4 days later I am no longer in denial about vacation being over. I adore Montana, but I think coming back to almost anywhere from Hawaii requires an adjustment, no? So, since winter has arrived or is approaching in many places, I wanted to share some fun pictures from our trip to warm things up.

Back in high school, I briefly considered pursuing a career as a marine biologist. Not kidding. I had a flashback to that feeling, when husband and I snorkeled almost every day and saw the most amazing underwater life: insanely colored fish with equally colorful names like unicornfish, humu humu nuku nuku apua’a (Hawaii’s state fish with the best name ever), and moorish idol; sea turtles, a manta ray doing backflips, eels, an octopus. Lost the marine biologist feeling when a 12-foot tiger shark was spotted and everyone ordered out of the water. Would you believe me if I told you that while snorkeling the previous day, I had a creepy sensation and kept turning around to see what was behind me?

The best part of our vacation was seeing Morgane experience the joy of swimming in the ocean, digging in the sand, and being 4 years old in Hawaii – my little Hawaiian cowgirl. The picture of her splashing captures it all. Maholo, Hawaii.