Maui

It is Thursday afternoon, and I am sitting on a balcony overlooking the ocean. The sun is out, the waves are rolling in, and I have a cocktail next to me. Life is good.

We booked a much-needed family vacation to Maui less than two months ago. Just before the kids were out of school for the summer, I looked at our summer calendar and realized we had just one week during our short summer with no plans. We have been so very busy this year that I was really feeling that we needed a week of family time. Turns out that this week has been just what the doctor ordered. We have had a great time here. The kids are experiencing sandy beaches and warm ocean waters for the first time. Our time share (which we rented from redweek.com) is amazing - we have a full-ocean view from our balcony and plenty of space inside. The resort (Marriott Ocean Club) is gorgeous with an amazing pool (equipped with a water slide, basketball hoop, and volleyball net), free shaved ice, life-sized checkers game, ping pong, movie rentals, beach bar, Starbucks, easy beach access, and it is a short walk from many shops and restaurants at Whaler's Village. It has just been the perfect week. Don't get me wrong, we have had plenty of arguments and challenging moments, but overall, I've loved this time away. Tommy and I both needed a break from work. It has been nice to focus on our family and not feel like I am only giving the kids half of my attention. Neither Tommy nor I brought our work computers on this trip. The kids have certainly appreciated that.

On Sunday evening, we took the kids to their first luau. Overall, it was a bust. The luau was pretty expensive (almost $500 for our family). We arrived ten minutes before the doors opened but somehow had to wait in line for 40 minutes to get in. As a result, we missed the sunset and were rushed through the buffet line before the buffet closed. The kids were not super impressed with the Hawaiian dancing either. Matty sat on my lap most of the night and kept whispering that that the dancers were making him uncomfortable. He had me laughing the whole time.. They all got a little more excited when the men started dancing with fire, but that segment was short and sweet. I think we'll save the $500 next time we're in Hawaii.

On Monday, Taylor and Tommy went parasailing. Taylor led the charge to do it. I wanted to go with her, but she and Tommy get to do so little together that I sent the two of them on the adventure. I was impressed that Taylor was so excited to parasail since she is afraid of heights (like her mother). She said it was awesome.

On Tuesday, Matty complained of water in his ear. Wednesday morning, he woke me up at 3:00 AM in tears due to an earache. When he was still complaining on Wednesday evening, I took him to Urgent Care. Thankfully, the office was really close to our hotel and we were in and out of there in an hour. The doctor that saw Matty confirmed that he has an ear infection. While I am happy to have ear drops and an antibiotic for him, he is now under strict orders of no swimming the rest of the trip. Sadly, we had already booked a snorkeling trip this morning (Thursday). Matty came with us but stayed on the boat. He was pretty miserable the whole morning but was a trooper. We had a canopy over our heads on the boat, so he was out of the sun and laid across the bench most of the time. This now explains why I am on our balcony at 2:00 on Thursday afternoon instead of down at the pool or in the ocean. Matty is napping. Poor little guy.

I am really proud of Taylor and especially Brayden for giving snorkeling a try. We snorkeled by a reef off the coast of Lanai (another Hawaiian Island) and saw gorgeous fish, and then we snorkeled off of Lehaina and saw sea turtles. The biggest highlight of the morning was cruising by a pod of  Spinner dolphins. There were SO MANY. The captain of our boat said that there are about 300 dolphins in this pod - we did not see that many but saw at least 30 together.

Some friends of ours from Newcastle, the Piha family, are also in Maui this week. Jeff and Elysa have two kids - Alivia, who is one year older than Taylor, and Nathan, who is the same age as Matty. We have gotten together with them several times this week at each other's pools, at the beach, and for dinners. Our kids have loved spending time with their friends. Mom and dad love it too. My highlight of the week was on Tuesday afternoon when we played in the waves for hours. Four of the kids stayed on the beach working on a sand castle, Nathan played near the shore with his boogie board, and the four adults wave-surfed for hours. The waves were ridiculously big - so big that there was a "back wave" after the waves hit the shore, so we had a blast.

We take a red-eye back to Seattle tomorrow night. I am not sure how the kids will do on their first overnight flight. I purposely booked the trip home late at night so that we could enjoy the full day at the pool without having to pay for another night in the hotel. This may be a stupid decision but we will see. We are all sad to go, but it helps that the kids are excited to see their pup on Saturday morning.

The first night after we arrived. We got to the hotel just in time to watch a gorgeous sunset.

My pretty girl. All ready for a week of pool and beach time!

I will upload more pictures when I get home and sync my phone with my computer. Until then, Aloha!