Hawaiian Ice for April Fools-no jokes here

 After our canoe trip we had to kill some time until the Hawaiian Ice Shack opened. We headed toward a dock and found a rope swing. Awesome.

 This is Ally playing on a rope swing. She toned it down a bit because she is so sick. Thankfully she played through her illness nearly the whole time she was ill. This was not one of her sicker moments. She was asleep on the table by dinner time though. Of course our time zone is four hours off and we were eating around 8:30 so....she did pretty well.

 We ordered a few of these babies to share. Then we all went back and bought another one to not share. So we all had at least one and a half Hawaiian Ices and in some cased two whole Ices. Ummm these were a crowd pleaser. We tried lots of flavors between the seven of us and not a bad flavor in the lot. We liked them all, a lot.

 Ty entering his second helping of ice. Happy boy.

 So if you were in Hawaii for your birthday and your parents asked you what you wanted to do, what would you choose? Ally, all she wanted to do was go fishing. I scurried around town in the morning and bought up a fishing pole and a few fishing tackle items and we hit the shorelines. We didn't have much success out front of our hotel so we headed down to a boat launch and we caught quite a few little yellow fish. The kids had a great time. More photos of the boat dock later.

Last year Byron and I found this great place right in Kihei called Stewart's Burgers. They are gourmet and awesome. We had a great lunch here for Ally's birthday celebration. The kids played tether ball with the beach umbrella at our table. There is fun to be found anywhere if you are looking for it.

Island Life...

 Nothing beats granola topped with yogurt and fruit on the deck overlooking the ocean before you head out for a canoe trip. We rose and shined early, easy when you are still on Utah time but in Hawaii, and headed off for the canoes down in Kihei.

 The breakfast is a favorite for Byron. He loves the passion fruit, guava, mango, pineapple, apple-banana mix. So yummy.

 This is one of my dad's favorite activities on the island. He never misses it. The funds raised go to help the local schools on Maui. There is a voluntary donation of $35 per person to go out and ride their free canoes. They are the same style as the natives would have used to island hop before they had air planes for that.

 Unfortunately we did not all get into the same canoe. I guess my kids can't stand still long enough to save their place on a canoe or something. Sheeshhhh. My dad ended up riding with another group on a different canoe but we saw him out there and got to splash at him.

 My favorite part of the trip was when we rode over the shallow calm water you could look down and see the coral reefs full of fish, anemones, and sea life. It was very peaceful and a great way to spend a morning.

It was also Ally's birthday today so our canoe full of salty sailors sang Ally the Happy Birthday song. She was a little embarrassed but smiled anyway. Her highlight was probably holding the lovebirds that a gentlemen was selling when we got back to shore. She tried real hard to convince me since it was her birthday she needed a baby lovebird to take back home with her. They are adorable but alas, we have a bird dog and two cats. A baby lovebird would not last two minutes in our house.

Bamboo Forest/Pipiwai Trail

 This is my place. The one hike on the planet where I could build a little hut and stay for the rest of my life. When you need to zone out and go to your happy place this is where I head. It is the most peaceful place. The long bamboo trees blow in the wind and chime together above you, the birds sing while they fly high above. The sunlight filters through casting beautiful shadows on the path. Thankfully having the kids along, and my dad, did not ruin my special place. To be honest I was worried it wouldn't be the same with them all there being, you know, noisy. We had a spectacular day on my Pipiwai Trail hiking through the bamboo forest.

 We took a little detour into the trees and the kids tried to bit of tree scaling. It is tough to climb bamboo trees...not much to grip onto. We also suffered a bit from blisters which started along this trail. I tell you what, it is hard to keep your feet/sandals dry when you are in and out of streams, oceans, pools, sprinklers, etc. all day long. Wet feet sure do grow blisters quickly. We all bought Tevas for the trip thinking they would be perfect. Kind of perfect. We all ended up buying at least one more pair of sandals while we were there to give our feet different rub points. With the two options it was better. We even got blisters from our snorkel flippers. Notice Ally's socks under her Tevas....her blisters started the earliest. Sheesh....our poor feet.

 Thanks Dad for taking this cute family photo. I should have taken off my hat. The highlight of the hike for me was the forest, for everyone else the awesome waterfall at the top.

 We had fun walking right up under it and getting nice and wet. The boys spent quite a while showering in the downpour the waterfall makes. They have had a really good wet spring on Maui and the waterfalls and streams are running high. This waterfall was much smaller last year when Byron and I saw it for the first time. Fun to see everything looking so different.

Me and my boys! They are so handsome!!!

Fred's and Sunday School

 My favorite part about Maui is this little restaurant called Fred's. I don't really have a favorite item on the menu, it has raunchy photos in the mens bathroom, Byron has to accompany the boys and they close their eyes as they go through. BUT....Byron loves the fish tacos. He talks about them all year. He is on a constant lookout trying to find tacos as good as these somewhere in Utah. Thankfully he hasn't found them close to home yet. It makes it easier to convince Byron to head back to Maui. Fish Tacos.....he's in. My dad convinced the boys they could eat their orchids that Fred's decorates their entrees with. They enjoyed their floral fish tacos. Thank you Fred's, you make it way to easy to get my husband heading toward Maui.

 Carter and his books. This boy loves to read. We did have to ground him from reading during Spring Break. I know, most parents would kill to have over-reading as their parenting issue. I finally told Carter I did not fly him all the way to Hawaii so he could read. Much to his dismay he did look out the window and join us in the land of the living.

 On Sunday we headed out for a day trip. We came upon this cute LDS chapel. It is a little one-room church house built by the first LDS saints on Maui. It was a beautiful little chapel and their garden is darling. Beautiful building, definitely off the beaten path.  Ty found the sacrament cups. Fun stop.

Hawaiian Vacation With the Family

 Our kids have known for a long time that Byron and I were going to Maui for our winter getaway. We decided back in December to take them with us but we kept it a secret for a while. On my birthday we ate at Blue Iguana and broke the news to the kids. They were of course so excited and they had about a month to wait until the big trip. When I was talking with my Mom about our trip we discovered they would be in Maui at the same time as us. Our trips overlapped by a few days. We booked into the same condo unit they were staying at and had a great time hanging out with them a little bit while we were there. Best Spring Break ever!!!

 Byron and the kids out walking the beach in front of the condo, Maui Sunset, we stayed at. It was a great condo complex. Great pool, tennis courts, beach front, tide pools....lots of fun.

 My Dad after drinking his morning green smoothie. The kids really wanted one the first morning we were there, they declined every morning thereafter. Apparently spinach, broccoli, banana, cauliflower smoothies are not for them.

 Byron and Carter after snorkeling at our favorite beach. The beachfront at the Days Inn Oceanside hotel is one of if not the best snorkeling beach we have found on Maui. We love it there. We always see sea turtles, eels and lots of colorful fish. We have seen sting ray, octopus and always new things. This beautiful shell Byron was holding still had a little snail living in it so they put it back. We also found a giant conch shell on our last snorkel this trip. It was gorgeous and of course still had it's snail inside so it stayed behind as well.

 Little Ally jumped onto the plane heading for Hawaii with a blazing fever of 104. So sad! We drugged her up with ibuprofen and off we went. She was sick for around four days. As long as we kept up on her ibuprofen she was our happy go lucky Ally. When we began to wonder if she was over her fever and cut back on the ibuprofen she would wither like a little flower and pretty much stop in her tracks. This was a photo from the middle of a beach walk, her drugs wore off and she was just done. Ally and I sat and waited for the boys to finish their hike while her medicine kicked back in. Twenty minutes later she was back. Racing around the tidal pools and jumping over waves. This girl loves the beach as much as her mom.

This is my parents out on the rocks looking in the tide pools. They spent a good thirty minutes at least out discovering new things. I found what I thought was a beautiful piece of sea glass out on this walk. Sea glass is what I collect whenever we are beach hunting. It turned out to be a tobacco pipe of some sort. I was going to toss it back out when I discovered what it was but my family convinced me to keep it so I am the proud owner of a pretty handblown glass pipe. I'm not quite sure how I feel about that. It would make more sense if I was in California to fine a drug pipe in the waves.

The flight to HI was great. It took a while, we had a layover since there are no direct flights from UT anymore. We got there late, we thought our rental car company was going to close on us since when we called them during our layover they said they wouldn't stay open late for us. What? Can they do that? When we got there we had Byron run ahead and we did eventually find our shuttle over to the rental company, they ended up staying open for us and all was well. The kids were excited to get their eyeballs on the island but it was pretty dark as we were driving into the hotel. Ally of course wanted to hit the beach the first second we got there but we were all so tired, it was around three in the morning our time. We were very impressed with the condo and found a surprise pull-out bed in the family room. That was a big hit. We had two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a deck overlooking the beautiful ocean and a great kitchen/living room area. It couldn't have been more perfect. We opened up  one of the storage closets and it was full of beach chairs, bogey boards, coolers and beach toys. What? It was a surprise and we used them all well.