MAUI 2014

So if you weren’t aware already, Stefan & I kind of have a love affair with Maui.   Maybe you could call it an obsession, but we dream about it daily:  glorious sunshine, white sand, that blue water, the sounds those little beach bum birds make, the smell of plumerias, fresh fish with loads of mango salsa, coconut pancakes, palms swaying in the breeze, mai tais; the list goes on and on.  So yep, we’re hooked & every time we visit it’s harder to leave.  I’m fairly confident the Lord gave us Hawaii just to hold us over till we get to Heaven.

This past February, we were given the opportunity to take pictures there of our friends Todd & Katherine’s wedding!!!  Can you believe it? Dreams really do come true!!!  So we planned a year in advance to make this trip epic.  It got us through the craziness of wedding season last year, through the winter, & than finally bam!  The time arrived to take off to our little piece of paradise.  I could hard contain myself.  And BONUS, we had several of our close friends traveling for the wedding as well!!!

So bright & early, we woke up ready to feel the sunshine on our skin for the first time in MONTHS & what’s awaiting us outside? Snow.  I mean SNOW!! Are.You.Kidding.Me?  We live in the PNW.  It hardly ever snows here, just buckets and buckets of rain, and the ONE day we have some place killer to be it snows?!  My parents picked us up with fingers crossed & we braved the icy roads to the airport where we were united with a large group of our “wedding travel buddies”, and we waited…..and waited…..and waited…..still snowing…..more snow……and waited.  I’d say it was the biggest tease when they actually loaded us all on the plane for take off and than we waited some more.   I was seriously considering how badly I valued my own safety at this point.  I mean I really needed to be in Maui TONIGHT.  Not tomorrow.  Tonight!  Risk it all, lets just take off already!

Needless to say, it didn’t happen.  My parents got stuck in the driveway trying to come & pick up our broken hearts and frozen tears off the run way.  Luckily, we were able to catch a plane leaving from Seattle the following morning & Stefan’s dad came to the rescue all the way from Seattle to save us!  Thank you thank you Bob!

Despite the absolute disappointment of leaving a day late, everything worked out for the best.  Actually even better than we could have hoped for!  Here’s some of our favorite images of Maui.  If you haven’t been, you must!  And maybe take us with you 🙂 If you are planning on getting married here, then our email address is stefanandaudrey@gmail.com – you know what to do. 😉

Waiting in the airport, and the plane, for the runway to be “cleared for takeoff”. You are looking at 2 very unhappy campers. BUT it made the arrival that much sweeter when we finally made it!!

Finally upgraded to a Jeep!! So much fun!! Also we got to hang out with some of our good friends from back home since they were in Maui at the same time, randomly! View their session we did with them HERE.

About to devour the best fried rice, banana pineapple macadamia nut pancakes with coconut syrup, sausage omelets, and POG at The Gazebo!! AMAZING!

A hui hou.