Colt and I went on a killer hike this past Saturday. It is about 15 minutes from our house and is called the Lahaina Pali Trail or the West Maui mountains.

I drive by the West Maui mountains every day on my way to work and it has never once occurred to me that you can actually hike up there. At the top of the mountain there are these huge windmills (which is how a lot of our electricity on Maui is generated) and they are really cool. Once I found out it wasn’t private property and there was actually a hiking trail the idea consumed me! I had to get up there.

This is where the trail begins, we parked by the highway which added a 10 minute walk onto where we were suppose to start, we also missed the trail and went the wrong way for awhile so we just called that our 25 minute “warm up…”

Once we finally found the right way it was close to 11a.m. and the sun was blistering hot but we decided to do the hike anyways we were already there and sweaty.

This was one of our first outlooks about half way up the windmills. At this point I was over it. It was hot, the whole trail was up hill (moderately steep) and we only had one bottle of water. I wasn’t sure I was going to make it the rest of the way but luckily we aren’t quitters so I contiuned to push along.

(disclaimer: if you do decide to do this hike while on Maui make sure you put on a lot of sunscreen and bring a good amount of fluids. We were so sun burnt and dying of thirst by the end….)

This was the only tree on the entire trail. It was so beautiful and reminded me so much of the tree of life from the lion king. The hunk standing in front of it just adds to the extreme beauty.

This was our first glimpse of the enormous windmills (and thinking we finally made it) Don’t let the picture fool you even from here we were still almost a mile away from actually reaching them!

As we continued to climb we were blessed with this amazing-ness. It took my breath away. It’s so easy to take Maui’s beauty for granted since we see it every day. This was a great reminder to stop, take it all in and appreciate how blessed we truly are.

We finally made it up the steep hill and closer to the windmills. Exploring with Colt is one of my favorite things in the world to do.

The windmills were ginormous and made this really cool whistling sound as they spun. It was so peaceful up there, it felt like we were hanging out on top of the world.

If you know anything about me (or my best friend Kristen) we still often think that we are 12 years old and the worldest greatest gymnast heading to the junior Olympics. This basically means that at 28 years old we still try to flip and stretch the way we use to when we were 12. The result, never ever missing a great opportunity for a gymnastic photo shoot!

(Here I am attempting a scorpion on top of a rock)

The thing I love the most about Colt is how he will always play with me and how much he makes me laugh. It reminds me of what it would be like if when you were 8 years old you didn’t think boys had cooties. I remember one time when we were still dating we went to visit my family in Oahu. We were having a beach day and I started tumbling. He came up and started doing handstands with me. I knew right then and there (I already knew for a long time) that he was the one. I love that he will always do what I do no matter how much bigger he is and how much harder it is for him to maneuver. He is so much fun and makes me laugh harder than anyone I have ever known.

So here he is my husband in his attempt to do a scorpion on top of a rock. His level of concentration and form are enough to make me die from happiness & laughter. I have been having fits of giggles over this photo since Saturday. Kailea’s face is also priceless since she looks like she is saying: “Dad I am not sure you should be doing that..”

(disclaimer: he will probably kill me for posting this picture but I couldn’t help myself)

Cheering him on for doing such a great job in his pose! Babe you freaking rock!

Taking it all in one more time before we start to head down. We were so proud of Kailea who actually came on the hike with us. This was the biggest adventure of her pampered life.

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

– it’s time to make some big changes, freebird!