Maui 2019: Part 1

Back in 2011 my Grandma and Grandpa Biddulph took everyone to Maui for their 50th wedding anniversary trip.  That was such a magical trip and ever since then I have been itching to get back.  So when we found out that there was a radiology conference in Wailea in the middle of January, we decided to go.  We debated on whether to go just the two of us, or to take the whole family, or just half of our kids.  We settled on taking Jack and Annie and it turned out to be a great decision, although I'm sure whatever we decided would have been great too.  Having the two of them there made everything extra exciting, like we were seeing it all through their eyes for the first time.  And Henry and Nora would have been fun to take too but would have limited the amount of excursions we were able to go on, and made us less mobile.  They ended up getting to stay with Grandma and Grandpa Hill, and they were in the best of hands.  So so grateful to have amazing in-laws and parents who love to take care of our kids for us while we go off adventuring.  When we came back, Henry was saying "Thank you" about 100 times a day, and he also picked up a few funny phrases like "see ya!" and "neat!" from his Grandma and Granpda.  These two really know what they're doing when it comes to taking care of kids (and just life in general), and it felt so good knowing that they were so well taken care of. 

JANUARY 10-11th

Brian and Renee got here on Thursday night late, and then the kids had school the next day so we had a fun relaxing day finishing packing and then heading to Daubes for lunch.  We discovered that goulash is delicious and so is grapefruit san pellegrino. And sugar cookies in hat-form taste super cute. 

When the kids got home we played some exploding kittens, discovered that I can still do a backbend (starting from the floor of course) and had dinner.  The kids did a little of their own packing, and stuffed their backpacks full of all their treasures from their special boxes.  Rock collections, stuffed animals, jewelry- all sorts of things. hahaha I made them pare it down a bit but still let them bring a few superfluous items.  I mean why not.  And then it was off to bed. 

 Jack was so excited he had to sleep with his travel pillow.  

JANUARY 12TH

When we left Henry in the morning he sat on my lap and said "Please? please?" in this sweetest voice ever.  He was excited to be with his grandparents but he also really wanted to be on that plane. He stood at the window and waved goodbye.  Grandpa Hill drove us to the airport, while Grandma Hill stayed with Henry and Nora at home. 

We left MSP and flew delta to L.A. Jack sat by me and then across the aisle Annie sat by Derek.  The delta people were super grumpy about putting us together, and we still had two strangers between us all. I got pretty nauseous which is extremely rare for me when I'm not pregnant (I'm not) and the flight felt like it lasted forever.  I really thought I was going have to run to the bathroom and puke. But I didn't and we made it.

Jack told me he was going to ask the captain for a flight card, but when he was leaving the plane the captain had them all ready for him and he turned back to me like "can you believe my luck?" he loves those flight cards. When he was getting on the plane before he said really loudly, "I bet first class seats are so hard and bad." Got a few chuckles from the fellow economy class people we were passing by. 

We ate Shake Shack right after getting off the plane in L.A. and we accidentally got Annie a cheeseburger instead of a chicken sandwich (oh calamity) but Jack shared his with her. Then he had his moment of grief when he found out our second plane was Delta instead of Hawaiian like we told him. He cried for awhile and called me a liar which ticked me off but then dad got him to cheer up and then we all laughed about it. 

We only had about a 1.5 hour layover, so we just hung out and Jack and Derek tossed a football to each other.  Annie keeps asking me what's the first thing we'll do when we get to the hotel and I say put on our swimming suits and go to the beach. Jack changed into his Hawaiian shirt before the second plane and got a few more smiles from that. There were a bunch of Derek's coworkers on the flights.

Second flight went much much better.  I felt like it actually went by faster than the first even though it was twice as long. Jack fell asleep at the end but Annie didn't. We landed at 7:30 but by the time we got our Nissan Rogue, stocked up at Walmart on food and snarfed down some mcnugs at walmart (great first meal in Hawaii, I KNOW) we got to the hotel around midnight. The hotel is like..... OH MY HEAVENS. they greeted us with leis and shell necklaces and took us up to our nice big suite.  We had fun exploring our room before sacking out hard. 

JANUARY 13th: SUNDAY

A perfect day. Woke up at 6:00 feeling refreshed and ready to go. We had room service bring us some bowls for our cereal and when she came up she offered to cut our pineapple for us too. We ate breakfast and watched the sunrise on our balcony. Tried chocolate peanut butter cheerios for the first time. All the balconies were covered with bougainvilleas. The kids were so excited and chomping at the bit to get going so we took them to the beach and started swimming right away. We were practically the first ones down there and had it to ourselves for a little while.  The beach at our hotel was called Polo beach.  It was perfect. Nice soft sand and pretty clear water. Derek saw a sea turtle almost right away cruising along in the waves. We explored the tide pools and found crabs and sea urchins and then Annie and I went up to explore the pool and the waterslide while Derek and Jack went swimming and swam next to three huge sea turtles! Annie and I were the first ones at the waterslide when it opened.  It had a cute little waterfall you went under. 

We did the pool and beach for a long time.  The kids didn't want to get in the big waves too much but they loved chasing them at the shore and building sand structures of various sorts. 

We came inside a little after noon and drove to a taco truck just south of our hotel for some coconut shrimp and mahi tacos. They were awesome. The limeade was fabulous too.  One funny moment came when Annie was coming to the car and we were already in there and she goes, "oh hey, sorry i'm late." just all casual.  You probably had to be there. 

We kept driving to the lava fields and hiked around for a bit.  We saw a wild endangered Hawaiian monk seal that was being guarded night and day by two workers.  

Annie cut herself on the hike so I came back with her to the car while Jack and Derek went a little further.  When we got back to the hotel there was a nice lady handing out passionfruit drinks and she gave us a ton of them.  She also got a bandaid for Annie and was just so concerned and helpful. 

We went back to the pool for a bit and then came up to shower and get ready for the free dinner put on by the conference.  It was a huge buffet out on the lawn with way more different kinds of food than you could even try (although I did my best). We watched the sun go down and sipped Aloha maids and ate endless shrimp.  They had these little crab claws that were sooo good I had so many of them. The kids were very polite and sweet and our favorite thing was the ice cream bar. 

When I was taking Jack to the bathroom he started listing everything he loved about Hawaii, and then we went back and forth.  Some of the ones that he said were, "snorkeling, fishing, birds, plants, trees, warmth, culture, weather, fish, ocean, sunset, sunrise." It was a really special moment with him.  WE sat by a family from Australia and Jack kept telling people, "these seats are reserved for the Australians!"

After dinner we went to the lawn and had family scripture on the beach chairs and looked at the stars.  It was such a nice moment in time. :) We each took turns saying what we loved about the gospel. I said it gave me perspective.  Dad said it gave him meaning. Jack said without the gospel we wouldn't be here.  Annie was asleep. We carried her up and we all fell asleep at 8:00 PM

JANUARY 14TH: MONDAY

Many months ago we had reserved some spots on the complimentary hotel canoe/whale watching ride. When we checked in and Derek got his reservation it said July so he called and they were so sorry but it was a mistake and they couldn't fix it.  BUT he got on the waitlist and luckily a spot opened up so he was able to go.  I went out at 7 am and saw three huge Humpback whales jump headfirst out of the water which I did not get on camera, and then I caught one waving with a fin on camera.  I'm not exaggerating when I say it really was a spiritual experience for me.  I couldn't help but tear up as I thought of the thousands of these majestic creatures living just under the water, and the magnitude of Heavenly Father's creations.

 I also loved the Hawaiian guides on the boat. They were very knowledgeable and explained to us all about the islands surrounding Maui- Target Island, Lanai, etc.  We watched the sunrise from the canoe and it was just incredibly magical to be out there. Before the boat took off they took time to gather some green plant that I really need to learn the name of it and stuff it into all the pockets of the canoe, and then they blew the conch shell to welcome the day and sang a little Hawaiian song to greet the sun. So cool. Derek went out at 10 AM and didn't see any whales but had a good time, except he does get sick on boats. We spent the rest of the afternoon playing on the beach and the pool.  I loved walking from the beach to the pool because of the lush gardens all the way. Everything is so happy to be growing in Hawaii.

Later that evening we went to Kihei and ate dinner at a place called Coconut's Fish Cafe, where we met a chicken who's name was actually hey-hey. Then we got some Ululani's shaved ice.  Jack got Hawaiian Blue, Annie got rainbow, I got haleakala with mochi, and Derek got some mixture of passionfruit and guava.  SOFTEST SNOW EVER.  and these weren't your run of the mill artificial flavored syrups. They were the real deal and so yummy.  We took our treats across the street to sugar beach and watched the sun go down while the kids played with the ocean and tried not to get wet.  Then it was back to the hotel and crashed in bed again!

JANUARY 15th: Tuesday

 This was the day of the Molokini snorkel! It's funny because we really weren't going to do this since Derek gets pretty sick snorkeling and on boats, but then Derek was like, we better just do it, the kids would love it! So we booked it.  And he did get sick but was a total trooper about it. According to him, he doesn't really get sick, just feeling out-of-sorts.  Anyways, I'm really glad we did it because it ended up being a super fun day. The BBQ lunch was actually way good, the boat had a slide on it (that looks way lamer in the videos than it actually was) and the kids were able to do quite a bit of snorkeling.  I forgot how crystal clear and blue the water is at Molokini.  I could snorkel for hours, I love it.  Better learn how to scuba dive. Annie got pretty shivery after a few minutes so she went back to the boat and hung out by herself for awhile.  She didn't seem to mind haha.  The professional photographer guy took some great photos of us but unfortunately they were like a 1000 dollars so i'll just have to lock them in my memory forever.  I did take some at the second snorkel site with my phone in a waterproof case but I need to practice with that apparently. haha.

On the way home we stopped at Maui pie and got a slice of cherry, chocolate haupia cream, and chocolate cream to share.  The best was the cherry.  When we got back to the hotel we swam some more and explored.  Then Derek got feeling a little sick from the boat earlier and Jack was done, so they went up to the hotel while I swam with Annie until everyone was gone out of the pool and it was just us two.  The lights from Ko restaurant at the hotel were so pretty and you could hear the distant chatter from the outdoor tables.  I watched Annie master the mermaid move she's been working so hard on and it was just a very special time with her.  After we went back and got dressed Annie and I went on a little walk around the hotel together and found some yummy ice cream that must have been the only food item in the hotel that didn't cost over 20 dollars. Then we sacked out again. Another wonderful day down and we were starting to feel a little panicky at how fast our time was slipping by.

JANUARY 16th: WEDNESDAY

 This was probably the day we were all looking the most forward to! The Deep-sea fishing day! It was very fun.  We didn't catch a ton, but the memories of watching these kids with our guides (who happened to be named Derek and Jack) and handle their own poles was worth every penny.  In the end, Jack caught a Moanafish and Annie caught a bluestripe snapper.  She got the first catch of the day, on her first cast! We thought it was going to be crazy action after that, but it slowed down a lot haha.

 In the video I originally had "Here comes the sun" playing at this part and it was perfect, but for some reason You Tube wouldn't let me post it with just that song on there so I had to swap it. 

 I bought Derek's shirt for him for Christmas when we were in Key West, and he bought Jack's.  They were too cute. 

 Annie was a rockstar. 

 Jack got himself a nice new hat at the shops at Maalea harbor, and Annie and I got a stickers for our hydroflasks.  

 When we got back to the hotel we decided to walk over to a secluded beach called white rock beach just down from our hotel a little.  There was hardly anyone there except for a few people shooting a wedding, and it was a great place to hang out and explore in the rocks.  We brought back some black sand for our jars (this is not the cursed sand from black sand beach) and found some pretty coral. We also found a lobster shell and Jack almost got swept off a rock by a wave.

That night we came home and it was the usual story, pool, crashed in bed. but not before driving to Kihei for some more Ululani's and a quick trip to the safeway for some more pineapple and snacks for.....

THE ROAD TO HANA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(to be continued)

P.S. This blog is mostly a journal entry with a scattering of my favorite pictures, but I did make a long slideshow video with almost all our pictures and videos, and put it on youtube.  Here is the link to that.