More From Our Trip

Day Seven
Troy and I had been looking forward to the one excursion we'd planned that cost money. We were taking a big motorized raft over to the island of Lanai. There, we would be taken to a bay filled--usually--with spinner dolphins. Later we would snorkel in what is known as Hawaii's best coral reef. The excursion included three hours exploring the island of Lanai. We were super excited about. Unfortunately, due to high winds, the trip was canceled. We were able to reschedule it for Wednesday.

The day started off rainy and windy so we hung around the condo for awhile. In the midmorning, I went with my parents and oldest boy to get a much desired--on his part--shark tooth necklace which my parents were getting for him. We walked around some shops before heading back to the condo. Later that day, my mom and I headed to Lahaina to do some shopping, Jon and Heather went snorkeling, and my dad and Troy played at the beach with the boys.


Day Eight
On Tuesday, Troy and I took the boys and headed south. We went all the way down to La Perousse and explored the black lava rock. Then we turned and started slowly heading north. We stopped at some tidepools and explored. We watched surfers at Dumps. We unloaded all of our stuff at Big Beach just to have the lifeguard tell us that it really wasn't safe for kids that day. We drove further north and unloaded at Makena.

We had a great time boogie boarding in the shallow surf with Garrett and Matthew. Troy and the boys chased crabs. We had lunch. When we'd had a couple of hours of fun, we packed up and headed into Kihei. There, we walked around a market with vendors and had shave ice. When we were ready to head back to the condo, we started making our way back to the car. I saw a bin outside of a store with a bunch of flip flops and, because I'm pretty much a "slipper" addict, I bent down to look at them. Troy walked into the shop with the kids. And there we encountered the most friendly salesperson. We ended up buying some keychains and I picked up a brochure for kids surfing lessons simply because it said that they gave lessons to all ages and I was interested in learning more, not because I planned to do anything with it.


Day Nine
Troy and I were supposed to head to Lanai so, since we hadn't received a cancelation phone call like we did on Monday, my dad drove us to Lahaina. We got checked in, picked up our packed lunch, and waited for the raft to show up. It pulled into the slip and the captain jumped out and welcomed us all. Then she explained that the trip was canceled. She'd been over to Lanai and the surf was huge. It was too big for us to snorkel in and the winds were too high. I was disappointed because Troy was leaving on Thursday and the next opportunity for us to go would have been Friday.

We decided that, since we were getting a refund for our cancelled trip to Lanai, we would ask Garrett if he wanted to take a surf lesson. My aunt and uncle had given him birthday money and he'd already spent a portion of it on a wood carving of a sea turtle but we told him that he could put the rest of the money toward a surf lesson. We asked him if he would rather have a nice birthday present from us or a surf lesson. He chose the lesson without evening thinking twice. Because he is only five, he had to have a private lesson which we scheduled for Friday morning.

My parents had to take my brother and Heather to the airport in Kahului so we decided to head there as well and go up into the Ioa Valley. It was pouring down rain when we got there so we all traipsed through the rain on the short hike to view the needle. It was mostly covered in clouds but the scenery was beautiful. Then we had lunch in the dry car before heading back to our condo.


Day Ten
We had great weather on Thursday which was fantastic because Troy was leaving that night on a red eye. It was nice that he got to have one last day of hot sun and beautiful Maui beaches. We headed to Napili Beach and went snorkeling and swimming. We worked on our tans. We checked out the tide pools. We burned ourselves to crisps. Well, the boys didn't burn, but the rest of us did, despite the fact that I reapplied sunscreen on more than one occasion. My neck and shoulders were fried.

But it was a super fun day. When we were finished at the beach, Troy and I took the boys out for Happy Meals at the McDonald's near our condo. Then we went back and the boys swam in the pool and Troy packed up his stuff to head home.