Aloha and Mahalo

So let's back it up a bit, shall we? Our adventure begins in the Hawaiian Islands, more specifically the big island of Hawaii, more specifically Waikoloa, or the Hilton at Waikoloa Village, Room 7031. It was a lovely room, with a lovely view of the Pacific Ocean.

For those of you who are fans of Dog, The Bounty Hunter, you may recognize this photo as the very place Dog made an honest woman out of Beth.

With basal thermometer and ovulation predictor kits in tow, we set out to make a baby. Of course we had no clue if we had accomplished our task, but we were certainly happy with our efforts.

While on the big island we decided to take a 50 minute helicopter tour over the live volcanos. Jake was the official photographer as I proceeded to puke my guts out for a solid 48 minutes and 16 seconds. I know this exactly because out of the corner of my eye I could see the stop watch that ticked down the minutes to the end of our journey. I can now appreciate that little glimpse into hell as I do not believe it is possible to ever be that sick again. This has prepared me for any morning sickness I may encounter.

Anyhow, we had a lovely trip, saw all of the sights and spent some quality time with our good friends Katrina and Marcus. We really didn't give a second thought to whether we accomplished the goal we set out to attain. We remembered when we returned home as at least a half a dozen people reminded us of our bold declaration when we left Idaho that "we would not come home from Hawaii unless we were pregnant". I think secretly we just wanted to stay in Hawaii for as long as possible. We clearly didn't recognize our own power!

And now if we may be serious for a moment...building rock piles is a serious problem in Hawaii. There are signs everywhere warning of the dangers of piling rocks. What if one were to topple off the pile and hit your foot? Or what if, heaven forbid, you were to accidently lose your balance and fall onto your pile of rocks? If you hadn't built a pile, you would have only fallen on a single rock, or several rocks grouped together but not stacked. I think this is good practice for every state in the union. Hawaii is on to something.