Ours Forever...

Who knew how much I would fall in love with Maui?! What a beautiful island, with the sugar cane fields, mountains, rain forest area, and the beaches. Wow--the beaches are completely amazing!

We spend our second day in Maui snorkeling and swimming on a beach near the resort areas, near Makena. The sand is white and soft and the water blue and warm. Jarren usually swims with a swim shirt and didn't and yes, he totally fried, even with a couple of layers of sunscreen on. Kendall usually wears a tank top and he got really tan and then was bright red where his tank usually covers him. The house we rented had boogie boards and the kids loved using those. They loved snorkeling too! I had a panic attack while snorkeling last year, so I was totally fine playing in the surf and sitting on the beach.

I wanted to get a picture of all of the kids and they were being silly, as you can tell by Jarren's face. Kendall had had enough and pushed Jarren into the water, just as I snapped a picture. Oh, well. I still got one decent enough shot.

I know some people think it's boring to just sit around at the beach, but I absolutely love it and Jon is so good to make sure each trip near the ocean includes a good amount of beach time.

Later in the evening, we went for a drive up toward a crater. It was very misty/foggy about mid-way up and once we broke the clouds, it was gorgeous! I love a good sunset and it was absolutely breathtaking to see it above the layer of clouds. All in all, a very fun day.

It's always an amazing feeling waking up somewhere new. Things look so different in the daylight, as I found with Maui. Our little town was so cute and surrounded by sugar cane fields. Jon and Kendall had an appointment with a bird guide and I drive them up towards Haleakala Crater to meet him. He lived up on a steep road in the mist!

After I dropped them off, the kids and I got ready to go to Lahaina to ride the Atlantis submarine. What a beautiful drive! Lahaina is on the west side, the dry side, but it was still pretty.

I couldn't find the check in point (I'm terrible with directions), so I was glad we left early. It was HOT! It felt so good to get on the boat and feel the sea breeze on our way to the sub.

The sub was neat! We lowered down to 130 feet and went around for about an hour going to a couple of different coral reefs and sunken ship (that they sank about 10 years ago). We saw a reef shark, among other fish and eels.

When we finished, we went back to the house, grabbed Jon and Kendall, and made our way to a beach--King Kam Beach I. A tropical storm was moving by, so it was very windy. I was digging sand out of my ear for two days!

We all loved the beach! Kendall had gone to a nature pond first, a few miles up the road, and when he came, he and Kristen went out snorkeling and found a giant sea turtle, which swam right under Kristen! That's always been her favorite sea animal, so she was thrilled!

The kids played in the waves, boogie boarded, snorkeled, and had a blast! I realized that Kendall's phone was missing, so on the way back, we stopped at that pond and found it on the ground, silly boy! He really needs a man purse. :)

Everyone went to bed early that night! What a fun first day.

I know I haven't blogged forever, but I do want to document our trip and catch up on the last 6 months. So much has happened--good and bad--but I'll start with our vacation for now.

Jon traveled a lot last year and racked up a lot of sky miles. Between that and working hard with the older two, we are fortunate enough to go to Hawaii again this year. Kendall will be graduated from high school in less than a year and is making some big decisions about what he wants to do with his life. This really might be our last big vacation together with all six of us.

We left in the afternoon this time and flew straight to Maui, arriving after dark. By the time we got settled in at The Red Ginger House in Paia, it felt like it was 3 in the morning to our poor tired bodies.

Jon got upgraded to first class and let Kendall take it. Andre Kirilenko ended up being on our flight to LA, which was exciting. We followed the sunset for what seemed like hours on the flight to Maui and it was just gorgeous!

I had packed some snacks and included trail mix. Someone on the long 5.5 hour flight had a peanut allergy so we couldn't even eat our snacks, but that was okay. The kids are at great ages now for travel and really did well.

Kendall was asked to Sweethearts Dance about 2 weeks ago. He got really, really sick just after that and felt well enough to go just a few days before.

He was asked with Lucky Charms and pink rubber ducks. She said she'd be a lucky duck to go with him and each duck had a letter of her name. He answered with tacos. He said something about how he couldn't even taco bout how excited he was to go.

She's a cute girl and really helped him out by helping him pick a tie that would match and reminding him about getting a corsage. I totally didn't even think of that!

They had a fun day date playing laser tag and bowling. They had fun at the dance, too. I'm always grateful when the kids have good, positive experiences.

Both elementary kids had to make boxes this year for valentine's day. Some years, they just use a large manila envelope. Jarren's class had a contest--he was a finalist, but didn't win.  Jenna did a cat and Jarren did a rocket. They had fun with them, even though Jarren waited until the last minute. Oh, well.

Please excuse me while I freak out for a moment. Last week, Jarren and I got to go to middle school orientation. Let's just say he is NOT excited at all. They gave them their packets and there are hardly any electives to choose from, which makes him mad. He doesn't want to take anything. It took a lot of talking to get him to finally mark two boxes. He sure can be stubborn! I honestly can't believe that next year, we'll only have one left in elementary school.

Jarren's class got to go on the best field trip ever! They went to the Christa Mccauliffe Space Education Center. It's at an elementary school, but they have the best set up. The kids gathered at first for a lesson about space. It was done in a hands on way, with video and great special effects that really kept their attention and was entertaining. Then they went to a star lab. space was limited, so I didn't get to go in there. That was followed by lunch and then their missions.

The class was divided into four groups and each group went into a simulator. They each had a specific position (Jarren was the flight officer, in charge of flying the craft) and took some time to learn their responsibilities.

Their mission was to fly into a wormhole to save a person. They encountered an alien ship and were under attack because this ship wanted the man they'd saved. They had to work together and decide how to handle the situation. Those decisions determined if they were successful in their mission or not.

Every single one of them loved it! They learned so much and it really reinforced what they're learning in school. I got to watch it all from mission control.