There is just something about the Kea Lani that is special. We went there for our honeymoon, and I don’t think there will ever be a hotel that is as nostalgic and heavenly as that place. Just like always, our part-of-our-huge-family trip was amazing. I’ll let the pictures do the talking.
All packed up and ready to get on the airplane.
This is the first ten minutes of the flight.
And I KID YOU NOT — the only ten minutes on both flights where she was sane.
Both flights, I had to take her into the bathroom and hold her with every muscle I had to get her to fall asleep.
The flight attendant offered me the strongest drink I wanted!
I took water to cool my sweaty/wrestling self down.
It was all in the past once we got settled and in vacation mode.
Navy spent hours catching frogs and tadpoles from the pond.
Everyone loved the hammock — I think we commandeered it the whole time we were there.
Dash literally thought he was one of the big kids.
Navy took dolphin rides on her dad.
We surprised everyone by getting NayNay over to Maui.
Dash was with his favorite sidekick again.
Scout scored some real-deal snorkeling gear from Nonnie.
And he was amazing at it.
No fear, and went out crazy far — following turtles and an octopus.
WE had some really fun exploration walks with the cousins.
Where we found a rad grassy hill that was drenched — perfect for a man-made water slide.
(We also found a rad grass sledding hill, but don’t have pics.)
The rock climbing was calling Navy’s name.
Pippi was all glammed up this day.
We had hammock wars left and right — but Ka was too wimpy for them.
Scout got buried alive!
This lame team won the “Nonnie Sand Castle” contest.
It was Grant’s face in a mermaid silhouette (which was Nonnie), holding her best friend’s hand (which was Dash).
How cheesy that they had to use Dash to secure the win.
On Sunday, we went to the other side of the island to check things out.
One of our favorites was when we were looking for a location to have our Easter egg hunt. I made everyone follow me, and we came upon the old burned-down Maui high school. There was caution tape everywhere, and do not enter signs. So obviously, we asked the groundskeeper if we could have our hunt there.
He said yes — as long as we didn’t enter the building.
It was the raddest place.
Dash got to be the very first to hunt, and he took off like a mad man.
Then the big kids searched high and low.
And then the big, big kids searched — especially for the $50 egg.
Afterward, everyone sat on the grass, opening their eggs.
When all of a sudden, we realized that mini cockroaches were coming in and out of the grass by the dozens.
Everyone quickly picked up their eggs, and we cleared out.
And then Micah told all of us…..the old Maui high school is haunted. The old groundskeeper was killing students one by one over the course of months, and they finally had to shut the place down. There was a fire later…and it is rumored that every once in a while, the locals see a groundskeeper mowing the grass while smoking a cigarette.
Did I mention that the guy we asked was smoking a cigarette?
CREEPY!
The worst part of the trip was the one night when Pippi was determined to cry like a banshee from 1:00 am until 5:15 am. The only way she was happy, was if I was strolling her or holding her. Well, that gets old after four hours….so I decided we needed to skinny dip. I actually put a towel around me — for fear of cameras, but you wouldn’t believe how happy the Pips was in the jacuzzi for those 30 minutes.
The kids loved the huge banyan tree in Lahaina.
These twinners were the perfect pair. They played non-stop without any problems the whole time. I can not believe how well they get along.
And we finished the trip off with a good old-fashioned tube war.
It was that war that had me sore for days after getting back.
It was the best, best, best trip.
I wish I was still there.
And cheers to the moments when this little doll was sleeping.
Because a lot of the awake moments looked like this!
| DESIGN BY