Our trip to Maui

Sorry no pictures yet this is the letter to my brother if you want to see a few pictures check out Scott and Raelyn's blog.
Dallan,
Well I thought it was just plain rude of Mom and Dad to entitle their last email Belinda houseboat. It got me all excited even though I know that there is no way in the entire world I will be able to go. It was just plain mean. anyway We are back from Paradise. So I thought I would tell you all a bit about it.
On Thursday we boarded a plane headed west and flew over the big blue wet thing. Then we descended on the island of Maui. IT was so awesome to get off of the plane, which was a very cold flight by the way, into warm humid air. Jon’s cousin Scott and his wife Raylyn went on this trip with us and we had an absolute ball with them. We rented a Jeep and found out very soon that it was a stupid idea because Two of us always had to climb into the back seat. And there is like zero cargo space. And you can’t really lock up a jeep. We kept on asking who’s stupid idea was it to get a jeep anyway. (we had originally reserved a 4 door sedan but the Jeeps in the rental parking lot looked like they could be so much fun with the top down we asked if we could “upgrade” for the same cost of the sedan. They let us and then laughed up their sleeved at our supposed “upgrade”
The next day we rented Harley’s you know the motorbikes. The guy was going out of business and had to turn everything back to the bank on Sunday. His employee who ran the store gave us an awesome price and was only doing cash deals. WE are pretty sure he was just pocketing the cash, but we didn’t care. Because we were on Bikes we were able to see parts of the island that other tourists are not allowed to see because you are not allowed to take your rental cars on those roads because they are way to narrow. If two cars came head to head one would have to back up for at least half a mile minimum to a very narrow turn out. On bikes it was no big deal. But it was a little nerve racking taking the turns on those cliffs. We hiked into a beautiful waterfall through some beautiful jungle and a bamboo forest. The trail was all marked up with no trespassing signs and the like but once we hiked in a little ways there was a welcoming bureau of land management sign stating this land was for the use of all. The no trespassing sign was to keep the tourists out and so that nobody can sue anybody. It was like that at every place we stopped. Anyway the water fall was a two tiered waterfall with pools at the bottom of each tier. We hiked up to the top pool through the waterfall- yes we got wet. And jumped even further into the water and took pictures but the water was pretty cold and it was a bit cloudy so no sun to warm us up. The climb down was a bit treacherous but nobody got hurt to bad. I fell down for no apparent reason, on flat ground! We also had our first whale sightings while stopping along our drive to view the view. I saw then first them Raylyn saw them also. It took quite a while for Jon and Scott to see them. Ray and I were sure the guys were blind, or maybe just teasing us that they couldn’t see them. But when they did see them they got all excited and jumped around like Ray and I were when they did finally spot them.
We road the bikes to a place called turtle cove. Well actually we found out later that Turtle cove was one beach down but we were already there and putting on our snorkel gear and headed out anyway. And we saw the biggest sea turtle ever! It was easily as big as Erica! And we followed him for a while and let me tell you what Disney got it so right in Finding Nemo. They are so laid back you could almost swear that turtle was saying “Dude! Mr. Turtle is my father!” I got caught on the reef right after we saw the turtle and tore my suit trying to get unstuck. Luckily it was just the skirt on my suit and I was prepared with a second suit for the rest of the trip.
We watched some surfers and did some shopping. But one of the coolest things we did was our whale watch! We got on a little rubber 15 passenger raft thing and headed out to see the whales. It was cool to see them so much closer than we could from the shore. But the best was our captain cut the motor and WE had two whales come over and check us out. The one came up for air right at the front of our boat and the other one went under the nose of our boat. It made you have a deep appreciation for how big they are when they are that close. And they are 3 times the size of your boat! Later in our whale watch I spotted some spinner dolphins and we chased them around a bit. They best was when all of the sudden the fish in the water started jumping out of the water trying to get away from the dolphins. We had one skipping along the top of the water right towards the nose of the boat so high and so fast we thought he might jump right into the boat but of course he didn’t but we all turned towards the back of the boat where the fish skipped out of the water again and then we saw the dolphin jump up and catch the fish mid air. IT was cool! WE did some more snorkeling while on our whale watch trip and saw lots more turtles. In fact our anchor line had a turtle pinned down. And the first mate on our boat had to jump in and untangle the turtle. It was an eventful trip.
We did the road to Hana one day and If you ever see a t-shirt with the words “I survived the road to Hana” you should ask them if they got sick and threw up. The road was dug out of the side of the mountain by slaves. It had over 600 turns 50+ one lane bridges. Is about 58 miles long and takes 3 hours to drive. The way is full of magnificent waterfalls and the day we drove it, it was raining cats and dogs. So the waterfalls were awesome! I was so car sick and morning sick that day. But it was awesome to see such a beautiful place. At the end of the road we hiked down to a red sand beach the view was amazing. There are two rows of rocks to break the waves, and the spray when the water hit’s the rocks is breathtaking. But the water right by the sand is really very calm because the rocks block most of the waves. The waves crashing in were pretty good sized because of the rain storm. We really enjoyed our time on this beach. It made the winding drive so worth it. The drive back was long and painful. But we survived the road to Hana.
The Resort we stayed at was very nice we didn’t spend much time there. We were too busy playing. But the last day we discovered the waterslide! Now you want to see a bunch of grown ups acting like they are 10 years old that was us. We even got the life guard to time how fast we were on our slides down the tube. Jon and I were the fastest sliders But Scott always had the biggest splash.
We did not want to get back on the plane and leave the warm weather for the single digits that were sure to meet us when we returned to SLC but all too soon we were on a plane and touching down in SLC. We are happy to be with our kids again and glad that they are safe and nobody who watched them hates us. I think Mom and Will had a bit of a run in but give the guy a break he cut a tooth!
Today we are celebrating Hunters 2nd birthday. He still won’t talk. And keeps looking at us funny when we tell him happy birthday! He kind of hangs his head like he might be in trouble. And He probably should be.
The Church is true. I am proud of you! Keep up the good work and we will see you in a year!

Love Monica, Jon, Stiles, Marcus, Erica, The birthday boy, William, and Mystery baby #6