Why are vacation photos so hard to edit and get online!?
I’m starting with our most recent trip and hoping to dig deep, back to Iceland and Charleston photos that have never seen the light of day.

In July we packed up our 4.5 month old baby, plus a mountain of extra gear and flew from Newark to Hawaii to visit my family. When there’s an infant in the mix you don’t have a free hand for a camera very often. Sadly, most of my Hawaii photos were taken on my phone (you’ll have to scroll back a little on Instagram).  Below are a few of my favorites that I managed to capture on the dSLR.

Sunrise photos always look A-MAZING, but I am not naturally an early riser.
Thanks to the 6 hour time change, this is never a problem when I fly west to Hawaii.

The Kahala Resort is famous for its dolphins. Perhaps we’ll try the dolphin quest when Lily is older… For now, we also enjoyed trailing the sea turtles from above.

The Kahala is very close to my my aunt and uncle’s house, but feels miles away from busy streets of Waikiki.

Visiting Aunty Kiki, a dear family friend who lives in Kailua.

I attended a conference a 4 day conference at Ko Olina. This far western side of Oahu is famous for its sunsets and we had a beautiful last night at a luau for 600 guests.

As a kid, I used to get tired of eating mangoes during the summer. My grandparents had two prolific trees – a haden and pirie (my grandmother’s favorite). This trip, we made it back in time for the end of mango season and here my grandpa coaches my cousin Geoff on art of picking fruits high up in the tree.

My grandfather always said Waiola’s has the best shave ice. It’s been about 15 years since all 5 of his grandchildren were in Hawaii at the same time, so made sure to go here together.

As much as I hate the hustle and bustle of Waikiki, we simply love the classic experience at the House without a Key. We went back for sunset cocktails and hula and ended up staying for dinner.

Here we are with Brent (back on his home turf).

The man of the hour -with his leis. The best reason for this trip was celebrating my grandfather’s 90 birthday.

Puna: one of our favorite drives on the Big Island.

And creatures of habit, we ended up back at Mauna Kea Beach Hotel.

After our several stays at this hotel, we always try (without success) to make our favorite beach drink, the Fredrico. On the new Timeless Mauna Kea site, the recipe is revealed! We suggest one small tweak, preferring Maker’s Mark (bourbon), in place of the Jack Daniels. Along with the Myers rum, this may sound like too strong a cocktail for some, but the whiskey (or bourbon) does just the trick, cutting the sweetness of the tropical fruits.