Surfing & A Luau.

Joseph booked some surfing lessons for everyone so we drove to the site. It was about (45) minutes from our villa.


The view from the road was gorgeous.

Everyone took lessons, while I soaked up some more sun. Apparently the instructor has given lessons to everyone from Zac Efron to Helen Hunt for that new movie coming out, "Soul Surfer".


Looks like everyone had fun. Joseph thought it was going to be a lot more intense, but since he surfs here in California, it was easy, he said.


Can you guess where we went later that night?!


That's right, a LUAU!


During "happy hour", while everyone settled into their seats and got their drink on, the food cooked.


Yes, underneath that huge pile of dirt was our dinner. These guys had to dig it out of the ground.


It was a PIG. It had been cooking under hot rocks that they covered with dirt all day long.


...patiently waiting our dinner to be served!

We all loved the pig, it reminded me of a Mexican dish called "carnitas".


After dinner, the show began. Honestly, I pictured something else my mind... I thought it was a little boring. The sunset and the music was nice though, and it I guess it was more about the experience.

Towards the end of the show, they picked out people from the crowd to come up and dance. To Austin's luck, they picked him and he had the final dance with the "Hawaiian Princess". They did a little dance together and naturally they fell in love ;)

Sunsets.

How could you not love waking up to this view?!


The next morning, after breakfast, we starting exploring the island a bit. We drove to one end of the island to see lava. None of us realized that all that dark stuff was lava rock, we thought it was dirt!


The rest of the day we spent by the pool, soaking up the sun and sipping on bubbly. It was totally relaxing.


For dinner, we went to Gannon's at the Wailea Golf Course. It is known for "the place" to watch the sunset.


One of our favorite things to do on vacation for dinner is watch the sunset.


Joseph's parents!


The sky was beautiful.


Joseph... snacking on something.

Even though the food wasn't amazing, everything else was!

Welcome to Hawai'i.

I'm finally getting to posting our pictures from Hawai'i... there are SO many, therefore having to look through all of them day-by-day, and picking out the best is really hard. Anyway, here is a start!


We arrived in Hawaii Friday morning (the day after the terrible earthquake and tsunami in Japan) and drove to our Villa in Wailea.

We parked our Jeep and grabbed our bags.


Cute plates!


As soon as we entered the villas front desk, we were "lei-d" by the staff.


First things first! They had some local beer in the fridge, so we sat down on our penthouse patio and soaked up the sun.


The view was beautiful, we got to see the sun setting every day!

After our beer, we decided to do a little exploring and walked down to the beach.

Our walk to the beach and out of the villa's property was really lush. There were so many flowers and plants all over the place, it definitely felt like paradise.


Picture time!

We took a little walk along the water. There was a sidewalk that took you from hotel to hotel. We were next to the Grand Wailea Resort and the Four Seasons.

After about an hour of exploring, we walked back to our villa and got ready for lunch.

We went across the street from our villa to the Shops of Wailea (they had a Louis Vuitton... dangerous!). There was a little burger place there across from the Tommy Bahama Restaurant. we ordered some burgers and our first Mai-Tai's of the trip.


Since the rest of Joseph's family wasn't getting into the island until later that night, we did the grocery shopping and of course, bought all of the provisions. Veuve Clicquot -- a must!

Tired from the day, we sat down to a few glasses of champagne and enjoyed the sun set. It was pure bliss.