Guess who's 4 today!!

Our little Lynsey turns 4 today! I think we're going to the Maui Ocean Centre aquarium today to change things up a bit, but the forecast is better for today than tomorrow so we're not really sure . . . will have to decide soon since it's 8:15 already. We'll be having some cake and ice cream for her later, so hopefully she doesn't feel too ripped off that she doesn't get a "real" party!

On Monday, we did the "drive to Hana". It's a very scenic, tropical drive through sheer beauty (and treacherous roads for the most part). It was a full day, since we kept going and drove around southeast Maui as well. It was the strangest thing - the scenery went from tropical paradise to barren desert, almost around a corner. Rainfall varies sooo much for such a little island!

Tuesday we tried to go to "Big Beach" down in Makena, but the waves were too big on the shore for the kiddos so we had to leave. It was a beautiful beach, so it was too bad, but what can you do! We went to one of the Kamaole beaches close to our resort instead. It's not the nicest beach, but it was still fun (of course!). Adam didn't last too long on this day for some reason, so we packed up after a couple of hours. The weather wasn't perfect, either. The funny thing about the weather here is that even if it's not great, it's still warm enough to sit on the beach!

Yesterday we went back to Wailea Beach, where we were on Sunday. My favorite beach so far - we had another great morning there! It sprinkled rain for about 5 minutes, making us think we might have to pack up early, but we stuck it out and the clouds disappeared shortly after for another beautiful beach day! The kids are just loving the beach so much! Adam requires some maintenance sometimes - yesterday he headed off to the stairs leading back up to the car a few times, but we just had to distract him. He seems to have a love/hate relationship with the water - if offends him in some way, and it takes him a while before he loves it again. We also took a drive up West Maui yesterday afternoon after the beach - another beautiful drive! We went to Lahaina for supper and watched some surfers and the sunset out the window - ahhh vacation:).

Since Saturday night, we've been going to the hot tub after supper every night - Lynsey has loved this tradition! So has Adam, but he just walks from the hot tub to the pool and back again, doing his excited dance. He can hardly stand the excitement from the lights, we think:).

Aloha!

So we made it to Maui!

Our flight left Calgary at 4pm on Friday, and the flight to Vancouver was, well, not great. We didn't get an extra seat for Adam because it was a full flight, and the plane was quite small so there wasn't much room to move around. Adam had just had a nap in the stroller while we were waiting for our flight, so he was ready to move around and that was not possible obviously! He became a bit obsessed with moving the window shade up and down, which was a pain because it required quite a bit of maintenance. Funny enough, the flight from Vancouver to Maui actually went better, even though it was 5.5 hours long! The plane was bigger so there was more space for our legs, and Adam got his own seat because the plane wasn't full (life saver!). Both kids slept for the last 2 - 3 hours of the flight. Lynsey had a bit of an episode when the captain turned the seat belt sign on for the descent into Maui - she woke up and cried for 20 minutes. It was probably the most frustrating part of our journey thus far because there was nothing we could do - she would not be reasoned with as tired as she was.

Both kids got a bit of a second wind when we got off the plane (9:30pm Maui time, 1:30am our time) and were pretty chipper as we waited for our bags, got on the shuttle to the rental car place, got the car loaded at the rental car place, and on the drive to our condo. We go there around 11pm local time without any hitches. Travel day = not nearly as big a failure as I thought it would be!

Our condo is exactly what we were expecting - super comfy, spacious, nice location . . . no nasty surprises there:). Our first day here (yesterday) we didn't venture out too far. The kids actually slept in reasonably well considering the time difference - Adam until about 6 and Lynsey actually slept until after 7. We managed to make it to the beach across the street for about an hour in the morning. Both kids were a bit tentative around the water, and still a bit tired from the lack of sleep the night before so they didn't last too long. We just went back to the condo so Adam could sleep, took a little drive to investigate another beach close by, and then went out for dinner close by. A little hot tub time before bed and we were all pretty wiped! Kids fast asleep by 8:15, us by 9:00:).

Today was a much better day at the beach! 4 hours we made it this time:). The kids are just loving the beach so much, and getting much braver in the water! Adam now ventures in against some waves and holds his ground pretty well. He loves to sit on the shore so the water will lap up against him, but if there's ever too big a wave that rocks him a bit, he just gets up and moves a bit further back - so funny to watch:). Lynsey has really surprised me with how brave she's been getting - she lets waves carry her and has had water wash up in her face several times with no disastrous meltdowns following. By the end of the week, who knows what she'll be doing out there!

It might be a premature to say this on our second day here, but I am so glad we're here with the kids! Yes, it's a different vacation than being on our own - more prep time and clean up time, more luggage, etc., but they are having so much fun, and watching them have such a great time makes all the extra work worth it! I still found it very relaxing at the beach, and I know Brian is also really enjoying himself. The kids are actually pretty low maintenance out there - they so much room to explore, you just have to make sure they don't fall flat on their face in the water:). We'll see how I feel in my next post, by so far, I'm calling our trip a success!