two tickets to paradise

so it is not everyday that you get to celebrate 5 years of marriage, and concurrently it is not everyday that you get to spend a week in maui without children. yet annie and i are currently lounging poolside on our last morning on the island, trying to drink up ever last moment of sun and freedom. a few highlights from the week:

constantly getting photo bombed by unsuspecting tourists

the subtle hawaiian culture

treasures great and small. while snorkeling one day i found these goggles on the bottom of the ocean. this discovery lead to another invaluable prize: this picture.

we recently purchased a waterproof digital camera at costco (the olympus 1050sw if you are interested) and i spent the better part of an afternoon taking pictures with the camera barely submerged under water while we were out of the water. this is one of my favorites.

this is one of us both under water. as on our honeymoon, we stayed near black rock, which offers some of the best snorkeling in maui, and true to form annie got really naseous again. unfortunately this time she also lost her watch so if you find one at the bottom of the ocean, please let us know.

the 79 degree ocean was a favorite morning activity. i liked it because the ocean is pretty much one giant urinal, so i could vacate fluids whenever i darn well pleased. but please note: nobody poops in a urinal.

action shot!

eating was probably the most favorite activity from the whole week. we ate breakfast and lunch from our costco spoils, but then splurged on a late afternoon dinner so we could try to burn some of it walking around shopping and such. total tally: cheesburgers in paradise-3,
bubba gump-2, aloha mixed plate-1, roys-1, pounds-???

other trip highlights:

time. time for daily morning runs along the beach. time for long, hot, uninterrupted and unrushed showers. it is so nice to just hang out in there, knowing you will not be thrust into responsibility at any given moment. time to peel a tangerine in one long continuous strip. not a real marketable skill, but fun nonetheless.

as much as we have enjoyed our time together, we remember stories about the boys often, miss them on occasion, and are looking forward to our reunion. we cannot wait to come back to hawaii with them someday, as soon as they can pay for themselves.

***note***
truth be told, this post was written while we were in maui, but the pitiful lack of free wifi on the way home, plus the chaos of reordering since we have returned has prevented the publication. we came home thursday morning to two thriving boys who were not all together happy to see us after having been spoiled by grauntie and grammy for the week. ryder is on the brink of fully mobile, getting to where he wants to go using a part g.i. joe crawl, part frog hop method. isaac continues to be fascinated by trains, especially tonight at the 15th street playground in del mar. it continues to be abundantly clear that they have made us very fortunate parents.