Maui 2014

Our first true family vacation and our first trip to Hawaii!  I had several reservations about the entire vacation (Kevin planned all of it), but it was practically perfect.  We all had a fantastic time and, despite the few days of rain, I think it will go down in our books as one of our best vacations ever!  Not that Maui wasn't beautiful, but I've decided that the very best part about family vacations is just being together with out the distractions of phone calls, cooking dinner, folding laundry, getting to school, etc.  We loved all the quality time we spent just being together.  We stole an idea from the television show, "The Office" and took several time-outs each day to take mental photographs.  We hope those moments are now etched into our memories, but just in case we took some physical photographs too.

Arrived Thursday - went to the grocery, unpacked, explored the pool and the hotel grounds at the Grand Wailea, for dinner made sandwiches in our room, and had an early bedtime

Early bird at the airport

Aloha!

Friday - woke up early (5:30!), took a nice long walk along the coastal path, enjoyed the pool (it took K some time to warm up as he hadn't been in the pool since last summer - he insisted on goggles), had an early dinner at Da'Kitchen in Kihei, and celebrated K turning four-and-a-half with a cupcake

We lit the candle with a tiki-torch because the hotel had an anti-match policy (explaining they are a safety hazard).

Saturday - woke up to rain so we enjoyed a long, leisurely, and expensive breakfast at the resort buffet, since it was overcast with sporadic showers decided to go on a whale watching tour in Maalaea (phenomenal experience, saw so many humpback whales and K was extremely interested in all the factual accounts given by the tour guides), stopped at Ululani's Hawaiian ice for a yummy afternoon treat, and ate at the Monkeypod for dinner 

Sunday - full day of pouring rain, early breakfast at Kihei cafe - delicious and inexpensive, but  squeezed under a patio umbrella since it was outside dining only, went to the aquarium (with a thousand other tourists, but the boys had fun), drove by the lava rocks at Makena-La Perouse State Park (and, shhh, stole a rock for K), had a yummy dinner at Maloni's Pizza Company

Monday - another day of rain but went to Kihei cafe (again) for breakfast, decided to take a drive to Lahaina (where we parked, explored, had a picnic lunch, and another Ululani's Shave Ice), decided to keep driving north to see Kaanapali, and Kapaula (the terrain was so different than where we were staying in Wailea), went to Tommy Bahama's for dinner, and caught the end of our hotel's luau (decided against going to a luau becheld indoors because of the weather)

Banyan Tree

Unprepared for K's desire to get in the ocean despite the weather

K loved the mini-van

Tuesday - finally a beautiful Hawaiian day, woke up and went for our daily walk on the costal path, spent the rest of the day parked at the pool, watched the sunset and whales jump from our dinner table at Ferraro's at The Four Seasons

Wednesday - another amazingly beautiful day, the boys both loved playing at the pool, K had a great time jumping waves and playing in the sand while Harrison napped in his stroller,  finally enjoyed some fresh local fish at Sansei Sushi for dinner

Beach time fun

Thursday - our last day, enjoyed a final coastal walk, snuck in a little bit of pool time, and got packed up to leave paradise

K met some friends (two of whom live right down the street in Bird Rock)

K really liked all the Botero statues at the resort - he couldn't get over the fact they were all nude!

Until next time, Maui!

We couldn't have asked for a better vacation!  We lived by the mantra, 

don't count the days, make the days count 

And count they did.