hawaii in january.

in january we went to hawaii.
you guys, it was incredible.

my friends erika and travis hired me to shoot their wedding and they flew me out. naturally, we decided travis needed to see hawaii for his first time and so he came too.

we left remy with our moms. how spoiled were we to go on a 9 day trip, just the two of us? everyone asks me if it was hard leaving remington for that long. it was hard saying goodbye to him, and for a split second i was convinced that i would die or he would die and we'd never see each other again. but then we were being dropped off at the airport and checking in bags and going through security, and everything was fine. no tears.

i have to say, 9 days with no diapers, early morning feedings, sex being interrupted by crying, or hauling around a carseat was pretty excellent.

this trip was just what travis and i needed for our relationship. we hadn't had any one on one time like this since august 2012 right before i got pregnant and turned into a puke machine.

warning: there are 10984598345 pictures of our trip. most of them were taken by the great ting shen, an incredible photo journalist who i have the privilege of calling my friend. check out his website to see more of his work.  http://ting-shen.com/

we started our trip by flying to seattle. we bought the cheapest plane tickets we could find, which meant we had a very long layover. we decided to use it to our advantage and explore a city we'd never seen. we only got lost a few times. seattle is a titch larger than slc.

we headed down to Pike Place Market, a big open market with all kinds of food and people.

i may have creeped on this cute couple.

we ate some delicious creole food in a hole in the wall place.
hopefully this summer we will get to see seattle again for longer than a few hours. it was a beautiful city.

although we did take a wrong turn down a street we shouldn't have. in the span of three minutes we saw a teenage kid pick up a cigarette butt from the ground and smoke the rest, a homeless guy peeing on the door of a building, and a woman on the ground yelling things to herself. there were also police everywhere with these huge nightsticks. we joke about being sheltered here in slc, but really, we are.

anyway, we finally boarded the plane to hawaii and endured the five long hours of being smashed in with strangers.

and then. paradise.

our first half of the trip we stayed in a little house in kailua. the giant king sized bed was so comfy and not having to sleep while simultaneously listening for a baby's cries was excellent.

hiking lailani pillboxes.

snorkeling at haumana bay. normally, i'd only go to shark's cove, but the winter waves were too big. :( we still had a good time being touristy and seeing tons of dead coral.

 cards against humanity on the beach.

this was the first beach i saw when i moved to hawaii five years ago. it has a very special place in my heart. pretty great showing travis around.

love dis guy.

portuguese man of war jellyfish. i felt pretty legit when i got stung by one, like i was a real resident of oahu.

ting shen, covered in cameras, as per usual.

these jumping pictures. there are no words.

sunset on sunset beach, a must.

we also hung around laie, played at hukilau, and explored our old neighborhood.

peering into alyssa's old house.

had to stop for shave ice from my favorite place, angel's.

looking at my old house. so weird, that other people are living in my old room and i don't know them and they don't know me.

then of course there was the actual wedding day, which deserves a post all of its own. learned a lot from this wedding.
see how handsome trav is!

did my favorite hike, crouching lion.

and of course, beach beach beach. what a treat to bask in sunshine and swim in clear water. all with my best friend and even with so many of my friends from hawaii.

and then, don't get me started on all the delicious food.
we went to ted's bakery for teri beef almost daily.

korean foods!

another random beach shot.

erika's bridal shower.

of course the guys went mini golfing during the bridal shower.

reunited!

i ordered the small soup. this was the small guys.

ted's gave a free slice of pie with every teri beef lunch. i ate pie every day. chocolate haupia, my favorite!
also i tried to gain five pounds on this trip and ate as much food as possible. didn't gain an ounce. whatever is going on with my body, i'm cool with it.

ted's. so much ted's.

so hard to say goodbye.

reuniting!

we also saw my favorite sea creature! a real live octopus. unfortunately, he was caught by a fisherman and about to be devoured.

and of course, ting took some shots of me at the beach. we got quite a few strange looks from people on the beach.

ohhhhh it was hard to leave. i was literally laying flat clinging to the sand, telling travis he'd have to drag me away. good thing we left remy at home, because that was my only reason for flying back to the smog pit of misery that is salt lake city in january.

good reconnecting time for trav and me, just to have fun and be silly, not be exhausted parents. he loved his first time in hawaii. duh.

i had some good talks with the ocean. oh, it was good seeing the ocean.

so wonderful seeing old friends. and fulfilled one of my photographer dreams, shooting beach bridals.

and remington only seemed a little confused about who we were when we picked him up. so my heart wasn't too broken.

wonderful trip. miss you, hawaii.

xo.