Maui

Where to start? Mark and I had the trip of a lifetime this past week. Maui was exactly how you picture it: tropical, warm, friendly, mountainous and gorgeous. The 8 hour flight from DWF to Maui had me in knots before we left; but, after a lot of prayer, tears and a little help from Dr. Myers, I made the trip just fine. We arrived at 3:00 in Maui, rented our car and went to our resort. This is the first picture I took. Doesn't it just scream, "relax, you're on vacation!" Thank you Lord for this sunset. It was majestic and beautiful each and every night.

Our resort, The Sheraton, was located on Kaanapali Beach. We spent most of our time here and at the pool, which is my dream vacation!!! I don't have any pictures of the beach and pool for two reasons: 1) bathing suits and 2) my husband really doesn't enjoy taking photographs so I opted not to fight over pictures and just take a few each day. Just mentally picture me reading Hawaii and Mark playing football on the beach and you got about 70% of what we did on our trip.:-) Side note: Lauren I am almost finished with all 937 pages. Whew... it is actually a really great novel just a little daunting!!!

The view from our room

The beautiful flowers were everywhere and really inspired me to plant a few back in the Wac (I'll let you know if that actually happens).

Front Street in Lahaina. This was an awesome place to shop, eat and enjoy the view. Here we are with our sweet NFIB friends the Paynes from Tyler, TX. Mark and Lyle have both been in sales for about the same amount of time, so we get to hang with them each year on the trip. We really do have a blast when we're together.

We ate here and had the best fish and chips ever.

The Luau in Lahaina. It was ranked the best Luau in all of Hawaii and it was incredible.

Raising the pig

The show

These girls were impressive. I honestly have no idea how they can shake it that fast!

We were so fortunate that some of the best snorkeling on the island was right outside our resort at Black Rock. I saw some amazing fish and coral reef. Interesting fact: I love to snorkel!

I also saw a Green Sea Turtle while snorkeling (this may or may not have been a picture of a picture that was in our Fodor's Maui guide book of a green turtle).

After visiting a time share presentation for $100(yea..I know but it only took 30 min. and it was $100!!!) we ate at the fancy Lahaina Grill and had the best dessert, Lappert's Ice Cream Mud Slide. Lappert's is a local ice cream and it was delicious.

So for Mark's real birthday we went to play golf at Kapalua, home of the PGA Tour Mercedes Championship. When I say we, I did not play but I did drive the cart. I must admit that the views from this course were INCREDIBLE! Click on this collage to see better pictures.

After golf we had Dinner at the Ritz-Carlton. You know because that's the way we roll on vacation. Actually it was a NFIB sponsored dinner-still the Ritz. The president of NFIB, Dan Danner, gave Mark a sleeve of golf balls for his bday. The perfect gift for a golf lover.

They sang and everything and had a candle in his pineapple creme brulee

"Are you from Texas?" was the running question of the week. I wonder how they knew...?

Mark thank you for working your tail off so that we can go and experience such amazing vacations. This one was the best yet! Here's my favorite picture in Maui. Mahalo!