Here is one picture that didn't really go with anything else. We had a great chart of who was on dinner duty that night, our snacks and our schedule. It was great!
Day 1: Wednesday August 4Th:
Around 10am, Paige, Justin & I headed to Oakland Airport. We parked our car at a lot close to the airport (I found a coupon for $4.99/day!). The shuttle was right at our car and took us to the terminal. We were loaded with baby stuff (Car seat and a pack-n-play) and our luggage. Once we checked our bags and made it through security we found our way to the gate. Paige found a balloon to keep her busy with and we tried to relax a little.
We got on the plane, armed with activities and other fun things to do. Our portable DVD player is 6 years old and has a very short battery life so we had other things to do as well. We made fruit loop necklaces, and I made rice crispy treats for take off/landing. I had some other fun coloring/sticker activities. We did watch some movies, but Paige did not really like having the headset on and the battery died about 30 minutes before we landed. She did take a nap, but it took a little while to get her down. Overall- the flight went well but we were ready to get off.
After we landed we went to pick-up our compact rental car which we got through Priceline.com for $12/day. They had not compact or mid size cars on the lot, so we walked out with a full size car for the same price!
We headed to Wal-Mart for a few things. We got a booster seat for Paige for $12, a couple of pairs of water shoes for Justin & Paige, some disposable cameras (One for Paige which we believe we lost unfortunately) and an underwater one for Justin. My family was landing a little while later and we were not sure if we were making a Costco trip or not. So we plugged in park in our GPS. We discovered that parks in Hawaii are usually a beach or something similar. So we hung out at the beach until my parents called.
Once they had their rental car, we realized we had no room for Costco. So we headed to our condo about an hour from the airport. We got checked in and went out to pizza. It was almost 8pm Hawaii time (Or 11PM our time). Paige was a trooper. After dinner we went to the grocery store to pick-up a few things. Paige looked at Chelsie and said "I want to go sleep in my new bed please". So Justin & Kayla took her back and put her to sleep. Her new bed was the pack-n-play which we put in our walk in closet as her own little room.
Day 2- Thursday August 5Th:
She was up at 4am. We discovered we had an emergency exit off of our bathroom which helped Justin take her to the beach without waking everyone else up. He was digging for crabs with her and met an interesting guy we call "Arkansas". It was his 2nd to last day there and he was so excited about digging for crabs he woke his wife up. He was fun to watch from our balcony- quite the character.
The rest of the family woke up and we enjoyed some coffee and breakfast on our Lanai. We spent the day relaxing at the beach/pool. My parents/Nana went for a long walk. They ended up near the place we stayed last time and decided to have lunch at the Hula Grill. This is the barefoot restaurant we just loved.
For dinner we started our first dinner at home. Chelsie was the head chef, and Me & Dad were her helpers. She made Mango chicken which was so good. We headed to bed fairly early and hoped Paige would sleep in a little later.
Day 3- Friday August 6Th
Paige slept in a little later but she was still up early. Justin took her to the beach again. We had a nice breakfast. I believe that we spent the day relaxing. During the day, Paige had fun playing with the coasters and made daddy a "Bikini".And then for dinner, my parents neighbors, the Spaldings, came over for dinner. It was their last night in Maui. Their son and Justin had a great time scaring people passing by pretending to be a Teradactle.
Day 4- Saturday August 7Th
We went up the coast to a place called Honolua Bay to go snorkeling. The beach was all rocks. We had to walk through a rain forest to get there. We put Paige in her life vest and floaty ring. Kayla, Chelsie and I were in our floaty's too. When we got in the water, my dad actually took all of us out to the middle of the bay for snorkeling. Justin was too nervous with my daughter so he took her back to shore where my Nana/mom were hanging out.
I snorkeled for a while and saw some cool fish including a puffer fish. When I headed in, my mom headed out. Sitting on the rocks, I found out that there were lots of rats/mice crawling in there. Plus there were gigantic bees. I could not wait to get out of there at that point.
We hiked back through the rain forest. Justin, Kayla , Paige and I headed back to the Condo so Paige could nap. My parents, Chelsie & Nana checked out the other beach we had wanted to go to.
Justin stayed home with Paige while the rest of us went shopping at the Cannery mall.
That night, Mom, Nana & Chelsie were on for dinner. We had steak, shrimp and three bean salad. They also made smashed purple potatoes which everyone seemed to like, but I did not.
Day 5- Sunday August 8Th
We realized that Paige had some gunk in her eye that was not going away. So while everyone else headed to a church on the beach, Justin & I took Paige to the Urgent Care in Lahaina. She did have pink eye. While we were waiting for our prescription we walked around the Cannery Mall and got an Orange Julius.
We waited at the condo for everyone. Had a nice lunch and then headed to the beach that we had missed the day before. Slaughterhouse beach was perfect. It was sandy an the water was great. We played and floated around in the ocean for hours.
We headed back to the Condo so Paige could take a nap. Mikaila took Paige to play with her beach ball down in the lawn. My mom and I were on the Lanai watching the sun go down. My mom saw something floating- it was a beach ball. Just then Kayla came back and they had lost the beach ball in the ocean.
That night, Kayla made Terriyaki Chicken sticks, rice and a really good salad.
Day 6:Monday August 9Th
The morning of Day 6, we went shopping at Hilo Hatties. Then we headed back to the Condo, had a lunch and headed out to Lorraine's Shaved ice. We stopped at the Blow Hole on the way there. It was actually blowing this year!
Lorraine's is one of our favorite places to visit. It is a little bit of a drive on a one way road. But she is a character. We had our shaved ice, bought a new t-shirt and some passion fruit. My parents bought her banana bread and toasted coconut. The food is good, but it is Lorraine that makes the visit worth it.
On the way home, we stopped at a couple of great lookouts. Papa had his binoculars. He let Paige look through them. The first thing she said was "I see my ball"! It was so funny.
Dinner that night was Justin, Chelsie & Mikaila. He made Terriyaki burgers with grilled pineapple.
Day 7- Tuesday August 10th
On Tuesday Morning we split up a little. My mom, nana & Paige went swimming at the Marriott while Chelsie, dad and Kayla went to ride Jet Ski's.
Justin & I rented Mopeds to go on a drive down the coast- Or so went the plan. We rented them from Aloha Moped Rentals. The guy taught me how to ride it and away we went. I was shaking, I was so scared and of course I only went about 20 miles an hour at the fastest. I couldn't turn very well and I was so afraid of falling off. We road for about a half hour total and then returned my moped while Justin went to finish off the remaining 1 1/2 hours.
Since it was Chelsie's last day- we went to lunch at Duke's (The restaurant at our hotel). It was expensive and it was OK. But at least we tried it.
After lunch, we put Paige in for a nap and then Chelsie, Kayla & I got our nails done.
My parents friends, the Burns, were also staying in the same building (Same floor) as us. They came over for appetizers and Chris brought his nice camera. We took some great family pictures at sunset.
Then we enjoyed dinner prepared by Me, Justin & Nana.
Day 8- Wednesday August 11th
Chelsie had to head back a day early so she could drive down to school. So my parents took her to the airport and then went for a hike with Nana. Justin & I took Paige to the Maui Ocean Center. It was expensive for what it is, but we may just be spoiled with the places we have around us. There were some fish we had never seen before, and I loved the Sea Turtle exhibit. Kayla stayed at the condo and hung out by the pool.
After the Ocean Center, we headed back to Lahaina where we had lunch at Aloha Mixed plate. It was good. One of the best meals out we had all week and fairly inexpensive. The rest of my family missed out.
We headed back, put Paige in for a nap. Kayla and I head back to the pool since it was our last full day/night.
In the evening, everyone except Paige & Me went on a stargazing cruise. Paige & I relaxed at the hotel and enjoyed our final sunset from the Lanai. It was weird staying in by ourselves. And Kayla & I had gone to the hot tub almost every night so I missed that.
Day 9- Thursday August 12th
Our last morning, I got up a little earlier than normal. Everyone except Kayla met Mr Burns and went down to Black Rock for some snorkeling. The waves were much gentler than they were three years ago. Black rock was where a wave crashed me into the shore into Chelsie when I was pregnant. My mom did get hit with a big one, but most of them were small. I saw some great fish.
When we got back to the condo, Kayla and I went for one last swim. Paige joined us a little while later. When I was taking a shower, I was informed that we had to check out earlier (2pm instead of 6pm) than expected. However, my dad took care of that and we were allowed to stay until 5:30. We packed up most of our stuff and put Paige in for her nap.
We had some lunch and I kept going back to the pool/spa for one last time, putting my feet in each time. I took Paige on one last walk on the beach after her nap while other people packed. At 5:30 we loaded up the cars and headed towards the airport. We stopped at one lookout point but it was so windy we didn't stay long.
We stopped at L&L's Hawaiian BBQ for dinner near the airport. We split up to return our rental cars. When we were going through security, Paige spotted my family and it was hard to keep her in line with us. We were on different ends of the terminal, so we said our goodbye's and headed to our gate.
The flight was difficult with Paige, she fell asleep after take-off but woke up about 1 1/2 hours into the flight and was kicking and fighting. She was in her car seat which made it easier to kick the seat in front of her. I pulled her out and she cuddled/slept with me until she woke up screaming "I want my mommy" about 45 minutes before we landed. I calmed her down and she just cuddled with me for the rest of the flight. She complained about her ears hurting a little, but she didn't cry about it. We got off the plane, caught our shuttle back to the car and headed home.
