Maui Day 1: Arriving

Justin and I have been married 7 years come June 11, 2012.  These years have been incredible.  We have been on several family trips or weekends away WITH the kids.  But since having children, Justin and I haven't had an opportunity to just get away by ourselves and refresh.  It was hard to plan a time because of me either being pregnant, or nursing, but we finally timed it just right!  This summer we decided to go to MAUI!!!  

I knew both my mom and Justin's mom would be willing to watch both kids for us.  But because Reese was now on the move and getting into everything, and James has always been a fire ball of energy and doesn't sleep at night well, we decided to split them up.  My mom kept James and Justin's mom kept Reese and Kramer.  THANK YOU MOMS!!!  

So on Monday, May 28th, we dropped the kids off and went back home to finish packing.  It was very strange packing in a quiet house.  Going to bed without having SOMEONE wake me up in the middle of the night.  Waking up (at 4am) and only having to take care of my body, my breakfast, my bags.  

We left our house at 4:30am so we could be at my parents' house by 5.  My dad drove us to the airport and we made it their by 5:30.  We checked our bags (which were 49 pounds each...wheewww!) then boarded our plane.  Our flight left at 6:40 and we headed to our first stop, Dallas.  

Ok, so everyone leaves something at home.  You think about it, and think about it, until it pops into your mind...."oh, I left my toothbrush...guess i'll get one when we get there."  As we were flying to Dallas, I happened to realize that I forgot one of the most important things!!!  My Maui guidebook that I had based our whole trip on (Maui Revealed by Andrew Doughty)!  It had my notes in it.  It had my highlighted points.  It had directions, sights, specifics that I really wanted us to do in Maui!  I was sooo bummed.  It is an awesome guidebook.

Picture of me BEFORE realizing I forgot Maui Revealed.

Well, Justin had the idea of searching the huge Dallas airport for another copy of it.  So in our 4 hour layover, that's just what we did.  We visited about FOUR terminals to look in as many airport bookstores we could find.  We found a couple of Hawaii books, but not what I wanted. :(  

 We decided to give up looking for the book and eat lunch.  We ate at Cousin's BBQ and it was excellent!

Next stop, Maui!!!  Our flight was about 7.5 hours long.  My legs got stiff and I was so anxious to get there!  We finally arrived at the Kahului airport at 4pm Maui time.  It felt like 9pm (Memphis time) but we were too excited to notice at this point.  

 We got off the plane and got a shuttle ride to Alamo where we had our convertible waiting for us.  We got up to the counter and asked if they happened to have a soft top jeep available.  They did for a small upgrade so we took it!!

 In our jeep!  I have to say, this was one of our favorite parts of our vacation.  Riding around in this open air jeep.  Amazing views, high up on the road, and super fun to drive!!!

Ok, our pictures aren't going to show you anything at ALL of what Maui actually looked liked, but I'm am going to keep posting them anyway.  This is the 45 min drive from Kahului to Ka'anapali on the West coast where our hotel was.  Justin and I decided that the next trip we take, we will bring a polarized lens with us to capture all the color.

We went straight to our hotel/condo to drop off our luggage.  We LOVED where we stayed.  This is the Honua Kai Resort.

 There were two towers there.  We stayed at the one tower called Konea.  When we got to the front desk to check in, we found out we had been upgraded to a TWO bedroom suit on the first floor!  Justin and I went to take a look at it and LOVED it, but we couldn't see the ocean at all (which we had paid extra for).  So we asked them if another room would be available where we could actually see the ocean.  They said we could look at one tomorrow.

(on a side note, we ended up staying in the room on the first floor as seen in the pictures below...another story for another day :)

In the mean time, pictures of our beautiful room:

  

The full kitchen

Very large lanai looking out to the middle of the resort...kinda private too with surrounding plants.

View as you walk in the door

View standing in front of the tv

Bedroom we stayed in

Bathroom

Second bedroom that we didn't even touch!

We looked over the room then decided to get back in the jeep and drive to Barnes and Noble that was about 15 minutes away.  I was determined to get Maui Revealed!  Well, we walk in Barnes and Noble and as soon as we set foot in the store, we see a huge stack Maui Revealed books!  Haha.  Of course Maui would have them here. :)  No worries.

We were STARVING because it was close to 7pm Maui time (midnight Memphis time!) and we had not eaten dinner yet!  We knew there was a little place called Maui Tacos close by so we stopped there to get some great Fish Tacos (cheap for Maui too).

We ate then headed to Safeway to grab some breakfast and lunch groceries to keep the cost down.

Finally, we got back to the condo and crashed around 9:30 pm (2:30 am memphis time :)

We were really looking forward to having a relaxing day tomorrow, exploring more of the hotel,  and seeing the sights that Maui had to offer :)

  

Reese is ONE! James is THREE!

Reese turned one year old on May 27, 2012.

James turned three on May 28, 2012.

Wheew!  This will definitely be interesting over the years.  We didn't plan to have the kids one day a part.  But God intended it to be this way, so we will just have fun with it each year!  The kids won't have their birthday parties until mid-June, but I wanted to post a little about what they are doing these days :)

They are such a pair ;)

Reese's ONE year pose

(I will have her stats soon)

Hugs

Reese loves crawling into random small spaces

She is standing well while holding onto something, but she is not cruising or having much desire at all to take steps.

She just loves giving hugs!!!

                     Soooo sweet :)

She loves playing on Kramer's bed

What Reese is doing now:

She sleeps about 11-12 hrs at night.

Probably only takes about 16 oz of whole milk ea day

Takes good naps.  Either 2 naps varying from 1-2 hrs each, or 1 nap in the afternoon for a couple of hours.

Is more picky now about what solids she will eat.

Talks and laughs all the time.

Loves rolling around on the bed or couch....falls backwards :)

Has 4 top teeth, 2 bottom teeth

James is such a big boy now at 3!

He gets "gold nuggets" each time he does something very well...sharing, manners, obeying...etc.

When he fills up his jar, he gets to do something special.

This time he wanted to ride the dragon at the mall with Daddy!

Reese watching big brother

Another ride, this time with Mommy

He sleeps really funny in his bed.  Never the normal way.  It has to be sideways, or upside down, or diagonal.  

He still takes his afternoon nap.  We decided he definitely needs it.  Although, bed time is terrible still.  It takes 30 mins to an hour for him to settle down and go to sleep.  

Lining up his toys in the yard

Lining up his cars on his race track

James has always loved helping Daddy mow the lawn.

But now he has wanted to actually help "PUSH".

He almost pushed the mower over the entire lawn.

James also helped Justin unload the grass into the trash.

Such a big helper. :)

At three James finally knows all his colors..

Can count to about 10, not much higher than that

Can say the alphabet well

Can recognize several letters

Can recognize his name spelled out

Runs extremely fast

Throws a mean ball

Loves rough housing with Daddy

These two are amazing kids ;)  And Kramer is still one amazing family dog. :)

Just love them!

Justin Turns 30!!!!!

Justin turned 30 on Friday, May 25, 2012 ;)

On the Wednesday before his birthday, I decided to make Cassie's homemade cinnamon rolls and take them to Justin's homeroom to surprise him!  They were a hit!  Especially since the sixth graders needed a snack break in the middle of their final tests on this last day of school :)  I think Justin enjoyed having James and Reese up at the school for a bit.  

Then on Friday, we tried to get a group of friends to go out to dinner with us, but almost everyone was out of town!!!  Thank goodness it was Travis Black's birthday too!  Travis is Justin's friend who bikes with him.  He and his wife also go to our church and CC.  We just love them, so it was so much fun to have a double date.

We went to the Local Gastropub downtown on Main Street

Courtney and Travis

The next morning, I decided to celebrate Justin's birthday and the kiddos' birthdays!

(since we were about to head out of town in a couple of days)

They each got an orange cinnamon roll with a candle :)

"I'm Fwee!" (3)

Happy :)

(Days Later) Justin said, "Oh, you have to take the picture again because I did the 3 and the 0 backwards"....well, we just don't have time for that. ;)

We gave the kids little happies since it was their actual birthdays.

James got a CARS tin filled with bouncy balls.

Reese got a sippy cup with a straw that you don't have to chew down on first.  She can do it by herself!

And Justin got his gift from me....a blower for the yard.

Reese gave him his small notebooks that he loves, and James gave him his favorite pens (the Pilot G2 .38 ultrafine.....which I am not allowed to use for fear of losing them)

Reading birthday cards from the family

Reese is reading her card too

Then after naps, we took the kids to the zoo for a fun day.

Visiting the dinosaur exhibit

Notice Reese is missing from the stroller...

...she was a little bit scared, so I had to carry her.

(The dinosaurs are very life-like and roar.)

Finding dino bones

Getting a dinosaur penny ;)

At home later that day, James totally relaxed on the couch and watched Dora

 

That evening, the family came over to bring Justin some birthday gifts and have dessert and coffee.

Happy Birthday Justin!

And Happy Birthday James and Reese!

Your party will be after Mommy and Daddy come back from their vacation!

Memphis In May Triathlon

Justin's goal for this summer is to compete in 3 triathlons!  The first was held on Saturday, May 19th, 2012.  It was the Memphis in May Triathlon which saluted the Philippines this year.  The race was held in Tunica, Mississippi at Harrah's Resort.

Justin swam 1/4 mile, 

Biked 12 miles,

 and ran 3 miles

Justin finished the race in 1:18:39.

He was not happy about his time, but it's hard to train when you are teaching and coaching full time!  He is hoping to be able to train more this summer for the next two triathlons.  The kids and I decided not to go to this one because it was over an hour away from home.  Hopefully we will get to cheer him on at the next one!  As always, I am so proud of him.