Things I learned in Maui.

Tim and I took a late sixth anniversary trip (otherwise known as Susie's-neither-pregnant-nor-nursing-so-let's-get-out-of-town-trip) to Maui last week. A few things I learned while in the beautiful Valley Isle of Hawaii I list below:

1. I really do love my children. This is actually a disclaimer because many of the subsequent things I will list might have to do with the fact that they did not come on my trip. Truly, though, my kids enrich my life with meaning and purpose and I realized after six days without them that true fulfillment comes through serving them daily. I love them.

2. I still love my husband. He's not quite as obnoxious when I'm no longer sleep-deprived and I haven't faced days on end with little ones driving me crazy. Okay, so that's a bit of an exaggeration (the part about him being obnoxious, that is). In fact, we have quite a bit of fun together. It's good to know that.

3. Tim is afraid of sharks. Having grown up in San Diego, I figured that he had spent enough days on the beach to get this one out of his system. But as we were snorkeling, I noticed that we could only go so far out before he got the willies and headed back to shore. He was the butt of many jokes for the rest of our trip.

4. My kids treat grandma WAY better than they treat me. Nevermind that I carried them, bore them, and wipe their boogers with my bare hands, if necessary. While we were gone, they only messed around at bedtime enough to get kicked out into the hallway once or twice, compared to pretty much every night when I'm around.

5. You don't have to sacrifice any of your limbs to pay for a trip to Hawaii. We got a beachfront condo for a steal that of course didn't have all the amenities that large hotel chains provide but was literally a stone's throw from the ocean. We were lulled to sleep by the waves every night. We ate in most days, thanks to Costco, avoided all of the costly island tours, and consequently undercut our budget by a few hundred dollars. Hurray.

6. Maui really is paradise. We hiked through tropical rainforests, swam in pools beneath waterfalls, snorkeled in what seemed to be an aquarium (though it was only a few feet from shore), and stood atop a towering 10,000 foot volcano that commanded a view of the ocean and the two Big Island volcanoes. It was simply breathtaking. If only our pictures could do it all justice.

Here they are:

A cave we discovered on a volcanic black sand beach.

Just before taking a dip in the Seven Sacred Pools.

A rainbow eucalyptus tree on the idyllic Road to Hana.

The temperature dropped 30 degrees on our drive up to Haleakala National Park. Go Cougars!

This was taken from our balcony, literally. We ate dinner to this view almost every night.