Maui! North Coast Drive

One of our biggest adventures while in Maui was our road trip around the North Coast of the Island. It is breathtakingly beautiful, but also about the most windy & narrow road on the edges of sheer cliffs. We took this road last year with Kaden & he threw up everywhere so this year we left him at the house with the other weak stomachs.

One of our first stops along the way was at this great blow hole area. It was a bit of a hike down to it in slippery sandals on very sharp rocks, but so worth it.

Brian & Brad getting a closer look at the blow hole...

hmm... it's really starting to blow...
and that's when it got Brian.
Soaked!

There were lots of wave crashes besides the blow hole so we were all pretty much soaked.


Alexis, Anna & Anita
Lonny & Mary
Erica & Brad

Brad exploring a rock outcroping.

Brad & Mary climbed down into this wide basin.

Posing a little on the way back up the rocks.
He's never satisfied untl he's done something that has me calculating his life insurance.

See all that water behind him? Covered in crashing waves against sharp rocks? That's where he was standing just moments ago just begging to be washed into the ocean.
So proud he's alive.
Dave along the shore.
Dave being brave.

Brittnee didn't join us because she gets car sick too easily so we had to make sure Dave made it back & didn't fall off into the ocean somewhere.
Dave & a giant yucca.
See, this is how you pose with a blow hole, unlike Brian.
The road trippers taking a break.

Alexis, pulling a Brad as she breezed past the warning signs.

Chris on the coast.
The pot of gold at the end of the rainbow...
Real Hawaiian shaved ice on the side of the road!

Maui! The House

This was the awesome house, Hale Kohola, that we rented while we were all there. Brad, Kaden & I were the first to arrive so we stayed at Trendwest the first night until everybody else arrived the next day.

Erica & Kaden enjoying the front yard pool.

View of front yard from the lanai.

Kaden cooling off Chelsea.

Kaden really enjoyed toting water from the creek that ran through the yard into the pool & vice versa.
The cute little dolphin bridge than ran over the creek. Kaden on one of his many bucket runs.
A little high flying action. You can see where the creek ran into the pool. It was so pretty.
Chillin' on the deck with the cousins.

Diva.
Here's a shot of the bridge & front lawn & steps down to the street.
The inside of the house was amazing. I had to move way too much stuff out of Kaden's reach. The owners of the house are art collectors & the house was basically done up like a gallery, way too many breakable things! We were lucky though, no accidents!

The sculpture on the ceiling was a mother whale & her calf. So amazing!

Kaden on the porch with a giant snail, it was nearly as big as his foot!

The main living areas (kitchen, dining, living room, sitting area) were all upstairs, along with 2 bedrooms. The kitchen was behind Chelsea to the right & the living room was behind her to the left.
Another shot of the whales.
The view of the goff course & ocean from the lanai.
Brian hanging out in the kitchen. The pillars behind him had giant banana leaves & fruit sculptures mounted to the top of them as well as along the far wall. Wish I had a better shot of them.

Looking downstairs. There were 4 bedrooms downstairs, 2 of which were master bedrooms. Since we got there first we got to claim one of them! (didn't ever get a shot of it though). Under the stairs was also a big pond & fountain full of a bunch of little sculptures of whales & fish & nudie mermaids! (can't believe I didn't get a picture of that!)The incredibly large kitchen, you've never seen so much counter work space!
This was everbody the last day in the house, just before check out. Brittnee & Dave had left the previous day & Anita & her family were headed back that eve. so with the reduced numbers we headed back to Trendwest for the last few nights.
Having our own house was awesome! It was so nice to be able to let the kids run around, play in the pool & do their own thing without having to worry about other people & all the rules that go along with sharing commen areas at a resort. The pool was open all night & your toys were left next to the pool where you would need them again soon! Oh, & Kaden spent most of the time running around without bottoms on as we are trying to potty train & thought he would enjoy practicing aiming at the trees. You can't do that at a (family) resort!

Maui!

Last month we spent two lovely weeks in Maui with a bunch of my family. There was our little family, my sister Brittnee & her husband Dave, Aunt Mary & Uncle Lonny & their 5 kids & a spouse- Brian, Jaclyn, Jaclyn's new husband Tyson, Daniel, Chelsea, & Anna. My Aunt Anita & Uncle Christopher & their two girls, Alexis & Erica, & my Grama. We had a whopping 18 people on this trip! It has taken me forever to get anything on the blog because we copied everyone's pictures and had nearly a thousand shots to sort through.

These are some random shots that didn't fall into the catagories of the other posts that will soon follow.

Kaden made tremendous strides in his swimming skills. By the time our vacation was over he was swimming underwater (w/o his "jet pack") just like a little turtle. We started him in actual lessons once we got home - a step up from the waterkids classes we've been taking- and he already moved up to level three just in the last few weeks!

Kaden & my cousin Anna.

Daniel spent alot of time serenading us on his guitar (when he wasn't glued to his laptop watching "Lost"- he finished the entire series by the time he left!) & even purchased a Ukelele while we were there.

We never did end up with a picture of everybody all together. This was pretty close though, out on the boardwalk in Kaanapali.

(Tyson, Jaclyn, Chelsea, Daniel, Heather, Brad, Kaden, Alexis, Erica, Anna, Brittnee, Dave, Anita & Mary)

Mary & Grama

We had a great veiw of the fire dancers that were part of a luau along the boardwalk.


Perouse Bay
Sunset at Wilea on our last night.

Crazy monkey boy.