Best vacation yet..part 1

In Feb. we asked our kids if they would like to take a vacation in Oct, over fall break.  We were trying to decided whether to buy ski passes or not.  We decided to use that money and open a vacation fund.  We would decide where we were going based on how much we could save.  We put any bonuses Mike got into it and also anytime the kids wanted to eat our or go to a movie, we asked if they would rather put that money into the vacation fund.  About May, I started dreaming about Hawaii.  Due to flying buddy passes and a great deal on a condo, we make it to Maui!  Loads of pictures alert here, folks.  

 We left after school Monday, Oct 15 to fly to LAX, so we could catch an early flight to Maui.

                                                    Kate on that flight.

I had booked a hotel on Travelocity near LAX.  It was a Travel Lodge, not the nicest cause I wanted a good price, but all the reviews said it was clean, etc.  It was, but I have never seen decor like this in a hotel in my life.  I think we had the only room like this, because here is our door and none of the others looked like this.

The curtains in front of the patio door.

The wall art.  Con said the bears creeped him out.

                                                                     The bed.  Weird.

    Here we are...on the flight to Kahului, Maui.  We got there about 11:30, picked up our rental car, did some shopping at Costco and headed to our Condo in Kihei.  Of course we had to hit the beach as soon as we got unpacked.  We walked to one by our condo and the kids just played in the waves and body surfed.
Mike, Chase and the girls were asleep by 7:30 due to the time difference.  Connor and I made it until 8:30
Sunset off our patio.

DAY 2:   Here we are headed to Mokapu Beach for some snorkeling.  We didn't last long this first time.  The girls were freaked out, so we went for some boogie boarding instead at a beach called Kam III.  Look at the smiles on those faces.  It makes me laugh now that we thought those waves were ok sized for boogie boarding.  

That afternoon we headed up to a place called Ho'okipa lookout to watch the real surfers and wind surfers.  It was so fun to watch, but no picts cause they were out to far.  There were also some sea turtles playing in the surf.  Connor was so excited to see them. 

DAY 3: Surf Lessons in the am.  No pictures because we were all surfing.  We learned in the Cove across the street from our condo.  SO FUN.  Kenna was the best, but all of us got up.

That afternoon headed south to La Perouse Bay.  This is a spot were the lava flow met the ocean most recently, still many years ago.

 There were lots of tide pools.  Kate is touching a sea cucumber.  The kids didn't love our hike as it was windy and barren, but it was beautiful.  They also didn't appreciate the fact that there was no beach.

 On the way home, we stopped at Big Beach.  It was very pretty but the waves were so BIG.  These crazies were out seeing if they could stay on their feet, but check this out.

                                        It took them all out.  Look at her face, it's priceless.