Maui

I spent over two weeks working on this blog post. I had to try and remember what we did each day as this seemed to be one of the only trips I didn't create an itinerary for. Then I had to try to sort pictures by day, which seems easy until you add in Australian camera pics with different dates than all the US cameras. Then I had to attempt to narrow down pics from each day. Then of course I wrote about each day, created picture collages and put the whole thing together. Needless to say this one post (since it covers a 14 day trip) took hours and hours to finish. Once I finished it, I clicked Publish, but to my surprise it wasn't posting. I tried saving and closing it, but kept getting a message that I had unsaved changes that would be lost. This was obviously worrisome and Hud was now up from his nap, so I quickly copied the entire post just in case something didn't get saved and closed it. When I re-opened it, everything but today's work (about 2 hours worth of work) was there. I was annoyed, but figured I'll just replace it with the saved work since I don't really have 2 hours of extra time to re-work on this one post. Well, imagine my surprise when I clicked paste and one sentence from an e-mail the night before replaced my entire Maui post. I immediately tried to undo, then close it, hoping I could at least get back to the version with the majority of the work included, but for some reason, blogger was dead set on saving this new version immediately. So I lost my entire Maui blog post. Add to the fact that I am 7 months pregnant and 8 months behind on my blog and you can imagine that I didn't take the news well. So, here is my 2nd attempt at this. I obviously won't be writing as much because to be honest, I just don't have the time or energy to spend so much time on one post!!

On November 20th, my mom, Hudson, Tyler, Justin and I left for Maui. We met up with Tomi, Ron, and Russel at the airport and we were all on the same flight. Hudson has started this new screaming thing when he is happy. He of course decided the flight would be a great time to scream, which was a bit stressful. Before we even took off, I got a text from Tyler at the back of the plane telling me to get my child under control! I spent most of the flight stuffing crunchies in Hud's mouth covering his mouth with a sock (a game I created that he thought was hilarious) and distracting Hud with ipad games. It was a tiring and stressful flight, but overall, Hudson was really good.

When we landed, we went to Costco before heading to the house. Susan, Rob, Lauren and Oliver arrived shortly after we did. 

On November 21st, Hud and I were up nice an early because of the time change. We enjoyed the view from my bed and I got in some cuddles (I try to savor those moments when they happen because Hud isn't a cuddler). Justin came in and got some bedtime snuggles with Hud too! We spent the day enjoying the pool. Then we watched a beautiful sunset and enjoyed a low key dinner at the house. Nic and my dad arrived late that night.

On November 22nd, we enjoyed the pool some more and the turtles.

That afternoon, the boys did some fishing. Rob showed them how to prepare the fish and they cooked it for dinner. My mom made Fisherman's Baked Ono, which is one of our favorite meals from Mama's Fish House. It was delicious and tasted almost exactly like the dish at the restaurant. She even made a special allergy free version for me. :) I made lava flows for everyone that night and we enjoyed another great sunset and family meal at the house.

On November 23rd, we went out on the boat. We decided to head over to Lanai. It was a beautiful ride over and everyone had a blast! 

We did some snorkeling at a beautiful spot and even took Hud for a little swim. 

The ride back started off just as fun, but turned rough quickly. Susan, Lauren and Oliver were on the wetter side and were getting drenched. They were laughing at first, but as the water kept nailing them, they got scared. Nic grabbed Oliver and I covered Hud in towels. Hud seemed to be fine, but Oliver was pretty scared. Susan ended up moving to a different seat, but didn't realize that you needed to bounce with the boat and she ended up with a huge welt. It was definitely the roughest trip I have been on in the boat and I was so bummed because of all the trips, it had to be the one Lauren and Susan came on. I have a feeling they likely won't be going out on the boat again. :(

That night we went to Sansei for dinner. It is one of my favorite restaurants in Maui and was delicious as always!

The day before we left for our trip, I got a skype call from Susan. I was all excited thinking she was calling about the trip, but as soon as I answered the call, I knew something was wrong. Susan's mum, Grandma Quill, had passed away. Susan wasn't sure if she should even come on the trip, but she decided that is what her her mum would have wanted her to do. They couldn't postpone the funeral, so they set up a computer and we watched it on November 24th via skype. Nic and I usually miss events like this, so in a way, for us, it was sort of nice to be able to go through such a tough time with Nic's family. Both Nic and Susan sent in readings for the funeral and we all sat on the couch and watched it together on the big screen. Afterwards, we got to quickly chat with many of the guests at the funeral. It was honestly almost as if we were there. After we said goodbye to everyone in Australia, I read a little something, then played the slideshow I had created. After that, we all went down to the beach. Each person took one of the flowers I had picked from the yard, then spoke about Grandma and threw their flower in. It was a really wonderful way to honor Nic's grandma and I think she would have loved it.

That afternoon, we enjoyed the pool, had a delicious sushi dinner made my Ron and relaxed in the jacuzzi. Twice on this trip, Hudson slipped in the shallow area and went under. The first time Sabrina was watching him, but I was closest so Hud was under for a few seconds before I grabbed him. He was under the water with bulging eyes just staring up at me waiting for me to save him. It was so surreal. The second time, I was more prepared and had him shortly after he went under. It was so scary and reminded me how quickly something terrible can happen. I must say though that those two moments made me so thankful that we put Hudson in swim lessons. Both times Hudson held his breath, didn't get scared and didn't cry. That made all the lessons totally worth it. 

On November 25th, everyone tried Vegemite. Then Susan, Rob and Hudson did a Vegemite dance. It was pretty funny!

We spent another day out by the pool and enjoyed a delicious dinner made by Susan and Lauren. We had one of my favorite meals, chicken burgers and tim tams and chocolate self-saucing pudding for dessert. Yum! That afternoon Craig arrived and Jocelyn and Chris came over for a swim and dinner. 

On November 26th, we took the boys to the nearby park in the morning. They had a blast.

In the afternoon, Nic's family went to the aquarium. We couldn't all fit in the car, so I offered to stay back at the house. It was actually nice to have a little bit of quiet time to myself and I know everyone had a wonderful time at the aquarium. 

That night, we went to Sugar Cane restaurant in Lahaina for dinner. 

On November 27th, the boys went out on the boat while the girls stayed home and prepared for Thanksgiving. That night we watched another amazing sunset before heading to Roys for another delicious dinner. 

On November 28th, the boys wanted to go boogie boarding so we tagged along and played at the beach. Then we had some more fun in the pool, before getting ready for Thanksgiving. 

That afternoon, we enjoyed a delicious feast! We had delicious appetizers, salmon pate, turkey, scalloped corn, mashed potatoes, gravy, peas, salad, crescent rolls and stuffing. For dessert we had apple crumble, pumpkin cupcakes and pumpkin pie. Everything was so good! The amazing view and spectacular sunset made it even better! The best part about it though is that we got to spend the holiday with all of my family and most of Nic's family. :)

Poor Hud couldn't enjoy any of the delicious food, so we gave him Thanksgiving themed food pouches: turkey, pumpkin, sweet potato, cranberry and apple.  Hud was able to eat the pumpkin cupcakes I made and he seemed to really be enjoying everyone's drinks. ;)

On November 29th, we went on our annual Day After Thanksgiving boat trip. Unfortunately, Susan and Lauren decided to pass, but they stayed back with the kids so it was nice to have a little kid free time. We got to see some whales on the way over to Molokini, which was cool. Seems like the day after Thanksgiving is always the official first day of whale sightings for our family too. We did some snorkeling at Molokini, which was beautiful! Then we enjoyed a nice cruise back. It was of course perfectly calm and smooth the entire time!

That night, Nic and I watched Hudson and Oliver while everyone else went to dinner at Lahaina Grill. It was one of the best restaurants on the island so I'm sure everyone had a fabulous time. We had a great time with the boys too! Nic read Oliver books, we all had dinner together and we watched The Little Mermaid. It was so nice for us to get to spend some one on one time with Oliver.

On November 30th, we went to Whaler's Village for some shopping and lunch at Hula Grill. Then we went to the beach for a bit. 

That night we went to Sansei for dinner again!

On December 1st, we woke up to a beautiful rainbow. We decided to squeeze one last beach day with the boys. They had so much fun playing in the sand and even made a new friend. Hudson had a great time splashing in the water too and we even got Susan out in the ocean splashing around with her grandson. :)

That night we all watched Planes together. After the kids went to bed we went out for one last night in the hot tub. 

On December 2nd, we gave Oliver his Christmas present. He was so excited before he even opened it, but was ecstatic when he realized he got his very own elf on the shelf! 

After that, it was time for the part everyone was dreading... goodbyes. It is always especially hard to say goodbye to Nic's family because we don't get to see them that often. Luckily, we will be seeing them again soon so this goodbye was a little easier, but it was still sad. 

After everyone left, my mom, Hudson and I went to the beach. Hudson had so much fun playing in the sand with all of his sand toys. Then I took him into the ocean for a little dip before we came back home to play in the pool. Hudson has been really loving the pool and the beach this trip!

We enjoyed one last amazing sunset before heading to dinner at Hula Grill. Hudson was really well behaved at dinner and we had a great time!

On December 3rd, it was time for my mom, Hudson and I to head home as well. My mom is TSA pre-approved so she went in a separate security line from us. I had to take out my laptop, Hud's medicines and bottle stuff, put the carseat and base on the conveyor and fold the stroller and place it on the conveyor all while holding Hudson. I was impressively fast too! The people behind me in line told me I deserved a medal! We even got through security at the same time. Then when it was time to board the plane, my mom got to pre-board. I was doing great until they made me check my stroller at the top of the tunnel instead of just before boarding the plane. I didn't have enough hands to hold everything so I had to place Hudson's base on top of him in the car seat. One of the flight attendants was able to help me just before we got on the plane and asked if I was traveling by myself. I was pretty embarrassed when my mom was waving at us from our seats. haha. So much for traveling with my mom so that she could help me with Hudson. It did make for a funny story though and proved to me that I am capable of traveling with a little one by myself.