Maui, Hawaii {2016}

 

For quite a few years, Kenny and I had tossed around the idea of going to Maui for our 10 year anniversary, which was July 30, 2015. Summer is so beautiful here in the Pacific Northwest and summer isn't the best time to travel to Maui, so we decided to go, but not until February of 2016.

We had taken Shane to Maui when he was 4 years old and left Adalyn home with Mema for that trip. She was only 10 months at the time and we didn't think she'd care much. Turns out she thought to show me up by taking her first steps while we were gone. Anyway, the fact that Adalyn hadn't been to Hawaii yet haunted me a bit so a family anniversary trip it was.

We stayed in a condo at Hale Mahina. This is the view from our 2nd floor master bedroom. Pretty sweet view. We did a lot of turtle and whale watching from our balcony as well. The whale action was amazing! You could just look out at the ocean and with in minutes see whales spouting and jumping. I saw some incredible full body jumps and breeches. One time we saw a whale hit his tail on the water almost 20 times. Over and over again he would slap the water. Every morning while eating breakfast there was the same Mama and baby whale that would hang out in the area in front of the condo. Just spouting and splashing away.

A few of the shots I caught of whale action. I didn't catch anything major, but the fins and splashes are what we saw constantly.

We had what I called the "turtle highway" in front of our place, too. Lots of days you could just look out and see turtles traveling by on their way to something.

The dark spot in the middle of the picture below is a turtle.

This is the beach right in front of our condo. It pretty much just felt like our own private beach. Between the sand, the ocean, the pool and the hot tub...kiddos were entertained nicely for a large part of the day.

One of Shane's favorite places to be is playing in the ocean. He just LOVES the water and waves. I just love seeing him grin ear to grin while playing.

The waves at Kanapali Beach were his Favorite. They were HUGE and he fully taunt them happily. 

 

Adalyn doesn't mind the water, but would prefer to not get wet, or at least the water can NEVER touch her face/eyes! She'd play a lot of "don't let the wave get you". Really her favorite spot was the step in the hot tub. She would happily spend her days hanging out their on the little tiny step, watching the action. Warm and safe from any water touching her face.

Her hot tub spot!!

Or the sand. She loves the sand!

We didn't do a whole lot of adventuring on this trip. Adalyn was really interested in hula dancing. A traditional Luau would have just been to much for her. Instead we found a free hula dance show at the Lahaina Cannery Mall. It was so impressive!! An hour long free show with costume changes and live music. They did different hula dances from different eras. Adalyn LOVED it. Shane was into it for the first half.

 We did take the kids to the Banyon Tree in Lahaina. I've pretty much decided Lahaina Town = melt down for children. We got a couple smiles by the tree though.

We also took them to the blow hole. We took a little hike to get there. That was interesting, but we made it.

 Taking pictures of "Hollywood" kept her happy as we hiked to the blow hole in the heat.

There she blows! One large blow got Shane, Aunt Becky and I really wet. Shane didn't think that was funny at all!!  Kenny actually caught it on video, too.

Mema, Papa, Becky, Adalyn and Shane. Kevin and Kenny ran back to get the cars for us. We voted on not hiking back to them.

Since Shane is currently very much into rocks, Kenny took him up with Kevin and Becky to the Haleakala Volcano. 

 It would't be a trip to Hawaii with out awesome rainbows, beautiful sunsets, amazing flowers and cool fruit trees. 

 

Pool Time! 

Traveling with kids isn't what I call a vacation. I like to term it as a trip. Beyond the constant needs of food, rest, clothing changes, sunscreen, bathroom breaks, etc. We still manged to get a bit of down time in. 

Adalyn's decided all on her own one afternoon she needed some down time. She made a "boat", her baby, and coloring stuff and "locked" herself in for some recharing.

Date lunch with Kevin and Becky at the Lahaina Grill. Along with some amazing Hula Pie. 

I had a shaved ice date with both kiddos seperately. We got to hang out at the coolest ocean front park I've ever been to.

I took my Crossfit gig of twice a week workouts on the rode with me. Super cool to visit a new box while on vacation and get a couple WOD's in.

I also enjoyed a Sunday service at this tiny little local church just a couple blocks from where we stayed. It was an incredible experience. At one point in the service each person stood up and introduced themselves! Half of it was spoken/sung in Hawaiian.

We even got a chance to hang with friends! How cool is it when your neighbors are in Maui at the same time?!? Seeing Avery, Carson and Tyler were the very first thing our kids wanted to do.

We also managed to bump into the kids babysitter! 

And we happened to run into the family that we bought our house from. The kids Loved meeting the kids who used to live in their bedrooms. So cute!

 

A fun story would be our really not so cool rental car. This beast was rented from Kimo's Care Rental. The concept is interesting...you can pick an older car versus a new car and save a few hundred dollars. Well, I didn't quite expect this hooptie, but in the end we learned not all things need to be shiny and new and it's good to save a few bucks.

A big highlight for me was seeing two turtles come up and take a little nap on the beach. This one was missing a front fin. He spent a good couple hours resting in the sand. A bit later another turtle joined him.

 

Hanging with Mema. 

The first morning there we checked out a cool place called Slappy Cakes. You get to make your own pancakes at a griddle in the middle of the table.

Shane went a different route and order some crazy chocolate chocolate pancake and ate the majority of it!

 

We wrapped up our 10 days there with dinner out at the restaurant at the Sands of Kahana resort. We figured we be cool parents and let the kids have dessert for dinner. There weren't any compaints with that plan.

 

 

Despite the 6 hour plane ride there and back. The 2 hour time change. That Adalyn had a fever the first 3 days there and lived on Motrin. That Shane got some crazy cough every night before bed time. That the last three days was Super windy and rainy. We made memories. Lots and lots of memories! Even some good ones. A 10 day trip with two kids is a lot of work and it isn't all full of laughs and smiles. Though all that hard work is worth it when you do get a smile, or a hug or even a thank you about how awesome the trip is and how much they love Hawaii.