Hawaii

*Warning*Long Post*

Day 1 (Friday)

5:30 am our nice sister-in-law took us to the airport. The airport went smoothly, Jacob didn't seem to mind the climb in altitude in the airplane. We had a non-stop flight from Seattle to Maui.....loved that! Jacob slept well in my arms....not too bad after all. Here is a small clip of him on the plane.

We arrived in Maui, and were met by our friends Jon & Chris. Chris is a local Mauiian, and it was her grandmother's house we stayed in, in Lahaina. What a wonderful home, we had it all to ourselves, and had a grand time. More pics on the house later. We of course stopped at Costco and the grocery store, and were introduced to an odd but wondeful treat called, Guri Guri. I can't even explain it....but it was YUMMY! We went to lunch/dinner, and all of us were asleep by 7:20pm and slept for 12 hours straight. It was lovely.

Day2 (Saturday)

We went to our first beach in Hawaii. We hit, Ka'anapali beach, which was great. It has a nice paved beach side path along it, with beach on one side and resorts on the other. By the end of the paved walk, I was sweating (I was not ready for the humidity in Hawaii), so Jacob and I changed into swim suits and went swimming. This was Jacob's first experience with the ocean, and although these pictures show him enjoying himself, he soon decided to hate the surf and sand altogether.

While Jacob was napping after the beach, John went to the store and got me this beautiful lei made from fragrant plumeria blossoms. John loved the plumeria tree so well, he brought home a root to start his own tree in Idaho. What do you think? Than we went to Front street in Lahiana and tooled in the shops and on the dock for a while. Jacob was so cute, everyone stopped us to comment.....duh!

Day 3 (Sunday)

Jon and Chris spent Saturday night with us at the house. Church was only 1 block away, and we drove....as we pulled into the parking lot we were commenting on how silly it was to drive......we shortly would find out why it was not so silly! Jacob was ready for a nap when church started, so as soon as the sacrament was over, I found a quiet room and rocked him to sleep in no time. So there I sat with John in church, basking in the cuddling time I was getting with Jacob, his head resting against my chest, feet curled up in my lap. Than he lifted his head, looked at me, and vomited more than I've ever seen from a little kid! All over me! John saw the whole thing, I turned our friends and whispered "we have to go home", and we quietly walked out of church. Jacob, in the meanwhile, was so sick, that he just turned he head and laid back down on me, not realized the slimy mess he was in. So, thankfully we drove, and John drove us up the 1 block to the house. Jacob and I promptly took a shower, than he threw up on me again, we took another shower. Yikes! Poor kid. Thankfully this house had a washer and dryer. That was the BEST. Poor Jakie, he was sick all afternoon, taking fitful naps, dry heaving, and just being miserable. This pic is of poor Jacob, too exhausted to move, laying on the floor rubbing his head with his left foot. Amazing trick, we had to document it. By the end of the evening, he seemed to be feeling better, and slept through the night as usual.

Day 4 (Monday)

This was a John day, and since Jacob seemed to be feeling better, we hit the road to go hiking. We ended up hiking the WAIHEE RIDGE TRAIL. It is 2.5 miles, but we did not go all the way up the ridge, because as we climbed, the clouds and mist came in so thick, it obscured our views. It was pretty though. We saw some pretty waterfalls only a mile away, and had picturesque vistas of the ocean and valley below.

On our way back to the other side of West Maui, we visited the Iao Needle and Iao valley observation site. The Iao needle is just the side view of a skinny peak, so it looks like a needle, or a tower. It was very beautiful. After this we headed to Tom's for shaved ice....served with ice cream on the bottom, and condensed milk on the top. Yum! Thanks Jon and Chris for introducing us to such a delicacy.

That evening we all headed down to South Maui for a Luau at the Marriott resort in Wailea. On the way down there, I was in the back seat with Jacob, feeding him a bottle. Than as the 45 min. car trip continued, I commented that Jacob was looking a little "green." Sure enough, Jacob's whining and complaining was resolved when he threw up AGAIN, everything he had eaten all day. Ugh! It got all over him, the back seat he was facing, and his car seat. Thankfully, I didn't get any on me. I was sure our evening was over, but we quickly realized that Jacob was so happy after he had thrown up (see pic below). So, we stopped at the first Wailea beach, and prayed for a shower....and there was. So, in between beach goers headed to dinner, we washed Jacob and the car seat. Thankfully I had clean beach towels and his swimming outfit in the trunk....and off we headed to the Luau. It was a nice Luau on a beautiful beach, it was a bit too long, and the food was moderately good, but the show was great. Great music, great hula dancing, acrobatics, and finally a Samoan fire dancer. All in all, fun, even with the mishap on the way over.

Day 5 (Tuesday)

This was supposed to be a Sara day, and it was in a small way, but we had fun none the less. Jon and Chris came out again to go snorkeling. We arrived at the Napili beach in separate cars (this will make sense later), and since we were there early, got great parking spots. Jacob and I had fun in the shade while John, Jon, and Chris went snorkeling. It was a bit too windy, and they saw some fish, but it was a little more difficult that they had hoped for. None the less they had a nice time. I played with the boogie board in the surf after they came back and were drying out. But to our dismay, John realized that he had gone snorkeling with our rental car's ELECTRONIC key in his pocket. So, while he waited for it to dry out on the beach, I went to my 11:30 appointment at the Westin Spa. I Love the Westin....it was so nice. I returned to pick up John and Jacob, and say goodbye for the day to our friends, only to find that the key does not work to the car. There was no way to get in, or start the engine at all. Chris's wonderful father, dropped everything he was doing, drove to the rental car company, picked up the key, and met Chris and the boys half way to deliver the key. UGH! ruined their afternoon and ours. Oh well! So, Jacob and I had naps at home while we waved bye -bye to our $100 to replace the key. What a day! Thankfully I got my pedicure!

Day 6 (Wednesday)

John day again, this time we woke up at 5:30, hit the road at 6:30. Here are some pictures of Jacob and I at 6:30 excited to start our day in the car.

Now, before I left the mainland, I had researched the Hana Highway. Many beautiful sights are found on that south side of the island, only accessible by the Hana Highway. Now, a country/mountain girl like me is not afraid of a winding mountain road, and since Jacob wasn't showing any signs of throwing up, we all packed in the car early, picked up John and headed down the Hana highway, armed with camera's, snacks, and bug spray. They did mention the road would be narrow, but was none the less 2 lanes the whole way to Hana. What they didn't mention was narrow meant blind turns (almost witnessed a head on collision between 2 dump trucks), one lane bridges, and 2 lanes if your are driving a SMART CAR!!!!! Well, all of that combined, my anxiety grew and grew as we passed each mile marker. All of a sudden, all the fun sights, hikes, and beaches I wanted to see didn't seem so interesting any more. By the time we got past Hana to the Seven Sacred Pools, I was a wreck, full of anxiety of getting into a car wreck, or one of the boys falling off the side of a cliff. Poor John! That side of the Island was indeed the most lush beautiful rain forest I have ever seen....but I would have been happier to look at pictures in a book. Who knew?! Here are a few pics of some sights we saw on the road, and one of me really mad, carrying Jacob because I didn't want John to take him with him on a potential fall off a cliff. On the road, we so many waterfalls, we saw an ancient Hawaiian temple, tried to get to the Blue Pools (only to be turned away by Frank's nieces), ate excellent banana bread, and ate TONS of mangos, trail mix, and fritos. All in all, we spent 12 hours in the car, and Jacob did remarkably well, only having 2 fussy fits just before he fell asleep.

Day 7 (Thursday)

Sara day again, and this time I did get the whole day. We all woke up at 6AM, just like we did every morning we were there. But, Jacob and I took naps by 8:45am. After our long leisurely naps, we headed back to Wailea to see the shops at Wailea, and go to the beach. What fun, what relaxation. The shops were fun, I came across a CUTE store that had beautiful, made in Hawaii, children's outfits. We ate at Ruth's Chris, which taught us that our eating out days with Jacob are OVER. It's no fun anymore. We went to Po'olenalena Beach, which was beautiful and quiet. It was windy, so there was no good snorkeling, but we played in the sand with Jacob (which he hated), swam, and held Jacob while he napped and watched the crabs come out of the sand.....I think they wanted to eat me. It was fun/relaxing. We got sand in EVERYTHING, because it was so fine and windy. After dinner, and one more stop at that cute shop....we headed home after a very fun, slow paced Sara day.

Day 8 (Friday)

John day, but it started out at 7:30 instead of our usual John time of 6:30! We headed up country. On the look out for a great bakery and glass blowing. John is obsessed with glass blowing. He can't wait to buy expensive blown glass art for our home.....weird because it doesn't compliment any of our decor styles....oh well. I don't have to worry about it for a very long time with the prices glass blowing artists are asking. We did find a wonderful bakery called Komodo, and while we waited for the glass blowing shop to open, we decided to go to Poli Poli state park and walk around the Red Wood forest they have there. No such luck. We once again found ourselves on a WINDY, BLIND TURNS, STEEP, and NARROW road with Cows all over the place. Finally, we turned around because it was so ridiculous to get up there. But it was so funny to see these cows wandering all over. John honked at one in the road, and startled the poor little calf suckling on the other side. John enjoyed his glass blowing demonstration, asked the guy a whole bunch of question....than I dropped John off at Chris's grandparents house in Wailuku so they could all go golfing. John said it was the most beautiful golf course he has ever been on, right next to the beach. I say it was the longest golf game in history! They all brought me back take out after Jacob went to bed. Enjoy this self portrait of the four of us as we said our goodbye's. We'll miss Jon and Chris, and we wish them all the best in Virginia, with medical school and the birth of the their baby. We can't wait to see them again! (oops pics to follow!)

Day 9 (Saturday)

Sadly we had to leave the wonderful house in Lahiana. Here are a few pics of the house, with it's wonderful views of the sunset and refreshing pool.

We packed, made it to the airport, and we became very alarmed....our luggage had given birth since our arrival in Maui. Here I am in the airport.....This seemed so excessive to John and I....but we don't know, is this what it is like traveling with a child? But what happens when we have 5 kids? I think we just over pack, even when we try so hard not too. We will have to definitely do something about this ridiculous baggage situation! The people behind us in line at the ticket counter finally made a comment! But they didn't have kids....so we could blame poor Jacob as the reasonable excuse for it all. Yikes!

We spent the night in Seattle.....definitely NOT worth the $200 it saved.....next time, bite the bullet, and try to get home in one day! Jacob did great in the hotel room, too bad he woke up at 6am, like clock work. We are still adjusting to our 4 hours time change.

We had a wondeful time in Hawaii. John came back refreshed, ready to tackle the riggors of his business. He came back even better friends with me and Jakie. Jacob thought he was in hog heaven having his playful daddy around for 10 days. It may be a long time before we go on a vacation that long again, but we are so glad we did. Thank you to all of our friends who gave us tips on traveling with children, thanks to our friends who watered my garden and killed the gophers in our yard while we were gone, thanks to our office staff who dutifully took care of business while we were gone, and most ESPECIAL thanks to Chris's parents, Stan and Ann, for providing us with a beautiful home in Maui to vacation in.

Til next time, Aloha!