Aloha!

So it has been a while.
Sorry. Kind of.

I was in paradise.

Our trip to Hawaii was amazing! I have a ton of pictures to share. And when I say a ton, I am not exaggerating. There are probably close to 300. I will share a few with you, then I will continue to digitally scrapbook and share the pages with you as I get them done.

Here is a quick recap of our trip...read if you are interested or skip if you are not.

Wednesday:
Left for Hawaii. We spent almost 8 hours on the plane by the time we finally landed. Cade did amazingly well. Of course we were subjected to almost 8 hours of the Wiggles, Doodlebops, and Praise Baby...but it was worth it. We landed in Maui at like 3:00pm. We checked into the Ka'anapali Beach Club and hung out there for the evening.

Thursday:
We went Whale Watching. It was absolutely amazing. Great BIG humpback whales. We got some amazing pictures. Of course, Jim took most of them as Mom and I were trying to keep a tired, somewhat cranky toddler who was angry about being confined in a life vest under control. We stopped for dinner on the way back at Cheeseburger in Paradise.

Friday:
We spent midday snorkeling while Mom graciously entertained Cade on the beach. Snorkeling was an adventure in itself. Dad wanted to take Jim and I snorkeling at Black Rock. But we couldn't fine beach parking close to it. So we got onto the beach far away from Black Rock. And swam out to it. It was a LONG swim. We are thinking it was at least a mile. Getting out there wasn't as bad as trying to get back it. Swimming against the tide was much more difficult and I was already tired by then. It was pretty cool, though. I got to see three sea turtles! We enjoyed a nice dinner at Leilani's.

Saturday:
We spent the morning shopping in Lahaina. Hilo Hatties took A LOT of our spending money. Hawaiian shirts for everyone--including Cade. We bought souvenirs for everyone. That night Mom and Dad volunteered to baby-sit Cade. Jim and I went on a sunset dinner cruise. It was a small boat, but the husband and wife that run it are amazing people and we had a great time. (Except for the crazy people who sat with us at dinner! But that requires a different post...it needs its own story!) They pulled both the men and women up separately and taught some hula dancing.

Sunday:

The Easter Bunny found us in Maui! Cade got his Easter basket when he woke up. We attended a church service that was held on the patio of Leilani's restaurant overlooking the beach. What a way to worship on Easter! We had a quick breakfast at Whaler's village and took some family pictures. We returned to our room so Cade could hunt for Easter eggs. He was so funny. Since he had played with the plastic eggs when I bought them, he knew to open them. I had a hard time getting him to keep looking for more eggs since he was more interested in eating what was in the ones he already found. While Cade napped, Mom and I ran to check out the local craft fair. We got beautiful necklaces and I got a little purse. We made it back in time for happy hour and then our Easter dinner which was purchased at the local SAFEWAY!

Monday:

We all attended the time share presentation. Jim and I had seriously been talking about purchasing a time share for a while. And we decided what better place to buy than in Maui? So, we did. We purchased a time share! Now how many friends do we have? We tried to take some family pictures on the beach--in color coordinating outfits, but Cade decided it would be more fun to go swimming in a little tide pool--fully clothed than to take pictures.

That night Jim and I got to go to a Luau. It was pretty cool. And open bar. I had a few. Then I had a few more. It was fun.

Tuesday:

We drove to Lahaina for breakfast and ate at Cheeseburger in Paradise again. We spend the morning shopping and headed back to go snorkeling at our beach. I hung out with Mom and Cade on the beach and at the pool. We had happy hour at our resort then had a great dinner at Hula Grille where we saw the most amazing sunset.

Wednesday:

We had to pack up everything. It is amazing how scattered your stuff can get when you are there for a week. It took a while to pack and get ready to leave. Our plane didn't leave until 10:00pm, so we had the whole day. We went to the Maui Aquarium which Cade LOVED and drove around Kahului. We went to the mall and walked around--went to a fabric store...and finally to the airport. We had to leave. It was sad. We landed in Phoenix at like 6:30am on Thursday.

We had such a great time. Can't wait to get back!