Hello friends! We are back. Maui was wonderful and now I'm in a funk attempting to adjust to the time change and well... the reality of the trip being over. Why do vacations ever have to end? WHY!?? :) Sharing a few pics of our trip. I'm still in the process of deciding how to best save our family pictures (separate family blog vs. digital albums vs. the Project Life albums I've done in the past) but until I get that figured out, this "blog of all trades" is all I've got. :)
Because this was a family trip with the kiddos we spent a lot of time at the resort. Our agenda for most days was back and forth between the pools and the beach. This pool with a slide was the girls' favorite. Fun to see the pure joy on their faces each time they went down. I may have gone down a time or twenty myself. :)
My little buddy worshiped the pirate ship pool. What 4 year old little boy wouldn't!?
The first words out of his mouth each morning -- "WHEN can we go to the pirate pool!?" I think he would have just lived there if we would have let him. A great pool for parents because you can just lay under an umbrella and watch your kids be entertained for hours. My kind of pool!
My three were fascinated with the koi fish. :) We had to visit them daily.
And what's a trip to Maui without plenty of beach time. Oh my word. The water is so amazing! I stare at it in awe every time we visit the islands. Such beautiful varying shades of blue.
This trip was a bit of a turning point for our family. We are done with all things baby and not yet into any teenage drama. Our three kids are all happy doing the same things and playing together. It's bliss! Not that there aren't moments of typical kid issues, but overall such a fun stage. I never want it to end! We are truly enjoying them.
Aside from swimming in the ocean and watching the kids play I was also able to read a couple of great books this trip. I love to read on vacations. I love to read always but struggle to find time for good books when we are in our day to day routine. Time management is such a fascinating topic to me! Time management and organizing books are my favorite. My mom was teasing me for reading this. She thinks I should read a book on cooking or something I struggle with, but where's the fun in that? :) I'll share more about this book as soon as I finish it. Loving it so far!
Our favorite beach days were the days the turtles were out! They swam so close to the shore and I loved showing them to my kids. Caught this pic on my phone of Ad telling El "it was THIS big!" :)
If you look close in this picture you'll see a little turtle head peeking up out of the water! Just to the right of my mom and girls. This was a smaller turtle but later we went snorkeling and saw life-size turtles. Unreal!
My parents went with us on this trip and we loved spending time with them. The rooms we were staying in were hooked together so every night we'd get the kids in bed in our room and then head to their room to stay up late talking and watching movies.
Special time with grandpa.
And grandma.
Traveling with my parents also meant Kenny and I were able to sneak away and enjoy some couple time. Serious perk! We really enjoyed walks along the beach.
And calm kid free dinners. :) Such a luxury!
Several times during the week I
insisted suggested we stop by for some fudge. Pretty sure I gained at least three pounds from this fudge alone but I have to say that it was worth it! SO so good.
Our favorite fudge stop is located right next to our favorite shave ice stop so it just wouldn't seem right to get one without the other. :) Right before we took this pic I met a darling woman who reads my blog! How cool is that!? She recognized Ellie. I gave her a hug and introduced myself and then immediately realized I didn't need to tell her my name. Ha! So a quick hello to my new friend from Nashville! I loved meeting you!
I'll leave you all with a pic of my little buddy running laps up and down the corridor in the Maui airport. This one has a hard time sitting still for 10 minutes let alone 5 1/2 hours, so before the flight home I had him run laps. Lots of them! Worked like a charm. Plane ride home was MUCH smoother than the ride there.
After years of traveling with little ones this mom has learned a trick or two.
:)
