Hawaii Day 2

 This is how day 2 in Hawaii started out. I know I have crazy eyes, but I have an excuse. That day we had to get up at somewhere between 2 and 3am. ( I think this picture was around 4am). I honestly can't remember what time.Why on earth would we do this and on VACATION? We decided it would be neat to take a bus up Haleakala in the wee hours of the morning to catch the sunrise before biking down the mountain!

 Now Chris has crazy eyes in this picture. It is not so easy to get a good pic at that time of morning!

After we got all of our gear we loaded up on the bus and started the drive to the summit. I have to say the tour guide was hilarious! You know he practiced the same jokes over and over again and said them every morning. But he thought he was so funny. I think it is so funny when people think they are so funny. Anyway he was very entertaining. And he actually had some good jokes. Anyway when we got to the top and stepped out I understood why we had been given heavy jackets and gloves and even pants. It was FREEZING! We waited for any traces of sun for a while and finally it started to peek over the clouds.

 This picture below was the first picture taken of me and Chris. Creepy! I want to print it out and draw in some crazy expressions on our faces.

 Here we are Chris, Brittni, Shelby, and Mike.

 Our awesome tour guide took our pictures and taught me a cool trick to capture all of the color of the sunrise!

 I can't explain how beautiful it was to be up ABOVE the clouds! When I first saw it in the very dim light I though the clouds were ocean because they went on and on with no gaps. It was breathtaking! I was in awe at the beauty of this world God has created. It was truly one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen.

 Here is the landscape in all of the pictures (it is normally the black part, but this is what it looked like)

 There were some pretty neat varieties of plant life up there as well. Many of the plants we learned are exclusive to Haleakala.

 Here is another view of the lookout point we were at.

 I was kind of hoping this picture would turn out as silhouettes but it is fun all the same!

                                                                   Kate and Shane

 The sun finally came out over the clouds

Getting to see that sunrise was definitely worth the early wake up call. It was a once in a lifetime sight to see!

After the sunrise we drove to one more lookout point.

 

Here was the group of us that went on this awesome adventure.(Back row L to R) Chris, Brittni, Mike, Shelby, Shane, (front row L to R) Kesha, Nick, Kate

I had a blast with everyone, they are all such amazing people!

                                              Mike and Shane doing their morning meditaion.

 My handsome Chris. It about gave me a heart attack seeing him so high up and close to the edge of the cliff

 We could see a chunk of Maui and the ocean down below. Way down below!

 Oh and this is a picture of me taking pictures. I kept getting teased for taking so many pictures. :)

 Here we are all ready to start our bike ride down the mountain. I was so nervous!!! I am THE biggest wimp ever and I REALLY had to convince myself that I could do this and that I might survive! Not to mention I hadn't been on a bike for years! I seriously was so afraid someone would be horribly injured. But I told myself that on this trip I would take risks, and I sure did!

 I was pretty slow at first completely riding my brakes. Chris was nice to offer to go behind me but I told him to ride ahead as fast as he wanted then stop and wait for me in a bit to make sure I was alive. :) I really wanted him to enjoy it. I will be honest the first few miles I was so scared stiff I didn't really enjoy it at all.

 But after a while I started to relax  a little bit and just try to enjoy it. After that, it was awesome! I have never done anything like it before!

 There was some very pretty scenery along the way. I just felt so free when we were riding.

 We eventually got to a little town with restaurants and we stopped and had breakfast. I had pancakes with coconut syrup it was SO good!! Then we headed the rest of the way down.

And here we are all done! I felt amazing after I had finished. It was such a great feeling to overcome that fear and do something I would never normally do. Chris and I both loved it so much! It also helped that we were in great company. It ended up being my favorite part of the entire vacation!

 So after the bike ride we decided to pick up some boogie boards from Costco. Then we started looking for a good beach around the resort.

 Here Chris and I are waiting for the crew so we could head to the beach. Let's just say it took us a while to finally decide on a beach. We ended up going to Big Beach because we heard there were big waves. It was a BEAUTIFUL beach. It was the most beautiful beach I have ever been too. And  it really was not very crowded either.

                                                  Here is Nick photo bombing. :)

                                                      Chris and I on the beach.

 This was the first thing I saw when we got there and I am such a wimp so of course I was worried. And considering the huge waves and the fact that I had never boogie boarded, I decided to sit this one out. Luckily so did the rest of the girls so we just chatted while watching our husbands. I love the picture of the sign because it is a big warning and you see Chris in the corner headed right in!

 

 Seriously this beach was so beautiful!

                                                          Here is Chris headed in.

 Here are the guys. Mike was a daredevil and he is the one way out there and he ended up going out super far! Luckily my hubby has a secret fear of sharks..well I guess it isn't a secret anymore ;), so he went out a ways but not forever out there. I think I would have had a heart attack if he did.

                                                      Here is cute Nick and Kesha.

 Here are some of the big waves. They don't even look that big in the pictures but it was amazing to see them. All of us girls were a bit worried about our husbands because most of the waves were breaking fairly close to the shore and the sand beneath where it was breaking was LITERALLY as hard as concrete. While I was taking these pictures actually a lifeguard approached us and asked us if we were here with our husbands out in the water. We said we were. He proceeded to tell us that he really thought we should tell them to come in because the waves were so big. He said that every year without fail people break their necks on this beach because the waves get so close to the shore and the sand beneath is so hard. At this point all of our husbands were pretty far out there. So we called to them (except Mike was so far out he couldn't hear us for a while) to come in.

 Luckily Mike actually caught a good wave and rode it into shore. Here are Chris and Mike coming in.
After that we decided to head back to the resort to get ready for the company Dinner.

  In the first picture below (with my mullet-ish hair..ugh) we are ready to go. In the next picture we are at our table. We ended up sitting with Stoney, who coordinated the whole vacation for ADP Advanced MD. But he is not just coordinator, he was my next door neighbor for years!!! I was so excited to find out he was coordinating the trip and that he and his wife Jenn would be coming as well. I used to babysit their kids all the time and our house was like a second house to their kids. They were kind of like our nieces and nephews since we didn't have any of our own in my family. So it was really nice to get to spend some time with them and catch up! But I felt kind of bad, Chris was EXHAUSTED! He is normally super fun, outgoing, and friendly. But not when he is exhausted. He just can't function. So he spent most of dinner trying to keep his eyes open and not saying a word. It was kind of funny actually. We ended up leaving early because he was actually falling asleep and I was afraid we wouldn't be able to make the walk back to the hotel. And that was the end of day 2!