Christmas Vacation Part 2: Christmas in Maui

Christmas Eve started with, of course, some time on the beach!

"Paige, how big are you'"?

This little hill provided hours of entertainment

Luckily we headed back to the condo early for some pool time and discovered they were doing a free steak BBQ for all the guests...complete with Santa!

Then we got ready and headed to Lahaina for a delicious dinner at Kimos.

Then for the traditional family pictures at the giant banyan tree.

My cute parents

Mom with her girls

We finally headed back to the condo for our nativity program, which included a lot of songs and a nativity dash.

Ben was the donkey, carrying in Grace as Mary

 Paige was "all animals"/any animal noises she knows :)

 Mom in her usual role of angel (she prefers to sing her part)

 3 Wisemen, bringing some interesting gifts

 Ben quickly transformed from donkey into really excited shepherd

We concluded with "12 Days of Christmas", with Paige as the partridge in the pear tree.

The next morning my mom kept her strange-flying-man-gift tradition going with screaming flying monkeys.

 The rest of the trip consisted of:

More beach time, including surfing! I'm proud to say it was like riding a bike and I got up on the first time! Granted, the boards are huge and the ways are tiny, and you can stand in the water, but I was still proud! All of us, including Evan, got up!

Playing the the condo. Lots of pool time, shuffle board, and miniature golf. Paige loved having grandpa as her swim instructor, and learned to jump in the pool and blow bubbles/drink a lot of water

And the trip wouldn't be complete without Tommy Bahamas and more shaved ice.

Our last night was, well, interesting. We were taking a red eye flight back, so we had to switch to a completely different complex for a few hours. We didn't realize how tiny this room would be for all of us, and how many hours we would spend there.

As sad as we were to leave Maui, we were happy to be out of that room. And thankfully Paige had her own seat on the way back and we all slept! Thanks mom and dad for 9 days of pure happiness in the sun! 

Christmas Vacation Part 1: WA to Maui

The day after Ben was done with finals we headed off to Seattle.

Of all of our 9 flights we did in our 3 week break (yes, 9 flights!!), this one was one of the toughest. We had to fly to Phoenix first, then onto Seattle, which made for 8 1/2 hours of flying...with a toddler. Needless to say, we were very happy to finally be in WA. We had 2 days in WA to hang out and see grandparents (and try to get adjusted to that time zone) before he headed off to Maui. Those 2 flights were less than pleasant as I was in between my mom who had just come down with a cold, and Ben who had been having major sinus problems and was in horrible pain with an ice pack on his head, Evan in front of us puking....and Paige on my lap. Again, very glad to finally get there.

After stocking up at Costco, we headed to our condos and were all so exhausted we headed to bed. Unfortunately for the first few nights, somebody struggled with the time change and woke up at 3:30 am.

The next few days were spent enjoying different beaches and restaurants.

All the kids loved the sand and were covered in it each day.

Paige absolutely loved the water and would drag her life jacket over to us to take her in. Most of our days were spent chasing her as she tried to run into the waves.

First nights' dinner in Lahaina. Paige couldn't get enough of grandpa's lemonade.

Another night, dinner at Fred's, then touring the market before shaved ice.

No better way to eat shaved ice than topless

We snorkeled and saw multiple sea turtles. One was so close it kept hitting my dad (or he was probably trying to touch it). It freaked me out a little to have it SO close. Paige even saw it poke it's head out of the water.

 And we of course did a lot of "bobbing" in the waves

Forget sandcastles, snowmen are the only way to go :)

Nothing says Merry Christmas better than that!

More beach time followed by some fabulous boogie boarding.

Sunday we went to church and then headed up to the volcano. Becca's kids were threatening to puke the whole time and Ben's sinus problems got worse and worse with the elevation. 2 hours later we finally made it to the top where Ben proceeded to throw up (and threw up some more on the way back down). Luckily the view was great :)

After a stop for some Costco pizza we were all feeling better and up for some gingerbread decorating.

And that takes us up to Christmas Eve, which means another post.