Aloha!!!!!!

I am finally getting around to posting pictures from our recent trip to Maui. It has been hard for me to post the pictures because I hate the way I look in them. My smile is just all messed up from the surgery and I'm beginning to think that I am stuck with it forever. I think I resemble "the Joker" from Batman. All the stitches run along the gum line of my upper lip so my lip is still tight and numb and doesn't quite move like it should. Plus more of my upper teeth are revealed now than I used to have. I've never enjoyed looking at myself in pictures, but this is far more painful. I figure it is better to just rip the band aid off, right--so here they are. Having said all that did ya see the above picture of my Zip line guide?! Let's just say that it was a very enjoyable day! I thought he was pretty hilarious too, but Nate didn't seem to think they was that funny. I guess my judgment was a bit clouded by the view. Nate was sweet enough to take this picture for me so I could remember it always. I can't even remember the guys name he was just fun to look at. Now did ya see the dorky hats they made us wear. They told us they made us wear them for their own enjoyment since a helmet wouldn't do much to save us from a fall off the line. Nice! We got to go on 8 lines that zigzagged down the mountain. This is the halfway point where we stoped for breakfast.

There is a picture of me coming in for a landing. The landing was pretty easy, you just had to start running before you hit the the angled landing and then keep running so you wouldn't end up going backward back out on the line. The guys were there to catch you so it was no big deal although they loved messing with us. One time the guide didn't catch me just to see the expression on my face as I started heading back out on the line. Punks! This poor couple that we were with just couldn't get the concept of how to stay facing forward while you are on the line and came in backwards for their landing every time. All you do is steer with your hand in the opposite direction your body his heading and voila (sp?).

Here I am on my horse, Valentine. She was a very impatient horse which suits my personality. There were only 6 of us on the ride so our guide said we could run if we wanted to, so with all in agreement off we went on one of the stretches of trail. Can I just say holy cow, what a rush! I could not stop from laughing uncontrollably while I was bouncing around in the saddle feeling that any moment was for sure my last moment when I would go flying right off the horse and to my death. You are supposedly supposed to use your legs to grip the saddle so that you don't bounce around so much and get a pretty serious beating in your rear. Obviously this didn't quite work out for me. All my horse wanted to do was run. So we would hang back a bit from the group and then Valentine would take off running. It was a total blast. I could hardly walk the next day, but it was a blast.

I don't know what it is about sea turtles, but I love them. They are just so darn cute. This picture was taken at the aquarium. I did get to see a turtle in the ocean which is far more exciting than spotting one at the aquarium. I almost lost my life trying to get a good look at the one in the ocean. We saw him (all turtles are a him to me) when we were at the place we took the next picture.

We were driving around and went pretty far north this time to a beach with a name that I don't remember. Anyway we stopped along side the road for this awesome lookout and I discovered a muddy little steep trail leading down to this rock in the ocean, so I said let's go! We headed down and it was so amazing down there. This picture didn't capture the huge waves that were crashing on the rock, but they were every minute or so and it was a site to behold. You can see some water behind us on the rock from the waves crashing. When we first got down there we saw black crabs crawling on the black rocks and then in the cove where that kid is standing a turtle was swimming around. You can't tell from the picture but the rock we are standing on is pure mud which is very slippery. We aren't sure what happened, but I fell and about broke my thumb and the camera and almost went off the cliff in the process. This guy and his kid came down to fish while we were there and was kind enough to take this picture for us. I can't remember what he had us say, but it obviously wasn't "cheese".

There you have it. Our trip to Hawaii. I forgot to put a picture of Iao National state park which looked like a rainforest. Oh well, I guess you'll just have to visit either there or here to see it. We had a blast and dream of going back again. It's a pretty spendy little trip though so be sure to bring lots of cash.