meet sam

Our friends Davis and Tammy Kent welcomed their new little guy, Samuel Davis Kent IV into the world early Saturday morning at 3:43am.

Congratulations Kent family! We're so excited for you guys and we can't wait to meet him! Sam is absolutely beautiful in his first photographs!

maui revealed, day 2

Day 2 was the "bike ride down a volcano day". We left early and headed to the city of Paia where Aloha Bicycle Tours is located. When we first started discussing the idea of doing this excursion, I was really excited. That is until I read what our Maui Revealed book had to say, which then totally freaked me out. The book was very honest about the safety risks, however we decided to throw caution to the wind and go for it. There are several different companies that offer this activity, but what enticed us about Aloha Bicycle Tours was the "at your own pace" concept.

We left the bike shop with about 10 others and headed for the Haleakala National Park, reaching a summit of just over 10,000-feet. We had some time to peruse the area before they shuffled us back in the van to prepare for the bike ride, leaving us on our own to cruise down about 8,000-feet. To say I was Nervous Nelly would be an understatement. The brakes on my bike squeaked the entire way down and the palms on my hands from the hand brakes are still sore. Not to mention it was freezing as we biked through the clouds. That being said, it really was an incredible journey down the mountain.

By the time we arrived back to our condo, it was the perfect time to watch the sunset from the hot tub. Before dinner, I also squeezed in an impromptu yet totally necessary massage. Funny story: when we arrived to the bike shop earlier in the morning, I bent over to get my backpack out of the back seat of our car and seriously strained my back. We hadn't even gone on the darn bike ride and I was already injured. I thought for sure it was some sort of sign to abort our plan. I didn't want to be a wimp, so I persevered through it. Despite having a hard time walking, or even sitting up straight for that matter, I'm really glad we did it. I'm even more glad we made it through alive.

At the volcano:

To the right of me is top secret NASA stuff...

Getting ready for the big ride:




While on the ride, we saw...

A fruit stand

A pretty blue house

Magnum P.I.'s house

Oprah's house (seriously!)

horses, goats, cows, oh my!

Aloha!

maui revealed, day 1

I've seen about six other tourists holding this guide book so far all sticky-noted up, including ourselves (thanks Joe & Emily). I'm sure there are countless others hiding this gem in their fanny packs too.

With the exception of our flight being delayed over two hours at LAX, our holiday in Maui has been incredible. Joe and Emily recommended renting the cottage they rented back in August, and oh my gosh, it's beautiful! We arrived to the cottage close to midnight on Monday, so it was too dark to see anything. When we woke up early Tuesday morning, we woke up to this breathtaking view from our room:



The agenda for our first day in Maui was a helicopter ride covering all of the island, buying over-priced groceries, and relaxing at the cottage.







I took a walk around the property at sunset, during Rob's four-hour nap, and snapped these pics:

This is a view of our place from the pool area

Day two sneak peak: a volcano walk around at 10,000 feet, a bike ride beginning at an elevation of 8,000 feet, and a massage.

fro-yo never tasted so good...

Rob and I gave up frozen yogurt for the season of Lent. Immediately following the Easter service, we drove to the nearest frozen yogurt shop, YogurtLand. I'm already craving more, but we haven't found any frozen yogurt shops in Maui yet...


We hiked down to the beautiful city of Carlsbad to spend the afternoon with Rob's parents and their ukulele friends. It was a good preview for our week ahead.

Like father, like son

Laura sang a couple songs and wowed everyone

Even Laura's bf Jeff got in on the fun...

The talented Tucker fam, minus Rob who was being modest

The poser...

Aloha!

spring has sprung

Oh, how lovely it was this morning to slip on these little flip flops for enjoying the beautiful warm day...


Perhaps these cuties will go on sale before summer ends...

short poofy dress

Rob just told me we had this conversation last night while I slept:

Me: Muffin, I have to take off this short poofy dress.
Rob: Oh really, why?
Me: Because I need to take off this short poofy dress.
Rob: Are you sure it's short and poofy and not long and poofy?
Me: It's a short poofy dress.
Rob: Ok.
Me: Why are the lights on?
Rob: Because I'm still working. Just taking a break right now.
Me: Ok.

Our conversation about the conversation was this:

Me: Hmm...sounds cute! I wonder what this short poofy dress looked like.
Rob: {kind of sarcastic, kind of honest} I thought how sweet it was that you were dreaming about all the stuff that matters to you. Not all of the other drab details about life.
Me: Me too.
Rob: You were half asleep, but it seemed like you were excited to get back to your dream.
Me: I wish I knew what this short poofy dress looked like. I wonder why it was short?
Rob: You may have been hot or knowing you, you didn't want to be sleeping in your poofy dress.
Me: Hmm... Good point.

As I was falling asleep, I was watching a Sex and the City special feature disc about all of the clothes that were featured on the show. SJP seriously wore the most fabulous dresses. Two of my favorites, that could have easily been what I was dreaming about last night:


Maybe I'll have sweet, poofy dress dreams again tonight...

some highlights

I really can't believe it's mid-March already...Feels like it was just January. The last few weeks has been incredibly hectic! Monday through Friday seem like a whirlwind and come the weekends, we're totally beat, yet busy. Rather than reliving the last few weeks, here are some highlights, with the exception of my recent girls' weekend in Sonoma...I wanted to share some of my favorite photographs.

Melanie, Kristi, and I have been talking about taking a trip to Sonoma for years to meet Kristi's grandmother. Sadly a few months ago, Kristi's grandmother passed away, leaving Kristi as the executor. Before the house sells, we wanted to sneak in a weekend. It was a weekend to celebrate the way grandma would have wanted...

It was so beautiful! The colors were so vibrant!




Our arrival dinner at Maya, a Mexican restaurant on the Square.


After a couple cocktails, we thought it would be fun to take a self-portrait. Took a few tries though...



Getting some snacks for grandma's house...At the time, we thought this was hysterical...


On Saturday we woke up bright and early to hop on a shuttle for some wine tasting. We brought a giant basket filled with water, cheese, and chocolate - the only way to wine taste I learned.

At the first winery. I wish I kept better record of where exactly we went wine tasting. It was pretty though...


The barrel room tour...



We even got to walk through some of the actual vineyards. Melanie thought it was the perfect place for some yoga poses.

The second stop. Again, no clue what the winery was. Just remember it wasn't really our scene. Kinda snooty actually.

But they taught us how to "mix" our wine.


We went to Cafe LaHaye for dinner Saturday evening. Great food, even better service. This is us with the owner at the end of the night.


Brunch on Sunday was at The Girl & The Fig. Yum!

We were trying to take another self portrait when we ran into a couple of Kristi's grandma's friends. It was really sweet hearing them share stories and laugh at some of their memories.


Our last winery on the way to the airport. Kristi, always the responsible one...


The last tasting...

Some other highlights:

- My girlfriend who was diagnosed with Leukemia was recently a guest blogger on Glamour.com, sharing about her "Life with Cancer".

- Spent time with some college friends. Went for a picnic and saw Glory of Easter

- Went to the Comedy and Magic Club in Redondo Beach. Hysterical! We went with our friends Gino and Rebecca, who also happen to be experiencing their 15-minutes of internet fame with their website: www.RateMyCop.com. Seriously, the website got 4,589 Diggs last Thursday (I guess that's huge) and a ton of coverage last week including Bill O'Reilly, CNN, CBS, and NBC.

- I've now seen every episode of Sex and the City. The intro music still makes my heart skip a beat with anticipation. I've even watched most of the episodes with the commentary feature turned on. I cry and laugh during each episode, and always feel thankful for my girlfriends.

That's about it. We have only 4 days until we leave for Maui. It doesn't seem real that we're going to Hawaii next week. Hopefully, the new Target sundress I bought will make it seem more real soon!


Our condo in Maui has wireless internet access, so I hope to share some of our holiday while still on holiday.