No Cookies for Me

Ugh, I am a bad blogger!  I really wanted to get some pictures up from our trip with a nice description of all the things we did - you know, for prosperity's sake.  But, like I said in my last post, I didn't take all that many pictures and I didn't get the ones from my brother onto my computer before we all flew to our respective homes.  So, I'm now waiting on him to get those pictures (hint, hint, HINT).

I think I left off after our evening out to see Ulalena the last Tuesday night of our trip.  Fortunately, we had two more shows left to get the disappointment of the much-hyped show out of our system.  Even though the Cirque Polynesia wasn't as magnificent as the Kooza show we saw in Atlanta, it was still amazing.  I am always blown away by the talents of the people in these shows - watching someone walk across a high wire, dangle from their ankles, or balance on several cylinders is just incredible.

On Thursday, Ryan and David decided to do the Road to Hana.  I decided not to go at the last minute because I was fearful of getting car sick.  I also didn't want to leave Olivia alone with Mom and Dad, knowing that we would rely on them watching her that night when we went to the magic show and then again the next day when we went on our snorkeling trip.  I think the guys had fun, but it was a long trip. Olivia and I enjoyed hanging out with Mom and Dad at the beach and the pool.  She absolutely LOVED both and our villas had a great pool with a little 1 1/2 foot baby pool attached to it that she loved splashing around in.

Thursday night's magic show was beyond incredible.  As soon as we left the show, we called to see if there were tickets again for the next night.  {Unfortunately, the next night was Christmas Eve and they weren't doing any shows.}  If you are ever in Maui, you MUST go see Warren and Annabelle's show.  Warren is beyond hilarious, uses almost all crowd participation, and his sleight of hand is lightning fast.
This is one of the main reasons I want to go back to Maui.

David and I had a blast on Friday on the Four Winds Snorkeling Adventure to Molokini.  Although the call time was 7am {I hate mornings}, it was well worth it.  I had never been snorkeling before, and to be quite honest with you, I am not a huge fan of swimming in large bodies of water.  After arriving at the partially sunken volcanic crater, David was the first to jump in.  My stomach was still in knots and was only slightly less so after David did two solo excursions.  I figured it was do or die time and so I went in.  The wet suit top I had rented definitely came in handy, as the water was fairly cool.  We stayed in for about 30 minutes and then hopped on to the boat and had a nice lunch of pulled pork sandwiches and macadamia cookies.  We were fortunate enough to see several whales {including a yearling showing off some breaching for us} on our ride back to Maui.

Friday night, we had dinner up the road at an outdoor restaurant at the Westin and went back to our villas to do a small gift exchange with each other and to decorate some break-n-bake cookies.

Mom, Dad and Ryan all flew out on Christmas Day, but our flight wasn't until the next afternoon.  We relaxed on Christmas Day and spent the next morning exploring the sweetest little lagoon in Waikiki.

Well, David & Olivia explored it - I chose to keep myself sand-free and watched from the boardwalk.  Our flight home that afternoon was relatively easy, thanks to an open seat between us and a baby who napped for almost two hours.  She did great on the drive home and even slept in for us the next morning.

We had a fantastic trip and it has been a tough week adjusting back to the chilly California winter.  Our Christmas decorations are almost completely put away and there are only a couple more loads of laundry to be done and then life around here will be back to normal.  Whatever that is!

Happy New Year's Day from the Central Coast!