September 10 on 10: Stephanie

I was so excited when I realized that I was going to have a 10 on 10 to do while I was in Hawaii! We're here in Maui for vacation with Rob's parents. Didn't we just go to Hawaii? Why, yes. And before you think we're SO spoiled (we are), let me explain - last year Rob's parents brought us to Hawaii with them (they go every year at this time, and finally it worked out for us to go with them) and because our outgoing flight was super delayed, we received a $300 voucher to fly again. That pretty much paid for the flights for this trip, so here we are again! Exactly one year later, in exactly the same location, and we are not complaining one bit!

We had a fun day, just like all the other days here. But today we even went on a really exciting excursion - snorkeling on an island off of Maui. Bear with me as I tell you a little about our adventure.

7am: Here's our boat. Snorkeling on Molokini is one of the most popular things to do on Maui and so there are a ton of different companies to go with. We chose a very basic excursion, with this boat which is a lot smaller and less exciting than most of the other companies, but it was perfect for us.

8am: Here is the island. It's a tiny and crescent shaped island, it's the remaining portion of a crater. We've been looking at this island off Maui during this trip and the last, so to actually be there was really cool. It's 2 miles off the nearest coast, 6 miles from where we launched from. The fish were pretty much the same that we'd seen before when snorkeling off the beach, but just a ton all in one place and really cool coral. The tour also took us over the edge of the sunken portion. This is too hard to describe what that was like. But trust me, it was awesome.

9am: We snorkeled for about 30-40 minutes, then we even visited a sunken ship for another snorkel spot. We couldn't get even close to the ship - just swam way above it. But it was cool that they took us to that additional spot. Oh, and just a funny little perk was that when we got closer to shore we held muffins out in our hands for the birds to come eat out of.

10am: Here is where I wish I had pictures of sea turtles. Snorkeling near the shore (I took of a picture of my location on my phone) gave us a chance to see a ton of turtles. It was so so cool. I know, I've been using the word "cool" a lot. The law says you have to stay at least five feet away from the turtles and for the most part, that wasn't a problem because most of them we just watched as they stayed near the bottom, but once one came up right between Rob and I, just a couple feet away.

11am: Back at the pool with my little boy! How great that we could go on our excursion, then be back to still take part in our morning sunbathing routine! I love to get back from being away from Henry to hear about how much fun he had with his Grandpa and Grandma. ps. I'm super tan.

12pm: On our way to lunch. It's been fun to sit in the back of the car with Henry while on this trip. I love playing with him and watching him sleep. He always keeps his hands in little fists when he sleeps. Mornings full of sun and swimming have been tuckering this boy out.

1pm: Mmm! The Hali'imaile General Store was one of my favorite places we ate at last year and I've been looking forward to coming back. Rob and I shared a salad (which was only okay - bummer!) and an amazing chicken sandwich.

2pm: Wandering around the Upcountry town of Makawao, which has just a handful of shops.

3pm: Still in Makawao - and I happened upon avocado trees! This is such a crazy concept to me - it's like money growing on trees! Unfortunately, they were just out of my reach.

4pm: more driving around. Rob has been trying to teach Henry to give him "bones" and Henry has got it, except that we won't put his hands in a fist. Funny, since you just saw the picture of his hands being in fists while he sleeps. He loves to do it though: says "bones" and laughs.