Maui

My dad scheduled a seminar in Maui so we thought it would be fun to meet them there and explore the island together over Presidents' Weekend. Mike loves cars and mini-vans aren't considered "cars" so we try to rent something fun when we are on trips. This time it was a gorgeous blue Mazda CX7. :) He enjoyed it.

Cruisin' with Daddy!
Kaitlyn got to tag along-our friends Janelle and Mike watched the older girls. I knew Janelle could handle the other three, but she's "not exactly lactating right now" so Kait had to come. :)

We stayed in a beautiful condo community in Lahaina. This was the view from the tennis courts (minus Grandma and Kait). I haven't played a lot of tennis-but this was by far the most gorgeous view from a tennis court I've ever seen! There were some pretty incredible trees in Maui! I was amazed at how many different kinds of vegetation were here that I've never seen on Oahu.

Sunday after church dinner in our condo-spaghetti and meatballs-YUM!
The chapel in Lahaina is across the street from the ocean. The chapel was really full so we were in the gym overflow. The chapel and cultural hall ran perpendicular to each other and we were in the wings so we couldn't see the speakers, but we could look right out the door and see the ocean and the neighboring island of Lanai. Just gorgeous!

Spiral Staircase going up to the loft where Mike, Kaitlyn and I stayed.

Looking down from the loft

Mom and Dad decided to drive up Haleakala Sunday. Mike and I stayed to hang out at the condo. I wasn't sure how Kait would tolerate the drive and she started fevering anyway, so it's a good thing we didn't go. It was nice to have a relaxing Sunday afternoon with Mike. 

We had watched a funny video on how people are becoming less amused by amazing things earlier that day. Then as the sun was setting Mike expressed his disappointment that the sunset wasn't very colorful. I laughed and reminded him that we WERE together with our beautiful daughter, literally a stone's toss away from the OCEAN in MAUI!!!! We both laughed! I LOVE laughing with my sweetheart!

Two of my favorite people!

Monday we went on a snorkeling/turtle/whale watching excursion.

 Mom has an amazing camera, but you really didn't even need to have a zoom because the whales were that close! We saw SO many! The whole weekend we couldn't drive along the coast without seeing spouts all over. We saw a mother and her baby playing and stopped to watch them. The baby was jumping and playing-it was so cool!

Dad took a few pictures of us from the boat, but this was the only one that turned out. It is very indicative of how snorkeling was for me. I spent most of the time choking! It turns out I can't breathe underwater!

Mom rented an underwater camera-some of her pictures were really amazing!

I didn't swim this close to a turtle but Mom did. I was amazed how fast the turtles could swim with seemingly little effort.

It was so wonderful to spend this time with my parents!

Happy Kait

Missing a few girls! :)

The ocean side pool.

Mom stayed with Kaitlyn so we could go play tennis and they were just hanging out when we got back.

On our last day, we headed on the road to Hana and stopped at the first hike, Twin Falls. This was the first falls of several on the hike. There are more than two so I am not sure how it got that name.
I had intended on Kait wearing this outfit on our excursion day since I knew we would be out in the sun on the boat, but she was asleep when we left and I forgot to pack it. Luckily I had a spare in the diaper bag. But even luckier was that she could wear it today. Dad and I were exploring up a river bed and I had Kaitlyn in the wrap when I slipped and fell. Kait's head smacked a rock. It bruised almost immediately but only barely broke the skin. I was SO grateful I had forgotten the outfit the day before so she could wear it and have the hat on to protect her head. I wonder how often things like this happen that we never even know what we are saved from.

We had to wade through ankle deep water to get to the falls at the top of the hike. No one wanted to go except me, but I talked Mike into it. It was beautiful!

Behind the waterfall-so romantic!


The girls performing for Mike and Janelle. Hopefully they will still want kids after this experience.

We took Grandpa up to the lookout above the temple.

Snuggling with Grandma
As we finished our hike in Maui, Mom fell and broke her pinky and got scuffed up. Instead of getting on a plane, we pushed our flight back and went to the ER to get mom fixed up. We are so grateful her injuries weren't more serious! And since she had to lay low and relax for the rest of their stay, she and Kait got to spend lots of time snuggling.