CHRISTOPHER TURNS 29 ON MAUI!

What a better place to spend your 29th birthday than on Maui! I surprised Chris with a weekend stay out at The Westin in Lahaina. We have stayed there previously and loved it, so I knew he was going to have a great time.

We both took Friday off—it was great not having to get up and do anything. I made homemade, breakfast tacos with fresh fruit for him to start the day and then we did a little bit of shopping to start our weekend. We headed towards Lahaina, stopped at Cilantro's—Maui's fresh Mexican food—Chris' favorite— for lunch. Time to check into the hotel!

With a special help from the PR director there, we got a Beach Bell Tower, Deluxe Ocean King room—it was amazing! Spacious room, ocean and Black Rock view for great whale watching from our room, flat-screen TV and the most amazing, comfortable bed you have ever laid on. Seriously, they are known for their beds—you can even purchase them they are that good. We were in heaven.

But the weather was not heaven. The forecast all weekend said it was going to be overcast and rainy. Thanks a lot! But we were determined not to let that get us down. The complimentary (and surprise to Chris) champagne and birthday cake that greeted us at 5 made our rainy day look a little brighter. We got our swimsuits on and went to the hot tub. Yes, it was rainy, but it felt good to be in the hot tub. Happy hour at the lobby bar, then off to Hula Grill for more drinks and dinner. Birthday night numero uno- sucessful!!

Weather the next day was the exact same, crap-tastic weather. Which I of course wasn't excited about because I had surprise, surf lessons set up for Chris and I. We still went, HAD A BLAST! and yes, we both caught some pretty decent ones. We totally rocked it. But honestly, I don't think I could do the whole surfer girl thing because 1- paddling is half of the work and that's way harder than you think 2- those board are heavy! and 3- the waves and having a wipe out freak the sh#^ out of me. I'll take lying on the beach any day and Chris could boogie board all day. Then I also had lunch set up for us at 'Ono Bar and Grill. I had the grilled chicken and mushroom ciabiatta sandwich—the chicken was sliced thin and juicy and the grilled mushroom and aioli sauce brought the entire sandwich together. I am craving it as we speak. Chris, of course, had the fish tacos. Fish was white and flaky and their special sauce hit the spot. It was now some shopping and hot tub time before dinner.

Chris chose to have dinner at Maui Brew Co. Definitely a mans-mans restaurant. Homemade brews, upscale burgers, adult mac and cheese, pizza and more brews. Chris had their jambalaya filled to the bowls brim with juicy shrimp, sausage and chicken mixed with tender rice. I

had the adult mac and cheese (my body craves cardio now!) with sausage, Gouda cheese and mushrooms. We finished dinner off with drinks at LuLu's. Funny story—there was a girl who was celebrating her 21st birthday that night and Chris bought her a shot since they had the same birthday lol! Birthday day/night numero dos—super successful!

You would think the weather would be different the next day? Nope! So, what do you do on Maui when it's raining all weekend?? You go shopping. And boy did we. We went to Whaler's Village Shopping Center and had a blast. Clothes, luggage, cookies, and more clothes. We have a blast s

hopping together and getting each other's opinions on what we choose. We also choose what we think the other would wear. We're right, most of the time! It was just fun to get out of the rain for a little while. We also visited and got our learn on at the Whale Museum.

Now, the sun was finally out! Thanks Sun, for coming out the DAY we check out. We still managed to get a couple of hours and drink time by the pool before we checked out and headed home. But of course, we didn't get enough Vitamin D the whole weekend, so we laid out by our pool and soaked up some more rays. It was great! We didn't want our weekend to be over.

In a nutshell, I think he had a blast and so did I. It was much needed. Though I say that about all the weekends we spend together, it's true. I think it's so important to get away from everything once in a while. Even if you can't afford to take a weekend trip, make it a stay-at-home weekend with your significant other, close friends, family, no computers, phones, and just stay in and watch movies or go outside and spend some time together. We get so wrapped out in everything we do during the week, that sometimes we forget to take the break our mind, body and spirit needs—needs to recuperate from the week, reconnect with ourselves and each other and refresh from the daily stresses.

When was the last time you had a weekend or day that you had time to recuperate, reconnect and refresh? Make it a priority one time, and you'll make sure it's part of your life for the rest of your life.

i love you Chris Skiles and I'm glad I was able to be apart of your 29th birthday and make it so special! Here's to many more together!

Maui Film Festival- Films, Fun, Food, Friends

Wow, what an amazingly, delicious, spectacular four days!

I first have to say Thank You to MauiTime for the media passes we received that allowed us entry to EVERY event and film. That's the amazing part. With my love for events and Chris' love for libations.... this was a recipe for success and deliciousness.

First the date and description of the event followed by our ratings of each event/film.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 16 OPENING NIGHT TWILIGHT RECEPTION AT CAPISCHE?

"Capische? owner and award-winning chef Brian Wetheredge will wow attendees with truly unique, inventive and delicious selections complimented by refreshing Stella Artois Beer." This was one of the two favorite events we attended. Complimentary hord'eours and cocktails and our first celebrity mingling. The place was a little small, but the fresh and eclectic food by far overshadowed anything. Christopher was in Heaven with his Stella. To top off the night we met Josh Radnor, Ted Mosby of "How I Met Your Mother." Great and down to earth guy. He has a new movie coming our happythankyoumoreplease - really great and inspiring movie - a must see when it hits theaters. This was part one of the delicious part.

Next, the film Bran Nue Dae. An Austrialian musical comedy. Not the greatest film we saw- super cheesy at parts but kept me smiling at others. This one is a renter if you like musicals. Before the movie, Zac Efron was being honored with the "Shinning Star" award. PLEASE, for the love of god tell me why this child even got one?He has been in THREE, count it, THREE movies, that's it! And he didn't even have a movie in the festival. On a side PR note Maui Film Festival, when you're honoring a star, he is usually in a movie! No picture-proof here because he is DOUCHBAG with a capital D. That's all.

Last up for the night, STARRY NIGHT MOONDANCE "known as the festivals hottest dance party..." you already had us at hottest dance party. We had such a great time! Indulging in more cocktails and pupus (that's appetizers people) and dancing the night away like when we first met, there were smiles on our faces the whole time! This comes to our second celebrity sighting with Dan Byrd of Cougar Town. Chris and I watch the show every night and he is great on the show. So it was a pleasure to meet him. He is starring in the upcoming NORMAN movie. Needless to say, we had a GREAT first night!

FRIDAY, JUNE 18 Film time and Taste of Chocolate (Debauchaery)

Nowhere Boy: "Biopic about the misspent youth of a Liverpool lad named John Lennon who grew up to form some band." I would have to say this was probably one of the best movies I saw at the festival. Great story about the legendary John Lennon. I thought it was going to be more about The Beatles and the musical part of his life, but this was abut his youth and how bad his childhood was his his mom. Just an amazing story. Definitely a theater movie, not a rental.

To finish off our night there was the TASTE OF CHOCOLATE AT THE FOUR SEASONS MAUI RESORT. "MFF's over-the-top event for chocolate lovers." I am there! I could not hold my excitement the entire day! Chris wasn't a big chocolate fan, but the never-ending Stella Artois kept him satisfied, the champagne wasn't a bad touch for me either. Chocolate decadence every where we looked. Chocolate and banana milkshake, nitrogen chocolate shorbet, chocolate fondue with the best lilikoi marshmallows and various fruits for dipping, Cheesecake graham cracker chocolate ball and soo much more. I was literally in chocolate Heaven. This was part two of the delicious part. Not to mention this was our third celebrity sighting with Malin Ackerman, best know for her part in The Heartbreak kid and her upcoming movie happythankyoumoreplease. Such a beautiful and sweet person. Picture-proof soon :)

SATURDAY, JUNE 19 TASTE OF WAILEA- WAILEA GOLD & EMERALD GOLF COURSE

" The crown jewel of MFF's culinary arts celebrations, Taste of Wailea will be presented by Wailea resort's most celebrated chefs and restaurants, complemented by an engagingly robust and delicate assortment of fine wines, refreshing Stella Artois on draft and exotic Maui-tinis from Ocean Vodka" This was my second favorite event and part three of the delicious part. I loved sampling all the food from the different restaurants. Some restaurants I heard good things from, but Chris and I haven't had the time to get to those places and just weren't sure about the reviews. But because of this event we will definitely be dining at MaLa (tried some juicy, fresh fish burgers); a meatloaf dish from Joes was tasty; my favorite was a seared scallop dish from Four Season's restaurant. Chris did not partake in all the deliciousness of the night because he filled his belly with the nastiness that is Taco Bell (while I was at work)..... his loss! Here we also mingled with our buddies Josh and Dan :) The mingling was the spectacular part.

Movie of the night: happythankyoumoreplease "A New York lothario has his life turned upside down in this quick-witted comedy." Chris was super excited to see this movie. And it was pretty good. A feel-good movie, think "Woody Allen"- esk. The most exciting part for Chris was that after the movie, he was able to tell Josh how great the movie was because he ran into him on the way to the restroom. That's pretty neat. Josh was overwhelmed.

Then we stayed for the following movie: Cherry "A virginal teen simultaneously embarks on his college and sexual education." So you pretty much know what you're getting with a premise like that, but it was surprisingly laughable. I would recommend it to those with a sense of humor and still a child a heart.

SUNDAY JUNE 20

A little of a disappointment for me. I had the day off because I was expecting a lot. There is usually a closing night reception and other events. But not here in Maui. They had a couple of films, only one looking pretty good, and NO closing night reception. Move: Cyrus "Your classic tale of boy(John C. Reilly) meets girl(Marisa Tomei) and girl's strange adult son (Jonah Hill)." Yes, I know super weird casting, but it worked. It worked really well, minus the Jonah Hill lack of dramatic acting ability. John C. Reilly was a breakout surprise with his dramatic acting. His connection with Marsia Tomei is very believable. On the other hand, Jonah Hill was nothing to brag about. He needs to just stick to slap-stick comedy.

Since there wasn't any closing night reception, Christopher and I made our own. We took the day to do a little shopping, had happy hour and nice conversation at Kahului Ale House, a wonderful fajita dinner at Koho's (a very local place btw) and then the movie.

All in all, we had one of the most fun-filled amazing weekends/couple of days here in Maui. It was good to just not worry about work, indulge in the finer things Maui has to offer. Which isn't a lot of the time. It reminded us of being back in Houston.

With our hectic day-to-day schedules, take time out to appreciate the things your town has to offer with the company you keep.

I know I do every day.