Hawaii #6

We got to Lahaina around 10 yesterday and had our pictures taken. The poor photographer had a heck of a time trying to get Kaitlyn to smile (just one of those mornings). He was a good sport and pulled out all of his tricks...I think we got about three of her smiling. Oh well. :) We got some good ones, and I'm looking forward to getting them home and printing. These are the first and only professional pictures that we've ever had taken of our family or of the girls.

After that, we met The Clan at Maui Brewing Company for lunch. The girls definitely needed food. Then we headed back and went to the beach for a while. The water there was so blue, and there was a drop off right off shore, so the girls enjoyed floating in the waves.

After the beach, the boys and Rachel went to Black Rock for snorkeling (saw a bunch of turtles, apparently) and the rest of us walked over to the pirate ship for the kids. Both K and Aust were timid with the slides at first, but of course warmed up quickly, especially after watching Paigey a few times (some of the pics make it look intimidating, but it was really quite calm). Papa took different combinations of the three girls down, and they also went plenty by themselves (A finally after quite a bit of tandem sliding). Kaitlyn was going down and immediately putting her face in to "swim" out if the slide. Pretty funny. The water was knee deep.

We ended up staying for dinner again and enjoyed yummy BBQ chicken and salad (hotdogs for the kids--they finished off 10 between the four of them--think they worked up an appetite?)

As the adults were finishing dinner, the kids (Paige, Thomas, K and A) were playing around the corner on the walkway--some kind of tag or hide and seek game. Jeff pointed out that he has great memories of doing things like that (playing with a group of kids, away from - but still close and visible to - the adults, close to bedtime). I totally get it and have some of the same memories. I think he was having a moment ;)

After a dance party back up in the room, we made the drive home and went straight to bed. Austen woke up--I think after rolling off of her cushions--and had to go potty around 3:00, but went back to sleep pretty quickly.

This morning, everyone was up around 7:30 (later bedtime) and we took our time getting out. Grammie and Papa headed to the beach, and the Collinses (there it is, Erin and Gina...ugly but correct! ;-p ) headed to the pool.

The girls had another great time swimming with their floaties. K has started to jump off the step and go under a bit before bobbing back up. Austen brought down a toy whale and played on the big step for a long time. She makes up her own songs, and still has that little high pitched voice that I so wish I could bottle up. It still makes me laugh/smile every time.

We got to see more whales today. This time it was a mama and her two babies (from what we could tell). The babies were both breaching quite a bit, and Mama was staying with them. I went up and grabbed the binoculars and spotted groups (pods?) of porpoises or something similar swimming and jumping clear out of the water. Be still my nerdy, nature loving/obsessed heart.

We had sandwiches down at the pool and are now back at the condo taking a break.