Kristin and Casey surprised me with including me on their family vacation to Maui for Spring Break. We stayed at the same resort they have stayed in before with Ray and Carrie at Kaanapali Shores. This was the first sunset from our room! Breath-taking. What a glorious beginning to a wonderful week with many FIRSTS for the kids. I felt so blessed to be a part of this trip. Thank you Casey and Kristin for making it possible.
Each sunset and sunrise we could hear these birds in the trees to the left of us that were so extremely loud! I have never heard birds that loud before in chorus.
This was an early morning walk on the first morning (most mornings were early with the time change.) We went to bed early and got early to try and stay on PST.
I took the kids for a walk while Casey and Kristin went for a run.
Back to the grassy area of the resort for some play time. Our room was on the 5th floor -- one of those balconies is ours!
When I pulled my hide-a-bed out the first night Ruby wanted to know what I was doing. There is a bed hiding in there! She called it my "convertible bed". They are trying it out one morning.
We drove up to Napili beach one day, but the waves were bigger than usual. The kids mostly played on the sand that day.
Don't forget the sunscreen. I'm happy to say none of us got "too" burned on this trip. Pretty good for how white we all were.
Carson doing what he does best -- make a new friend and dig a hole!
This morning we woke up to rain --
but shortly after it rains comes rainbows -- so many beautiful ones!
Sometimes trying to get pictures of the kids is so difficult -- here Carson isn't having it!
Kristin and Casey wanted to take surfing lessons one day. I stayed with the kids a couple of hours on the beach while they had private lessons from Andy.
Carson and Ruby spied sea turtles. Ruby said "Look grandma, the baby is riding on the mommy!" (I'm not real sure that is what was happening, but that is what we said was happening!) They frolicked in the water very near shore for 30-40 minutes.
Jayson was a 15 year old soccer star that Carson was able to kick the ball around with. Jayson was so kind to Cars and taught him lots of new tricks. He was from California and was vacationing with his mother. Such a dear young man and made quite an impression on Carson. We could see the grassy area from our balcony, and daily Carson would go look to see if Jayson was outside playing and ask to join him. On the last day of our vacation I asked Carson what was his favorite part of the trip and he said without even pausing "playing soccer with Jayson!" We got his address and Kristin sent a fun box of Adidas things to him to say thank you for being so kind to our little man. Who knows -- maybe some day Carson and Jayson will be on the national team, playing in the World Cup ! Jayson was so sweet. He said to Carson "someday when you are playing in the World Cup, I will be in the stands cheering you on!"
Had to get one picture of my girl on her 36th birthday, spent in Maui!
This was a beach/lagoon that Casey and Kristin had been before and wanted to take the twins snorkeling. It was a great place to snorkel, but really difficult to get around on the rocks. No sand, just rocks. But once they got into the water, they were off and enjoying all the many things they could see under the water.
Back on shore for lunch on the rocks. We were joined by a rooster who seemed quite comfortable with all the humans in his domain.
Kristin and Ruby took hula lessons one day and both ladies did so well. Then the next day around 5:00 it was announced there would be a free Polynesian show by the big pool for our enjoyment. Kristin and I went over to get some seats, and were joined by the others later. It was fun to see the various hula dancers and hear the music. But it was getting time for dinner and Casey and Kristin took Carson and went up to the room to prepare dinner. Ruby and I stayed behind. When I thought it was over, I said "Let's go!". Just then they announced they were going to be teaching the hula on stage and anyone who wanted to come up, could. We were walking out and they announced they would be teaching the "Hukilau Dance". Ruby stopped dead in her tracks and said "Grandma, I know how to do that dance. I learned it at the hula class. Can I go up on stage?" Oh my gosh -- my shy little Ruby wanted to get up on stage! ! ! "Of course honey, but I won't be going up with you. Do you still want to go up without me?" "YES"!
Oh my gosh -- little Ruby on stage, and her parents were no where to be found, and I knew I couldn't get them back in time. So I video taped it for them. Ruby is on the far right. Every time I watch it and see her do the "one, two, one two three", I can't help but giggle. She is very good and not one bit shy about it. Of course I would have loved to have been on the other side taping it, but there were several hundred people I would have had to walk in front of and that didn't seem good to me. (I got two videos, but the second one is too long for me to download onto the blog -- darn-it! Ruby takes a bow at the end and my heart is bursting with pride)
We have a lovely kitchen in the room and Casey fixed many wonderful dinners with lots of fresh fish. Here Carson is being his Daddy's sous chef.
Our last full day the kids finally got to try boogie boarding. It took a lot of patience from their Daddy, since the waves were small and not a lot of them. I bet next time they will be ripping it by themselves in much bigger waves. But for this time, they were so pleased with themselves.
Our last night we got ready and walked on the beach down to Duke's Beach House restaurant (where the surfing instructor just happened to be a server by night). It was a lovely dinner, and a wonderful walk back with the sunset as our back drop. I couldn't get enough pictures.
An after-dinner-rainbow.
The trip home was a LONG one -- Maui to Sacramento -- Sacramento to Seattle -- Seattle to Portland, arriving home at midnight. Somehow we got first class seats on the shortest ride from Seattle to Portland.
