A Much Belated Post

I've been meaning to post for a while now. It's not that I haven't had anything new to post about. Quite the opposite in fact. My birthday was a couple weeks ago and I think I am now officially at an age where I will be flattered when I get ID'd at bars and restaurants, rather than annoyed that I look like a kid.

Birthday pictures -- including pictures from my new birthday present camera -- coming soon. Also, if I go a few days or weeks without posting again, you can sometimes see what I'm up to by checking my Instagram account. Instagram used to be just for smartphones, (that's how I post pictures), but now you can see the pictures from your computer too. And the reason why this may be of particular interest is because very soon I will be away from my computer for 10 days.

Far away.

3 flights and 14 hours away.

Yeah, we're going to Hawaii!!!! So we booked this trip a couple weeks ago and have been uber busy planning and booking rooms and stocking up on bathing suits ever since. Hence the huge delay in posting.

But I'm happy to report we have just about everything settled with weeks to spare.

So the story of why we're going to Hawaii: Chris's friend Courtney had planned to go to Hawaii for two weeks with her boyfriend Brad. Last month, Chris was feeling the February chills and mentioned to Courtney how he missed the old spring breaks their group of friends used to go on in college. That's when Courtney told us about her Hawaii trip and invited us to come.

We booked the flights the next day.

Kinda crazy but also super exciting. And we still had 6 weeks to prepare, so it wasn't like we had to immediately hop on a plane. Anyway, we're going to Maui and Hawaii, the Big Island and we're sooooooo excited.

Here's a few of the adventures we have planned:

• Hike an active volcano (hopefully see lava flowing!)
• Swim with manta rays at night in the Pacific Ocean
• Drive the twisty, turny road to Hana
• Swim in waterfalls many times
• ATV tour around the rim of a huge gulch where wild horses roam
• Attend the Old Laihaina Luau

Obviously there will be many many many pictures to come of all of our Hawaiian adventures. As I sort of mentioned earlier, Chris bought me a really awesome new camera for my birthday, so hopefully I'll have it mastered by then. But if you want pictures BEFORE we get back, check my Instagram account.

Hopefully it actually works for people who don't have smartphones. If not, sit tight and pictures will come soon after the trip! And I promise, birthday pics soon as well! :-)