More of Maui

Most of our activities were at the resort since it's so much easier to make the kids happy when they get to pick between the beach, the pool, the slide, and the activity center.  But, there are a few things that should be done with kids while on vacation.  We were told by one of the ladies at the activity center that we should take the kids to Baby Beach which is near Whalers Village.  We decided to make a trip to the shopping center followed by finding the locals favorite beach.  Baby Beach is definitely meant for kids since a coral reef is far out and breaks the waves which makes for a nice calm beach.  After going to Baby Beach we realized that the kids' favorite part of the beach are the waves.  Because of that, they spent more time in the sand than anything else.  But my mom was happy with the calm water; it was much easier on her brand new knee. 

 

Enjoying the water and the sand.

 One night my parents had the girls do a sleepover in their room.  Boy were the girls happy.  That morning Eric and I got up early and went for a walk in front of all the resorts.  We found that there was a locals craft sale that would start a few hours later.  After breakfast we took my parents and the kids there.  Of course we made the girls walk.  It wasn't terribly far, but they acted like it was.  Here they are running ahead of us but together.  They look so cute.

One of our favorite activities during our vacation was a snorkeling trip.  We took the Pride of Maui to Molokini to snorkel around the volcanic calderas.  Eric, the girls, and I were one of the first off the boat and into the water.  Etta was having mask problems and didn't last long.  Chloe was doing great with me until we got a little shallower before she started freaking out.  It must have been too close for her even though it was a good 10 feet below us.  The girls and Eric went back on the boat and I told him to meet me at the back where the slide was.  It didn't take much convincing for Etta to go on it.  It helped that I waited at the bottom the first several slides. It was a nice big drop into the water!

 

 Chloe needed a lot more convincing then she only did it two times.  She was pretty scared.

Even Eric, my dad, and I took turns.  Ok, so a scream did come out of my mouth the first time down.  Boy does it throw you out there quickly.

We did get the girls in the water one more time after fixing Etta's mask and by keeping Chloe in the deeper section.  Unfortunately it was so windy out (luckily the crater blocked the wind where we snorkeled) that we weren't able to go to Turtle Town to snorkel.  We just ended up staying at Molokini longer.  It was still fun.  We did head to Turtle Town to look for turtles.  We did see two big sea turtles and the girls were excited.  Here the girls and I are on our snorkel trip.

Our last day in Maui was spent keeping busy before our red eye flight back home.  We stopped at the Maui Ocean Center which is only 15 minutes from the airport.  They give a great military discount!    It was fun and the girls had a good time.  In particular we got to see the big tank get fed plus ask questions to a diver in the big tank.  The girls loved getting high fived by the diver.

The hardest part of our trip was definitely the red eye to LAX followed by our flight to Las Vegas.  I have to say the USO at LAX was absolutely wonderful (once we found it) and made our long layover pretty easy.  It took several days for us to acclimate back to Las Vegas.  Both the girls ask if we can move to Maui.  Not unless the military wants to send us there!