More from Paradise

As I was out on my morning run I stopped quickly to take a picture of the little pathway the I was running on the the gorgeous beach that was quickly filling up.  Ahhh I really love it here!

We had gotten the kids off early to ride jet skis out in the ocean, the second of their chosen activities. I was surprised that they all had decided on the same things. Kite surfing and a sunrise bike ride down the volcano were tight in the running, but the jet skiing won out.  

When I came in from my run I found we had two injured kids!  Lindsey was just a few months recovering from knee surgery and all the impact on her knee had it a bit swollen and pretty sore

And Garrett had a very sprained ankle. It had swelled up to the size of a softball.  But ask him how it happened and the kids face broke out into the hugest grin so typical of this boy.  It was his first time driving a jet ski ever, and here he was driving over huge waves in the ocean.  Crazy kid decided he'd try to do a barrel roll on the dang thing and poor Drew was riding behind him as passenger! Naturally they completely crashed and somehow his ankle got mangled in the process but they both swore it was super fun!  

With two of the four big kids a bit broken we spent the next couple of days  just hanging out around the pool at the resort.

I'm certain Brynne is part fish with how much that little girl loves to swim

Cute Izzie was always so sweet helping Brynne with her goggles and making sure she wasn't too tired out.  

We bought the two little girls inner tubes that got plenty of use all week long!

 We played hours of volleyball in the pool

Little Drew is money with his serve and helped our team win a couple of matches.

And right next to the volleyball net is this cute little kids pirate ship and play area!

Every once in a while Brynne would get a bit tuckered out and climb up onto my lap and curl up for a bit.  I loved every minute of it.

If my lap wasn't occupied then I couldn't go too long with out having a face pop up into mine kinda like this!

 Or I 'd have a cute man child climb up onto the end of my chair giving me the single eyebrow raise as to what was on the agenda next.

As usual, Drew kept us entertained. This time by randomly joining a yoga class mid session in front of another hotel

Or by being thrown into the the pool by Garrett fully dressed.

Really though it didn't matter what we were up to how can you not be having a good time in a setting like this?

 One morning the boys gut up and tried a bit of surfing.  

 The waves hadn't been good all week so the going was rough, but I thought they looked good out there regardless

 Most evenings we found Izzie and Brynne curled up together completely spent from the sun and swimming for hours on end

 With so many of us we found it was much easier and considerably lighter on the wallet to take advantage of the grills out by the pool at the resort. Every night we grilled up steak, burgers, fish or chicken and had fresh fruits for dinner. 

With limited seating we had to get a little creative to accommodate all 8 of us!

This was typically our view over dinner. Yes it was VERY hard to come back home!

Parasailing Over Maui

Everyone knows what teenagers are like when you wake them up early, but its even worse when you wake them early while on vacation.

These were my kids as we rode the elevator early one morning to catch the available time slot for parasailing along the beach in Kanapali.

They were a little more alert by the time we arrived at the designated spot on the beach

I sent them off onto the boat after paying for their tickets and set off on my morning run

Awhile later I spotted Garrett and Drew up in the air from the shore and snapped this picture just as they were going up!

The photographer on board caught the rest of the pics from the boat.

 Their smiles were even bigger when they got off the boat than just before going up

 We had signed them up for a new extended height to be pulled from

They were literally soaring in the skies

 I love the images captured where the kids are looking at each other or you can glimpse a bit of the excitement.  Being that high up truly is a thrill!

With all of the options for adventure we could find on the island we told the kids they could each pick two big things they wanted to do. None of them regretted choosing parasailing over Maui as one of their options.  I am grateful for the opportunity to give them these experiences and for shared experiences they have with each other.  This was definitely a highlight of the week!

Resort Day

After all the driving and exploring of the previous day, we woke up Monday feeling a little lazy

We decided it was a good day to stick around the resort and enjoy our little home for the week

The pools there are gorgeous but we found ourselves usually pretty close the the end by the volleyball net

We made lots of new friends and all of us spent time playing in countless matches

The girls liked it because the cute little pool area with sand a beached entry complete with pirate ship was right next to the volleyball pool

Toward the end of the day we wandered down to the infamous black rock. The boys did their fair share of jumping but we all had a great time just floating around in the waves with  a couple of sea turtles that kept swimming around our legs!

Four days in and our noses and cheeks were a little worse for the wear

not enough to keep us of of the sun and sand all together though

I loved all the time with the kids just enjoying each others company and all the laugher

I loved that Brynne was actually willing to get into the water a bit.  

She has a thing about the lake water being dirty and refuses to go in and the beaches at home are so much cooler so I wasn't sure how she'd deal with the Hawaiian beaches. I should have known no one can really resist them!

We were all happy to have Lindsey join our fun but probably no one was quite as happy about it as Wes <3 p="">

I love my Gare Bear.  He may be a big teenage boy but the kid still come to me daily for good hugs and  loves snapping pics with his mom. His poses my leave a little to be desired, but still I'm feel in the love!

The one thing Brynne begged to do on a daily basis though was hit the shops. Whether it was in town or just at the Whalers Village it didn't matter, that girl loves to shop! I think we wore these guys out by the end of the night.

Not that anyone was complaining though. Jeff made sure all of us purchased a few fun things before the night was through. Good quality family shopping time never made this girl mad!