On our last day, we raced to the mall before our flight to get Hudson's photo with Santa. Since its Maui, Santa had turtles and dolphins all around. Luckily, Mihala had given Hudson an adorable Christmas outfit so he had something to wear.
Hudson did so well on the flight home. He only fussed a few times, mostly when an announcement was made over the loudspeaker waking him up.
It was such an amazing trip and we were sad that it was over, but it was nice to get home. Hopefully it won't be too long until we are back in Paradise. (We came home to beautiful fall)
On Monday, November 26th, Nic and I took Hudson to Whalers Village for some shopping and to get lunch at Hula Grill.
That afternoon my friend Jackie came over. Thanks to facebook I saw that she was on vacation with her daughter and husband so we coordinated a meet-up. We walked down to see the turtles, watched the sunset and went to Sansei for another amazing sushi dinner.
Sunday, Nov. 25th was the day we had been dreading since the trip began. We had to say goodbye to Nic's family. :( We started the day off with a delicious home cooked breakfast of waffles, sausage and fruit.
After our tearful goodbyes and a trip to the airport, Nic and I got ready for our anniversary dinner. My parents watched Hudson for us so we could have a date night. We went to our favorite restaurant Kimos. We had a seat right on the water and had a fabulous evening.
Saturday, Nov. 24 was our anniversary. We have been together for 8 years and married for exactly 4 1/2!! I can't even wrap my head around it! The time is going by so fast. We spent the morning taking group photos. It was the last day before people started leaving and we wanted to get photos in the shirts Tomi had made specially for the trip.
We also took Hudson in the pool again. He really liked it this time. He even smiled a few times!!!
Crazy Tyler jumped off the roof which provided all of us plenty of entertainment.
We spent most of the day relaxing around the house and ended up spending our last night together doing a low key dinner at the house and enjoying a night swim and jacuzzi time.
On Friday, November 23, I decided to skip the boat trip and instead spend the morning with Nic's family and Hudson enjoying our pool. We took Hudson in the pool for the first time and it was really fun. He looked so cute in his little swim trunks and water shirt.
While we were having fun with Hud in the pool, the gang out on the boat were having the experience of a lifetime. They had an incredible whale encounter. I must admit I was a little jealous that I missed it, but I guess that is how it goes when you have kids.
Later that afternoon, Sabrina watched Hudson while Nic, Anna, Stu, Lauren, Craig, Rob and I went snorkeling at our favorite spot. We saw tons of turtles and had a fantastic time. :)
When we got back to the house we all jumped into the pool. We stayed in all afternoon and watched the sunset. It felt like we had the best view on the island!!
After enjoying the gorgeous sunset from the pool, we all got ready for dinner. We squeezed in some shopping at Whalers Village then got a late dinner at Roys. It was delicious as always. It was a really fantastic day!!
On November 22nd, we celebrated Thanksgiving. I can't even begin to express how thankful I am this year. Nic and I feel so incredibly blessed to be parents to the most wonderful little boy. Hudson has enriched our lives so much and we feel truly grateful to have him in our lives. On top of that, we got to spend Thanksgiving with both of our families!! It's difficult to live so far away from Nic's family and honestly, we don't see my family all that often either (and it is especially rare for all of my family to be together these days) so it was really exciting to spend this time with everyone. The icing on the cake, is that we get to spend this time with all of the most important people in our lives in Paradise!!! I don't think we could be any more fortunate!! We definitely have a lot to be thankful for!!!
After the pool inauguration, we all got ready for Thanksgiving. We took some family photos, spent time with everyone and enjoyed the most delicious meal! Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, rolls, peas, corn casserole and salmon pate. Yum!! This is one of my absolute favorite meals of the year!!
After days of watching the pool construction and another couple watching them fill it up and inspect it, we finally got the ok to get in!!! On Thanksgiving morning, November 22nd, the pool was officially ready for us!!
This is what it looked like when we arrived.
Hard at work trying to finish.
Filling it up!
My parents wanted to doing something special to commemorate the occasion so we did a special jump into the pool as a family. :) It was a lot of fun! After the first jump and some photos everyone jumped in!! It was pretty exciting, too bad the weather wasn't as gorgeous as it was for the rest of the trip.
