Hawaii Part 1: Road to Hana

Its here!  Post #1 from Hawaii!

I gave you two sneak peeks: here and here

Thankfully I hadn't deleted my memory card from Hawaii or those might have been the only two pictures I'd have from Hawaii!

So, I was able to upload pictures to our "new" computer to start doing Hawaii posts!  I have tons of DIY projects to show from the summer, but unfortunately we are still waiting to see if our photos (yes, 3 years of photos) can be saved.  

Anyway...  I figured I could break up our Hawaii events into a couple different parts.

This post is about our day trip of The Road to Hana, also known as The Road to Divorce!

We are proud to say - we survived and are very happily married!

This day trip was probably one of the best adventures we have ever done!  It was a little scary at times and definitely see how it can be the road to divorce- but we Eric made it through the tight turns and narrow roads!  And it was very much worth it!

So here it is: The Road to Hana through LOTS of pictures!

The road is narrow and windy - approximately 600 curves and 54 bridges, right on the edge of the cliffs, with unbelievable views!

There were many stopping points to look out, take pictures, take a moment to stop swaying back and forth.  This road is definitely not for the motion sick!

Here was a beautiful look out point with a cute town below and a church.

This picture is for my family - sorry it is blurry, it was a quick picture while moving.  But I guess in Hawaii - people cheer on the Packers and dream of snow?  

 We drove down through this beautiful area to black sand beaches.

Unbelievable!  The water is so blue in Hawaii and the greens are so green!

There was a great look out point before a short walk down to the beach

 Doesn't seem real huh?  That's at least what we said the whole time we were there!

The beach area had these black rocks that lead into the black smooth sand.

Black sand beach seems like a fake idea - but, it really is black smooth sand!

Crazy and beautiful!

Here is a view to the right

And a view to the left (look at those clouds!)

There were so many beautiful shots!  I didn't want to leave the beach!

We then went to a cute little cave area to see waves coming in and out.  We met another couple from Illinois on their delayed honeymoon.  They were amazed at Maui's beauty too!

In the cave!  Do you like my neon shirt?  The sun liked it too I guess!

After a little more winding and driving, we went to a National Park past Hana.  We went on a 2 mile hike to a... well, you'll have to see!

Look at the beautiful green!  It's from a movie or another world!

Then we came upon these HUGE fancy trees!

Here we are to put it into perspective.  So wild!

We would come upon these little water falls - It was VERY fun to try out my neutral density filter!

It was one surprising view to another.  We then came upon bamboo forests!

They had such an amazing sound as they swayed in the wind.

Here is a double waterfall we came upon

And to get this shot I went across this bridge and sat on it while it swayed over the waterfall... um... I am afraid of heights and not good with bridges.  I am pretty proud of myself.  The picture is a little shaky - thats because I was shaking!

Then came the GRAND FINALE of the hike... 

it was a massive 400 ft waterfall!  Beautiful!

Eric was brave and got pretty close to it.

I didn't get very close.. and I actually slipped at cut up my hip pretty good.  My hero of a husband was ready to run across the rocks to carry me those 2 miles back.  Honestly- the thing that hurt the most was my pinky.  It hit a rock on the way down and throbbed for a bit after that.  All is good- here I am with a smile :)

We LOVE this next picture.  Pretty amazing!

Then we hiked back and saw something from Dr. Suess- this view is looking up.  So these strange trees were over us.  So weird!

Then on the drive back we made our own pit stop and checked out these colorful trees!  We have no idea what they are called but they are pretty neat!

Anyone know?

And there you have it - a wonderful trip on the Road to Hana.  

We survived.  We saw God's beauty.  We laughed.  We talked.  We had an amazing adventure!

Stay posted for more Maui!  

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Erica

Series of Unfortunate Events

What a whirlwind the past few weeks have been!

We went from beautiful, peaceful, perfect Hawaii to nonstop!  For the first time in a LONG time I am actually able to finish up this post!  I have been doing bits of it for the last two weeks!

Since being back I set up and unpacked my classroom, had to find an assistant, do home visits, Eric has been swamped at work and having night time meetings, throw a very fun baby shower, print out a set of rehearsal dinner invites, AND have our computer and printer stop working within a week of each other.  Phew!

But- we have been keeping our noses above water and feel like we are getting things under control.  I actually had time to put up fall decorations this weekend!

I am typing to you on our recently returned Apple computer.  Not only did the computer stop working, but it was the hard drive that stopped working.  Word of advice - back up your files!  We hadn't had a single problem with our wonderful Mac for three years.  And it ran slow one day, so I restarted it, and it never turned back on.  So.  Where are all my files of pictures, invites, songs?  Shipped off to hopefully be retrieved!  So cross your fingers - if not - we have lost the first three years of pictures of our married life!  But we have high hopes and the apple guy feels like it can be retrieved.

So anyway - I thought you might like to see the transformation of my classroom!

I recently did a post of my past classroom.  Looking back at the pictures I realize how small the centers were!  Here are the most recent pictures - the room isn't 100 % but the students love it!  :)

This is what I walked into - a mound of stuff.  

Another view looking at the door into the room:

Construction was still going on - I didn't have my last window in yet!

I started moving things around and figured out my desk corner:  (PS that is a HUGE desk!  I still don't know what to do with all the space!)

I moved stuff around to start getting the furniture set up

Do you see it coming together?

 The centers started taking shape!  Here is the art center:

The dramatic play center:

The block center:

Note the construction guy... this is a common thing.  Even at four weeks into school.

Science center:

Reading and Listening center:

Oops - still need an after!

Manipulatives:

The writing center:

And the playground!  I need a better picture.  We now have blacktop, basketball hoops, hopscotch, and tether ball   Pretty fun!

The centers look even better than the pictures.  Once the room is full of my students work- I will have to show you the room again.  It has been a great school year so far!  My students are full of energy and all have such unique fun personalities.  I have a chef, a mini me (as in looks like me from when I was her age), twins that I struggle to tell apart (and I have had many sets of multiples), tough boys, girly girls, and  more!

Sorry again this post took forever to get out.  Lets hope that life can slow down a bit.  But with the holiday season (yes, I said it) just around the corner... life might slow down.... never!

It's a blessed life though! 

Erica