"when it gets down to it, i hear background music when i see you"

so...get this...i'm in Hawaii. BAH! so cool. as i write this...i am in my favorite place on the planet. listening to wonderful music, about to go to sleep. i'm SO blessed to have been able to come. my family has been blessed in a lot of ways this year. i love them all dearly.

yesterday my brother, susan, alexandra and i got up at 2 to go see the sunrise from atop the crater of Haleakala. when we got there, at 10,000 feet above sea level, i saw more stars than i've ever seen in my life. it was the most gorgeous thing...and after seeing 10 shooting stars i stopped even counting. amazing! we waited in the freezing cold to watch the sunrise, which was absolutely breathtaking and TOTALLY worth standing in the cold for an hour to see. but that's not all...after sunrise our group got on bikes and biked down the crater, all the way to a beach on the southern coast of Maui. at the top it was freezing, obviously, but we biked through all different kinds of weather over those 36 miles. we biked through clouds...saw the an entire rainbow--one end at the top, and the other end when we got further down. it was brilliant...near the bottom we biked through a rainforest, with the most lovely scents...by the end rain was pouring down on us. before the beach we ate the most fabulous breakfast of our lives at this restaurant called Polli's Cantina. i've never had bacon that good. the craziest thing...after finishing the trip, we had been up for what felt like forever...and it was only 11 in the morning. spent the rest of the day relaxing on the beach and visiting Whaler's Village. i have a lot of good/funny memories from that place...

today we slept in a bit and went snorkeling. as soon as we got in the water, there was a sea turtle directly beneath us! that NEVER happens here. i mean, they're here...but you just never see sea turtles. not just off of Ka'anapali beach...so, basically, ROCKIN AWESOME. all the gals got massages today. it was SO nice. oh! and we had authentic Hawaiian Shaved Ice. i got mango. :) i spent the rest of the day on the beach, reading (i finished one of my books!), walking in the sand, and sinking. yes, my favorite thing to do at the beach is when you just stand right within reach of the shorebreak and let your feet sink. it's beautiful, really. got to watch the sun set behind Lana'i. it's now my background on my phone...haha!

i love my Lord.
i love my family.
i love my friends.

so, beloved friends...have a blessed day!