maeve's first beach trip

We are lucky that Sam works so hard and that he gets to take some breaks every once in awhile too! We were so excited for him to have some time off so we planned a trip to San Diego to show Maeve our favorite place. We decided to fly to save Maeve the 11 hour car ride and she did so well! She definitely didn't love seeing our faces covered by masks but we got her to do a few smiles on the plane and then fall asleep as we were landing.

   

We went to Tourmaline, our favorite surfing beach, Sam surfed and I rocked Maeve to sleep under cover of a blanket because she hated the wind. But the sound of ocean waves put her right to sleep. 

We ate a ton of acai bowls, Panera Mac n Cheese, and Sidecar Donuts, and our favorite fish n chips but we were so sad that our favorite little restaurant was out of business when we drove up. We both had been craving it and it was such a let down to see a new vegetarian restaurant in it's place. 

We went to Solana Beach and had Maeve play in the water a little bit. This was her second time dipping her toes in the sand and waves but she still wasn't a big fan. No screaming or crying happened but we could just tell she was stressed and fussy about it. 

         

She loves snuggling her Daddy.

                           

Letting us know the water's too cold.

She may not love the beach but she sure does love the pool! 

                      

We spent Saturday at Oceanside with the Buhlers and it was so fun! They were so nice to let us stay at their place for a few days and use their surfboards. But I had so much fun surfing with Sharee. So good to know we still got it! And one day Maeve be a surfer girl too!

We got to visit my old office in La Jolla and it was so fun to see them and show them Maeve.

She fell asleep playing while we were eating dinner in our hotel room. Baby girl knows how to party hard!

Happy girl at the Buhler's house. 

It was so fun to see them and we also learned that Maeve likes petting their bunny.

Maeve was a little fussier on the flight home but ended up falling asleep towards the end.

arches national park round 2

We were able to go to Arches National Park with the Plothow's for a little family reunion and it was so fun! Maeve got to see cousins she's never met before and go swimming and hiking so basically it was her type of trip! This was my second time to Arches and we lucked out with super good weather. I was worried we would have 100+ temps but it was actually very pleasant with some cloud coverage so we were able to do some hikes without dying of heat. 

Cute fam selfie on the way to Landscape Arch. 

And a bigger fam selfie!

Maeve loves hiking and it's so fun taking her to fun, cool places.

We made it to Delicate Arch despite the college kids behind us that were talking bad about bringing kids to places like this... What do they know?  We had so much fun!

Maeve did pretty well for the 3.5 hour drive but after the first 3 hours she was done and basically screamed the last 30 mins so on the way home we learned and took a little snack break.

                                                And then the cutie fell asleep. Success!

hawaii babymoon

Sam and I take turns planning anniversary trips each year. Sam's years are always way better than mine and this year he decided to go all out and buy tickets to Hawaii for a babymoon/early 6 year anniversary trip! So he wins again! He came up with the idea & bought the tickets but I pretty much planned the itinerary because he was super busy with work. 

This trip almost didn't happen but I'm so glad it did! Long story short, on Sunday afternoon we get a notification that our flight out of SLC--> LAX the next morning might have issues due to a major storm coming in that night. It said we could risk it, cancel our flight, or reschedule. So we called the airline agency and tried to find a way to fly out of SLC earlier so we would make it to LAX the next morning for our flight to Hawaii. They said they had a direct flight SLC to Hawaii leaving in 2 hours and if we could make it to the airport ASAP. We immediately said yes and Sam proceeded to pack a bag in 5 mins (luckily I was mostly packed and just had to finish packing my toiletry bag). We were out the door in 10 mins and calling our rental car company to change our rental car pick up to a day early and we called our friends that we were staying with and told them we were arriving earlier and if it would be ok if we stayed with them an extra night. SHOUTOUT to the Blickenstaff's for being the MVPs of the trip! So anyway we made it on our flight and to Hawaii at 9pm Sunday night instead of Monday 12:30pm so we were already winning! 

MONDAY

Due to the 3 hour time change we were up at 7am and started the day off with the Lanikai Pill Box Hike. The views were amazing and I'm lucky my pregnant self made up the steep mountainside. 

Then we had some amazing breakfast burritos at Kono's and acai bowls from Lanikai Juice and headed to Castles Beach to meet Jacky & Jacob to go surfing. Sam surfed for 4 hours straight and got a bad sunburn (rookie mistake getting sunburnt the first day) and I loved every minute soaking up the sun on the beach-I probably would have attempted surfing if the water wasn't so choppy. 

Then we drove down to Waikiki to watch the sunset and eat dinner. And on the way home stopped at Leonard's Bakery for some warm Malasadas.

TUESDAY

We woke up ready for a shady hike to keep us out of the sun due to our sunburns and ended up on the adventure of hiking Manuwilli Falls. We somehow started on the wrong trail and ended up hiking an unnecessary 2 miles and then drove to a different starting location and hiked 2 miles on the correct trail. So basically I was already pooped before we even started... (and this hike is a little intense for a pregnant lady-super muddy, tons of stairs) and by the time we made it to the waterfall I didn't want to hike back but I did it! 

That night we went and watched the sky change colors at Kailua Beach and it was the most beautiful thing!  

WEDNESDAY 

It was raining a little bit in the morning and we drove down the coast to hike to the Makapu'u Lighthouse. Then we visited the Blowhole at Halona Beach Cove. Then we drove to the west side of the island and went to a little lagoon by the Disney Resort and relaxed at the beach for a few hours. It started pouring rain that night so we went to a movie after some shaved ice and dinner. 

THURSDAY

It was pouring rain today but we made the most of it by driving through the Ho'omaluhia Botanical Garden and then going to visit the Byodo-In Temple. Then we spent the afternoon playing board games with Jacky and Jacob at their house and we went to the Kailua night market and had the most amazing corn empanadas. Then the girls watched the Bachelor and the boys played basketball.

FRIDAY

We said goodbye to Jacky and Jacob and spent the morning at Lanikai Beach which was so beautiful and of course got acai bowls from Lanikai Juice for breakfast. Then we drove up to the North Shore for the remainder of our trip. We spent the rest of the day at the Polynesian Cultural Center learning about the different islands, eating food, going to a lu'au, and watching their night performance which was amazing! We checked in our hotel as well which shared a parking lot with the PCC and the lady checking us in was so nice and upgraded our room to an ocean view (she was also pregnant so maybe that's why). 

SATURDAY

We went to Sunrise Shack for acai bowls (the blue dream bowl with mac nut butter was so good!) Then we got some beach time in at Sunset Beach and then drove up the North Shore more to see Waimea Bay, Laniakea Beach, Turtle Bay, and Haleiwa. 

SUNDAY

 We had some yummy pancakes for breakfast at our hotel bistro and then relaxed by the pool for a few hours. Then we got ready to take some maternity pics with my friend from San Diego, Lela, who moved to Hawaii a few years ago. We took pictures at Kualoa Ranch which was beautiful and then for dinner we had some yummy fish tacos at North Shore Tacos and for dessert got some chocolate haupia pie from Ted's Bakery. And on the drive back to our hotel there was a crazy rain storm and we saw lightening strick a pole right in front of us that fell over and power lines were down everywhere! It was kind of spooky!

 MONDAY

It was raining again today but it was our final day so we were ready to just chill and take it easy. We had a delicious acai bowl from Elsie's Smoothies at the Polynesian Cultural Center Marketplace for breakfast and then stopped by the temple for a quick visit. Then we started our drive down to Honolulu and made some stops along the way for more food, went to a movie, we walked around a mall in Waikiki to get some movement before the long plane ride home, went to dinner and then walked to the beach for sunset because it finally stopped raining. Then we made it to the airport for our red eye flight home. 

It was a wonderful trip and my favorite part was just being with Sam 24/7 for like 9 days straight!!