Holy smokes I can't believe that we moved the clocks ahead an hour last night. I left the bedroom at 7:30 this morning and arrived in the family room at 8 :30 - that was one long walk - no wonder I was exhausted when I reached the couch with that first cup of coffee lol.
Seriouly I know I've been absent for awhile and I thank all of you for the sweet emails checking up on me. You see Ijust had to spend some time enjoying this beautiful site

Mr. Farmhouse and I took the kids to the island of Maui and spent some magical time together enjoying the beautiful island and trying to remember to say Aloha. Our trip to Maui also included a 2 day stop over on the island of Oahu to visit Pearl Harbor. After a very very long day of traveling we arrived in Oahu, checked into our hotel and headed over to have some dinner and a refreshment. Have you ever seen such a beautiful drink

this drink not only looked pretty and let us know we were in paradise - but boy did it taste good lol. The next morning we were up bright and early - well rested and ready to tour Pearl Harbor - first tho a little breakfast - outside where the birds are close by to catch any crumbs lol

Touring Pearl Harbor was an amazing day and I think if anyone gets the opportunity to do it - they should. One of the emotional parts of the day was seeing this aircraft carrier arriving into port - from the middle east. The service men and women were in their dress whites and at attention the entire time the boats where guiding them in to dock

We also toured the Missouri

can you imagine sleeping in these small beds YIKES is all I can say

there was also a submarine to tour - this is as close as I got - the top lol

I walked down the stairs to tour it and then turned around and headed back up lol - to tight quarters for me. It was a beautiful day and we were so glad we went. They have these headphones you can wear while you tour and you really learn so much.
Then it was back to the hotel where the next day we flew over to Maui for the rest of the trip. First stop - to pick up our jeeps where we each couple had their own to tool around in - I requested a

A RED ONE - and they had it - yahooooo.
We had an amazing hotel and our view was beautiful from our room

You can see those palm trees are really blowing in the wind. The first few days in Maui were really really windy - which made for some amazing waves on the ocean. On one of walks around the area - I took a picture of our hotel - you can see how to the left it's raining on the left up in the mountains and on the right it's sunny - sometimes you'd get those little quicky rain showers and sometimes they just blew right on by. If they lasted 2 minutes that was a long time lol.

a walk down from the hotel


the hotel has a wonderful little place just down at the end of the path that's just open for lunch and late afternoon snacks - we waddled down there and enjoyed a nice bloody mary and to watch the boogy boarders and surfers.

our own boogy board surfers - this was on a day the wind wasn't so bad - but it made for smaller waves much to the Farmhouse kids dismay lol

One of our ventures was the Road to Hana - which is an all day trip and it takes you through the tropical rain forests and some amazing scenery. It's said to have 617 curves and 54 one lane bridges. Well I can vouch for lots of curves lol. Lots of one lane hairpin turns and when you come to one of those bridges you just wait your turn to go through.
Some of these bridges have been "ahem" around a while lol

For those who have never done this road - it is a 2 lane road - but it's really what I would call a lane and a half at best lol. This is how close I was to the side at times

I could have reached out just a little bit from the jeep and touched the wall. There are spots on this road where you have to let someone going the other way go before you. Son #1 was in the lead and met a utility truck coming the other way on a very tight turn - YIKES, we all had to back up so the truck could make the turn. Always on the bridges it's one car at a time. Only a few times did I have to close my eyes and think of something else - and no I wasn't driving LOL.
We did some hiking while there to get back and see some beautiful waterfalls

and very cool look landscaping

Some areas were for others but not for Karen - this is where my new camera lens came in handy - see that red t-shirt in the upper left - son #2 and family - taken using regular lens

using the zoom lens

one of my favorite pics of my kids - can you see how wet everyone is lol

we ate a picnic lunch packed by the hotel at one of our "wet" stops lol - no dry spot for sitting

one of the cools spots we stopped at - look at those waves in the background

just some random wave shots - because of the winds they were amazing - the power of them can almost take your breath away. The pictures don't really show just how fiercely beautiful they were



On the Road to Hana there are signs everywhere for the "Best Banana Bread" on the trip - so we stopped at one of the places and enjoyed a warm mini loaf of banana bread - dang it was good :)

I think it's wrapped in saran wrap straight from the oven because when you pick it up - it's warm, yummmmm I can still taste it.
Our last night in Maui we attended a luau - beautiful setting for it

and a wonderful show complete with a fire dancer at the end of it. Tried to take a picture of him but all you see is a ball of fire


hmmmmm the food maybe not so much - to off the wall for me.
We enjoyed our pool time during much of each day - how can you not love this


and walking the beautiful grounds

not a bad way to spend time :)

The Farmhouse Family had an amazing time together - and many special memories were made. I now have almost 700 pictures to go through and make up a scrapbook. Going there didn't seem to bother me - but it took almost 24 hours from the time we left the hotel until we parked in our garage and can I tell ya it took me out of commission for a few days - then add in the time change - double whammy for me. But soooooo worth it.
Now it's back to reality and I'm ready for spring - out come the rabbits today for that spring look. I promise not to be gone so long next time :). Part of my journey for 2012 is to visit more with you.
Until Next Time