I can’t believe we’ve been home from Maui for 3 weeks AND I have not made the time to finish uploading our pictures. So, over the next few days, I’m going to TRY to catch up. We’ll see how I do.
Here we are on our way to our first luau (first for Trinity, Maddux, Bakri and Grandmother) and the second for me and Moustapha.
Here is a picture of some of us enjoying pina coladas (free of alcohol for the kiddos and the grandmother, of course!)
The boys had front row seats and were in awe of the musicians. They loved the singing and the ukelele, especially. Me and miss Trinity under a blanket…having dinner. 🙂
The man on the rock…just before he dove into the water.
Moustapha, Bakri and Maddux went on stage and learned to hula. All of the boys- including Moustapha, really enjoyed the luau night!
Our last full day in Maui was so much fun. Here is a brief recap: We had lunch on our way to the airport in Paia- the town we stayed in. This was our first time to actually walk in the town. We stayed just north of the town in a house that was literally a 2 minute walk from the beach.
We had lunch at Flatbread. It was really good organic pizza and other good organic stuff. I loved it. Thank you, Grandmother for treating us…YUMMY!
Bakri, Maddux and Moustapha in front of the pizza oven. Walking down the main street in Paia (the Hana hwy) Just after this photo was taken, it started raining.
Bakri playing with the Pizza dough.
Maddux hanging out in his room before we left the house. This was his first time to sleep in a big boy bed. He was awesome. The only funny thing that happened was the first night. I guess he wanted to sleep in the bed that we originally put Bakri in. So, when they were checked on in the night, Maddux had gotten out of his bed and was sleeping soundly in Bakri’s bed. And Bakri was close to falling off the bed. We moved Bakri and Maddux stayed in the other bed for the rest of the vacation.
The day before we left a wind storm came in. The waves were so beautiful. This was taken on the northshore of Maui, just north of Mama’s beach.
We were at this lookout point with hundreds of other people.
Our House- Hale O Ke Kai had a guestbook. This was our entry after staying the week. The day after we returned home, Trinity and I hosted a Sip N See for our friend and her new baby girl. This is T relaxing in her party dress AFTER the party. 🙂
This is the tail of a whale. Here is one close to the boat. Look at the glow under the water. That was something we did not see when we were here before. None of the whales ever got close enough to the boat to see them glow under the water. It is such an incredible sight. Here is one heading toward us. Here are 2 whales. Supposedly, these are males and they are after the same female. So, that was what all of the activity centered around.
Yes, our Fifth Anniversary. Only Five years and we already have 3 children all age 3 and under (currently.) We have been unbelievably blessed.
Moustapha’s parents were so generous to give us miles to take all of the kids with us. We traveled to Maui with our three beautiful children and my mom to celebrate. Thank you Grandma and Jiddy! When we were here for our honeymoon we talked about and dreamed about coming back for our fifth anniversary. I personally never dreamed that we would also have 3 kids with us at the 5 year mark. It is amazing and wonderful AND such a different experience being here with our children.
We set out on an anniversary evening adventure that was to include a special dinner at our favorite restaurant from our honeymoon trip. Unfortunately, things did not work out as we planned.
I made the reservation through opentable.com. I made the reservation for 8:30 so that we could put the kids to bed and then go out for dinner and leave the kids at the house with my mom.
We looked up directions on how to get there from our house. Google maps did not come through for us this time. We were supposed to be on the coast, but instead took a tiny road “upcountry” in the dark. It was not fun! At 8:30 I called the restaurant to tell them of our dilema. It turns out there is pretty much one way to get places around here. So, we had to turn around. We added approximately an hour to our trip, which made us an hour late. But, we let the restaurant know and we weren’t too worried since they were supposed to be open and seating tables until 10. Luckily, we arrived at 9:40 and checked in with the hostess. Moustapha, being the realist that he is, was concerned when they did not seat us right away.
I, on the other hand, thought it would be nuts if they were closing early. Especially since we made a reservation, had called and made our trip from the other side of the island to visit their restaurant. This is a picture of me while we were waiting for the hostess. Obviously, I thought everything was going to be fine. Well, initially, it was not fine. After waiting for a couple of minutes, a manager came out and told us we could be seated, but the kitchen was closed, so we could only have salads. After a somewhat heated exchange he went back inside and returned shortly to seat us. We were also able to order entrees. I told him I could not believe he tried to turn us away after reading our reservation- which said it was our anniversary and Nick’s was our favorite restaurant from our honeymoon. And guess what???- he didn’t read our reservation. He was totally clueless about our evening. He was just turning us away thinking we had just come downstairs to eat and could come back tomorrow. I was so mad. I didn’t even cry…not in front of him anyway. 🙂 We decided to still eat there- by then, it was 10. So, we wanted to make the most of our dinner. It will probably be our last visit to Nick’s. They are no longer on a pedestal for us. Here is a photo of Moustapha thimking about dinner. After dinner, we enjoyed hanging out in the lobby waiting for our valet. We were so exhausted. But, it was fun.
Even though things didn’t work out perfectly, we still had a wonderful anniversary. We are so grateful for each other, our children, our families and friends. We have a wonderful life together. God has truly blessed us beyond measure.
Me and miss Trinity under a blanket…having dinner. 🙂
Moustapha, Bakri and Maddux went on stage and learned to hula. All of the boys- including Moustapha, really enjoyed the luau night!
Walking down the main street in Paia (the Hana hwy) Just after this photo was taken, it started raining.
The day after we returned home, Trinity and I hosted a Sip N See for our friend and her new baby girl. This is T relaxing in her party dress AFTER the party. 🙂
