I ♥ Faces for June 8 ~ Vacation!

WARNING: This may turn into a very long post! As I really do like to take pictures on vacation. But, hey, Amy and Angie over at I ♥ Faces asked for a vacation post.

WEEK 22 - June 8th - Telling My Story: Vacation Edition
a.k.a. - Amy and Angie's First Week Off! :)





Its "Telling My Story Through Photos: The Vacation Edition” week
Click HERE for all the details


For Easter in March 2008 we spent our Easter Break in Hawaii. We met up with my parents and both my sisters and their families on Maui. Yes, that does mean that there where 8 adults and 9 kids in our party. No need to share the ages of the adults, but just to let you know what kind of crazy we are ... we took children ages: 12 1/2, 9, 6 1/2, 6, 4, 2, 1, and 7 month old twins from Minnesota to Hawaii. Oh, and I was 5 months pregnant! Please note there will be NO pictures from the airplane, I'm sure can imagine why.


Saturday we packed our bags and headed to the airport:





We were thrilled to finally arrive at the Grand Wailea in Maui:









After stopping at both Kmart and Walmart for:
Sandwich fixings, iced coffee, boogie boards, inner tubes, sand toys, egg dye, and chocolate Easter Eggs ... we had just enough time to check in, change clothes and head off to our luau:

























If you really like Luaus or want to see the 200 Luau photos I took feel free to visit our Luau Album at www.shutterfly.com Just click Here


For Easter Sunday it was truly wonderful to wake up in such a paradise! I mentioned above that we arrived at The Grand Wailea on Maui. I cannot say enough wonderful things about this resort and their staff!

For anyone wanting to see more about this resort on Maui check out their main webite: www.grandwailea.com
We actually stayed in Grand Wailea's new addition called Ho'olei ... I think there is a whole page on the Ho'olei on Grand Wailea's site. It was very nice to have several bedrooms and several bathrooms and a nice big kitchen. There was also a lovely deck, with the most incredible view! The sliding glass doors were more like a glass wall that retracted into either wall, which maked the deck and the view a part of the living room area.

We noticed a few churches on our drive from the airport to the resort and honestly just picked one at random and trusted that God would be present in the Easter message. Well, boy did God surprise us!!!!

Please Please Please if you get a chance visit this church's website!

http://www.hopechapelmaui.com/


My sister saw the sign for this church's Easter service and it was close to our condo, so we decided to have everybody up and ready togo by 7:30 ... not too hard when 7:30am feels like 12:30pm to our bodies :-)

I was so blessed by this service ...



What a beautiful setting for a Church, ha?




Our kids outside after the service:



The picture above is what the sanctuary looked like as we walked in ... near the beginning of the service the worship director held up a couple stacks of differently colored post-it-notes and he commented about how plain and ordniary an individual post-it-note can seem.

"Each one has its own use or purpose, but that use and purpose can seem pretty insignificant sometimes." Then he handed them off and said, "But when you put those insignificant, ordinary things in the right hands and they all come together its amazing what can happen ... "

The person with the post-it-notes walked off and the choir entered and stood in front of the black back drop until later in the service and when they moved we realized what had been happening with all those post-its ... while we sang and listed to a solo, others where behind the choir creating a beautiful mosaic type masterpiece our of those ordinary post-its.


Notice in the next pictures the now colorful backdrop:





Click on this last picture to see how the individual post-its fit together to make this beautiful piece of art.


Back at the Resort:
After our beautiful Easter service and a yummy pancake brunch back in our condo, we headed over to the main hotel area for the Easter Egg Hunt and games for the kids. Shaved ice, cookies, ball toss, ring toss, miniputt ... stuff like that with little prizes. Kids enjoyed that. We all wore our swim suits over to the egg hunt, because then we planned to hit the big pool or the beach after the egg hunt fun. But it was sooooo packed over there that we decided it was too stressful to keep track of the kids. They went around the lazy twice and the little boys played in the wading pool for a bit, but then we came back over to our condo and enjoyed the smaller much quiter pool by our condo. Acctually for almost an hour we were the only people using the pool ... very nice.



































Monday Morning Sunrise
Ok, so our condo faced west ... great for sunsets, not as great to watch the sun rise, but Zeke and Papa and I were up around 6 this morning and we watched from our deck as the sky turned colors and the moon disapeared. Very cool!










The rest of that Monday was a pretty lazy day:



We hung around the condo and then spent 4 hours by the pool. The kids were swimming and playing most of the time, but I spent most of the time on a lounge chair. Little Z. even ended up falling asleep down there ... such a cute little guy!















Crazy Tuesday!
I guess its a good thing we rested on Monday because Tuesday was full of activity!




Aunti Am. and Uncle B. went out on a half day fishing excursion that left at 5:45 am. The rest of us woke up around 6 or 7 or 8. Papa left to do a bike ride up a volcanoe. Grandma, Auntie Al. Uncle R. the twins, and 2 of Am & B,'s kids were going to drive up the volcano and see Papa at some point but also enjoy a nice hike. Am. and B. were going to catch up with them after fishing. My family plus one of Am & B's kids left for the beach around 8:45, hoping it would not be as crowded as the other day. There were a lot of people already out for 9am, but we found a spot with 6 chairs by the kiddie pool and the kids had great fun there. They enjoyed the lazy river and several water slides. Then we walked a little ways farther and enjoyed the beach for 30 minutes. Kids have boogie boards ... that was really fun. After 30 minutes there, though, they were ready for the pool life again and we went back to our spot by the kiddie pool. We headed back to our condo around nooon and are resting a bit while we have lunch, then we went to check out the Maui Ocean Center, Hawaii's largest aquarium.

Trust me G. got happier ... he just looks pretty miffed in this picture.

Z. fell sound asleep as soon as we arrived at the Ocean center.

If you click on this picture and see it bigger you might be able to find the red Coral Fish





We were glad Z. woke up to see the turtle pool













And here are the pictures from Papa's trip UP the volcano

Here are Grandma and Papa at the top!

Papa rented a bicycle on Maui ... he can't ever go too long with out a bike ride, yah know. But the ride he took on Tues. was not your average bike ride.

He rode from the town of Kula(3500 ft elevation) up hill 22 miles, to the top of a volcano. The summit of Haleakala is at 10,032 ft. elevation. This ride is a big tourist attraction, but the bikes are usually rented and hauled to the top and the cyclists spend the day biking down the volcano. Not my dad ... he rode up! Grandma, Am., B., and R. and J. drove up to meet him and do a little hiking. A. & R. and the twins drove up, too.

Check out these link on Haleakala and the bike ride:

http://www.nps.gov/hale/
(info from the National Park Service)

http://www.haleakala.national-park.com/info.htm
(more about the volcano)


http://www.bikemaui.com/
(but keep in mind Papa biked UP, not down)



Wednesday on Maui

A good friend of mine from elementary school and high school lives on Oahu, she and one of her sons decided to come spend 24 hours with us on Maui. They got in on Tues. night and we had a great time down at the pool and the beach with them on Wed. Here are some of the great pictures she took while down on the beach:















And here are a few from my camera:











And check out M's crazy beach hair after Wed. at the beach:




Also on Wed. was our eldest's turn to go horseback ridding. Our daughter M. is in love with horses, and that is putting it mildly. So her and Papa signed up for a 2 hour horse ride. It was just her and Papa and this really nice guide, who by the way she homeschooled her boys. Papa said Mikayla and the guide chatted about almost everything under the sun for the whole two hours :-)







What a great memory! And we truly did make some wonderful memories on that trip!

Friday as say goodbye to Maui

But then, how does that saying go? All good things must come to an end?
What a great vacation we had in Hawaii! And we threw the flowers of our leis into the ocean before we left ... a Hawaiian symbol that you will one day return. We certainly hope to.

So there ya have it an very very very long vacation post!