hawaii

okay, so i wanted to do a really cool post, but now i have waited so long i am just dreading having to organize it all, so i am just going to randomly put photos on here of my trip to hawaii in JUNE.

here's the background info...for Christmas 2009, todd gave matt a trip to hawaii, which included entering him to race in the 1/2 ironman competition, which was in JUNE. for those of you who don't know, that race includes a

1.2 mile swim in the ocean
56 mile bike ride on hot black lava roads
13.1 mile run on a variety of terrain

i might be off a little on the numbers, but regardless...it is LONG! and they both did awesome.

anyway, because they were going to attempt such an amazing achievment, they really needed some cheerleaders, so todd also paid for matt's mom (peggy), and friends (karen, emmy, and I) to go along. i know, i am lucky and spoiled.

we flew to hawaii on friday, JUNE 4th, watched the race on saturday, then just hung out and explored the big island of hawaii for the rest of the week, caught a plane friday night and got home saturday morning. it was so much fun...even though i was in a lot of physical pain. my body was not very cooperative.

here are some photos to enjoy:

the island of hawaii is made of black lava rock. we stayed on the kona side, so this is what we saw most of the time. our condo had grass and palm trees, though, so it was prettier.



our condo:



sunset view out condo window:



cheering for the ironman runners:



after the race:



my food at the luau:



me at the condo's private beach:



me at the condo's pool:



there were a bazillion different kinds of flowers...it was like walking through the lotion department of victoria's secret:



i was brave and tried lots of new foods. this was filet mignon and crab-stuffed prawns:



another pretty flower:



and my favorite photo of karen:



we snorkeled, kayaked, drove a lot, ate a lot, and laughed a lot. i got to swim with sea turtles, but i didn't touch any of them, since there is a $3000 fine if you do. we saw a volcano, mango and macadamia nut trees, and lots of fish. it was awesome.

there are about 1000 more photos, but i need to get on to other posts. i loved the trip, loved the people i was with, and love the photos, but my brain hurts too much from summer school, so i can't dedicate enough time to this post.

thank you so so so so much todd! and thanks matt for having a birthday so we could all get such a wonderful present! mahalo!