Maui Day 4

Kids woke us up about an hour later then yesterday, so little better.  We headed out to Haleakala National Park.  It took us about 1 1/2 hours to get to the top of this volcano at 10,000 feet.  Mike kept saying he didn't think that our little car was going to make it!!  This road called Haleakala Highway holds the world record for climbing to the highest elevation in the shortest distance of 38 miles.  It was really beautiful on the drive up. Most people go up at sunrise to see the sun come up and then bike down, so we saw tons of people on  bikes coming down the volcano.  As we were nearing the top, we were in a cloud with rain and it was cold!  Kate was actually scared!  This is how excited they were to see the top of a volcano:

What it looked like a the top for us:

What I found on Google images:

We saw lots of rainbows!!

Pretty views

After driving down, we headed back to our town & checked out all the local shops.  We only have a few days left with the car, so we were checking out where we could go on bus for the next 2 weeks.  We will get a car again a few days before leaving.  Looks like it will be about a 12 minute bus ride to get food.

We got to the condo, ate lunch & chilled until 3pm when our condo has a Mai Tai party!  Live music, Hulu dancers & Mai Tais poolside!  Super fun!

Kate & Alex with their Mai Tais & I us with ours.

I think Mike had about 7!!  We headed upstairs for dinner, then played uno together.

Super fun family time!!

Now watch some TV & head to bed!

Day 3

Oh--still not adjusted--all up at around 4am!  Left at around 6:40 for IOA national Park.

We went on a little hike.  I felt like we were in Jurassic Park!

Maui is home to all 7 climates.  Where we are staying, used to be a desert.  This part is rain forest.  Kids liked being in the "jungle."

Very big tree!!

So Pretty!!  Next he headed over to the Maui aquarium.  Lots and Lots of fish!!

My favorite thing was this octopus!!

touching star fish

green sea turtles

They had this amazing tank with sharks, sting rays and some really big fish.  It had a tunnel so the fish were below you, on top of you and either side of you.  Very cool!!

We got to see sharks feeding, which was so amazing!!!  Very cool!

Next, we ate lunch in the car and headed to Lahaina to see this huge tree.  This banyan tree (from India) was planted in 1873 and covers an entire city block.  Very cute town with lots of shopping and night life.  Great place to be if it was just me and Mike.  

so cool!!

Then we headed out for you guessed it, shaved ice!!!  All the shaved ice here seems to be about $5 each so we had a buy one get one free coupon, so boys got one and boys got one.  So yummy!

Very neat to see them actually shave the ice off of a block of ice!!

On a sugar high, we headed back to our, as Kate calls it "our pretend home."  I took some photos during our drive back.

We rested, kids watched movies & I blogged.  We had dinner & headed to the pool.  Kids jumping in together.  

Day 2

Day 2 started out early--just like Day 1!!  Lets just say we were the first ones on the beach at 6:30!!!  I'm so sad, but Mike's phone was dead, so he left it to charge & said lets take yours--I was like OK, even though I had just said it needed to be charged too!!  So I took one picture, and it died.  So unfortunately, no super cute pictures of my babies on a Hawaii beach for the first time, but I have the memories, right?!?!  They both loved it so much!!  They played in the sand and a little in the water.  At one point they were sitting together, right at the edge of the water, just waiting for the tide to come in & get them!  Kate kept saying "Oh my gosh!!" Super cute!!

At 8:30 we had a free breakfast, welcome to our condo thing.  Not a great breakfast, so we left soon into the talk.  We headed back to the beach until 11:30.

Man is the sand sticky here!!  Kids were covered in sand--even with a shower outside!!  Both got baths before lunch & then we all sat down to eat on our porch.  So nice.  After lunch, we headed to Walmart.  Some photos from our 20 minute drive there.

Very weird Walmart.  Prices on dairy here are super high, beer is about the same and we couldn't wait to eat the pineapple we got!!  Walmart didn't have great food selection, so we headed to Safeway.  Seriously, like one door of a fridge section for cheese & ham!!!  So crazy!  Safeway was lots better.  Still more expensive than HEB, but it will do!!  Next we had snow cones or as they say here Shave Ice.

With the 4 of us sharing it, it went fast!!!

Then we had a taco dinner (outside again) and headed to the pool.  Now we are back & just hanging out until bedtime.    (Which will be soon!!  When will we adjust??)

June 22--Day 1

It was finally our day to leave for Hawaii for a month!! We had all our suitcases packed: 4 to check, 1 to carry on & 2 backpacks.

Paw paw had stayed the night before to take us at 4am to the airport.  Mike & I both wake up before the alarm went off, me at about 2ish & Mike at 3:30.  Kids actually woke up in good moods & were ready to go!!  We said goodbye to Sammy (who is staying with PawPaw, Trudy we took yesterday to be boarded) & headed to the airport.  Our flight was on time & the kids were excited to board!!  It was really a joy to see how excited they were for the plane to take off!!  They loved being in the clouds!

Oh Alex!!  Not a fan of having his picture taken!

They watched movies the whole time & did a great job!!

It was about a 3 1/2 hour flight to San Fran, where we were supposed to have only a 1 1/2 hr lay over, but our plane was delayed & we ended up spending 4 hours!!  But we were lucky that Mike was able to get us into the United Club, which was "fancy" as Kate called it.  They had free snacks & drinks, which the kids loved!!  We finally boarded the plane and Alex fell right to sleep for a few hours of the flight.  Kate watched movies & was very interested in the safety manual!

Here's Kate pretending to sleep on Alex.

Mike & I had free flight drinks!

We were excited to see land again after flying over only water for over 5 hours!!

I was just as excited that all 4 bags made it & then we were on our way to get our rental car with our fingers crossed that all our bags fit!!!

Having our fingers crossed worked, cause the bags barely all fit!!!  Then we were on our way to our condo!!  Here is the inside of our new home for the next month!

But the best part are the views!!!

The grounds are beautiful!!!

I will have to get more pictures of these!!

By the time we got to the condo, it was like 4pm here, but 9pm to us.  I started to feel sick, so Mike took Alex to get some food.  Once I felt a little better, Kate & I unpacked.  We watched TV & at around 7:30 we all went to sleep.  Mike & I were up for almost 24 hours!!!!

LONG DAY---but totally worth it!!!