Thursday was our last full day in Maui, and it started out so wonderfully.  Kevin and I joined his parents by the hot tub nearest the beach, and watched the sky turn gradually lighter.

It was so beautiful to watch the sky change with the silhouette of the palm trees.

Shannon and I were meeting up to go to a morning yoga class, but when we saw the sunrise, we stopped and just soaked it in.  It was truly spectacular, and so peaceful.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t find the yoga instructor, and so Shannon went swimming, and I decided to pull out my Wilma app and do one of my yoga workouts on my phone.  I was listening to the ocean and under the palm trees, and it was perfection.  I had to send a message to the app owner to let her know how awesome it was, and she reposted it – fun!

In fact, I used my Wilma app all week.  I would go to the gym and do a workout using my app, using the weights, and then would follow it up with the elliptical.  It was so nice to have the luxury of not rushing my workouts, and I loved it.

I also loved the beautiful little coy pond.  There were giant fish in it, and I kept seeing people putting their hands in the water and the fish coming up to them.  It wasn’t until the week was almost over, that I realized there was a fish food dispenser and people were feeding the fish – ha ha!  I also loved the beautiful and unique birds I would see in the pond sometimes.

Another funny thing at our resort was that there were cats everywhere.  We actually found out that they were “resort cats,” there to keep the mouse and weasel population down.  Nice.  Kevin even pet one of the cats so that he could make our friend, Amy, happy.  Good times.

Our big activity for the final day, was for Kevin and I to go golfing together.  We played at the Royal Kanapali, which was a gorgeous course, just not quite as insanely difficult as Kapalua – so more my style.  It was so fun to get to be out golfing together, and the two guys we were playing with were super nice.  One of my favorite things about the course, were the gardenia bushes alongside some of the holes.

We had a great time, and I did pretty well, considering I hadn’t played in months.  I was often distracted by all the whales playing in the ocean.  I would go to watch Kevin make a shot, and instead end up watching the whales breaching instead – ha ha!  I am so glad we got to have so much fun together.

We got back to the resort with just enough time to shower and meet everyone for dinner at Dukes – a special place for Dennis and Valerie.  It was the special dinner to celebrate their anniversary, and we had such a wonderful time talking and laughing, and enjoying the wonderful food, the gorgeous view, and especially the Kalua pie – yum!

This trip was such a special gift.  The time with Kevin’s parents was priceless, and I am so grateful that the four years of planning paid off and everything came together so well.

As we walked from the restaurant to our resort, we watched the sunset over the ocean, knowing it was our last one in Maui.

Before we said goodnight (and goodbye, since we were flying out early), we all met up in Scott and Shannon’s room for a special presentation that Shannon put together.  Back at Thanksgiving, they made a video of Scott asking dennis and Valerie questions about their marriage and courtship, and it was fantastic.  I loved it so much!  And there were fantastic pictures scattered in, some of which I had never seen before.  It was one of the highlights of the entire week.

And then, before I could blink, it was Friday morning and there I was, back at the airport sitting with all of our bags.  Heading home was bittersweet.  It had been such an amazing and revitalizing week, not to mention a wonderful time with family.  That said, I felt anxious to get back to Derek and Arthur, because although Derek did a great job of taking care of his brother, Arthur came down with a terrible cold (and possibly the flu) right after Kevin and I left town.  And Arthur is NEVER sick.  Unfortunately, on Saturday, Arthur was coughing so hard that it made him throw up.  Luckily, my dear friend, Shenai, looked in on them multiple times, helped Derek know what to do to help Arthur, and make him feel better about it.  But let’s just say that it was a bit stressful to be on vacation and get calls from the school nurse that Arthur was so sick he had to go home, but not even having Derek on the pick-up list.  Truthfully though, between Shenai, and my friend Erica, they fed the boys more than once and looked after them.

Not only was I getting phone calls about Arthur being sick, but I was getting bizarre emails from school.  The best was an email about a racoon on the playground – ha ha ha!  I leave out of town, and everything falls apart.  Good times.

It was a very long day of travel, but the relief at seeing the lights of San Antonio from the plane, made it all worth it.  By the time we had gathered our luggage and drove home, it was midnight.  And it was so very good to be home.