Blast from the past Friday: 2005 trip to Hawaii

Glad you're back again this week! Hope you've come over to join the fun!

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In the summer of 2001, I was newly married and worked full-time as a legal secretary at the State's Attorney's office of our county. Then one July night, I went to a PartyLite party--and, by the end of the evening, I had decided to start selling candles as a way of earning some great "extra money" on the side.


One of the things that drew me to the opportunity to become a consultant was the fact that PartyLite offered "free vacations". In fact, the consultant that was doing that night's party had just returned from the Moon Palace in Cancun--a place that I had gone to on my honeymoon just a few short months before.


The thing was: she went for free. I had not.


I was intrigued.


Then, she mentioned that there were these incentive vacations offered by PartyLite every year. That year's destination?


Hawaii.


I'd always wanted to go there, and from that night on, I was determined to go on PartyLite's dime. I had no idea what that entailed....I just knew I wanted to go!


Well, I ended up earning {you earned these trips, by the way--they were not won} not only my trip, but also a trip for a guest. After sacrificing, ahem, a bit so that I could be out doing lots of shows and earning said trip, I felt that Shane certainly deserved that guest spot! *grin*


Shane and I actually went on four wonderful vacations during my years with PartyLite. We went that first year to Hawaii--Oahu to be specific; the next year on a seven-day Caribbean cruise, then to the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas, and finally back to Hawaii again--the Big Island this time, to a resort called the Hilton Waikaloa Village. The trip was five days, with an opportunity to earn an extra two days....so we were at this amazing destination for an entire week.


These are the pictures from that trip. Well, some of them anyway....I only took like 400. Ah, the days of digital cameras.

Right off the plane--they really do "lei" everyone!

Parylite had gone to quite a bit of effort in welcoming all of us--they used crushed white limestone and formed our welcome in the lava!

"Aloha PartyLite"
Everything with PL was always first class. Our room was wonderful!
The Hilton Waikaloa Village....a beautiful resort with even more gorgeous scenery
There was a river that ran the length of the resort...instead of taking a tram, you took a boat ride to get where ever you wanted to go!

The first day, Shane and I took off by ourselves and actually went to another resort with an incredible beach. We had a great lunch with the Pacific Ocean right behind us!
Then we did some swimming. I don't know that I have ever, ever seen more beautiful water.
The sunset from our balcony that evening
The next night we had a fancy dinner provided by PartyLite. It was always so fun getting a chance to dress up on those trips.
After dinner, we headed back to our room, and caught this sunset. Yes, this is real....yes, this is straight out of the camera with no editing.....and yes, it was this beautiful.

Picture perfect, no?

My new camera had a pretty wicked zoom.

This is the same sailboat as in the picture before.

It was so pretty that we decided to snap one of ourselves. Ever take a good look at my profile picture? This is it. And now you know the story behind it. *grin*

The next night was known as "Dine Around" night. That just meant that PL gave each person $100 to go out and eat at a place of our choosing on the island. {Most of the other nights dinner was provided for us by PL at the resort.}
We chose Roy's, a very popular place with everyone we asked.
It. Was. Delish.

Our resort had several waterfalls, and you could walk behind some of them.

Shane snapped this shot of me after dinner that night. And, if you're wondering....no, I am not actually (for once) carrying any 'holiday weight';

rather, that's Cameron Douglas there--along on the trip with us!

We enjoyed most breakfasts with some great friends of ours, Tom and Gloria

The resort had its own lagoon. We definitely took advantage of that for swimming and snorkeling! We saw some interesting things.....
....like eels....
....and sea turtles. There were tons and tons of these guys.

Everywhere you looked there were beautiful and unique flowers.

The next morning, Shane went on an all-day adventure.

He and the guys headed out for a deep-sea fishing excursion on the Pacific.
They did NOT catch one of these. *grin*

I, however, stayed back at the pool and caught a few rays. Oh, the days where I hadn't yet realized just how bad the sun actually was for me.

Another night out

The next day was another lounge-by-the-pool day. Shane turned into a five-year-old when he got around Tom and Greg. It was very entertaining, let me tell you.
Case in point:

Another dinner out with our friends....this restaurant's name escapes me, but it was good

I added this picture just to be able to show the enormity and grandeur of the resort.

This was the front outdoor lobby, right as you came in.

*sniff, sniff* Our last morning on the Island. Someone was kind enough to snap this for us. It's under the same waterfall as the last picture was.

It was so beautiful there....it was hard to leave!

But we got to come home to sweet little Colin, and that made things much, much better.

{He had stayed the entire week with Grandma 'Nette and Grandpa,

making the entire trip possible for me and Shane!}

Daddy and Colin, out to eat at Chili's the afternoon we got home Such a precious kid. Love that picture.

So, that was our trip in a nutshell. Though I am now glad to be a full-time Mommy to my littles, I will forever be grateful for the fun and the friends I had when I was with PartyLite--and the once-in-a-lifetime trips!