Maui Day 1: Arrival in Kaanapali

We decided to book the later flight into Maui because 1. it was cheaper, and 2. it allowed the girls to go to school on Thursday as they were going to miss the next 4 days of school for the trip.

Hind sight being 20/20, I think we’ll go with the early flight next time. We arrived around 11:00pm (Hawaii time, 1am Pacific time). Let’s just say by the time we arrived, the girls were exhausted and super excited all at the same time (= forget going to sleep any time soon) and well, as for Zoe, the second plane ride got the best of her and she threw up all over me about an hour before we landed..  ... this isn't the first time this has happened to me on a flight, but hoping it's the last!!  Unfortunately, I made the rookie mistake of not packing an extra set of clothes so I got to hang out in my awesome smelling clothes until we got to the hotel (you could smell us from a mile away!!)

We stayed at Honua Kai, room 612.  It was a nice size room, had 1 bd + a little den the girls could use and had a nice lanai that looked out at the mountains (ocean view would also be nice, but would also be much for $$!) Brad did a late night grocery store run so we could have the all important coffee & Hawaiian sweet bread as well as some breakfast makings for Caitlyn’s bday … as for me, I never been so happy to see a shower in my life…

Hawaiian adventures in Maui!

We decided to go for a "pre" spring break trip this year to celebrate my 40th and we also got to celebrate Caitlyn's 7th birthday as well! We've been to Hawaii a few times and Maui once before but never with the kids, so was fun to bring them along for the adventure!


Day 1 (Thurs): Arrival in Kaanapali

Day 2 (Fri): Pool and Caitlyn’s 7th birthday!

Day 3 (Sat): Nakahele Blowhole and Olivine Pools

Day 4 (Sun): Whale Watching and pool time

Day 5: (Mon) Snorkling explorations: Kekehili and Napili beach.

Day 6 (Tues): Road trip to Le Perouse Bay

Day 7 (Wed): Final Day.. Pool and Ho’okipa beach

Skiday Bday for Sophia's 9th...

Sophia requested a Skiday for her birthday this year...  so we rallied the troops and managed to actually coordinate about 9 girls on the slopes for a day..!!

We hit Timberline as that's our hill of choice these days (and where we have our passes)... I don't think we could have been any luckier with the weather and thanks to a great support crew we were able to wrangle this crew for some awesome skiing! (We even managed to ski the Glade home!!)  So fun to see girls this age have fun together skiing.. makes me smile.

...  and special thanks to Brad for some amazing photographs to capture the day!

Blog - back in action!

After a 4 year hiatus or so, I've decided to get the blog back in action... and given that we're now a party of 5, i'm evolving the blog a bit from Sophia's spot to now be Self Party of Five.. as a way to reflect, keep up and share some of our family adventures along the way.

Pre-school graduation!!

"Watch me as I graduate... as I march around the room.  Kindergarten's coming soon and it's time to graduate.. It's really great!"

Yes, I officially graduated pre-school!!  We had a pretty awesome graduation if you can't tell..

let's see - first we got to show off our "boards", then we all got on stage and did a class cheer.. the we sang 4 songs on stage (along with hand gestures and dancing of course :)..  "Doe a Deer", "All I really Need", Matilda the Gorilla and "Watch me as I Graduate" (which I sang to you above)  

My yiayia loved the this one though..

"All I really need is a song in my heart, food in my belly, and love in my family"

I tend to sing it alot (it gets stuck in my head!!)

BJ the clown closed the show and he was super silly... then it was time to party!! bouncy houses, popsicles, face painting .. isn't that how all pre-school graduations go?

Oh - and of course the perfect end - a Team Hustle pool party at Nico's house!!

We partied hard in the pool (even though it was 60 and raining...)  didn't slow us down!

Happy Father's Day!

Lucky us we got to hang out with dad AND papou on Father's day!

we were sure to keep dad on his toes!!

Berry picking - round 1

Strawberry picking requires some serious teamwork.  Caitlyn learned this the hard way... after claiming she could pull the wagon herself ("I can do it myself").. she quickly figured out she actually did need my help.. you should have seen how far we pushed that wagon!!  the berry patch was the far end of the farm but it didn't slow us down a bit...  plus we got to re-fuel with berries when we got there :)

and what would a trip to the farm be without a hay ride!!

Black Butte rocks!

My friend Chloe has a cabin at Black Butte Ranch and invited us to come stay with her... I LOVE hanging out at her cabin - it's pretty much non-stop fun..  park in the morning, pool all day, walks to spot deer in the afternoon.. and dinner's outside on the patio..   I could spend every day there!!

This trip was super fun because Yiayia and Papou came with us and Uncle John and Aunt Jennifer met us there...  and do you know how we got there?  we all rode together in a mini-van!!  (we= me, Chloe, Caitlyn, Carson, Katie and mommy)

It's hard to decide but I think my favorite was the pool - I spent lots of time practicing my swimming in the deep water and working on my dive (which made my mom really excited for some reason?? :)  Chloe and I liked doing twists and trying to flip under water too (see did lots of flips!)  As for Caits, she was pretty proud of herself for putting her whole head under water (she would take a BIG breath, then go all the way under..go Caits!) and she also thought it was pretty fun to be thrown in the air... she kept wanting to go higher and higher!   oh - and I did I mention we got to have ice cream at the pool?  double bonus!