Last February Jason attended an INS (International Neuropsychological Society) Conference in Canada. I was bummed he was leaving me with a little two and half month old, and that he was going to be gone over Valentine's Day, but I wasn't that jealous that he was going to Canada.
This year however the conference was in Hawaii, so we took full advantage and decided to combine Christmas+Valentine's+Anniversary for a nice vacation for just us two. It was much needed and came at the perfect time. We spent four days just the two of us. We didn't event turn the TV on once while we were there, which really meant a lot to me.
Day One was mostly traveling. We stayed at the Hilton Waikoloa Village, on Hawaii Island, which is where the Conference was being held. This place was amazing. It is so big that it has a tram and boats that takes you from one end to the other. We still walked most everywhere I wanted to enjoy the sunshine as much as possible. It is located right on the ocean and the views were incredible, no matter which way you looked.
It was also filled with so many different kinds of birds and other natural wildlife.
We spent most the day exploring everything and then met up with Jason's friend, and mentor, Brock for dinner.
Day Two was the day Jason was presenting at the conference so while he got all dressed up and headed out to be smart,
I dressed down and spent the morning reading and relaxing here. I read a whole book and half this trip. Can't remember the last time I was able to have enough time to myself to just read like that.
Jason joined me that afternoon for some pool time and snorkeling . The resort has a big ocean fed lagoon in the middle of it. I had heard that you can often see sea turtles in the lagoon and was determined that we would see one. We ended up seeing so many, this was the first time I had ever seen one in the wild, another thing checked off my bucket list.
Since the lagoon is directly connected to the ocean there were all sorts of incredible fish that I had never seen snorkeling before. That night we found an empty hot tub and just relaxed together.
Day Three I made Jason take me to breakfast at Lagoon Spoon. They have the most genius breakfast menu. You pick two cereals and two toppings, and milk. I went with Cookie Crisp, Frosted Flakes, Gumi Bears, and Skittles, don't worry I used Skim Milk. Jason had granola and fruit (still love you and your healthy cereal choices)
We spent the morning whale watching from our breakfast table. That afternoon we went with some of Jason's friends and drove to Hapuna Beach and went boogie boarding and played in the ocean. That night we met up with more people and drove up Mauna Kea, to go star gazing.
Day Four we spent breakfast whale watching again. It was migration season for humpback whales and we couldn't even keep count of how many we saw.
We went snorkeling one more time and this time we got up close and personal with the sea turtles. I thought one was going to kiss me it came so close, instead it ate a leaf right in front of my face. We realized they would eat the leaves right out of our hands.
Jason said he thought this was the best part of the trip.
We hit up the water slide and hot tub and swam through the different waterfalls that run into the pools before we had to go pack up. We had to check out of the hotel at noon but didn't need to leave for the airport until 5:30 so we left our bags and took a trolly to some shops to get Ashton a present. We had some time to kill when we got back so we sat and watched the dolphins. Oh ya did I mention the resort had dolphins? This was another daily thing for me. I could watch them forever.
There was a mom with a five month old baby, this made me miss Ashton the most watching how the little baby just followed the mommy around the whole time. Our flight home was delayed and miserable. While the trip was too short and over too quickly I was sure excited to see my little Ashton baby. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Beckstrand for taking such great care of him for us.
