Aloha!

May 1st through the 7th we had the amazing opportunity to vacation in Maui!! Matt's employer has a recognition program called the President's Club and when someone reaches that level they get a free trip to an unnamed location. Well Matt achieved the President's Club status and got the trip!! This time it was to beautiful Maui, Hawaii. We were stoked!! What an awesome surprise! We had a blast and we were even more excited about the location because our great friend Timara lives in Honolulu so she was able to visit us for a few days as well! 


So not only did we get this incredible vacation for free but we stayed the the Four Seasons..... it was sooooo luxurious! This is the Serenity Pool that overlooks the beach and mountains. 

 Getting ready to go snorkeling!

 beautiful sunsets

 one of the pools at the resort

Matt with his coworker Rob

Awesome Luau!

Timara!!

We spent a day in Lahaina and did a little shopping... 

This is the popular Banyan Tree...it sprawls about 1 or two blocks along the Lahaina coast

Timara and her boyfriend Nate, aren't they a cute couple? :)

And lastly this is part of a huuuuge lava field we visited on the last day... it was very impressive. This would be a blow hole in which the ocean water shoots through and looks like a whales blow hole. 

It was such an amazing trip and I'm so thankful to my husband for doing such an amazing job so that we could enjoy this amazing vacation!! AND thanks to our family for taking care of Owen while we were gone... we obviously couldn't have done it without them!!

Babymoon! :)

Can I first just say if you've never taken a cruise in your life you are missing out. I LOVE to go on cruises, you get to see soooo much without having to worry about how you're going to get there and what you're going to do. It's definitely an awesome way to travel. So this last cruise that Matt and I went on was no exception. We had such a wonderful time together and it was so incredibly relaxing and fun! We met some great people, saw some beautiful beaches, ate delicious food, did a little shopping, enjoyed some wonderful entertainment on the boat, got a little sun on our pale white skin, and just had the best time. :) And then to top it all off how lucky are we that we were departing from Tampa Florida and my Aunt, Uncle, and cousin live in Cape Coral, which is about 2 hours away. So we flew into Tampa a day early and got to spend the night with them then they dropped us off at the ship the next day. It was SO great to see them. Thanks Cindy, Rick and Nate!! :)

Our first stop was San Juan, Puerto Rico. We visited this beautiful fort called Castillo San Felipe Del Morro and took a ton of pictures... it was really beautiful!

The boat! Grandeur of the Seas - Royal Caribbean

Next up was St. Maarten where we took a little tour of the island (did you know that one half of it is Dutch and the other have is French??), did some shopping, then went to the beach. This is also where we discovered these AWESOME coconut smoothies (which we are holding)... OMG they were delicious!!

Next up, St. Kitts-Basseterre! We took a fun scenic train ride through the countryside and got to see almost the entire island. (it's a VERY tiny island... only about 80,000 people live there)

did I mention it was an open train ride?? So awesome! (loving the windblown hair!)

black sand beach...

It actually started to rain really hard while on the train ride but only last about 5 minutes (still managing to get us pretty wet though) Everyone on the second level of the train fled to the bottom where it was enclosed but we decided to tough it out. So I think that's why we're laughing here?? :)

Our third stop was in St. John, Antigua where we went sailing on a catamaran, enjoyed some snorkeling, and soaked up the sun at 2 of their 365 beaches.

...and finally our last stop was in Tortola, British Virgin Islands where we took a crazy 90 degree drive to get to a beach on the other side of the island! (no kidding! It was a little scary!)

When you go on a cruise you have a set table that you eat at every night so obviously on a 10 day cruise you get to know the people pretty well. We had a really great group of people sitting at our table. It's so fun to meet new people on cruises.... hopefully we'll be able to keep in touch with some of them throughout the upcoming years. Here's a group picture with our wonderful waiter Lee in the middle. :)

Thank you to my wonderful husband for planning this vacation for us. I love you babe!!!