MAUI!

We went to Maui for a week earlier in May and had the time of our LIVES!!! It was just Shaye and me on this beautiful, exotic island! If you haven't been to Maui before, I can't recommend it enough. I've been to Oahu, which I also loved, but Maui is my new favorite.

This is the lanai (or patio) attached to our hotel room. We had a spectacular oceanfront view and could always here the waves. There were sea turtles playing right on the beach. It was magical!

We went on this gorgeous 4 mile hike through the jungle, swatting mosquitoes the whole way. (I had 17 bug bites after this hike--I counted.) We hiked through this bamboo forest. It was crazy beautiful. Then at the end of the hike we ended up at the ginormous waterfall, (pictured below). It was an adventure!

I'm the tiny speck at the bottom. :)

At the Seven Sacred Pools in Haleakala National Park.

Sunset on the Road to Hana. Doesn't Shaye have mad skills with the camera?

This part of the island, Upcountry, was so mountainous and gorgeous, but didn't really look like Hawaii--maybe New Zealand or somewhere.

This is us on top of the Haleakala Crater. This is only 4 linear miles from the beach, but 10,034 above sea level! It was so peaceful and quiet up here and we could see Hawaii and Oahu from up here!

This is at a fun little restaurant we found on the beach in Lahaina. It was so yummy! I'm hooked on Poly food now!

Oh my goodness! Have you ever had Hawaiian shave ice? We heard about this place in Lahaina that had a PERFECT review history and decided to try it our first night--we went back every single night to try new flavors. This is not a snow cone, people! It has a texture similar to ice cream and all of the flavors taste EXACTLY like the real flavors. Amazing! Ululiani's Shave Ice is a MUST TRY if you're in Maui!

Sunset in Old Lahaina Town.

We had such a wonderful time! I feel so blessed to have so much time with my sweet, handsome husband!

The Road Less Traveled

A wise poet, Robert Frost, once wrote:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

I have thought about this poem a lot the past few weeks. In all truth, life is a journey in which sometimes we choose our path and sometimes our path is chosen for us.

Those of you who are close to me know how much I want to be a mom. At the end of March Shaye and I went on a total emotional roller coaster ride at the sheer joy of finding out I was pregnant and then the gut wrenching disappointment of losing the pregnancy within the week. Though I know early miscarriages are very common (some sources report that 50-60% of first pregnancies end in early miscarriage), it was quite difficult for me because we've been trying to conceive for so long. In some ways it is a huge blessing to know that I can get pregnant at all. Even so, my first thought when I found out I was miscarrying was, will it take us 3 more years to get pregnant again?

The bottom line is that I don't know what will happen, but I do know that God has led me down a path and He will continue to lead me. It is a path that I never thought I would go down-- a path full of graduate research conferences, faculty meetings, alone time with Shaye, and a fluffy little dog who makes a pretty good substitute for a baby... for now :)

I'm grateful for all that I have. And as brilliant as Robert Frost is, I think his poem neglects the most important part of the journey--our Master Guide and Savior. I know that I am not only taking the road less traveled, but I have a merciful Guide who knows all paths and will help me through.

Shaye's Newest Movie

For the past few weeks Shaye's been working on his new short film, "Not Found". At first he started out shooting random footage in the hills by our house with his friend Kyle Fisher. Then from there they tried to fit their strange shots and dialogue into a plot. This movie should give you all a good laugh and give you insight into Shaye's strange brand of humor. Let me know what you think!

Learning to Laugh

The other day I was reading my good friend Kenzee Anderson's blog and I came across this:

I really got to thinking about this and I wondered, am I laughing my way through life? Until about 3 years ago, laughing at my life's problems had not been a problem--not until we had a hard time getting pregnant. Admittedly, though I've had a lot of good laughs, I haven't had as many good laughs about this struggle as I should have...So I started looking for the humor...

I started to realize that one of the reasons I've had such a hard time with it is that I grew up with a lot of negative associations with infertile women. First impression--Sarai--she had to wait to conceive until she was 90 and had to watch Hagar have Ishmael in the meantime for her husband because she could not conceive. Not fun.

Then I thought of the movie Raising Arizona that I saw as a kid. In this movie, the woman finds out that she's infertile and then gets her husband to steal a baby for her so she can be happy again. Not exactly a stable image... (P.S. I'm making this movie sound like a horror flick, but it's actually a comedy.)
Even so, all joking aside, I've been blessed with Shaye, who is so good at making me laugh. I know that he cares about having a family just as much as I do, but he is always good at balancing me and helping me keep things into perspective. Just the other day I was feeling really weird because of a medication I'm on. I kept saying I felt weird and I was kind of moody and weepy. We were watching TV and Shaye was skipping through some commercials and all of the sudden this hospital commercial came on with a mom holding an infant and talking about the joys of motherhood and how you need a good hospital when you deliver. Shaye looked over at me hoping I hadn't seen it and then we both busted out laughing. I'm so lucky to have him.

Another example was the other night when we were at the table praying over our dinner. He said "please help us get pregnant with one baby when it is thy will." I had to laugh. Shaye knows that as we proceed further with treatments, our chances of multiples rises, (mostly the chance of twins...not sextuplets or Octomom style pregnancies)--which makes him a bit nervous, understandably. But I'm like--bring it on!


So until things work out, I'll continue to learn to laugh. We have so many things to be grateful for. If this is our trial for the moment, we're in pretty good shape. But I want to thank you, our friends and family, who've given us so much support. It's helped so much!

Read-A-Thon

Hi Everyone! I hope you're all doing well! I was just realizing something fun and kind of crazy that I wanted to share with you all. As many of you know, I'm a PhD student at UNLV (earning my degree in British and American Literature). This semester I am taking two classes, which is only part-time, and I have approximately 800 pages to read each week. That translates to 21 novels, and about 12,000 pages in all.

I guess when you're a grad student in Literature they want you to read a lot. Weird. :) It's a good thing I love it! I have to admit though, I do miss the Read-A-Thons in elementary school when I could wear my pajamas and read the Boxcar Children and eat Swedish Fish and M&Ms... No, grad school is much different than that!

A Hauck Christmas

Shaye and I had a fabulous Christmas! We spent Christmas Eve at the Scotts' where we had a nativity scene, games, and caroling. We had our own little Christmas and opened up our presents to each other on Christmas Eve also. (Shaye got his fancy, new camera and I got a treadmill :))

We spent Christmas morning at my family's (as usual) and it was a GREAT time! Shaye created this awesome little video of our Christmas morning festivities. (You'll want to click on it to make it full screen.) Hope you're all having a wonderful holiday season!

Our Weekend Trip to Downtown SLC

We took a fun weekend trip a few weekends ago to the Salt Lake City area to visit Shaye's brother Shane. We had such a great time. We went shopping at the Gateway and went to Temple square. I also took Shaye to Ikea...he tried to act unimpressed, but I'm pretty sure he thought it was cool. :)

Below is a short (5 minute) video that Shaye created of our fun little outing in Downtown Salt Lake. (You might want to view the video full screen because my blogger template will cut off some of it if you just view it normally.) You'll see that a lot of these shots are experimental and there's a lot of boring footage of me, but I'm really impressed with how artistic Shaye is in editing videos, so I decided to show it off. Due to his creative flair, hopefully I'll have a lot move nifty stuff to post here.

Hope you're all well and having a great holiday!