We went to Hawaii last month to celebrate our 8th anniversary. It’s been 5 years since we’ve taken a vacation, and I very nearly canceled a half dozen times out of financial concerns. But for many reasons, ultimately decided to keep it. Sometimes you just have to trust that it’s OK to splurge a little bit and that everything will ultimately be OK. So we went to Maui and we stayed in the small surfer town of Kihei. It’s where we stayed when we went in 2008, so at least there was no concern of a bad hotel. We loved where we stayed. We also knew there would be plenty of room for my mom, who traveled with us, and our new family addition of William.
Despite William’s crappy sleep, and really, who can blame him… he was in a wobbly crib that we managed to shoehorn into the master bedroom closet (after removing the closet doors), with a pathetic excuse of a mattress. He was overstimulated during the day AND operating on about 7-8 hours of sleep at night and wimpy daytime naps (he never adjusted to the backward 3 hour time difference), we all managed to survive and actually enjoy ourselves. He really is a remarkable kid.
Despite all that, I’m having a hard time figuring out what my favorite moment of the vacation was.
Was it the look on William’s face when the waves would come in and “get him”, and then he would turn around and chase the waves back into the ocean?
Was it holding him for his naps? Or the way the light silhouetted his profile as he slept in the early mornings in my arms, because we ended up co-sleeping for part of the nights because he had nightmares? Maybe it was the early morning conversations William and I had because I was the first person he saw when his eyes fluttered open?
Perhaps it was holding hands with Tony as we snorkeled and witnessed the beauty and elegance of three green sea turtles, or the “honu” as the Hawaiian’s call them.
Maybe it was when we fed the goats, and then later milked them at Surfing Goat Dairy in the upcountry town of Kula.
Or maybe it was when we laughed because we drove by Maui’s landfill, THREE TIMES, over the irony that we always seem to find the road less traveled by tourists. Last time on Maui, we discovered Maui’s sewer treatment plant. (Let me know if you’d like directions to either of those places… haha)
Could it have been the fact that my mom joined us on this vacation and her adventurous spirit always adds a dimension of hilarity that we enjoy? Or that her coming along allowed us to go snorkeling as a couple?
Possibly it was the early morning “go walk on grass” requests by William. You’d think he’d never walked on grass before… maybe Hawaii’s grass is different?
It was certainly a positive that the General Manager of the resort we stayed at greeted us like family and welcomed us “home” and congratulated us on William. Despite that fact that we didn’t drive the Road to Hana this trip — over 8 hours on a twisty road with one person who gets car sick easily and another person being a toddler — just didn’t sound appealing, we “exchanged” that day for more snorkeling time and the goat dairy tour.
Our vacation was perfectly us. Maybe next time I’ll try to schedule some time to relax!
Link to more pictures.
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Jammie J's Quest 