole body surfing thing. We stayed there for about an hour and then decided to go back. My gift from Cody was shopping. What more can a girl ask for right? So we headed into town to do some shopping. We ate lunch at Lahaina Pizza Co, which is another must if you are there. It was so good. I had a pepperoni and cilantro deep dish pizza, talk about good. We finished up and continued shopping. I decided that I wanted to get a henna tattoo of squirt off of finding nemo. We found a guy who could do it, and it was on. I loved it! I even had my younger brother convinced that I had gotten a real tattoo!

.. view of kihei ..

.. me on the beach ..

.. big beach waves {not sure why it is sideways.. sorry!} and cody playing ..

.. my sweet henna tattoo ..

After a nice time in downtown, Cody's parents called us and asked us if we wanted to swim with them in the ocean. So we joined them on the beach outside our hotel. We swam for about 2 hours and finished off our beach experience with burying Cody's mom in the sand. She was covered with it when we were done! After all the water and sand, it was time to shower and get ready for dinner. We got ready and his parents took me to dinner to celebrate. We ate at the Hard Rock on front street. I had the twisted mac and cheese, so great! The night ended with me standing up in front of all the Hard Rock and having the whole restaurant wish me a Happy Birthday which was loud enough I am sure the whole town heard it. We walked around downtown took a few pictures and called it a night.

.. cody and the bubba gump shrimp ..

.. forrest, forrest gump ..

.. is that you forrest ? ..

.. that has to be you right ? ..

.. it is for sure you, you are telling that lady the story about your life ..

.. cody and me at dinner ..

.. cody's parents ..

.. happy birthday sundae from hard rock ..

The next morning we packed up and headed back to the airport. We got there 2 hours early and that airport doesn't have much to do. We just sat. We waited for the first flight, and wouldn't you know it, it was oversold and we couldn't get on. We had one more shot that night at 9 but we had to blow 8 hours there. We spent it taking naps, long walks reading books and magazines, playing games and just being bored. Finally the night flight came and things weren't looking good. They said there was 3 open seats. Not all of us were going to make it. We started making plans for Cody and I to stay behind and wait for the next day to catch a flight. Right before they closed the flight one person didn't show and we got the last 4 seats. We didn't sit next to each other, which sucked but we made it. We landed in LAX at 5am and were all tired and done. We made the next flight to Salt Lake and made it home by 10. Cody at the airport had developed a nice cold due to walking in between air conditioning and the heat outside and was so sick. I put him to bed after a shower and took to doing the laundry. Also, while I was in Maui, my drivers license expired. So I got ready and headed to the DMV. I waited for 2 hours and finally got through.

It was fun trip and definitely made the birthday one of the best to date.