We love Maui! It's my favorite place to be! Each time we go, all it takes is one beach day for me to start thinking about how I don't ever want to come back home. We did a Lahaina day, an evening in Paia, ate dinner at our favorite place, Coconuts! There were no centipede's in our bed this time and nobody got eaten by a shark. We had such a relaxing trip and I'm really missing it already!
We are so pro at packing for beach days. Snacks, drinks, water toys, land toys, music, books and lots of sunscreen, especially on the first beach day!
Nolan got to see quite a few turtles up close and personal! As you can see here, he is pretty serious about his snorkeling!
Tom is so much fun in the waves! I loved watching him and Nolan play in the water!
We didn't happen to catch many sunsets, but this one was a pretty special one for us. Not only did I happen to get this ridiculously cool shot of Nolan, but we saw a whale flapping around in the water for a really long time and it was magical!
One of the only pictures of just Tom and I. This year I had a very difficult time getting pictures of anybody, not to mention having someone take a picture of me (which lead to a large amount of horrible selfies...no judgement please.)
We went paddle boarding one morning and it was absolutely perfect. The water was calm and clear...only I fell in because I got distracted thinking about how I could potentially see a shark. The people who worked for the rental company gave me great advice, "Don't look for the sharks, they'll look for you!" Awesome. Not.
Big Beach day! This is Nolan's favorite beach! He loves jumping into the giant waves and boogie boarding here. I don't love it because I'm afraid I will get taken out by a wave, but the beach is so beautiful! On this particular day, we witnessed two separate individuals get taken away by the lifeguards. We saw the one girl get crushed by the waves more than once. She left with a broken nose and severe whip lash! That didn't keep my guys out of the water!
We did an excursion one day to check out the Olivine Pools on the north shore. They are several tide pools located on barren lava. The view was so beautiful!
One of the pools was so deep, Nolan was able to climb up the rocks and jump in!
Later that day, we went to check out a beach we have never been to before, Baldwin Beach. It's a boogie boarding beach that all of the locals hit, and we pretty much consider ourselves locals for the duration of our vacation, so we fit right in!
Christmas eve was great! We had just had a few days of heavy rain, but it cleared up for us to meet friends for a nice dinner.
Christmas Day in Maui is a lot more casual than a typical one back home. In the past we've done stockings for everyone, but this year we just kept it low key. Don't you love our tiny christmas tree?
MIMOSA'S AND CHRISTMAS PANCAKES FOR ALL!!!!!
Just Nolan showing off for all the passerbys... A wave came and got him in the face seconds after I took this picture!
This is what I was telling you about...bad selfies. I had no choice! I was the only one snapping pictures and I needed proof that I was on this vacation! [For the record: It takes me about 30 selfie-shots (and 3 ciders) to get 1 somewhat decent picture of myself. It's a lot of work!]
We don't really know how this came about. We pack chairs and towels to go to the beach everyday, but one beach day, we looked behind us and found Nolan like this!
Lucky for Nolan, he happened to have a few friends that were also vacationing in Maui at the same time as us. Since we are really nice parents, we let him spend a few beach days with them. Teen day at the beach was a big hit!
This is what our evenings look like when we weren't getting gelato or playing yahtzee!
There are so many gecko's on the lanai, Nolan decided to catch one. I'm not sure if this guy was No-Tail, Long-Tail or Albino...(pretty creative names he comes up with)!
Our last beach day was a bust unfortunately. Cloudy and windy...my two least favorite conditions!
We took the dreaded red-eye flight home. Nolan claimed he slept for most of it and made a point of telling me he wasn't tired at all upon arriving into Vancouver. We had a few hours to wait until we caught our last flight home and not once, not twice, but three times, I found him completely zonked out! They really are sweet when they're sleeping...
