Marvelous Maui

So we went to Maui last week and it was marvelous. Mah-vel-ous, darling. Just marvelous. Matt was asked to speak at the annual Mayo Radiology conference, so we loaded up our circus and hauled it to the Fairmont Kea Lani in Wailea. This is what one calls a "radiation vacation". Mayo has a generous trip policy, and it is a huge perk of Matt's job to be able to offer these experiences to our kids. This was our third trip with the girls to Hawaii, and it was the charm.  They are becoming awesome little travelers, and did so well with the flights, the time change, the lack of routine, you name it. We all had such a wonderful time together as a family and I am so so so grateful for the experience. This was our first beach trip sans diapers, naps, and strollers and I LOVED it.  The other nice thing about this particular trip, location aside, is that we have many friends who also go. It's fun to have playmates and other moms to hang out with, and to enjoy excursions with others. We had a good laugh because our neighbors who we never see (our kids couldn't pick each other out of a lineup) were also there, and it seems we had to go to Hawaii to chat with them.  Hilarious and ridiculous, it's true. This is going to be one long post, heavy in both words and pictures....memory recording is important to me, people. 

Saturday January 17th

We loaded up and left the house by 7:30 for the drive to MSP. I packed breakfast the night before and we all ate in the car and jammed to princess music (the girls know virtually every single word to the Tangled and Little Mermaid soundtracks). We parked the car and had a laugh taking a pic of the girls holding our coffee while we unloaded bags.

Of course we did not give our small children caffeine before 12 hrs of travel. This ain't our first time at the rodeo, folks.

Just as I commented how fast the security lines were moving and how easy everything was going, I got selected for the random hand-swipe test. Ironically, I had just put hand lotion on and it set off alarms like wild. I was then pulled aside for a full bag search, while Matt and the girls went on through. It took over 15 minutes and a great deal of patience for me to watch the security guard unpack every single meticulously packed and organized item in my backpack and purse. Matt found this to be hilarious. Amused I was not. We finally made it to the gate and I recorded the girls singing 'Happy Birthday' to Aunt Mal so we could be sure we got our birthday wishes off to her.

I often dress the girls alike when we travel--much easier to find them in crowds this way

Soon, our friends joined us at the gate. We intentionally booked the same flight as the Fletchers on the way out. Emily is my good friend from tennis/boot camp, and Adrienne is friends with her son, Calvin. They also have 3 older girls and we thought the kids would enjoy each other. We were right. Also on our flights from MSP>Seattle>Maui were our dear friends Mark and Julie Collins, and the Bruinings (I know Char from boot camp and Jillian used to take tennis with Orrie).

Playing at the gate. We had fierce games of Tenzi (dice) and Lego guy playing going on. Jillian became fast friends with Eliza (almost 8)

After a bumpy flight to Seattle (where we actually were seated with both the Collins and Fletchers by chance on the plane), we basically ran to our gate. Matt took the girls to the bathroom, I grabbed pizza, and we chowed it while the boarding began.

We are serious about our airport pizza. 

Then we hopped the 6 hr flight to Maui. Once again we were seated with the Fletchers, and Mark and Julie were just a few rows behind us. Two other radiology families also joined us on this flight (the Atwells and the Breens). Our girls and the Fletcher kids played musical seats throughout this time--sharing iPads, games, coloring supplies, and snacks. It was really nice. I swapped magazines with Emily and Julie, and Matt worked on his talks. Despite a bumpy first two hours, things smoothed out nicely and no one seemed to mind that the flight was 30 minutes longer than originally planned.

iPad face

Jillian and Eliza sharing stickers

A and Calvin with iPad games

As we were landing in Maui, it was 10:30 p.m. our time. Adrienne had enough and promptly fell asleep 5 minutes before landing.

It always feels so good to deboard the plane in such a beautiful place after a loooong day!!

Jillian literally did a happy dance as we waited for our luggage

More happy dancing

Outside the rental car place, waiting for Matt to get the car (actually, minivan)

We skipped any attempt at a dinner stop, due to the late time (7:45 Hawaii time) and headed straight for the Kea Lani. Both girls fell asleep on the 30 minute drive.

Waiting for Matt to check us in

Aloha! We look pretty good considering it was well past midnight at home.

When we got to our room Adrienne perked up and started dancing around exclaiming, "Jillian can you believe it? Can you believe we are actually in Hawaii?!?!?" They were delirious with fatigue, so we fed them a granola bar, bathed them, put them to bed, and then ordered ourselves some room service (to be enjoyed on the lanai of course) and then followed suit.

Sunday, January 18th

I woke up at 4 and never went back to sleep. Darn time change. The girls did pretty well, making it to almost 5:30 (9:30 CST) before rising. Adrienne was so adorable when the sun finally came up and we opened the curtains--"Mom! Look out at da world! I see all those pine trees!" She was referring to palm trees, of course! Matt headed to the conference and the girls and I went down for breakfast. The Kea Lani has a fantastic breakfast buffet--full of gorgeous and delicious food, so it seemed worth the cash to fuel our tired bellies up. Adrienne is under 5, so she could eat for free--and let me tell you that the Kea Lani lost money on her on that deal every day. The kid ate at least eight silver dollar pancakes every morning.

Jillian's eyes were a bit bigger than her stomach. The girls tried POG (passion, orange, guava) juice for the first time and gulped it down. Delicious stuff. Jillian once again found herself a bit chilled in Hawaii and had to cover up with her napkin. Gimme a break, kid!

Pancake and pineapple lovin kid

We met up with Julie after breakfast and the girls begged to walk down to the beach. We weren't yet in suits so they of course promised me they'd stay out of the water...well, you can imagine how that went. Before long they were soaked and just squealing with delight. I decided to pick my battles, pull up a beach lounger, and sip coffee next to one of my favorite people as we chatted and watched the girls frolic.

Matt left the conference about 9:30 and we changed and headed back to the beach for some official beach time.

Matt took J out in the waves for some big fun

Love the double eyewear here

After the beach we trekked up to the outdoor restaurant for some lunch, then hit the pool. The "drink of the day" was a Pineapple Fusion (pina colada on the rocks infused with fresh lime) and I am now on a mission to remake that. The girls were very excited to try out the water slide at the pool. Adrienne was able to go down to as long as I waited at the bottom for her. Big fun for some little girls! We soon headed up to the room for a shower and a little downtime before the big "party" (welcome reception) on the lawn. This party is much-anticipated in our family, mostly because last time we went the dessert station was out of this world--ice cream, gobs of toppings, and J's most-remembered item--gummy bears. It was one large first world problem when she discovered that the dessert station was NOT ice cream, but rather some mini coconut cream pies which actually weren't very good. Life is hard, what can I say? The food at this soiree was amazing. It was all Asian themed and included various sushi items, stir fry, appetizers, curries, oysters, and on and on. Pizza for kids. Everyone was happy (except about the dessert of course!). The girls melted down quickly after dinner and we were all in bed asleep by 8:30.

My pretty biggest girl before the party. Wanted to wear her lei, appropriately

This one had a huge fit because her hair was all curly from the humidity and she wanted an Elsa braid. More first world problems.

Selfie with J. She is into selfies these days. She was so sweet after I got ready--"Mom! I can hardly believe it's you! You look so pretty!" Perhaps I should make an effort more often.

A view of the party I took as we were leaving. Pretty sweet.

A little dancing with Daddy in the lobby on the way up to our suite. The Kea Lani is unique (and awesome) in that every room is a suite. 

Monday, January 19th

I slept until 5:30 on this day, and the girls made it til 6. We met Julie for breakfast, then took a walk on the grounds and did some whale spotting from our perch, amidst some running around the lawn

A playing hide and seek

Running free

J counting

Next it was time for the pool. We changed and headed down. I discovered as long as I gave A boundaries, she could be in the pool without me (wearing floaties of course). This felt like a big milestone to me--sitting on a chair watching my kids play in the pool. Awesome!

Snack break. Contrary to how it looks, it was really hot. The towels were really just some sun protection since we weren't under an umbrella.

Matt joined as at the pool after he was done speaking, and we ordered to eat poolside. The girls thought this was really delightful. I thought the "drink of the day" (Haleakala sunrise) was also delightful. Emily texted to tell us they'd be at our beach that afternoon, so we joined them there and the kids had a blast playing together.

Jillian and Eliza

Adrienne helped bury Calvin

The Fletchers had some boogie boards, so Jillian gave that a try. I think we may have a little surfer girl on our hands.

A and Daddy got smacked by a wave

This was Adrienne's version of body surfing

Ridiculously gorgeous view at the beach

Emily and her oldest, Ella

We hit the snack shop for some ice cream after the beach, then up to rest, shower, and have dinner at our favorite local spot--Cafe O'Lei. We dine here multiple times each trip, and their Blackened Mahi with fresh papaya salsa is my favorite meal to date on the island. I also really like their passionfruit mai tais, but that's beside the point. The girls were wiped, and totally zombied out. They sat quietly at dinner, eating virtually nothing after they loaded up on bread and butter as we waited. The big thing at this meal was that we convinced Jillian to try calamari...and she loved it! We hurried back to the hotel to put the girls to bed, and I snuck out for some ice cream downstairs (I didn't have any earlier that day, OK? Just iced coffee) since we were too pooped for dessert at dinner.

Catch all that sand on A's forehead and right by her nostrils?

She was eating cookie dough ice cream and it caused her to make what she calls her "vanilla face"

And then she made her "chocolate face" She has done this for some time now, and we can't figure out how it started. She's always consistent with these two expressions. 

Little ladies ready for dinner out

Sun-kissed Jillian

Loopy, sleepy Adrienne on Matt's lap as we waited for dinner

Tuesday, January 20th

Everyone slept until 7 this morning! Woot! We all felt officially on Hawaii time. The girls and I went down to meet Julie in the lobby to book a sunset cruise/whale watching excursion for the following day, then ate a fast breakfast together before meeting Matt at 10. He skipped out early and we were planning to head off property for a little adventure. Several people told us that Twin Falls was a great easy hike that we would all enjoy, so we trekked it up to the north shore. We stopped quickly in Paia for an early lunch at the Paia Fish Market to make sure we were all well satiated before our hiking adventure.

Waiting for Julie in the lobby

This picture cracks me up. We were waiting at our surfboard table for our food and the girls just looked like zombies. Vacation is hard work, folks.

After another 15 minute drive down the Hana Highway (thankfully, for Jillian's sake, before things got too curvy) we pulled over and parked in a makeshift parking lot in front of a hippie bus labeled "Twin Falls Farm Stand". We were at the right spot. We began our hike to see, you guessed it, the Twin Falls.  The hike was easy and the trail was nice and wide for wandering kids. We saw so much beautiful vegetation and really enjoyed ourselves. We did hike down a pretty steep hill to see the first waterfall, then had to lug ourselves back up before continuing another 30 minutes to the main attraction. The falls were gorgeous--like something out of a movie. I'd never experienced anything like this in all my 36 years. We all had suits on under our cloths, and the girls were wearing Keens, which was good to walk through the water to get to the falls. I only had my running shoes on, and I wasn't about to miss this, so wet they got. Matt handed me his phone and I made sure everything was secure in my backpack before carefully wading across behind Matt and the girls. The girls splashed in the chilly freshwater pool and Matt swam a bit. After we walked over behind the falls, he took each girl on his back and swam out under the falls. I have some pretty hilarious videos of them screaming with glee. It was a pretty cool experience. We hiked back and dried out a bit before enjoying fresh coconut and bananas from the farm stand. Awesome.

Starting our trek

Matt and Jillian at the bottom of the first falls

The first little baby waterfall

Matt gave Adrienne a piggy back ride back up to the trail

Check out that spider web!

Adrienne did her best to keep up, but she did need another little ride when she got kind of hot in the sun and exclaimed, "I don't want to do this anymore"

We were getting close! This was the stream heading back to the falls

Catching our first glimpse

Starting to wade out to the falls

There they are!

A little play time

Proof I was there. This is my "Wow! I'm in Hawaii at a waterfall!" expression

Poor shot...but almost.

Matt swimming

Jillian walking along the side to get behind the falls

View from behind the falls

Water seeping through the cracks in the rock

Jillian riding out to the falls

Some nice lady took a pic of all of us....but darn lighting.

Ferns growing down from the ceiling

Bananas

I thought this sign was so cool. I almost missed it as it was tucked behind a fence that led into some farmland.

Just as I took the pic of the sign, I heard Jillian shriek. She had found a friend. Can you see him?

Here's a better glimpse

Family portrait, shadow style

We made it back to the bus!

Tropical treats were a great reward

This girl loved her coconut. She ate almost the entire half.

Since we were on the North shore, it only seemed right to stop at Ho'okipa Beach and watch the surfers. The waves are crazy and you get quite a show. We found a spot on the beach to watch and then realized that the rocks had formed a nice little protective wading pool for the girls to splash around in.

A little Tuesday afternoon beach lounging is good for the soul

I'm probably going to frame this one.

Collecting treasures

A's sandy shoe

Then we got a wild hair. It was about 3:30. We weren't really ready to go back to the hotel, and it wasn't time for dinner. Matt suggested we haul it to Lahaina, which was about an hour away. The girls were doing so great on our adventure just going with the flow...so why not?

Love the Maui mountains on the way to Lahaina

Oops, out of order pic I snapped at Ho'okipa

Once in Lahaina we did a little shopping to let the girls choose some random crap they wanted to buy as trip mementos and then we decided on Kimo's for dinner since it had a great view of the sunset. What I also learned is that they have the best mai tai (according to my discriminating taste buds) on Maui. I had no choice but to drink 2...you know, so each girl could get a little umbrella for her lemonade. Moms are always taking one for the team!

Matt and J selfie

Oh yes, this is good. Very very good.

My dinner mate

Dessert was the Hula pie, and it was as big as Jillian's head. Oreo crust, vanilla macadamia nut ice cream, chocolate sauce, whipped cream....and four shovels (that's really what they called the sporks they gave us). It. Was. Heaven.

Adrienne got very serious about this. I had to take the plate away after it was gone because she is so prone to licking them
clean when dessert is involved.

After a 45 minute drive to the resort (sleeping girls in back) we plopped them into the tub before tucking them in bed. Another tired picture--totally cracks me up. What a fantastic day this was--my favorite of the trip. Such sweet memories were made.

 Wednesday, January 21st

We woke to another perfect morning--I swear the weather was phenomenal the entire trip. 80 degrees, no wind, no rain. Just amazing. We had another huge breakfast with Julie, took our walk, and hit the pool. Matt met us there late morning and then we ate lunch at the outdoor restaurant before spending a couple hours at the pool, stopping for ice cream and coffee at the snack shop, and then quickly showering to meet Mark and Julie for our whale watch.

I could eat lunch here everyday

So could this kid

Adrienne running down toward the beach

A lucky find...someone had already done all the work!

We had a good little giggle about this...Matt's foot prints on the right and an unknown species on the left.

Can you guess what creature leaves this mark? Well it's none other than the infamous toe-walking-when-barefoot Jillian. 

We loaded up in our minivan with Mark and Julie around 3 and drove to Ma'alea harbor. We had about 30 minutes to shop around and then we boarded the sunset whale watching cruise. As soon as we stepped on the boat and felt it moving we knew we had a problem....Jillian was likely to get seasick. Oh how I wish we had thought to try Dramamine with her before this, because she was miserable. We sat on the bottom in the back of the boat (least movement here) for the entire 2 hours while she cried and got sick in a plastic cup. Poor baby. We did see tons of whales, and even a hammerhead shark! At one point the naturalists put the underwater microphone down and we got to listen to all the "whale speak" going on down below. Fascinating. While the experience was pretty neat, we were ready to get off that boat. Thankfully, Jillian recovered quickly and we headed back to the resort for a very late dinner at Nick's Fish Market.

Waiting for the boat ride. 

Sitting with Mark and Julie

The start of the cruise, before things got bad

Love this couple. 

We got Jillian some ginger ale, so of course Adrienne had to try it. From then on out, this is how she spent her cruise...face in ginger ale sipping away.

Headed back to the harbor. A smile of relief on J's face

Matt up top looking at the whales

See that humpback?

Most of a baby whale after he jumped out of the water

The puke cup held in front of J's face

Oh, Maui mountains, I love you.

A got a little tired.

Then it was time for the sunset show

Perfection

As we walked to the car, the moon came out and was a cool little sliver. To its left you can see what looks like a single star--that's Venus. 

Adrienne coloring at our late dinner. She became quite the artist on this trip. If you look at the drawing you can see she really did color this nicely. 

On the back of every restaurant coloring page she always drew Elsa and Anna

Adrienne lost it quickly after dinner, so I took her up to the room to put her to bed while Matt and Jillian waited for the bill. Then they took a nice little walk together and posed for a few pictures. Jillian was pretending to be a princess on the balcony looking down at her royal subjects.

Love this pic of our big girl.

Thursday, January 22

We woke to our last day on the island. The girls and I ate breakfast, took a nice walk down to the fish pond and then on the ocean pathway for a bit. They watched some shows in the room while I packed, and then we officially checked out around 11. We went over to the Shops at Wailea to do some shopping and have lunch, then went back to the resort around 2 for one more round at the beach and pool.

Morning on our lanai

Sad to leave the view from our room

Adrienne took a couple solo runs down the water slide 

And here comes Jillian

Matt throwing Jillian around in the pool

Around 5:30 we obtained a hospitality suite key from the front desk. This is how they keep everybody semi-happy. All of the flights leave late at night, yet checkout is always noon. You can try to get a late checkout, but it never works. So, the resorts will allow you to use a suite for 45 minutes to shower before your final departure. It's nice, but still kind of a pain since I had to pack a small bag with just our shower stuff/plane clothes separately from the suitcase. But, we did it and were grateful for the shower. We headed to Cafe O'Lei one last time for a 7:15 reservation.

My beloved blackened mahi with papaya salsa. And a passionfruit martini for good measure.

The girls were so tired during dinner, and our flight didn't leave until 11:30. Ugh. We drove to get gas, and then Matt dropped us curbside at the airport while he went and returned the rental car. When I turned around to tell the girls to unbuckle, this is what I saw.

Awesome. So, we plucked them from sleep and we sat outside with the bags for about 20 minutes while we waited for Matt. Jillian was sobbing that she was cold. Adrienne was dead weight in my arms. Eventually, I made a little cocoon out of the bags and plopped them both inside and changed them into their warmer flying clothes right then and there. A  mom's gotta do what a mom's gotta do.

Warmer and waiting.

We made it through security quickly, despite the girls both being selected 'randomly' for hand swipe tests. I also was selected and thankfully no drama this time! We made it to our gate around 9:30 and then the waiting began. Adrienne couldn't hack it. She was out for the night.

Sleeping on the airport chairs. Gross. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

Jillian took this of me. Contacts out and ready to roll. 

It was finally time to board around 11. Matt carried Adrienne on, strapped her in, and she didn't wake up until we landed in LA about 5 hours later.

Jillian fell asleep soon after take off and also slept the duration of the flight. Although, she did so fitfully...arms and legs flying everywhere, hitting both Adrienne and I in the face. Neither Matt nor I slept on this flight. 

A more peaceful moment. Airplane pillows. Vomit. Again, desperate times...

 Friday, January 23rd

We landed in LA about 6:30, got off the plane, grabbed some breakfast, and hopped back on our same plane to head to MSP. That was really nice and we will definitely use this itinerary home again in the future. The girls were perfect on the flight, enjoying unrestricted iPad use. Dr. Wenger (one of Matt's colleagues) was on our flight (in addition to Mark and Julie) and she commented that at one time she walked back to the bathroom and noticed the girls playing nicely while both Matt and I napped. Way to go, girls! Sorry your parents were too tired to supervise you. We landed, got our luggage, bid our friends farewell, and then grabbed some coffee as we headed south to Rochester. This was the scene in the back seat.

Jet lag is real, people.

What a privilege it is to be able to go on these trips. We are so blessed, and so thankful. This trip rocked.  Mahalo, Maui!