Road Trip

This is finally my last post from the trip to Maui. On day #3 we went on a little road trip up the coast and ended in a town called Kahakuloa Village. On our way we did a little hiking to see some neat Maui natural attractions. Not many of those pictures actually turned out very well, but here is one of the ferocious waves. We were hiking right along the edge. And yes, apparently we are stupid enough to take a two-year old on the hike. Luckily John is in great shape and carried Mark all the way down and up our hikes. They only fell once and nothing was broken!

Here we are at Dragon's Teeth. Its a neat lava formation shaped into spikes (or teeth) from the salty sea water blowing to the north. Mark was worried that the dragon would bite him!

On our little road trip we finally came upon a bus turned smoothie stand and stopped for some smoothies. On the way we bought some pinapples at a road-side stand. This pic is of Mark and Gammy with the pinapples waiting on their pinapple smoothies. Dad and John got pina-colada smoothies.

And lastly, John and his coconut. You have no idea how long John has been talking about how excited he is to pull over on the side of the road and drink from a fresh coconut. Well, little did we know that that is near impossible here. But luckily we met Ms. Lorraine. She sells fresh baked bananna bread out of her home along with chocolate dipped fruit, coconut candy, etc. Well while we were sitting in her back yard eating all of her yummy food, John told her his sob story about wanting to drink from a fresh coconut and not finding any. She was so great! She sent John over to her husband who chopped down a young coconut, skinned it, and poked a hole in it for John to drink the young coconut juice. We got a big lesson on coconuts that day. They also cut open a mature coconut for us all to eat. John was in heaven and told Ms. Lorraine that she made his trip. On our way out of their driveway he said to me, "I can now cross off one of the top ten things I want to do in my life." =)

Boys vs. Girls

All of us got a "toddler-free" day on our trip to do some more adult vacation activities. John and my dad went over to Lanai, a neighboring island, and played 36 holes of golf. They say the pictures don't do it justice, but it was beautiful. The first 18 holes were on the mountain course and the last 18 were on the ocean course. The rumor is that Bill Gates got married on one fo the holes of the ocean course. Here are some pics that John took.

They think they had the most fun, but the next day Mom and I had our day. And let me just tell you, I didn't call this a celebration trip for nothing! As I was researching where to stay in Maui I ran accross The Grand Wailea resort. While it was WAY to expensive to stay there ($1200/night) they have the most beautiful spa I have ever seen. So mom and I made appointments for facials. Our facial appointment was at noon but from 11:00 to noon we had our "terme hydrotherapy." You really should google the Spa Grande at the Grand Wailea. This terme treatment that we have no pictures of consisted of three different types of spas. A traditional european spa (picture roman bath), a japonese spa with a cold plunge, and then the hawaiian spa. The Hawaiian spa consisted of 5 different hot tubs representing the five islands of Hawaii. Each was infused with different herbs, spices, treatments. They are all different colors and smell heavenly. So my favorite quote from the trip comes from when mom and I got in the first Hawaiian hot tub terme treatment thingy. She said that we had to stay at the grand wailea next time we come. I said even if we could afford to stay at that resort we couldn't afford a spa treatment every day. And then she said matter-of-factly, as serious as she could be, "Well we just won't eat." !!!! That's how great the spa was. I really think she was serious- cracks me up. Anyway, also in the hawaiian spa room are three waterfall-type showers to stand under that massage your back. While you are doing your "terme" (pronounced "tear-may") treatment, a spa attendent calls you over to another room and loofahs off your entire body. Mind you, you are eating fruit and drinking ice water and mango iced tea. And this is all before your actual spa treatment!!

Here are a couple of pics inside the Grand Wailea. Don't have any of the spa like I said because we were wet. You'll just have to google it to see that.

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Pictures, pictures, pictures

So why is it that on vacation we are always lining up for these group shots? Especially if you can't even tell where we are. I mean, its one thing if you are in front of the ocean or on top of a mountain, but when you could be standing in your backyard, what's the point? I don't know but we tend to take a lot of family pics while on vacation! The above was taken just outside our condo. We were on our way to a sunset dinner cruise.

This one was taken in the main drive to the resort. We were on our way to a luau.

Here we are on the dinner cruise, about to leave the harbor. Why did my mother and I, the two most motion-sick people in the world, decide to go on a dinner cruise? I have no idea. But thats why you're seeing this picture, the one before the vomiting began. There is a pic I posted earlier of the guys and the sunset. Thats because mom and I were down below where the boat is supposed to be more steady. John and dad refer to it as their date night. Ha ha guys.

Mom and Dad waiting for the sunset. We were at a restaurant called Kimos. Good food and awesome ocean and sunset views.



Here we are all together for lunch at the Hula Grill. Its just a 2 minute walk down the boardwalk from our condo. There was a big Hawaiian dude playing a ukelele and singing so Mark was in a trance...he loves singers.

The Beach!!

We had been talking up the beach for some time to Mark. I mean, for months. We were constantly talking about sand castles and dolphins. He was very excited. Almost every day we picked him up from daycare he'd say, "Where we going?" We'd say "home" and he's respond, "But I wanna go Hawaii and do sand castles!" So needless to say he was pumped about heading out the first day.

Ready for the beach!

This is Kapalua beach. We played there a couple of days because the waves were gentler than the ones just out from our condo. We also snorkled there and thank goodness those pictures were on a diposable water proof camera. John thought it was funny to take pictures of me underwater.


Finally building sand castles!! See how he's holding his left hand? He didn't like for his hands to be dirty. And the sand there was so fine it would stick to you and was nearly impossible to get off. He got used to it though and we had a great time trying to protect our castles from the waves that just kept getting closer and closer.

One of his favorite activities: running from the waves. He would go charging in and then running back out before the next wave hit. We are pretty ocean naive and had no idea how strong waves can be. They certainly gained our respect. You don't even have to be knee-deep in the water for them to knock you down, even on the way back out! And poor little Mark was knocked over everytime it got up to his ankles. Not that that stopped him! He wore either his sunglasses or a hat religiously. His light colored eyes must really be sensitive to the sun because he never took the things off. I've never known a kid to wear sunglasses for so long.

I just wonder what he was thinking about!

Hawaiian Sunsets

Not much really needs to be said about these. Just one beautiful sunset after another!

Luau!

We had heard varying reports on luau's before we came so we weren't sure if we were going to enjoy one or not. I went ahead and booked one because I knew Mark would love it. He is enthralled with singers, dancers, bands, etc. In fact he has told me before that he is going to be a singer on TV (like American Idol) when he grows up! Anyway we were all surprised when it turned out to be great. It was probably a highlight of the trip for me. We were greeted with fresh lei's and Mai-tai's. Before the show Mark took some Hula lessons, got a grasshopper made out of some kind of palm leaf, and we watched them unveil the roasted pig in the ground.

The roasted pig. It was actually delicious.

Some hula dancers. Not all of them are Hawaiian as you can see - but man they could shake their booties! It was getting dark so our pictures od Mark dancing too didn't turn out. But we were seated on pillows (they say "traditional hawaiian seating") so it was easy for Mark to get up and shake it with the girls!


Our waiter, Tim. He was great. And speedy with all of our drink orders. John and my dad were trying to make their way down the drink list in order to try them all. I'm not sure how far they got but they both really enjoyed the luau!

Pics before the show.

Mark loved the ukelele so his Gammy bought him one of his very own.

Hawaii - Part one

Well I'm not sure where to start! Between my mom and I we took about 700 pictures! I've narrowed it down to about 30 that sum up the trip. But don't worry, I won't be uploading 30 pictures to the blog today. I'll just do some and see how far I get.

John and Mark at the Tulsa airport. Two peas in a pod if I haven't said that before!

So about 18 minutes into the first flight of the trip, Mark tries tomato juice for the first time and spits it out all over his clean white shirt. So his shirt is off, I've attempted to clean it with ginger ale and a tide stick. He's already bored and I've got out Baa-baa, our favorite puppet! I realized then it may have been best to leave the 2 year old at home for this trip!!


Poor baby....he was so sleepy and just couldn't get comfortable. I had to post this pic because he NEVER cuddles like that!

Not really related to the trip, but Mark has recently discovered that he gets dirt trapped between his toes. And as you know he is just as anal as his daddy so he is obsessed with cleaning it out! Here he is on the plane inspecting his toes. (He said he couldn't see and needed his glasses!)




Ok, probably time for some Hawaii pics now. After we got settled in the condo we walked along the beach boardwalk to an outdoor restaurant and while waiting on our table Mark got to see the ocean for the first time. I love this picture. He wasn't too sure about the sand at first (you know, may lead to dirty toes) but he warmed up to it and LOVED the waves. If you ask him about the ocean he'll tell you, "it's sal-ty."

Independence Day

We had a super 4th of July yesterday. Now you may be thinking, "man, Kristy is on the ball for once....blogging about something that just happened yesterday." But that is because my dear friends, it is 9am and Mark is still sleeping!! Last night was his latest night ever. I don't think he was in bed until 11pm. Bad mommy. But we had a great time at church and Mark is really enjoying his new Sunday School teachers, Miss Jill and Miss Karen. Apparently he talks their ears off. Then we rested all afternnon before the evenings festivities began.

Mimi and HoHo invited us to their country club's 4th of July event. But anyway there were pony rides, a fair-type ride, and a giant inflatable slide. Mark had a blast doing each of them multiple times. Lucky for him, his Mimi was there because neither John or I do spinning merry-go-round type rides without vomiting! So Mark and Mimi rode together several times. Mark then had meltdown number 1 of the evening as we had to drag him away from the carnival and over to the Garcia's to shoot off fireworks.

It was so cute when we got to the Garcias, Britton and Leyton came running down the street yelling, "Mark Thomas, Mark Thomas, Mark Thomas!" and he called out "I'm here!" Those guys are all good buddies. Now I also have a few pics of the three of them that John took from his phone, but I can't get them to upload! Lisa, I want some of yours too! John texted me his pics then I emailed them to myself and then saved them to the laptop and now the blogger can't open them. Ughh!