Maui, oh Maui...

We had to get up at the crack of dawn to catch our plane, so we decided to pull an all nighter. By the time we reached our hotel we gorged ourselves on some delicious treats then slept for three hours. When we got up it was 6pm local time so we went down town to Lahina for some dinner. We enjoyed our meal at Bubba Gump's. We didn't eat there the last time we were in Maui so we wanted to give it a try, it was good.

 

This picture, on the other hand, is not good. In fact it is very, very wrong. But Aric looks good and I wanted you to see the "real" picture. Aric has some pretty good photo shopping skills huh...

Sunday was fabulous, but I already told you all about that amazing experience.

The best part of Maui...

Hanging with the Samp's!

Oh how we miss them! The good times were endless in paradise!

Amy and I spent most of our time talking and reading. We were thrilled to be doing nothing. One day Amy was kind enough to run with me, but six miles in 85 degrees was torture. So after that I just ran in the gym and we spent the rest of our time together enjoying the sun and reading our books. (I read two books while I was there, "The Help"...so awesome...and "The Last Song"....eh, not so awesome.)

On occasion we would watch Aric and Mike to make sure that they weren't being swallowed up by the ocean while they went boogie boarding. It was Aric's first time so I was a little worried at first.

 

 

The first couple of days Amy and I just watched them.  We thought it was pretty lame. We would watch them for a little while and just laugh.

We just didn't get how they could be out there for hours doing this...

 

On the last day we found a spot where some locals were doing some crazy stuff. It was quite entertaining watching Aric and Mike try to mimic them. Mike even tried to make friends with one to see if he could learn some new tricks, like this...

 

Mostly though, they were just doing this...

After three days of watching and a little bit of prodding...

...Amy and I decided to get in the water and give it a shot.

I only caught one wave... 

...and then I knew why the guys had spent so many hours in the water. It was so much fun! It was still hard for me to get over my ocean issues...water creatures swimming around me and the sand that stays with you forever...but I will totally do it again.

I definitely don't recommend a strapless swimming suit. Thankfully mine stayed put but I was incredibly paranoid about it. This suit actually had a strap but I was so sunburned it hurt to wear it. I promise you the next time I go boogie boarding I will dress appropriately. (BTW- if you are interested in renting a boogie board, do it down town in Lahina. They only charge $2.50 a day instead of $15 like the resorts charge) Our smart boys figured this out...

We enjoyed some incredible food together. Aric and I love this place, Tepan-yaki Dan, the food is RIDICULOUS!

We also ate at a Cheeseburger in Paradise, it was completely over priced, but I got a chocolate coke so it was totally worth it!

We ate at another place that had amazing fish tacos (thanks Mike for all the bites), but I can't remember the name. All I remember is that while we were sitting there a bird pooped in my water.

The other best thing about Maui is the fruit. It was to die for. Look at this gigantic apple Amy got...

...and then ate the whole thing in like one minute.

She wasn't feeling so good after that.

Our favorite things to do with the Samp's besides eat, is watch scary movies (thanks generic red box!) and make up stupid games, like who can do a hand stand under water the longest...and who can do the cheesiest "prom" pose.

We drove around blaring our favorite tunes that include, Nelson, Sugar Ray, Deena Carter, Michael Buble and Michael Jackson. We made sure our windows were rolled down so everyone could hear us as we sang at the top of our lungs. You never know who you are going to pull up next to when you do such silly things...

I bet you thought that was Hulk Hogan! We sure did. We even went super slow and made him pass us. It was only then that we realized it wasn't him. But honestly, who goes around copying that look! REALLY!  Hulk himself can't even do it!

We really did have the best time. It was so, SO, hard to say good bye to Mike and Amy again, harder than the first time. They aren't just friends, they are family and we loved sharing our vacation with them. We can't wait to do it again!

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IN CASE YOU WERE WONDERING....THIS TIME TOMORROW, I WILL HAVE FINISHED MY MARATHON. SIXTEEN WEEKS OF TRAINING JUST FOR THIS DAY. I AM SO EXCITED! I CAN'T WAIT TO HAVE THOSE TWENTY SIX POINT TWO MILES BEHIND ME. I WILL LET YOU ALL KNOW HOW IT GOES....WISH ME LUCK...OR BETTER YET, SAY A LITTLE PRAYER, HEAVEN KNOWS I COULD USE ALL THE PRAYERS I CAN GET!

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