Hello dear Friends💗
I have a little confession to make to you. I'm a bit jet lagged and catching up on life because we just returned from a week in Hawaii! I had set up some posts for while I was gone. And I did try to make rounds to visit you all during our trip. But we went there and met Matt's family and enjoyed the beauty that is Maui. We stayed at Kaanapoli Shores by Lahaina if you want to look it up and read about it.
Matt's Aunt does a lot of travel for her work and she makes amazing things happen. She took care of getting gorgeous condos for us to stay and we couldn't say no that! :) Plus, the chance to enjoy family time. Matt has been going there with his Aunt and family for the past decade for various visits. It's a very special place to him - so much so that when I had his wedding band made it has koa wood in it (a sacred wood in Hawaii). It also has fishing line in it because he loves to fish (and has done deep sea fishing there too) - as well as gold in his band.
We treasured every second of our time. We especially loved mornings having coffee on the lanai, beach & pool time, spa time, great meals, shopping, walking, and even some snorkeling! We were able to see sea turtles, whales breaching, and even a sting ray from our lanai. We ran into a sea lion on one of our walks. And when we went snorkeling we ran into a giant sea turtle and got to swim with him a bit!! It was a magical trip and we look forward to going back one day.
**warning: I share a lot of pics below so feel free to enjoy or feel free to skip too. I like to have them here for my own memories and have a busy week so knew I wouldn't do another post. I do share a video of the sea lion though at the very bottom. 😉
🐢🐠🐳🌴🌺🌈
THE WEATHER OUTSIDE IS:
ON THE BREAKFAST PLATE THIS MORNING:
fasted today - just coffee
ON MY TO DO LIST THIS WEEK:
pick up painting from framer, errands, groceries, catch up on hospice work, see my Mom, start getting things ready for opening up at the lake and Matt's folks return here, hospice work at the facility too
THINKING ABOUT:
how I'm jet lagged and it's raining and gray all day today so it's very hard to wake up Lol (but I'm not complaining and feel so blessed for the trip)
THINGS THAT MAKE ME HAPPY:
making lists and crossing things off as I accomplish them :)
CURRENTLY READING
Sunshine at the Comfort Food Cafe by Debbie Johnson (I finished the 3rd book and now I've started the 4th in the series)
But in between I've been reading
The Waiting Place by Eileen Button as well. I just read a chapter a day as almost extra devotional time. It's a group of essays and it's great food for thought and uplifting.
ON THE TV TODAY:
Jeopardy, old seasons of big brother & the office, the Pitt, Survivor, Outlander, Virgin River, Call the Midwife, The Forsytes, Best Medicine, Ghosts, Shark Tank, Love on the Spectrum, Severance
ON THE MENU THIS WEEK:
MONDAY - leftover pizza and veggies
TUESDAY - taco salads
WEDNESDAY - new chicken dish I want to try
THURSDAY - egg bake with chicken sausage, veggies & cheese
FRIDAY - out for dinner?
TO RELAX THIS WEEK I WILL:
read, catch up on shows
TIPS OR SOMETHING TO SHARE:
FROM THE CAMERA:
I probably took twice as many photos (easily) as what I'm putting here. But I just wanted the highlights on here for my memories. I'm planning to do some layouts in our travel scrapbook too. Again, feel free to skip if it's too many for you - but I will give some context to some sets of pictures below. And I will include, at the bottom, a video of the sea lion we captured coming to shore.
For these next several photos I've included how beautiful it was flying into Hawaii. Our condo unit his Aunt rented for us and Matt's Mom. Our primary suite had access to the lanai (patio) as well. And I loved the cool sink in our bathroom. We loved having coffee in the morning looking out at the view of the ocean right below us and listening to the waves. Or just to sit out there and visit or read etc.
this is the view looking right out from our patio I only took this pic to the right and that island in the distance is called Molokai. To the left we could also see the island of Lanai (not included in this pic). It was a cloudy AM when I took this and I think I Matt has a better pic but I didn't get it from him yet.
For these sets of photos I'm sharing the pool area - it was lovely and had a very large hot tub area too. You could go from here and take a bridge to the beach. Or you could go to a boardwalk that went for miles along the ocean. Often there were areas with tents set up with locals selling beautiful things they made. We did the full walk one day (a 3 miler) and ran into folks doing yoga along the beach, other lovely resorts, and at the end of the boardwalk a sea lion that was coming on shore (see video after all the pics). I'm pointing to the sea lion in the one photo.
This set of photos shows where the spa was, and an open air shopping mall where we also did some fun shopping. Also, an elevator selfie of the whole crew!
I'll introduce you to the crew: front left and working back and around is Moe (his Aunt's best friend), Sue (Matt's Mom), us, Loren & Michael (also friends of his Aunt), and Rita (our fairy god Auntie) Lol The only one missing in the pic is Jeri (Sue's best friend) and you can see her in the restaurant group photos. Moe and Jeri are basically honorary Aunts to Matt as he's known them his whole life. Matt's Dad and his Uncle (Rita's hubby) don't like to travel for these trips.
These sets of pics show one of our beach outings where Matt and I did some snorkeling. The place where we rented gear gave us this fish indentifyer card and it was so great as we saw several of these fish - especially the different kinds of triggerfish and butterfly fish. And we also saw the giant sea turtle I mentioned earlier in this post. It was the coolest experience I've ever had and I've been snorkeling several times in my life. I got Matt out of his comfort zone to try snorkeling for the first time, and he LOVED it and can't wait for an opportunity to do it again.
And we of course sun screened up a lot and wore hats often as we both had skin cancer removed recently so we were extra smart!
I loved all the gorgeous flowers there of course. I took a million pics but I especially loved the cool trees, the hibiscus everywhere in different colors, and the birds of paradise flowers. We also indulged in shave ice a few times and my favorite flavor is in the pic below which was strawberry coconut over ice cream and topped with a drizzle of sweetened condensed milk. I cannot even express how amazing it was!
We got dressed up and went out for several amazing dinners that were in open air restaurants right on the water. Their views were so stunning! And if we were there until sunset we of course caught some photos.
We had to have hula pie at least once for dessert. It's a specialty to Hawaii. It is an oreo cookie crust, filled with macadamia nut ice cream, topped with hot fudge, crushed macadamia nuts and whipped cream. SOOOO GOOD!!!
We caught several rainbows while we were there and I think they were a sign we will definitely be back one day!
video of the sea lion we saw:
PRAYER LIST:
For an end to the conflicts all over the world and anyone living in war & fear, especially everything going on in the middle east right now. For peace and unity in this country, especially from hate and shootings or violence. For anyone sick, suffering, in pain, fear, loneliness etc ... that God bring them comfort and peace.
For the Lord's love and peace to fill 2026. ❤️
For Christ's Light and Love to cast out the darkness everywhere and help the world find its way to loving our neighbors as ourselves. 🙏🏻