We visited the Grande Wailea -- yes, it is as beautiful as everyone says! Oh, their pool system... oh my! Matthew was ready to jump in when he saw the pools and I had to tell him that we were not allowed since we are not patrons of the hotel! He was, understandably, very upset. He thought I was telling him that no one was allowed in the pool. So he kept saying to me, there are people in there, I see them! :(
This was not one of the pools for swimming (but you bet MD wanted to jump right on in!)... it's beautiful isn't it? Here are my very uncooperative children!
the balcony view....one day we can afford to have ONE of us stay over night! ;) How shall we determine the most worthy?! And this is what it would look like if we had 5 children!
Everyone takes photos in front of this waterfall when they visit... we had to follow tradition!
So... I was a bit shocked to discover that our plane was a nine seater. Um... you know how I hate heights? Oh boy.... being in a nine seater would not have been my first option to travel to the Big Island. But I could not show any fears in front of the children, right?
Alas, this is us approaching our island hopper:
my brave face...
So far so good...
And all was well... E, MG, and I took a nap. MD played with his DSi so he was content. It was a very long 45 minutes flight (for me)! It was very turbulent! Sadly I woke up 15 minutes before descending... a very painful end to our flight. I felt a piercing pain go through my head that had me in tears. I could not sit still. I tried to put pressure on my temples and tried very hard not to scream. I grabbed a bottle of water and tried to stay calm. I drank the entire bottle in two chugs hoping it would help me. Vince mouthed to me, 10 more minutes. He couldn't do a thing to help me. The children were all fine and still asleep - thank goodness... I just had to pull myself together...
And that was my farewell story to Maui!
Now we are here on the Big Island of Hawaii. And guess what we saw right in our own backyard?!!!
Are we lucky or what?!
He was taking a nap... We tried very hard not to disturb him. But he was fascinating! E wanted to know how he got there and how he was going to get back to his mommy. So we discussed that for a bit.
MG loved collecting shells, rocks, and coral:
The boys, however, wanted to get wet, wet, wet!!!
But so much fun!!!!
This is where we are staying -- hello MG!!!
Our back yard view... isn't it amazing?!
The following day we left for a 2 1/2 hour drive to:
Pretty neat to see this crater while standing on a crater (Kilauea)!
While MD and E were asleep in the car, everyone else went to visit the lava tube. I was told it was a long trek.
On the way home we stopped to visit the black sand beach.
Pretty black, huh?!
And look what else we saw??? There were 3 of these beauties on the beach!
Finally a picture of Daddy and E.
3 lovely ladies:
And this boy... well, what can I say? He loves his food! When we ordered this the waiter asked us if someone was going to share it with him. We said yes... knowing that he would most likely put a pretty huge dent in it without help. So in the end, he ate 3/4 of it! The burrito was called a hogzilla (i think!)!
And that my friend was the end to a lovely long day!
.jpg){kind=small}
