Post Surgery Update

Well, I didn't chicken out though I did try and come up with some potential reasons for cancelling my appointment. The front desk lady at the surgeons office was pretty rude - she actually told Dayton that he needed to sit down on the chairs and be quiet. She had 3 inch fingernails so that sort of explains it all. I am now minus all my wisdom teeth, haven't eaten since Thursday and have an array of drugs. I'm pretty tired from not much sleep (unfortunately the pain meds don't make me sleepy at all) and I've been lying on ice packs on and off. I can't really yell at the kids or the husband so they are all probably enjoying that. Minus all the gross details I just wanted to let you all know that I didn't die. Just incredibly sore, hungry and tired. Hope you are all well and that our friends and family in Texas fared well with Ike and aren't without power for too long. Love to all. I'm off to take up residence on the sofa to dream about a nice piece of pizza. Sorry no before and after pictures from the surgery!...I know you're all disappointed.

Waiting For Daddy & Some Other Priceless Moments

We waited on the back lanai so that Dayton could watch for the boat with Daddy and the car. He waved and said hello but didn't quite understand why the boat went past our house and not "to" our house. Sometimes I just don't have responses ready for such grown up musings! Scott made it home, our suitcases remained packed and tucked away for at least a week, the house got vaccuumed (there was enough dog hair to cover a bald dog) and we all crashed quite happily into our own beds. Dayton still talks about spitting in a bag on the boat and I'm so glad that is his most memorable moment from vacation! So until next vacation, that concludes our first family vacation as a foursome. The following pictures are just some cute moments I managed to capture with our "not so great" camera....and yes, that boat in the distance is Scott waving to Dayton!

What Daddy Missed On The Plane

Well, he missed waiting in line for a boarding pass with 2 kids for 30 minutes; which is always fun, struggling through airport security, managing the public bathroom for pre-boarding potty time and getting into our seats on the plane. Do you know that they actually made me take the shoes off of both kids? Not one person assisted me either..which I suppose is a reflection of why airlines are all losing business these days. Once seated...well, Dayton actually never quite sat (as you can see from the photo) I managed to keep him occupied for the whole flight by letting him take pictures and sitting by the window. I kept Saige occupied in my lap with a roll of Ritz crackers. She didn't particularly enjoy take off or landing and the short 45 min flight actually felt quite long in my world. Once we landed I managed to find a taxi that would take us without carseats. We made it home in one piece with a close call with motion sickness due to the bumper to bumper traffic and Dayton not being able to see out the window. Again, Saige was occupied in my lap with a pack of cheeze-its. Once home, we waited and watched for Daddy from our back Lanai. Photo to come in next post...

What We Missed On The SuperFerry

As you all know, we decided that it was best to not further traumatize the kids (or ourselves) by returning via ferry. So, Scott decided to brave the rough seas alone with the vehicle. Here are a few snapshots of what we should have seen on the way to Maui.

Another One Of Those Rare Sibling Pictures

I am always trying to take pictures of the two kids together and for those that have two kids; know that it is a feat in itself. While we were on vacation, both kids were pretty good about sitting or standing still long enough for me to capture a couple moments. I think this was taken on our last day. Dayton was hiding from Saige behind the shutters; which she just thought was the most hilarious thing ever.

How Cute

To take a small break from the Maui trip and back to some older photos and moments: Dayton has a love/hate relationship with his sister. He hates that she is always following him and grabbing the toys he is playing with, but he loves when she wants to play "his" games. He is endlessly screaming for her to "dome pay" (come play). The problem is that she doesn't yet understand his rules. She likes to taunt him and then run from him. Something I really need to catch on camera because it is so funny! On occasion I catch a rare moment like this one. Rare because Dayton never sits still and because of the book he chose out of his hundred others! Thanks to Aunt Sannie for all the old books! Dayton loves the little critter books. His favorites are "A trip to the dentist" and "I was so mad".

Other Than Resorts

I guess I was expecting Maui to be tropical everywhere, but it turns out that much of Maui (at least the area where we stayed, which is considered South Central) is farmland! There were sugar cane fields all over the place; apparently 37,000 acres currently under cultivation. I didn't realize that they burned the fields to cultivate it and while I didn't see that while I was there, I did see the nasty pollution from the sugar plantation.

Through The Eyes Of Dayton

This may be another one of those stories that turns out to be anti-climactic for the reader, but for the mother (meaning me) I am still quite amazed by it. So one morning I was cleaning up from breakfast and Dayton kept saying "wook mom a bork" over and over. Now normally I can decipher his language but I hadn't drank my coffee yet and really don't think I was awake. I kept telling him I had no idea what he was trying to say and he kept repeating himself, hoping I would understand. Finally, he realized that I had no clue and he needed to find an alternate means of telling me as it was obviously important that he get his point across. He went to the utensil drawer and was reaching around inside (of course I'm telling him to get out of it, not knowing that he was still trying to tell me something). He got out a fork and brought it over and placed it on the floor and pointed to this patch of sun on the floor and said "wook mom, a bork...same same." Ah...I finally understood and in my amazement I managed to capture the moment on film. He was trying to tell me that the sun on the floor looked like a fork. I still can't decide if I'm more amazed at his creativity or his ability to find another way to communicate with me. Of course, every morning now, he looks for the sun patch and tries to decipher what it looks like.

Ali'i Kula Lavender Farm

A beautiful drive up towards Haleakala National Park brought us to a really neat Lavender farm. It certainly wasn't anything exciting; just really pretty. The drive got a little steep and I actually felt a little bit light headed, but that could have been because I was trying to take pictures while driving and look at our guide book. The kids slept through it all. It smelled so fresh and was about 10-15 degrees cooler up there. If you stood close to the fields of lavender you could hear a slight buzz from all of the bees. I think on one of the pictures you can actually see them. We would have loved to do the full drive up to the summit but it was over 10,000 feet up and consisted of one lane switchback roads. Given the success of the Superferry, I didn't really want a repeat in my car! Another thing to add to the list of must sees minus kids! Are you all tired of our journal of the Maui trip yet?

Prayers For Family & Friends

We hope that all of our friends and family have found safe haven out of Gustav's path. We will continue to watch closely. Love from all of us.

Driving Around

The following pictures were taken while driving around the area where we stayed so some of them are not the best, but beautiful anyhow. Some of the gardens were pretty amazing.

The Third Wheel

At some point in our lives, haven't we all been one of these birds? I love capturing funny pictures like this.

Who Needs Sunscreen?

I think we only spent one day at the beach while we were on vacation, but that's okay with me since we live 5 minutes from the beach anyhow and typically try and go once a week. It's so much work loading the kids up with sunscreen, keeping Dayton from throwing sand at people, keeping Saige from walking straight into the water, keeping them hydrated...only to spend just as much work washing the sand and sunscreen off! And of course, who can resist a nap at the beach?

A Morning Walk

On one of our free mornings, we took a walk along the beach path. It was quite a long walk (well anything seems long pushing a stroller and a go at my own pace toddler in tow) but nice nonetheless. The neat thing about the path is that it went in front of all the resorts in that area, so it allowed guests from other resorts to pick and choose restaurants they wanted to go to. It was neat to walk along and see all the posted menus. We saw these impressive houses that were part of a resort and thought what a beautiful place to vacation...we later looked into those and found out they only rent monthly at an impressive price of 17,000$ *choke choke* First off, who can take a months vacation and secondly, who has 17,000 to spend? Well, I suppose if you can take a month of vacation, it probably means you can also afford it.

A Princess By The Pool

Saige was impossible to watch by the pool unless we stuck her in the floating crab. She has ZERO fear of the water. The wading pool was up to her chest and you had to hold her hand or else she easily lost her balance and sort of floated away. Did I mention anywhere that all the pools were saltwater? Of course all she wanted to do was shove my hand away...I suppose in a round about way, I'm trying to say we didn't get too many shots of Saige in the pool. She did however, enjoy her poolside naps each day and confiscating my sunglasses. To conclude the poolside stories..our books, magazines and daily newspapers remained unread and on the table. I couldn't quite figure out why they provided adult sized lounge chairs by the kiddie pool since there most definitely wasn't any lounging going on! Perhaps next time we can outfit them in life jackets and toss them into the pool to fend for themselves while we enjoy an evian facial spritz and poolside massage.

A Pool For Princes

So...back to vacation stories and pictures...below is a shot of the kiddie pool area at the resort. There was a wading area attached for the really little ones, a slide, kiddie toys, cabanas that closed off for wee ones napping and poolside services that offered playpens for naps! We spent a lot of time at the pool. Dayton had a couple of "friends" to play with but mostly he spent his time taking their toys and throwing them into the bigger kid pool or splashing them. Go figure. Dayton saw all the other kids wearing swimmies so he wanted some too - the ones I had bought before vacation were too big for him so Daddy & Dayton went and bought some smaller ones. He reminded me of that kid in "A Christmas Story" wearing the snowsuit. He did great with them and was for the most part, independent in the water while wearing them. He didn't particularly care for Daddy's "one tug" removal though. Of course, the nervous nellie that I am, I was right close to him anyhow. There were people that would come by and offer a spritzing of Evian water on your face if you felt a little hot...they also came by with trays of cold cloths AND freshly baked mini muffins and chunks of pineapple. Dayton caught on quickly to poolside lunch service and would ask for his own menu when the ladies came by...he was too funny...he would open it up and pretend to read and say "oh yes, I want pizbah (pizza) and nemons (lemonade) pwease." Or he would say "oh yes, I want toast pwease." It cracked me up. As you can see from the photo, had Saige been able, she also would have ordered herself a pizbah.