Teryn Robinson Photography: June 2011

This September will mark 5 years of marriage for Alvin and I! It's hard to believe it's already been 5 years. We are so blessed to have each other through thick and thin. Some couples grow apart over time but we seem to grow closer and I am extremely grateful for that. You may or may not know that we never had a wedding or honeymoon and have never taken a real vacation. We've done some traveling for Alvin's training or fights but that's about it. I decided that to celebrate 5 years of marriage, this would be a great year to change that. My parents booked a trip a few months ago to Kauai, Hawaii. On my 30th birthday (May 27th) I was having breakfast with Mom and Dad (Alvin was teaching Jiu-Jitsu that morning) and they told me about the trip. They then proceeded to invite Alvin and I to go with them. They were going to leave on June 14th.... only a few weeks away. I went home and talked to Alvin and after about a week, we decided we could go! A week before we were scheduled to leave, I was able to get us a condominium at the same place my parents were staying. A very nice couple who owns them even threw in a free night!! In an effort to save some money, we had decided to fly stand-by and all of the flights looked like they would have plenty of space for us to get on..... up until about 5 minutes before they started to board. We made it to Los Angeles fine but it was not looking good to get to our final destination, Hawaii. Frustrated and tired, we got a couple of rooms at the Marriott in Los Angeles and deliberated over what to do :(

We were all worried about making it to Hawaii and I did not want to spend our entire vacation at LAX. We got online and booked flights for the following day. We boarded a plane in the afternoon and after about 6 hours, we landed in Lihue!!! We were so excited to be there.... until we couldn't find our luggage and our rental car fell through :( We were all tired, hungry and CRANKY!! Finally we got our bags and decided to take a cab to the Aston Islander on the Beach where we were staying. Below was the view from the airport and a photo I took on the lanai (balcony) of our room.

The view from our lanai was beautiful!!!

After getting a good night of sleep, we found a great place for breakfast close by. They had banana and macadamia nut pancakes with both maple and coconut syrup... mmmmmmm :) That day my parents went to get a rental car and Alvin and I explored the beach...

We also checked out our beach front pool... that's Alvin's eyes peeking up from the hot tub

When my parents got back from getting the car, we ran into them on the beach and they were doing some exploring of their own (you'll see them below in the safari hats... they look like such tourists). They walked with us down the beach a bit and we ended up finding our favorite beach spot of the trip.

The next day we went zip lining!! We've seen this on tv before on shows like the Bachelor (one of our guilty pleasures) and always thought it would be fun. Well here was our chance. We got there, checked in and got harnessed up.

There was a group of about 11 of us with 2 guides. We all hopped in a safari type vehicle and took off up the mountain. We were about to zip line over the rain forrest where Jurassic Park and Tropic Thunder were filmed.

I have to admit, once we were up there and about to get on the first line, it was pretty scary and we were starting to wonder if this was for us? Alvin went first...

Then it was my turn... after the first one it was not scary at all!

We had a blast!! It was so much fun! We went down a series of lines with the longest one being about 950 feet. We ended up at the bottom of a lush valley where we had lunch and swam in the fresh water river flowing down from the mountain. I took this picture just before we jumped in... the water was freezing cold!

We went to a luau one night... and both left with about a dozen mosquito bites :/

I was up for sunrise almost every day. We were on the East side of the island so sunsets were out of the question. With the time change, 5:30am there felt like 9:30am back home so I had no problem getting up. Alvin would get up with me and we'd go walk or run down the beach to get to the best spot. We found some crabs and rescued one that was stuck on it's back. These early mornings were some of the most fun and memorable times... and I got some great shots!!

I really wanted to get a few good pictures of Alvin & I. Since I am usually the one behind the camera, I got all the settings where I wanted them, and then handed it to my dad.

We went out to dinner with my parents for father's day. Before dinner I played them a slideshow I had put together. I wanted to have it complete before mother's day but just didn't have the time so it was a mother's/father's day gift. They both cried...

That night at dinner, a guy that worked at the restaurant started talking to Alvin and also trains Jiu-Jitsu. He told us about the gym he trains at and it happened to be about 10 minutes from us and a Gracie affiliated school. The next morning we went to Powerhouse and met Jared Espina and his very kind mother. It was a beginner class but Alvin had fun rolling around and was happy to get a workout in.

Some of our favorite moments came from just playing on the beach and enjoying some time together. Our lives are often so hectic between work, my photography business, Alvin's teaching and training for fights, and helping out with the high schoolers at our church that it's not always easy to find quality time together. We enjoyed just being together in such a beautiful place. I am so blessed to have a husband like Alvin :)

The sand was so soft. It was like a bunch of tiny river rocks

We were headed back from our favorite beach and Alvin found a little spot where he got an idea... He decided to dig a hole to sit in and then wait for the water to come up and bury him.

It took a few minutes for the waves to reach him but when it did... I think it surprised him LOL!

I was able to get some really neat pictures of Alvin and his amazing physique when I found some fun lighting walking around one night

Before leaving, we drove to see a waterfall and some other beaches. Then we paid one last visit to our favorite spot

This next tree is one of my favorite images. Something about the way the light hits the top of it's branches and how it's shadows contrast with the crystal blue water and sky.... ahhhhh