Cookies and Crayons

Holy cow, is Maui ever a fun place! We’d heard great things about it from family members and friends, but it doesn’t quite compare to seeing it up close and personal. We took a boat ride to the Molokini volcanic crater just off Maui, which offered some fantastic snorkeling. One of us would watch the kids while the other played in the water, looking at coral and fish.

Kim doing snuba

Scott doing snuba

Dougie and Connie had fun with the glass bottom boat

Dougie decided he has a future career as a photographer

Our hotel had a great kiddie pool – including a thrill-inducing 8” deep section for Connie

Connie giving Daddy some swimming pointers

The pool had a big pirate ship in the middle – tailor made for Dougie! At every turn he was asking to go in the “pirate ship pool”. We had to learn to avoid windows and walkways within line of sight of the pool – otherwise we never would have seen the rest of Maui.

Dougie sliding down the pirate ship

The hotel was also right on the beach – so Connie and Dougie had lots of time to play in the sand

Having given up on photography, Dougie started thinking about architecture

Connie, meanwhile, seemed more interested in geology

Of course, we had to go to a luau…

Dougie was pretty excited about the luau – especially the dancers, who (according to him) were doing lots of “shaking and wiggling!”

We had a pretty great setup in our room – lots of space for the family

We drove the gorgeous “road to Hana” and made a bunch of stops along the way

Toward the end of our vacation, we took the long, winding drive to the top of Haleakala, the main volcano on Maui. Managed to cover over 10,000 feet of vertical drop along the way!

Of course, at 10,000 feet, the weather was a bit cooler than it was by the beach. We forgot sweaters for the kids, so Dougie managed to “acquire” Daddy’s sweater. Fits like a glove! … a horribly, horribly oversized glove.

All in all, it was a fabulous vacation – Maui lived up to its very high expectations. And gave us enough warm memories to live through an Alberta winter!