Maui Madness

Well, we managed to do it again: haul our family of four to Hawaii. My overarching statement is this--it was harder than last year. To break that down a bit, I'll say that Jillian was an angel, super easy and really rolled with things; Adrienne, however, was unusually difficult. I think toddlers are just not good travelers, but there are things about her personality that made this experience tough. We'll get to that later. Anyhow, this year we headed to Maui so that Matt could speak at Mayo's annual Diagnostic Radiology conference. This trip was a first for us, in that we knew many families who were also attending, and I did really enjoy having friends and playmates to spend time with while Matt was "working". Here comes some excessive details about our trip...important memory recording for me, so grab a cup of coffee and sit awhile or just skim through a few pictures below and call it good!

Saturday, January 19th:

We left our house at 6:07 a.m., which isn't bad considering that I said we should leave at 5:45 and 6 at the latest. That's pretty good with little ones. We drove to MSP where the fun began. Matt never can seem to park in the same spot, the ramp with the easiest access to the terminal (remember for next time, it's GREEN!), so we had to truck our stuff through the long walkway and ride a tram. When we weighed our luggage, mine was 60 lbs and Matt's was 40 lbs--the limit is of course 50. I figured we might have an overage charge when I packed (I packed BOTH girls and myself in ONE suitcase! That is no small feat), but had no clue it would be $100. So, we opened up the suitcase right there on the ground and after about 3 tries, managed to get two 50 lb bags. So much for my organization and careful packing. It did look really nice before the disheveling...

We headed to our gate to board our flight to Denver, and met up with our friends Mark and Julie. It was such a huge blessing to be traveling with them, and I will gush several times about them in this post. Mark is a colleague of Matt's, and taught him throughout residency and fellowship. He is a mentor who Matt really admires and respects. I know Julie through Bible study and the radiology gatherings. She is a huge support to me as a wife and mother, and I value her friendship greatly. Mark told Matt to book the same flights as them, and Matt warned him that they might regret that seeing as how we are like a small circus when traveling with the girls. They were not scared (they have raised 3 children of their own and will become grandparents this Spring), so we proceeded. Anyway, the flight to Denver was fairly uneventful, but Adrienne wasn't happy sitting on our lap. She wanted to stand, so spent most of the flight standing in front of Matt on the floor. I burned through several of my activities on this flight and began to get VERY nervous about the long leg of the trip. Once in Denver, we trucked it to our next gate, shoved down some pizza, and then got ready to board. I asked Julie where they were sitting, and wouldn't you know it? They were in our exact same row! It gets better. Mark and Julie had an empty seat in their row, and even after the flight attendant asked people to push call lights to show empty seats (which Julie did), it remained empty. So, Mark graciously switched seats with me, and Adrienne and I went to sit with Julie. For the second year in a row, I was blessed with an empty seat for my wee one on the 7 hour flight from Denver to Hawaii! Even better, I had that time to chat with one of my very favorite people. God IS in the details, people.

Mark, Matt, and Jillian. She loves to fly because she is granted unlimited iPad access. This means you hardly even know she is there. Seriously.

All in all, this was a great flight. Adrienne did nap for about an hour, colored, did stickers, ate lots of snacks, and looked at pictures of herself and her beloved cousin Baby Bryce on my phone. She got pretty antsy the last hour, so I broke out the big guns. She had her very first lollipop ("wally-pop") and was in heaven. Don't tell her dentist that I actually let her have two.

Hmmm...this looks familiar

Ah yes, this was Adrienne on the Denver to Kona flight about 11 months ago. Crazy!

In a dum-dum trance

We landed safely in Maui, got our bags, and headed to the rental car company. I snapped a pic of the girls and our luggage, as per last year, and I am pretty proud to show that we made it with a lot less junk this year!

2 suitcases, and 1 carry on for each ticketed passenger--this is two LESS carry-ons and two huge car seat bags less than last year

It helped that we rented car seats this year. While I wasn't too hot on the idea, it really was nice to not haul them. The seats we rented, while not nearly as good in quality as ours, were clean and functioned just fine for the short time we needed them. I will definitely do it again.

 Matt soon pulled up in our sweet ride...it was obvious that the Hertz Gold status membership really paid off with this awesome upgrade. Infiniti QX56, anyone? If you want to purchase this little gem, be prepared to pay about $65K. Yikes! It was fun for a week, for sure!

We headed toward the resort, and decided to stop off in Kihei for some fish tacos at Fred's before arriving in Wailea. Matt and I dined there on our last trip to Maui (in '09 when J was a baby and at home with my mom....we were smarter when we were younger, perhaps???) and loved the grilled mahi pescado tacos. The breeze was nice, the sunset was just right, the beer was cold, and the kids were pretty well-behaved considering it was after 10 p.m. central time.

 Then we stopped and grabbed some Lappert's ice cream per Jillian's request. Vanilla for A, chocolate for J, and Kauai Coffee Crunch for me.

We arrived at the Fairmont Kea Lani around 7:30, and Jillian was delighted to receive a lei, some POG (passion orange guava) juice, sand buckets/shovels, and a beaded necklace from the resort.

 While we got settled in the room, the girls had a little fun playing with the buckets in the tub.

The Kea Lani is a very beautiful resort and happens to only have suites. This was awesome for us because we had our own room, and the girls slept in the living area (A in a crib, J on the queen-sized sofa bed). We had a separate entry to our lanai and could easily get in and out of the room after they were asleep without disturbing them. I was pleased that the girls went to bed without any difficulty, especially on this first night.

Sunday, January 20th:

Jillian woke up at 4:22. Yep, that time change is awesome. I handed her the iPad and headphones to try and keep her quiet for a bit. I never went back to sleep, and A was up at 5:15. Matt left for the conference about 6, and the girls and I eventually headed down to have breakfast when it opened at 6:30. Jillian spent the entire breakfast complaining about how cold it was (70, breezy, and cloudy...FAR better than the negative temps we were missing at home!), and the sweet waiter treated her like a princess (because she certainly was acting like one, and I don't mean that in a good way). He brought her a towel to wrap up in and she sulked in relative warmth.

When breakfast ended, I was surprised at her polite expression of gratitude (and fast use of Hawaiian expressions), "Mom, mahalo for taking me to breakfast here".  Adrienne had no problem with the "chill" and enjoyed her breakfast and milk in a cup just like Jillian's

 After breakfast we took a stroll, and found our friends Malea (Jillian's age) and Emmy (Adrienne's age). They also were up with the birds. Adrienne and Emmy took a short swing in one of the hammocks.

 I decided to try and brave the pool with the girls. They had a small kiddie pool that was only about a foot deep, so I thought I could handle it with Jillian playing independently while Adrienne was supervised. It was here that the problems began. Adrienne wanted nothing to do with the water. She cried when I tried to get her close to it, and absolutely refused to go in it with Jillian. She sat perched on a lawn chair with me (and Julie, who made sure to find me that morning and offer her help/companionship). Jillian was happy playing in the pool with other kids we didn't know and fighting over their water toys. We didn't last long at that venue.

Breaking out the sunglasses. Love these matching suits I found at Costco of all places

 We took a walk to check out the beach and Jillian immediately started playing in the sand. She recruited Julie's help, and it was here that I discovered problem number 2: Adrienne hated the sand. She cried when I tried to stand her in it (both with shoes and without), so I was stuck holding her watching all the fun.

 We headed to the room for an early nap for Adrienne (cranky, cranky, cranky), and found Matt working on his talk (to be given the next day). Jillian and I went and dined poolside alone, and then brought lunch back for Matt and A. We relaxed a bit on our lanai, and then I took Adrienne for a long walk in the stroller later in the afternoon to pass some time (she was still super cranky) until our dinner reception that night.

View of our resort from a distance on my walk

 Soon it was time for the big "party". It is pretty customary at these conferences to have a welcome reception of some sort. This one was at sunset on the big lawn close to the beach, and all guests of the conference presenters/attendees were invited. Jillian was SO excited for the party. She had planned out her outfit all along and requested a flower in her hair. This social butterfly was ready to rock.

The "gray sparkly dress". You can't see the sparkles here, but I promise you , there are many

Adrienne...ready to party??

View from our lanai before we headed down

Jillian and Daddy on our way to the party.

The reception had wonderful food, and we enjoyed local fish, beautiful salads, and kid friendly pizza. The ice cream bar was awesome with local ice cream, homemade chocolate sauce, lots of candy for the kids, and plenty of macadamia nuts. The wine was expensive at the cash bar, but worth every penny to maintain our sanity while we tried to wrangle our tired kids at this social event. Whew! Bedtime for all came early.

Monday, January 21th:

Everyone slept a little later...a whopping 5 a.m. The girls and I hit a different breakfast spot (more of a cafe) and it seemed a little better fit for us in terms of chaos, and the indoor locale made Jillian happy. We wandered around by the pool and went towards the beach to watch the whales. Jillian is old enough to spot them, which made her pretty happy. We ran into Julie, who helped us lug our stuff down to the beach, where we also ran into the Diehn family. Jillian and Malea were not dressed for the beach, but that didn't stop them from fully enjoying the water and the sand. While the big girls played in the ocean, Adrienne remained in her favorite spot: Julie's lap. I tried to carry her down to the water to just walk on the edge while holding her, and that was met with crying and protests of "No! No! No!" Sigh.

The girls soon enjoyed a sandy snack on the beach, and then built a sand castle. It was about this time that Adrienne decided the sand was OK to explore, and did a little "sand swimming". This was some progress.

Adrienne took another early nap, then we met Matt for lunch before heading out to grab some snacks/diapers, do a little shopping, and then out to dinner at one of our favorite spots: Cafe O'Lei (Matt and I ate there 3 times on our previous trip!). The blackened mahi was just as good as I remembered, and the passion fruit mai tai was even better.

Waiting for Daddy to get the car

Proof that I was in fact present on this trip

Jillian thought she was pretty grown up when I gave her my umbrella for her water

Hula dancers in the lobby upon our return

Kea Lani entrance at night

Lovely view from the lobby as we watched the dancing

After the girls were in bed, Matt and I sat outside on the lanai and enjoyed some local beer we had picked up at the store.

Tuesday, January 22nd:

Matt texted me at breakfast to let me know he was going to cut out on the conference early and was ready for some beach time. The girls and I loaded up and got ready for some fun in the sun. I was hopeful that Adrienne would get over her fear of the water, as she had done with the sand the day before, but I was out of luck. Matt and Jillian had a ball in the waves as she learned to body surf. It brought back a lot of fond memories for me body surfing in Hawaii with my dad.

More matching suits. Thanks, Old Navy

Content on the chair

Poor Julie...

A little more sand swimming

Forgive me, I could not resist.

Thirsty girl. Once she saw the real water bottle, she was totally over any liquids from a sippy cup on the trip.

We all took a nap after lunch, and then headed to the pool for a breezy swim. Adrienne was finally ready to get in the water just about the time we had to head up and shower so we didn't miss our dinner reservations.

The girls selected Hawaiian dresses while we were out shopping the day before, so Jillian was excited to get to wear hers for our nice dinner out at Nick's Fish Market. I took some pics of the girls on our way to dinner and as we waited for our table.

Love this

More proof of my presence

Adrienne is really looking like her daddy these days, don't ya think?

I'd better familiarize myself with this look--bet I get a lot of these glares during her teen years.

We had a yummy dinner (Opakapaka aka pink snapper I had was divine, and the mangotini was out of this world), but child behavior wouldn't permit us to stay for the dessert I had been eyeing--bananas foster with Hawaiian sweet bread french toast. Oh well. Matt walked around with A most of the last half of dinner. I was really proud of Jillian for eating her "fish stick", which was a large piece of breaded mahi. This is serious progress for our picky eater. After the girls were in bed, we enjoyed company and laughs on our lanai with the Hartmans and the Diehns.

Wednesday, January 23rd:

After breakfast we went to watch the whales again. Miss Julie showed the girls a new spot she discovered on a grassy area above the beach, complete with Adirondack chairs. The staff was handing out "pineapple pops" so we enjoyed a snack and a made up game that involved drumming with the sticks.

Jillian's hair really enjoys the Hawaii humidity

Jillian: "Mom, take a picture of me smelling this flower". So I did.

Julie's hijacked Hawaiian vacation. My girls love her!

After lunch, we loaded up in the car to explore the north shore a bit. We were to meet Mark and Julie for an early dinner reservation at Mama's Fish House in Paia, so we wanted to head up and explore that area. We grabbed some coffee on the way, and the girls fell asleep on the drive.

Adrienne enjoyed her brief week in a forward-facing seat. She didn't seem to mind the change back to rear facing when returned!

 Since the girls were sleeping, we decided to drive part of the Road to Hana. This is a famous 50 mile stretch of road in Maui that is known for hairpin curves and an extremely slow speed limit (it takes hours to drive one way). We started out thinking things were just fine, but once the speed limit reduced to 15 mph (that is  not a typo), things really got hairy. Our massive SUV took nearly the whole two lane road, and Jillian got car sick. I quickly dumped my latte out the window and handed her my cup, instructing her to puke in the cup if at all possible (I had NOT brought extra clothes on this little excursion. Will I ever learn!??)

A few Hana Highway pics before it got ugly

Can you see that curve ahead?

Poor, green sickly thing

Thankfully, she got over the ailment quickly once we got out and enjoyed some fresh air at the Ho'okipa beach lookout. We marveled at the power and beauty of the ocean, checked out some cows with a killer view, and watched the surfers below

I see you, Jillian

Perplexed by the cows.

Jillian is such a good big sister

Matt and Jillian went in for a closer look.

I needed a pit stop before dinner, and we still had a bit of time to kill, so we headed back into Kahului near the airport. The views of the raw natural beauty mixed in with city life were striking to me.

We made it to dinner on time, and thought Mama's Fish House was such a beautiful venue on the water. We had an awesome view from our table, but I never captured it thanks to our worst dinner behavior of the trip. I shoved my $50 piece of Onaga (red snapper) down my gullet and tried to bribe Adrienne with a lollipop for good behavior. Nothing worked. The few bites I took of the Banana Macadamia crisp were heavenly. Julie and I took the girls outside to run around while Matt and Mark waited for our bill. You win some, you lose some when you dine out with kids!

Little stinkers

The only family photo of the trip--not bad!

Thursday, January 24th:

Matt skipped out on a large chunk of the last morning of the conference, in hopes of some good beach time. Unfortunately, it was cloudy so he couldn't see anything when he tried to snorkel with his new gear, but Jillian wasn't deterred by the less than idyllic conditions. They did more body surfing, and Jillian played with Malea in the sand.

I'm sure you're not surprised to see where Adrienne spent most of her time that morning. We need to work on this if she wants to go on any future trips with us!

 The highlight of the morning was Jillian's first trip down a water slide. Adults were not allowed to go down with the kids, and she finally worked up the courage to slide down to Matt who was in the pool below. She loved it!

We cleaned up, packed the rest of our stuff, and I grabbed a few pics off our lanai before we said Aloha to the Fairmont Kea Lani

We had a few hours to kill before the airport, so we ate one last lunch at Cafe O'Lei, did a little shopping, and took the girls to get the obligatory Hawaiian shave ice.

Passion Fruit Mai Tai, oh how I miss you already

Cotton candy/bubble gum shave ice...interesting combo

Checking out the options

My choice of POG and mango seemed a bit more tropical

Let's let our 18 month old drink straight sugar before 12 hours of travel--awesome idea!

Jillian's new bike plate. I was shocked they had her name, and she was so excited. I always loved that Hawaii has everything with my name on it--something I never see on the mainland! And no one ever asks me how to spell it when I am there, either. It's the little things...

Jillian was very upset to learn that we were not flying home with Mark and Julie when we arrived at the airport. Their flight got switched, so they were on a later flight through Denver. We were headed to Honolulu and then Chicago. As we waited to board the first flight, Jillian struck up a conversation with a Hawaiian woman wearing a beautiful lei. She said, "I love your lei". The lady thought she was so cute that she gave Jillian her lei and hugged her. Jillian said, "Mahalo". I wish I had taken a picture, it was such a sweet moment. The flight from Maui to Honolulu was just awful. Adrienne was a mess, but thankfully, that doesn't really matter on a 20 min flight. Once in Honolulu, I changed the girls into pajamas for the overnight to Chicago (I did NOT forget Jillian's overnight pull-up this time--hooray!) and we had a pizza party in the terminal just before boarding.

The flight to Chicago couldn't have been better, really. Jillian was asleep before we even reached cruising altitude. Adrienne took a bit more convincing, but I got her to sleep about an hour in. Matt and I did not sleep, however. It's pretty tough to sleep when you have thrashing children either laying on your or with their head on your lap. We exchanged "oh well" type glances throughout the flight, and were just thankful for peace from the kids. Adrienne woke up after about 6 hours, and Jillian woke as we descended into Chicago a short time later.

If you look closely you can see Adrienne snuggled into me

Jillian sprawled out across Matt's lap, oblivious to the less than ideal sleeping conditions.

When we arrived in Chicago, we had just enough time to hit the bathroom (girls and I) while Matt stood in line for the necessary Starbucks. The hour to MSP seemed like a breeze, and soon we were home. We are still recovering (Matt and I--us old folk were hit hard by jet lag), but are so thankful that we enjoyed a safe, healthy time together in what truly is paradise. I. Am. Grateful.