Maui - Day 1

We left for Maui on the afternoon of Thursday, January 7th. We were only planning to check a few bags, but we found out the night before we left that with Jeremiah's medallion status, we could check up to two bags per person free of charge! So we packed some more! We decided to bring boogie boards from home (instead of buying or renting some once we got there, as we had planned) and pack a lot more food. We ended up with some extra room in one of the suitcases, so Jeremiah went out to the freezer and grabbed a roast and a rack of ribs! (They were still frozen when we arrived in Hawaii.) We were glad to have everything, but with all that, plus car seats and backpacks, it was a lot of luggage to keep track of!The kids seemed excited and interested in the whole airport check-in and security process. They also enjoyed watching planes for a bit while we waited to board.
During the flight, the kids watched movies, colored, played barbies, checked out the little potty, looked out the window, enjoyed their snacks, slept, and - for the most part - were very well behaved. It was smoother than I had dared hope.


Due to the combined long flight and time change (with Hawaii being three hours later), we did not arrive until bedtime. It was so wonderful to step off the plane and into the open air Kahului airport. The air was warm, humid, and sweet.
We got our rental cars and drove to Kihei, where we would be spending the first few days of our trip. It was very late by the time we checked in to the condo, so we brought in our luggage and went to bed.

Hawaii Trip

For Christmas we decided to give our children (and ourselves!) a two week vacation to Maui. The last time we went was 3 1/2 years ago. (Our aim has been to go every other year.) After a planned trip almost two years ago had to be canceled because we were in the midst of home construction and could not feasibly get away, it was high time for us to make this trip - so that is how we spent half of January, taking full advantage of the kids time off track!

Happily, and somewhat incredibly, the cost for our trip was minimal! Between sky miles, our time share exchange, and various other helpful factors, it cost less than $500 out of pocket to take our family of five to Maui for 12 days - that includes everything! I have to say, that was $500 WELL SPENT.

Our long time friends, Aaron and Lisa, and their cute little boy, Andrew, traveled with us. Between the four adults, four young children, and many, many bags, travel was quite a chore and felt like a bit of a freak show at times with the attention we attracted. :-) But in the end, I am pleased that we were able to pull this off so flawlessly.

Our family made many wonderful memories to last a lifetime. I've been sorting through pictures and plan to post a trip report here in coming days.

Let's see... where were we?

After more than 10 months, I am jumping back into the blogging world! I kept thinking I needed to go back and play catch up, but the more I fell behind the more daunting the task seemed, so I kind of gave up on it for a while. And, I've got to be honest, it became harder to find time for blogging once I was introduced to Facebook. (Curse you, Facebook!)

But this is a new year, a new decade! 2010 is my fresh slate and the perfect time to start blogging again. I am so optimistic about and excited for all the wonderful and exciting things that will be happening for my family, and I want to get back to writing down the things going on in our lives and all the little details about things my children do and say that I want to be able to remember forever.

My intention is to post every week or two, but we will just see how things go.

Happy new year, everyone!