Jay and I have not been on a vacation without kids since before we had kids over 8 years ago. (The weekend road trip to Milwaukee doesn’t count). We were long overdue. I have wanted to go to Hawaii forever, but Jay has always been anti-Hawaii (the accountant in him has a hard time stomaching the thought of a non-all-inclusive resort). Somehow the stars aligned (and the heaps of United miles to get free flights) and Jay agreed that we should go to Hawaii!! We booked our flights to Maui on October 26.

Oh crap. This mama’s body is so not ready to wear a swimsuit for 9 days… there is not room for my muffin top in the airplane seat.

November 6: hello The Foundation CrossFit gym!! You will be my new best friend. I will be seeing a LOT of you between now and December 26. (Thank you Ann for convincing me to give it a try!). After Erika tried to kill my friend Brooke and I multiple times, I graduated CrossFit Kindergarten, and have been at the gym at least 3 times a week (usually 4-5) ever since. I will spare you the eye pain of seeing my before and after picture from just a couple months, but I can assure you it is working!! Unfortunately I couldn’t miraculously achieve a 6 pack in that short timeframe, but I at least have taken a much smaller muffin top with me to Hawaii. Still not thrilled about walking around in a swimsuit, but I feel a whole lot better about it now than I did when we booked our trip.

Ok, enough about CrossFit. Let’s talk about VACATION!!!

After another memorable Christmas celebration at my parents’ farm, Jay and I left the kiddos and drove to Chicago on Christmas Day. Thankfully the weather in December is surprisingly warm so we didn’t have to drive through a blizzard to get to O’Hare. We had an early morning flight on Dec 26 so we tried Sleep Park Fly. It’s a pretty slick deal where you spend a night at a hotel near the airport, leave your vehicle in their parking garage for your entire vacation, and they shuttle you to the airport. Much cheaper than airport parking.

No drama getting through security (helps to travel with a United 1K member), breakfast in the United Club lounge, smooth first flight to San Francisco. The people watching in SF airport is amazing… flight to Maui was delayed 1 hour. Boarded. Waited for 2 hours for maintenance to fix a computer problem (kind of an important part to get us 6 hours across the ocean) before we had a relatively smooth flight to paradise. It was a little cloudy when we approached the islands, but still amazing.

By the time we got our luggage and sweet rental Jeep, and made a quick stop at Costco for water, snacks and sunscreen, the sun had set, leaving us in complete darkness on our drive to the Ka’anapali beach area on the west side of the island. I am sure the drive would have been beautiful if we had sunlight. We made our way to the Hyatt Regency resort, got checked in. It was around 8:00 PM in Maui, which was midnight in Iowa, so my exhausted brain was ready for sleep. A bellhop took us to our room – upgraded to corner room with ocean view (thank you Jay) – opened one of the sliding doors, and I thought, oh, they must have a water feature making the sound of water crashing. And then I realized, oh, gosh, that’s the OCEAN. Jet lag brain…

We walked down to grab a quick bite to eat, passing by the 7 penguins that live at the resort!!!

After a nice meal, we called it a night and fell asleep to the sound of crashing waves.

We woke up around 4:00 AM (8 in Iowa) and I decided to go work out at a local CrossFit gym’s 6 AM class – Lahaina CrossFit. It was fun to be able to work out outside, and it helped that when the sun rose and I finally caught my first glimpse of Maui’s green hills.

Jay worked out at the hotel gym then came to pick me up. Hello ocean!!!! We didn’t have plans for the first day in Maui, so we wandered up the sidewalk along the beach to Whaler’s Village. No shops were open that early, but I made a mental note to come back later. We ate breakfast at Ka’anapali Grill and Tap Room (yummy) and soaked in the view.

We went back to the hotel. Finally was able to see that ocean view…wowza.

Check out the birds in the hotel atrium…

We wandered around the hotel grounds to get the lay of the land, then walked back to Whalers to do some shopping. I found a couple cute swimsuits, jay found some new sunglasses, and we had a drink and delicious truffle French fries at MonkeyPod. Back to the hotel Grotto bar for a drink and a sandwich. In full vacation mode at this point…

I left jay at the bar and went to the spa for a facial and massage. Life doesn’t suck…

We found a couple lounge chairs and watched the sun set.

Then the jet lag kicked in and we were both ready to crash. You know, it was a pretty exhausting first day in paradise….

Aloha!!!!