Maui 2010

Finally, I am blogging about our trip to Maui. I've got to get my thoughts down about this amazing experience before I forget it. Darin had an event to run in Maui at the Waldorf's Grand Wailea Resort. The company offered to pay for my round-trip ticket and agreed to let some of the younger families to come along. (We paid for our girls flights using Darin's flight miles. Luckily, he had enough saved up for all four of their ticket purchases.) We had to arrange carefully with their school teachers since we would be gone during the end-of-year testing week. Thankfully, it all worked out.

We were gone from May 20-29. The whole night before our early morning flight, Makenna was throwing up. We weren't sure she would make it. We nursed her during her "bouts", clean up after her several times, and got up around 5 a.m. to get ready to leave. Needless to say, we didn't get much sleep. Even after getting to the airport, Makenna was still a little nauseous, but I came prepared with Children's Pepto-Bismol and Dramamine. The girls did pretty good on the flight, however, Makenna needed a barf bag just after touching down in L.A. Darin got the bag up to her mouth, just as she was ready to "lose her lunch"; or should I say breakfast? Although really queasy, Makenna handled the second leg to Maui really well.  The girls mostly watch movies during the flight over.

We felt the Hawaiian heat and humidity immediately after getting off the plane.   Mark and Jim (Daddy's "helpers") were there to greet us with leis and Malasadas, a.k.a. hot Hawaiian donuts, at the baggage claim.  Yummers!  These things are incredibly addicting.  We finished a couple boxes off, I think.

Since we were traveling with Darin and his events staff, they all had cartloads of bags, equipment, supplies, recognition gifts, etc. for the event, so the girls had to wait (not so patiently) for Daddy to retrieve their belongings from the baggage claim and fetch a rental car to take us to the hotel.

  
Darin worked almost the entire time we were in Maui, so we really didn't see him on some days, and I didn't dare venture out farther than the hotel without him, so we stayed close.  However, he did get to spend the late afternoon with us on the first day, thanks to his team who MADE him stop working to go to the beach with me and the girls to see them experience the ocean for the first time in their lives.  What a neat thing!  The girls loved the waves, the sand, the sound of the ocean, and the warm weather.

We stayed in a "Suite" room so we had plenty of space complete with a kitchen, a dining room table, a living room, a master suite, and three balcony patios with amazing views of the ocean...and the parking structure (hee, hee).  We could look down on the hotel staff as they walked to and from their cars and took their breaks.  Kinda' funny.  Although we didn't spend much time in the room, we did appreciate having a large area to rest and hang out in when not at the pool or beach.


As I said before, Darin worked the entire time, so the girls and I pretty much lived at the hotel pool and nearby beach.  It actually was getting a little "old" after the 3rd day, but luckily, one of Darin's co-workers arrived with his family who had three girls the same ages as my older three.  They had a BLAST together during the the rest of our stay.  We got to know them and their family so much better and now are good friends.  The older girls "buddied" up and went around the lazy river and down the water slides together quite a bit.  It was nice having another mom their who could share the load.  Between her four and my four, we had our work cut out for us.  So, when one had to got "potty", we didn't have to get the whole gang out of the pool or ocean.  One of us just stayed with the kiddos that wanted to keep swimming and the other would take care of those that needed a break.  Everything worked out great most of the time...UNTIL I LOST DAKOTA!

On about the 6th day, I lost sight of Dakota after swimming back from a nearby jacuzzi behind a waterfall.  Dakota never liked to go through the fall, so she would walk on the deck and over the bridge to get back to the kiddie pool where we would meet up.  I had Oakley with me.  We swam back and continued playing in the water.  I'm embarrassed to say that it was a good 10 minutes before I realized that Dakota had not made it back into the water.  I started looking for her, calling her name.  She was nowhere.  A few minutes later, I started to panic a little.  Had she fallen in the deep end of the water?  Had she hit her head?  Did she fall into the lazy river?  Did she make her way down to the beach?  Other pool guests had heard be calling for my little girl.  They asked what she was wearing, and how old.  As soon as I told them she was not a swimmer, they went into action.  Immediately, I had a small army going into battle.  Some walked around the resort calling for her, looking for her in the pools.  Some went to the beach asking the family that we hung out with (who also had my two older girls with them) if they had seen her.  No luck.  After several more minutes of searching with no finding, feelings of desperation and fear were sinking in.  I remained calm on the outside, but my heart was burning up inside.  Darin had just had bad dream a couple nights before about Dakota drowning.  How was I going to tell him?  Finally, across the neighboring pool, we heard faint yells,  "I've got her.  We found her!"  SHE WAS IN THE BATHROOM, with my new mom friend her her other little one.  Her husband didn't know that Dakota had made it down to the beach to his family and then immediately left with his wife to the potty.  WHEW!  This cute little mom was so sorry that she hadn't let me know that she had her.   I was just glad we had found her and that she had been safe all along.  The lady who had found her in the bathroom was very relieved as well.  After losing one of her own many years ago and finding him in the bathroom, she had the smart idea to check the bathroom.  Needless to say, I kept a very close eye on her the rest of the trip (also under Darin's directive).  I think I did pretty darn good during those nine days keeping my precious little chicks safe under my wings.  Darin may have been doing his paid work...but, I was working, too.  It's not easy caring for little ones, especially away from home.

Another drama that unfolded while in Maui, happened back in the suite.  One afternoon, while we were eating our lunch, the girls had gone onto one of the balconies to eat.  All of a sudden, we heard Brooklyn screaming.  She came in frantic.  I thought someone had gone over the edge.  (We were on the 8th floor.)  I was very startled until we calmed her down enough to hear what she was saying.  Her glasses had gone over the edge.  Luckily, they had landed only 6 stories down on the grassy area below.  We hoped they had missed the concrete strips that ran along the yard.  Unfortunately, this grassy area was not accessible to the public.  We had to call hotel security to find them for us.  We could see barely see them from above, but used the camera's zoom feature to make sure that what we were seeing were Brooklyn's glasses.  We were able to describe where they were to the hotel staff so that they could direct the security guys right to them.  Brooklyn had her glasses before long.

We all got to go with Daddy and his group on their boating excursion.  We rode out to one of the nearby craters to snorkel and swim with the sea turtles.  We almost didn't go with him; they were over-booked.  Plus, I wasn't sure how the kids would handle the ride on a sailboat and swimming in the middle of the ocean.  But, at the very last minute, after the chartered buses were loaded, Darin called up to our suite and said they had room after all and that we could go if we wanted.  We had 30 seconds to decide.  I scrambled to gather our necessary belongings and we joined them.  And, I'm so glad we did.  It was a neat experience.  We boated out for quite a while and ate lunch on the boat.  The kids were given a quick lesson on "the art of snorkeling".  Our guide was awesome.  He was soooo good with the kids.  After they were all fitted for gear (and posed for a few photo ops) we were ready to see some fish.  We saw all sorts of fish and sea life.  It was fun to hear the older girls yell out excitedly all the things they saw.  I had Oakley in the water with me and Darin had Dakota.  I tried to get Oakley to look under the water with her mask, but she was not too fond of floating out there in the deep blue.  But overall, the girls love it!  We then got back on the boat and had more snacks while riding to our next destination...the sea turtles.  I wish I had been able to get more photos of the girls in the water on this excursion, but I didn't have the camera handy.  Watching the sea turtles was amazing.  We just had to be careful not to get directly above them, or they wouldn't have clear access to the top when they needed a breath.  We floated and watched for a while.  Finally, a couple came to the surface.  One turtle stuck his snout out right by us.  It was so cool.  Darin didn't get to see it, though.  Oakley, who was swimming with Dad, had chosen this moment to freak out.  She had slipped off her boogie board a little and got scared.  She tried climbing out of the water and onto his head.  So, his view was blocked.  Too bad!

The flee market was an experience in and of itself.  Darin, I'm sure, was going crazy shopping with his five women.  The girls were just as bad as me...having to check every vendor's offering first before making a choice.  Lots of running around and going back-and-forth.  The girls had been saving their money to buy things in Maui, so they were pretty excited to choose from all the purses, flowers, jewelry, etc.  I found cute dresses for each of the girls (and one for myself) for the luau.  And a matching flower hair pin and flower necklace.  They looked so cute!  The outfits were perfect for family photos on the beach and in the gardens.

The luau was really fun and a great way to spend our last night in Maui.  The food, of course, was fantastic.  We ate to our hearts' content.  The entertainment was amazing, as well.  When the warrior dancers came out to perform, Oakley was on my lap.  She was very enthralled in the show.  As the warriors were doing their "fight" dance and were swinging their spears around and making their scary faces complete with tongues sticking out, Oakley turned to me and said, "Are they the bad guys?"  I said they were just pretending to be warriors, defending themselves.  "But are they bad?"  No, they are just dancers pretending to be scary.  "They're bad," she said as a matter of fact.  "I don't like them."  She was a little nervous when the fire dancers came out, as well.  They were very talented and I assured her that they knew what they were doing but to not try that at home, especially the part where he put the fire sticks in his mouth to "eat" the fire.

Writing all this all now makes me want to go back.  Our family had an amazing time, and even though Darin didn't get to experience a lot of it with us, we were grateful for the opportunity to tag a long with him. The girls constantly wish that we could go back again.  Even though Darin will go again next May for work, we will most likely not go with him on this trip.  We hope that someday we can return (for our own vacation) when we can experience more of the island and do it together.

Here is a slideshow of shots from Maui.  (There are a lot!)