Getting Away from it All

If you're wondering why we haven't posted lately, it's because we escaped for a little family vacation. One of the beauties of living on our little island is that other islands are so close. The flights (about 35 minutes to Kauai or to Maui) are a perfect length for our plane-loving but very active toddler. Having visited Kauai just before Jim deployed to Iraq, we decided to spend a little time on Maui now that he has returned.

We stayed in a condo on Ka'anapali Beach -- and when we say on, we mean on! This was the view from our lanai at sunset:

We couldn't have asked for a better location. We stayed in a garden unit, so there was a nice, green lawn just off our lanai. And a few feet beyond that, the beach! Not only did we enjoy amazing sunsets, but because we were so close to the beach, we could take turns playing with Kathleen, even when Madeline needed to nap in the room. Madeline came down to the beach, too, and she seemed to enjoy it, although not as loudly or enthusiastically as Kathleen.

When Madeline wasn't enjoying the view from my lap, or having her feet dipped in the ocean, she was napping in her tent, so she didn't get too much sun. She's the only one of us who didn't get even a hint of tan on Maui!

Kathleen loved every minute of the beach time. She jumped over the waves as they rolled up the beach, and she kicked around in the water when she'd venture in further with Mommy or Daddy. It's hard to remember that as a little baby she didn't like sand, because Kathleen is crazy about sand. She has discovered sand castles, and she insisted on building them on every trip to the beach. Well, she insisted that we build them. She's much more interested in knocking over the sand castles than actually building them! Daddy buried Kathleen, which amused pretty much everyone -- Daddy, Mommy, Kathleen, Madeline, a number of on-lookers at the beach!

In the above photo, you might be able to see Kathleen's bracelets. Her cousin Ali made them for her, and sent them with her mom, Margaret. Kathleen loves those bracelets! Once she put them on, we simply couldn't get them off her. She left them on, day and night, for more than four days. And then we only managed to take them off for a few moments... Thanks, Ali; you made Kathleen very happy!

We didn't do much sight-seeing. (Somehow, trapping the girls in the car so we could drive the road to Hana didn't seem like it'd be much of a vacation for any of us.) But even if we didn't see a lot of tourist attractions, we saw lots of truly breath-taking scenery. Some of that was the location, and some of that was the company...

And we hardly even noticed that, while we were gone, November ended and December began! It still seems like summer to us!