My due date had come and gone. I was 40+1 and it was Memorial Day morning. We had an induction scheduled for Thursday morning so I was kind of ready, kind of not. I fully expected to have to be induced.

We finally made it. After 5 years and 1.5 months of dating/engagement, we were finally going to become husband and wife. At the time, those 5 years felt like forever, but looking back, we’ve been married longer than we were together before we got married…and that’s CRAZY to think about.

He walks me what seems like FOREVER but I know where we’re headed. We’re headed to the tree we’re going to get married under. We get there and he takes the blindfold off of me. We’re standing in the middle of a heart made out of mason jars with little fake candles in them and rose petals on the ground *swoon*. He reads me a letter that he wrote me and of course I start crying.

The story of Ryan and Brittany - the dating years. It was August of 2011. I was preparing to go to college and Ryan was on his way back from a family vacation. I was ay my uncle’s house preparing for my going away party (really just an excuse to have a giant slip-n-slide party). I came inside to show a friend my new computer—complete with fancy Jack Bauer-esque finger print scanner—when Ryan messaged me on Facebook. We chatted for a few minutes and, since I was going to go back outside to join the festivities, we exchanged phone numbers…and we never looked back.

This is the last blog post in my Adventures in ParaDyess: Maui series. In this post I’ll talk about our favorite restaurants and beaches. You can also see our self portraits, my favorite Maui/Lahaina hacks, and my favorite stops on the Road to Hana.

Apparently the one thing you HAVE to do in Maui is drive the Road to Hana. It’s this super narrow, twisty, windy road through the mountains and along the coast of east Maui that leads to a town called Hana. The reason you have to do it isn’t because Hana is this super awesome, hopping town. It’s for the adventure of getting there. Hana Highway is 52 miles from Kahului to Hana with 620 curves and 59 one lane bridges. Talk about car sickness waiting to happen.

In Part 1 of the Adventures in ParaDyess: Maui series, I explained how our trip came to be and shared some of the photos from our self portrait session we did while we were there and I promised more blog posts! Well, here is the next blog post in that series. Things we learned that we wish we had known before going to Maui (and the Lahaina area specifcally).

My husband and I finally made it to a place I’ve been dreaming of going pretty much forever. I mean, can you really look at a picture of Hawaii and not want to go? We spent two weeks in one of the most beautiful places on the planet. And if you’re wondering, yes, it really is as beautiful in person as it is in pictures.