July 9, 2013
We departed for Hawaii at 8am this morning! Leaving the house ready to show at 6:30 in
the morning was a bit of a challenge but we made it work. A big thanks to our friend Connie Thiessen
for taking us to the airport!
When we arrived at the airport we were surprised to run into
the Dalleske family who were also headed to Hawaii. Hillary was especially excited to see Alyssa,
whom she has played with a few times while Lynn worked out with me. They were going to a different island, so
when we arrived in LA they headed to a different gate.
Our terminal was small but we managed to find some
sandwiches to take on the 5½ hour plane ride. I can imagine Daddy was going
crazy on the long flight from Dallas to Hawaii when he and mom went! A long flight indeed but we managed well with
books, Barbies, iPods, an in-flight movie about a magician, naps and
snacks. We arrived in Maui, got our bags
and headed over to the rental car area. As
we were making our way to the rental car bus I noticed the smallest car I had
ever seen and just had to get a picture of it. After taking it I saw that John (who
was wearing a bright green shirt) was way in front of me so I hurried to catch
up, only to realize that the guy in the green shirt I was following wasn’t
John! So I wandered around a bit until Peyton called me and said they were on
the Alamo bus already and I could just meet them there J. So I found my way over to board that bus just
as it was leaving…and then it did a big u-turn and stopped right in front of
me. The driver opened the door and said “are
you mom?” and helped me onto the bus. He
got on the loud speaker and said “now that we found mom we can get on our way!”
and everyone cheered. Oops.We stopped at Wal-Mart to get some groceries (note to self for next year: bring reusable bags! We only had one and they don’t provide paper or plastic!) and then in a round-about way found a little outdoor mall where we made a second stop to get some shoes for John. There was a little farmer’s market set up in the mall so we picked up some fresh produce as well before heading on up to Lahaina. We made one last stop at a very packed Safeway to get our cold items and drove on up to the resort. There were two buildings and as luck would have it (or so we thought) the bellman confirmed our name on his list so we unloaded all the bags and John went inside to check in. He came back out a few minutes later looking a little irritated and shared with us that we were actually in the other building! So we loaded everything (including groceries) back up and went to the other building to check in. As we finally headed up the elevator to our room we were so excited to find that we had a fantastic view of the ocean from a very large porch which ran along the entire side of our 2-bedroom condo. Beautiful!!
We unpacked the groceries and then went down to watch the sunset, which was just gorgeous!! We got supper at the little market at the hotel, walked on the beach and the kids swam for a bit. After a brief discussion on behavior expectations J, Peyton & Hillary came up to get ready for bed while Trace, dad and I got in the hot tub for a bit. It was a long but very, very good day!
July 10, 2013
I was the first one to rise and check out the fitness
center. When I returned the kids were
eating breakfast out on the porch and dad was working on making a plans for the
week (or as they said on a recent episode of Duck Dynasty, an “itinerary”!). We read the first part of Proverbs 13, donned
our suits and headed to the pool where we ventured down the waterslides and
spend a little time in the hot tub. The wind
was blowing a bit but the sun was warm…and it even sprinkled a little. Hillary made a friend – “Glo” – and after
soaking up some sun we came back up to eat lunch at the condo – out on the
porch of course…such a great place for family time! We spent the afternoon at the beach playing in the waves and snorkeling. We saw some awesome fish, including a few schools and some uniquely colored & sized ones. Trace decided this was about the coolest thing he’s ever done, talking to John as much as he could with snorkel gear in his mouth! Peyton loved it, too, although Hillary decided to wait until tomorrow to check it out since she was quite engrossed in making sand mounds with cups.
We dipped into the hot tub on our way back to the condo, and then came up to shower and get ready for our night out. We decided to go to Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse since we have gift cards to use there. Even though we hadn’t brought them, our fabulous neighbor Janiece came through for us once again…she went to our house, found the gift cards, took pictures of them & text them to us so we could use them tonight. The best neighbor EVER!!
We stopped at the Safeway on our way to Ruth’s Chris so I could look for nail polish and a football for the boys. As I walked up the sidewalk I heard a voice call my name and it was Chassidy Brunton – a MOPS mom I had known in Wichita! Small world…she had told me on my Facebook that they were in Maui as well, but to run into her like that was such a surprise!
We had hoped to see one of Hawaii’s phenomenal sunsets from our dinner table but unfortunately that evening’s sunset wasn’t an award-winner. Of course, we still enjoyed a fabulous dinner with a fantastic waiter, Jeremy, who made our experience very, very enjoyable, in spite of a dead bug that fell out of our bread basket! Obviously he didn't each much :). The kids loved dinner – Trace and Peyton made quick work of the 16-oz boneless ribeye while Hillary nailed two slider burgers. We all shared some calamari, a mahi-mahi appetizer and some salads – Trace & Hillary had not had calamari but both decided it was a great choice (it took a little coaxing for Hillary to give it a try!). John’s strip was excellent, and my spicy, grilled marlin was outstanding. We decided to forego dessert and take a walk down to the Cold Stone Creamery for a treat.
After we left Cold Stone we ventured into a few stores. After stepping into one we heard a voice say “John Niemann!” – when we turned around we saw Randy & Terri Fayette who were in Maui on vacation as well. We had seen on Facebook they were in the area as well, but again, running into them was a surprise! We chatted a bit about baseball and then headed on our way. We knew it was getting late and everyone was a bit tired when Hillary bit it in the parking lot and scratched herself up a bit. But other than that, it was another great day in Hawaii!
July 11, 2013
Both John and I hit the workout center and got in a good
workout before we stopped at the concierge to plan out the rest of our
week. The lady there was very helpful,
and she helped us get all our excursions planned & booked. We came back
upstairs to find the boys still asleep and Hillary out on the porch
reading. We ate breakfast, shared with
the kids our plans for the week, and then loaded our bags to head up to Fleming
Beach to boogeyboard.
We made a quick stop
at a scuba shop to repair a set of goggles and finally find some nail
polish at the nearby Tines grocery store. We also hit a clothes shop to
pick up a very “loud” Hawaiian shirt for John!
We grabbed some lunch at McDonald’s and then hit Fleming beach…and was
it ever an awesome place to boogeyboard!!
Trace & Peyton tried their hand at it first and they had a great
time until a wave folded Trace in half backwards so he yielded his board to Dad
for awhile. John & Peyton rode tons
of waves while Trace, Hillary and I swam in the waves and took pictures. Unfortunately
I fought one of the first big waves instead of just “going with it” and tweaked
my knee a bit L. But
hopefully the mild swelling and stiffness will be short lived. After
a couple of hours there, we loaded back up and drove up the road to Kapalua Bay
to snorkel. We saw some awesome fish,
and John & Hillary even saw a colorful eel.
As they made their way to shore, they spotted a sea turtle that was just
hanging out and swimming around the rocks.
Hillary came running across the beach to get my new iPhone in its
Lifeproof case so dad could take some underwater pictures. He got some great ones as the turtle put on
quite a show for its fans.
We loaded up quickly and rushed back to shower so we could
leave for the Luau at the Hyatt. We had a
great time – the kids bought some Hawaiian jewelry, we took a very good family
sunset picture, ate some excellent food and enjoyed quite a show. Our favorite parts were definitely the “Bleh”
guy and the fire dancers. They were
phenomenal!! We came back to the condo to do some laundry,
clean out the very sandy bag, and prep for tomorrow. The biggest challenge of tomorrow? To find
Trace’s wallet :(.
July 12, 2013
I hit the workout center for an upper-body focused workout
to give the knee a break, and returned to a sleeping family. Everyone got up, we ate breakfast on the deck
and read a few more verses in Proverbs to get our day started off on a positive
note. We packed up our lunch, snacks
& towels & headed out on our sightseeing day. We made a quick stop at Sports Authority to
get Trace some water shoes and decided to look one last time through the car
for Trace’s wallet. Lo and behold,
Peyton was the hero as he found it…it had gotten shoved between the back seats
and we were all very relieved to have found it!
Our first stop was the Haleakala National Park to see the
volcano. As we neared 7,000 feet we
called Grandad to let him know we were embarking on this particular sightseeing
journey – it was his favorite when they were in Hawaii. We made it to the top (where the temperature
was about 56 degrees and we were in tank tops!), seeing some amazing,
breathtaking views on the way up. It was absolutely gorgeous, and John’s
panoramic pictures are going to be fabulous!
We took a lot of pictures, and hiked up to the top of the visitor’s
center area.
The first place we parked had a sign signifying the
elevation of 10,000 feet. As we were
taking a few pictures a young man on a bicycle rode up and we learned that he
had started out on the beach with his “feet in the sand” and rode the entire 38
miles up to the summit in roughly 6 hours!
What an accomplishment for our new acquaintance, Brandon, from Ohio. He
said it’s the longest climb from base to summit in the US.
We drove a little ways down and stopped to see another
spectacular view and decided to eat some lunch in the parking lot. As we made our way down the winding road we
pulled over once again when we saw two guys preparing to hang glide off one of
the cliffs. Our timing was perfect as we
got to watch them launch and glide in and out of the clouds. It was so cool!
Our next destination was Twin Falls on the road to
Hana. We didn’t have enough time to make
it to Hana, but we wanted to take the kids to see and swim in the falls. We parked and hiked the ¾ mile to the falls,
where the kids and I ventured in first.
John took some pictures and then it was his turn to go swim. On the hike back out we stopped at the other
falls where I took pictures and video of the kids & John jumping off the
top of the falls. I got some great video
too…Trace decided to do a flip and actually did a 1¼…the face plant didn’t feel
too good! Then Peyton decided to flip as
well, and I just might have a prize-winning funniest home video as he did some
sort of halfway side flip into the pool below…I think by the time he went to
bed the red mark on his side was just about faded! The kid took a hit for sure!
We got back to the car and decided to make our way to the
Paia Fish Market that our concierge had recommended. It was packed but worth the wait…the kids
shared fish & chips and calamari & chips while I thoroughly enjoyed my
shrimp salad combo & John had Ahi Shashimi followed by a blackened Ahi salad. And the local beer – a Bikini Blond Lager –
was a great compliment to dinner for John and me. We topped off supper with a
trip across the street to a Gelato shop and I have to say, the dark chocolate
sorbetto was amazing…I totally had my reservations until I tasted it. Oh my was it ever good! A Hare Krishna trio was outside the Gelato
shop doing their chanting thing and after some questions from the kids we
decided to pick up one of their brochures and read about this religion during
the rest of the drive. We are now better
prepared to represent Christianity to any Hare Krishna individual who might
come our way J.
We got back to the condo, unloaded the car and headed down to
the hot tub for a brief dip. It didn’t
take long for us all to decide we were ready to rinse off in the shower and hit
the hay. A great day!!
July 13, 2013
The alarm went off EARLY today since we had to leave by
6:15am to make it to slip 55 at the harbor to board Maui Magic for our
snorkeling adventure. We left right on time and were the first in line at the
slip – a definite first for the Niemann’s! We were checked in by a very fun gal
named Katie, and then snacked on bagels, fruit, juice & coffee until we set
off at 7:30. The whole crew was just great
– their customer service was impeccable and their ability to remember names was
amazing!
We headed right out for Molokini Crater where we had our
first snorkeling experience of the day.
It was fantastic. We saw dozens
of species of fish, color after color of coral, and the water was amazingly
blue. We snorkeled for about 45 minutes
and then loaded back up to try and find some dolphins swimming in the water…and
did they ever! After about 20 minutes of
driving, we came up on over a dozen dolphins swimming all around our boat…we
were able to lay down on our stomachs on the front of the boat and watch them
swim directly under us. It was amazing
and I think Trace was so excited he wet his pants. After years of talking about, loving and
learning about dolphins, he got just about as close as he will ever get to this
magnificent mammal. It was a definite highlight for all of us – a
few even showed off by jumping in and out of the water. Three were swimming together and were in
perfect sync as they swam above and under the water. It was so cool!!
After leaving the dolphin “show” the boat took us to Turtle
Bay where we saw 3-4 sea turtles as we snorkeled for another 45 minutes or
more. We snorkeled out in the deeper
water where we saw a sea turtle hanging out on the bottom of the ocean – it was
about 30 feet deep there. We also
snorkeled closer to the shore where the water was very shallow and we could have
touched the coral if we wanted to. It
was so beautiful with the water again so clear – the fish looked like photographs
rather than live beings right there with us.
It was neat to see them swimming in and out of the rocks, coral and underwater
plant life.
We returned to the boat where the crew was grilling burgers
and serving them up with pineapple and bacon. They also set up a slide where
anyone who wanted to could slide off into the ocean – it was set up on the
front of the boat so it was quite a jump from the end of the slide to the
water! Hillary had a little “splat” on the
water so she decided to lay in the warm sun on the deck instead of more sliding
J.
We returned to Slip 55 where we turned in our gear and said
good-bye to Katie, Jason & Jacob. We
HIGHLY recommend this trip to anyone going to Maui! There were only about 45 people on this boat,
and by the time we finished, I think they knew everyone by name. It was a
really, really great experience.
After a stop in Lahaina for some shave ice, frozen yogurt
and to pick up some t-shirts for our “other kids” – Jordan & Jermal – we arrived
back at the Honua Kai Resort tired but so happy with our day. Peyton and I went out to the pool to swim a
few laps to get our workout in for the day, and Trace & Hillary joined us
shortly after for some water football games.
I left them to go shower for my hot date, who was napping when I got to
the room. The kids were all set for a
pizza and movie night and John & I set out for Leilani’s on the Beach – a restaurant
we went to when we were here 2 years ago.
Hopefully our very good waiter, Lance, will be there again!
When we arrived at the restaurant for some reason they didn’t
show our reservation, but we were in their system from 2 years ago! They were able to get us a table with a
really great view of the sunset and even though Lance was no longer working at Leilani’s,
our waiter, Steve, was very good and friendly.
We enjoyed a great dinner, complete with a bottle of Cepage from our
favorite winery, Ledson, that John had packed for our special dinner out. We topped off my grilled swordfish and John’s
Texas-style prime rib with Hawaii’s infamous Hula Pie for dessert. I personally think it would be better with vanilla
vs. Macadamia Nut ice cream, but at least they put the extra nuts on the side J.
We walked around a bit and then returned to the condo to
find all the kids asleep and we followed suit shortly after. The kids had enjoyed a calm evening of pizza,
popcorn & a movie.
July 14, 2013
John and I hit the workout center but after a little weight
lifting John decided to go for a walk.
Ironically, our friends the Koegeboehn’s from Wichita were also in Maui,
so we had planned to meet them at Duke’s Restaurant for breakfast. I went back to get the kids up and when I
asked Trace & Hillary how their babysitter was, they said he did great
except he cooked the pizza on the piece of round cardboard that it came out of
the box on! Of course, you really couldn’t
blame him…John had set the pizza out on the pan – on the cardboard! They figured it out although it was a bit of
a mess to peel the cooked pizza off the cardboard – I guess Peyton earned his
babysitting stripes.
We all met up at Duke’s and it was just great to see Gary
& Lucy. They are moving to Boerne,
TX in August – about the same time frame we are on to move back to Wichita so
seeing them was a bonus. We had a great
time visiting and catching up. We had
both moved to Wichita at about the same time and met through MOPS.
John had quite the adventure on his walk. He had decided to head toward Black Rock and
even ran part of the way. He climbed up
to the top to take some pictures, and then was joined by 3 young men who had
come prepared…they had a “Go Pro” camera and proceeded to do back flips off the
top rock in tandem! John took video of
them – it was pretty impressive! I don’t
think I would have ventured off that top rock 50 feet down into the water!
After breakfast we went over to the pool for a bit before going
back up to the room to pack up. Although
our flight didn’t leave until 9pm that night, we had to be checked out by
noon. We decided to go to another beach/park
area by the Westin so the kids could snorkel one last time. We rinsed them off as best we could in the
outdoor mini-shower (complete with shampoo!) and then changed and loaded up to
head out for our submarine adventure. We
drove a few miles up the road before Peyton realized his wallet wasn’t in the
car door pocket where he had left it when we were changing at the
park/beach. We didn’t have time to go
all the way back so we made a few phone calls to the Westin and to our resort
since he had a room key in his wallet in hopes that someone would return it to
our resort. It put a bit of a damper on
the day but we all tried to stay positive.
We arrived on time for our adventure and boarded the little
boat to take us out to the sub. The
leader of our boat was quite entertaining with his safety instructions and
other trivia facts. The boat ride was
about 5-10 minutes long and then we transferred over to the sub after getting
to see it surface which was pretty cool! The sub ride was about 30 minutes long
and we saw everything from fish to a sunken boat to sea urchins to starfish to a
5-foot white tip reef shark to a barracuda.
It was so cool as we went from the surface to 130 feet deep! The trip back to the island was just beautiful
– the scenery is just amazing, as is the very blue water.
On our way back to the car we stopped so the kids could get
another Shave Ice, and Peyton opted for some Cookies & Cream ice cream for
the trip back to the beach to see if we could possibly find Peyton’s
wallet. Unfortunately we did not but we
have some very nice people at the Westin and at our Hanoa Kai resort keeping an
eye out for it. We hope someone figures
out how to get it back to our resort and if not, the kids all realized the
importance of keeping some sort of ID in their wallets, and also keep them in
the safest places possible.
We grabbed some supper at a very fun sports bar by the
airport, and then headed over to check in the car and do some repacking. Our plane was on time and we were on our way.
July 15, 2013
Everyone slept most of the plane ride, although John had to
do a little babysitting of his own.
Apparently the young man sitting behind him decided to make some liquid
purchases on board and slammed a few too many Rum & Cokes. He had to help
the flight attendants get him back into his seat and cleaned up before the guy
literally passed out. L
Our flight arrived in LA at 6:10am and we had a layover of
almost 2 hours before we boarded for Fresno. I’m not sure any of us remember
taking off since we were already crashed!
We landed on time, made a pit stop at Starbuck’s for strawberries &
cream (the boys), a Venti coffee (me) and a Refresher that Hillary bought for
John. She thought the apple juice was
too expensive at $3.45 but the $3.25 refresher for her Daddy was fine! J
Phil Segovia picked us up at the airport and shuttled us
home. We unpacked, started laundry,
sorted the mail and headed to the grocery store to restock while we had a
little energy. I’m thinking this
afternoon we will be napping by the pool!
