Maui is Heaven

Pete's parents, who are always very very generous (as are all of our families, we are very fortunate), flew the three of us and Aunt Su Su to Maui to stay at a resort for a week. A WEEK! Holy smokes, that was a fabulous time.

First of all, the resort was gorgeous. Fabulous pool with awesome slides right out our back door. Beach just a few feet away. It even had an adults only pool that served cocktails. IN THE POOL. You looked out over the pool edge to see the coast and ocean and beauty. And typical Maui weather, 80's and dry all. day. long. For a WEEK.

{resort entrance}


{view from our room}


{beach even a 1.75 year old could walk to from our room}

Then, we went on this awesome bike trip down the side of Haleakala after freezing our behinds off to watch the most amazing sunrise I've ever seen. I'm not even sure how to describe it except to say we were above the clouds. And it was really really really cold, and I hate being cold, and it was absolutely worth it.

I did not want to go on this ride by the way. Getting up ridiculously early (I don't care what time it was back home) to freeze for 30 minutes in the dark and then fly down the side of a very tall mountain on a tiny bike did not sound like fun to me. I was wrong. I can admit that.

Then, they have this really amazing aquarium. Really amazing! Ellie was fascinated. The best part was they had basically a tunnel through a tank with a small portion of the floor that was see-through. The reaction from Ellie running down the tunnel then realizing she was about to cross an "open" pit was hilarious. Wish we'd caught that on video.

{the wind is always blowing on this part of the island}

Then, the grandparents took Ellie for the day and Pete and I just explored the island. We hit the little winery, and then we ventured a bit further south and saw the sights.

The story of the black rocks is these are not tiny pebbles and they make the most amazing rumbling sound in the surf. It was impossible to get a recording of it because the wind is always blowing, but it was definitely worth a trip to hear it.

Otherwise, we just had an amazing time hanging out with the grandparents and relaxing and enjoying everything about this entire trip.

Even the plane ride home wasn't too horrific.

Baby Jameson

Pete's cousin had a baby boy at the end of May, and they brought him down to visit Grandma as soon as possible. And who can pass up a visit with a tiny baby? Ellie was pretty fascinated. She was just learning how keys worked, so she tried to start Jameson with Aunt Susu's car key. Other than that relatively mild incident she was very gentle with him.

She wasn't even jealous about sharing Grandma's lap with her new second cousin.

And, by the way, babies grow fast. You'd think that'd be obvious but I'm still amazed when I see recent pictures of him. You will be to, if I get that far.

Christmas Part 1

People often ask if this was our first Christmas with Ellie and I have to catch myself before I say "Why, yes!" Last year was such a blur I really don't remember much about it. I know people were here, I know gifts were exchanged, I have the pictures to prove it. But this really felt like our first Christmas to me, so I was pretty excited. I had way too much fun picking out gifts for Ellie. I also didn't anticipate the generosity of our families, although I should have because they've always been very generous with us. The result was way too much stuff under the tree after Santa came.

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When I was little, Santa always wrapped his gifts in white tissue paper or comics. I was so excited to see that he kept up that tradition with Ellie.

This wasn't a traditional Christmas in that Mom and Dad got up before Ellie and were getting anxious for her to awake. Finally, we heard her stirring in her crib, so we got her up and she dove right in.

Aunt S. came by to help us, and thank goodness she did because we would have been there all day if we left it up to Ellie. She sat in a chair as any reasonable adult would, so that means of course that her head got chopped off in about 50% of the photos I took.

Fortunately, I realized the mistake and was able to get some good ones.

{new favorite chair}

The funniest part of the morning came when we opened the gift from our daycare provider, a baby doll. Once she laid eyes on that baby, everything else was forgotten. I didn't know that a one year old could insist on anything, but insist she did. She wanted that baby out of the package, and NOW wasn't soon enough.

{Daddy trying to get her to notice the beautiful "Quillow" from G. Grandma B}

After the initial obsession wore off she actually did go back to playing with her other toys, but we were all a little shocked at the vehemence with which she pursued that baby at first.

After breakfast, she got all dressed up to go to Christmas Mass and enjoyed her new chair and books for a bit before we headed out the door to start Christmas Part 2.

To be continued...

We're Ba-Ack

I think it's a little funny in an ironic kind of way that the title of my previous post was "The End." It wasn't intended to actually be The End, though for you the reader (hi loyal readers!) it may have seemed like it. Sorry for the long, long wait. Now is time for to catch up.

The next weekend after being back from our big trip, we decided to go for a hike with Aunt S. at Great Falls National Park. It couldn't have been a more perfect day.

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We walked around for a bit, sat and had some lunch, walked some more.

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Got to use our nifty backpack for what it was intended, actual hiking.

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True to fashion, Ellie proved yet again she can sleep pretty much anywhere.

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We had a great time so I'm hoping we do more of this type of thing soon. It seems that we always put off doing these things until the end of the summer when there are only a few weekends left to fit everything in, then enjoy them so much we swear we're going to do more next year...then put it off until the end of the summer. We still want to go camping, anyone want to start taking bets as to whether that will actually happen?