The most beautiful place......

(You may want to pause the other music to listen to the music from the slide show)

Hawaii was amazing. I loved every minute of it, but I am so excited to be home. Our vacation started last Monday on the 19th. We flew to Oahu, and then flew to Kauai. We went with some of our friends, two other couples. We have all been friends for a long time. Brandon and Cassie have a little 4 month old, and have been to Kauai before, so they were our "tour guides." Austin and Rachel do not have kids yet. It was so fun to all go on vacation together. We stayed at the Regency in a house on Poipu Beach. It is located on the South Shore.

We started the week off with the beach of course. The guys loved snorkeling. I am not a huge fan of snorkeling, let alone the ocean. There is so much in there, and it is just so big!! Rachel loves the ocean and would just go and swim forever. Cassie and I enjoyed the beach. We did go to this one beach where there was a man made pool, of rocks, in the ocean. It is only waist deep, waves are not crashing over your head, and there are a lot of colorful fish that come and go. Cassie and I went snorkeling in there, and it was amazing. We saw a lot of fish, and even saw a turtle. I must admit that was my only snorkeling adventure.

We did lots of football, body surfing, and boogie boarding too. The waves were huge. We were all taken down many times.

One of my favortie things was Kipu Falls. It is this fresh water pond/lake that is surrounded by large trees, cliffs, and waterfalls. There is a large tree which the locals have tied a rope to and also brought a ladder to help you out. You can jump from the cliffs and swing from the rope in tree. I loved it. When I did the rope swing, I landed on my leg, and had a bruise running down my thigh for the remainder of the trip. I loved the cliff jumping though. It was beautiful.

We did some sightseeing one day. We went up to the North Shore. There were more mountains and cliffs on that side. It was very pretty too. We went to a different beach there. Cam and Brandon golfed at Princeville that day. Cam says that was the highlight of his trip. The course was beautiful and he loved it. He played a good game as well.

We went golfing one day with Brandon and Cassie too. The boys found a $9 course, which was actually beautiful. Amazing price, so they let us girls tag along. We had fun. I had a great two holes, and that was about it!

One of my favorite adventures was Cassie and I took surf lessons. We met this local guy, and he was the instructor. We went to the beach, and he was just getting ready to leave, but we talked him into staying and give us a quick lesson. It was so fun. It wasn't even as hard as a I thought. We were in pretty shallow water, and the waves were not that big, so it wasn't even scary. Next time we go, we want to try it again with a "little" bigger waves. We'll see.

We did lots of shopping, met a few locals who were so nice and gave us some great tips on where to hang out, snorkel, what beaches to go to, etc., we also ate so so so much. The food was delicious!!!

We came home on the red eye Tuesday night, and got home early Wednesday morning.

I am sure I am forgetting many things, but this is long enough. The trip was unforgettable. I must say I missed my baby girl so so much. I was so excited to come home. Thanks so much to Grandma and Grandpa Mendenhall and Nana and Papa Cisneros. I am sure Sage had a great time, and I never had to worry, because she was in such good hands.