little black journal

We were en route home from our Maui vacation when I started scheming another beach getaway for Spring Break – the kids were so happy in Hawaii (who wouldn’t be?!) and Juliette had a week off in April that we hadn’t booked anything for.  Flights to LA were cheap and it seemed an easy way to get a couple of days worth of sun and sand.  To Cali!

The minute I said “easy”, I think I jinxed our plans – no such thing with a toddler in tow.  The low-grade fever that Isaac had been muddling through all week spiked the evening before our flight and so in the wee hours of the morning I pushed Isaac’s and my departure back a day in hopes he would make a turnaround within the next 24 hours.  Shane and Juliette left town without us and lived their best baby-free lives on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning.  Though the circumstances weren’t ideal, I’m glad they got this time together.  Hollywood or bust.

Isaac’s fever broke on Friday morning, about four hours after I pushed our flight, so we had a chill day at home together and were travel-ready by Saturday morning.  We missed our other halves!

We eased into LA life on Saturday afternoon with a trip to In-N-Out and a couple of hours at our AirBnB’s pool.

SUN!  My kids look so good in the sun.

Isaac was not so much a fan of the relatively cool-watered pool (spoiled Maui boy…), but he was content to spend a couple of minutes in the oversized hot tub.

I was completely tuckered on Saturday evening, exhausted and maybe a bit under the weather myself, so I gulped down a green smoothie from the corner cafe and turned in early.  VACATION.  Hardly the fancy-free fun it used to be, but still, I was glad to be under one roof with my people, away from what was feeling like a never-ending winter in Seattle.

Sunday was a new day, with a morning made bright by coffee and pastries at Gjusta.  We chowed down on croissants and scones in their sweet little courtyard and put together the day’s itinerary.

Isaac really liked his blackberry scone.

Next stop was Tongva Park, which was a favorite of Juliette’s on her first trip to Santa Monica several years ago.  It’s funny – this playground looked so much bigger when she was so much smaller!  And now she looks so grown-up, wearing her dad’s puffy vest and helping her brother down the slide.  Time marches on.

We strolled over to the pier from the playground and took a peek at the beach before booking it back to our AirBnB so that we could get Isaac down for a solid nap rather than just letting him doze on the go.

We…didn’t make it.  Rascal fell asleep on the way back and then woke up the moment we stepped inside, fresh as a daisy and rearing to go again.  I, however, was ready for a rest, so I popped on Bluey and we all lazed around for a bit before our condo started feeling much too small to contain Isaac’s energy.

To the beach!  Shane hit the pickleball courts while I walked with the kids to nearby Venice Beach.  Though Isaac seemed eager to play, his feet became rooted to the sand the minute I set him down.  Run free, Buddy!  RUN!

Or…let your sister do the running for you.

Shane picked us up and we headed to True Food Kitchen for lunch and colorful drinks.

Though it was gray and a bit chilly that day, Juliette begged to head back to the pool, so we spent some time there after lunch watching our little fish swim free.

We drove over to Abbot Kinney, my favorite Venice drag, for dinner and found ourselves at the courtyard of De Buena Planta sipping margaritas and eating chips with guac.  This girl’s got next-level style, huh?  Such a cool kid.

Her brother, meanwhile, lacks a little class.  Can’t take this boy anywhere.

Chips for dinner, ice cream for dessert.  When in LA…

We were back at Abbot Kinney on Monday morning in search of brunch.  The Butcher’s Daughter was light-filled and lovely and our server was very friendly when Isaac dumped water all over our table.

We took a stroll through the Venice canals after brunch – I’d never explored this area before and though the waters were a bit mucky, the neighborhood held its own sort of charm.

Isaac befriended some ducks and we had a heck of a time getting him to say goodbye to them.

But then we stumbled upon a sweet little playground that served as a perfect distraction from his feathered friends.

Vacation with a toddler is exhausting, but the naps are next-level.

We spent Monday afternoon at El Matador State Beach in Malibu, picnicking and playing.  This is one of my most favorite SoCal spots.

Someone got over their aversion to sand…

Again, a bit gray, a bit chillier than hoped, but still so beautiful.  Juliette and I took a little stroll while eating the matcha shortbread I had picked up from Whole Foods and I felt so happy to be oceanside with my girl.

We got back from our walk and Juliette started on a sand castle that Isaac kept threatening to demolish, so I walked him down the beach and we sat together at the water’s edge.  We spent awhile tossing stones and I was thrilled to learn that Buddy inherited his dad’s and sister’s love of rock-skipping.

We rolled up to our condo around 5:00, planning to rest a bit before getting dinner.  Shane parked the car and I got the kids out and suddenly Shane was very nervously patting his pockets and then rooting around under the front seat and then sharing the unfortunate news that our door key was missing – it must have fallen out of his pocket at the beach.  He got a hold of our host, who was 2 hours away, so we quickly adapted our plans and Shane dropped me off in Santa Monica with the kids while he drove to meet our host at a halfway point.  To the pier!

Juliette, it seems, is getting a bit old for the merry-go-round, but she hopped on a horse for her brother’s sake.

Next stop was the ferris wheel, which Juliette and I loved, but Isaac was undecided about.

He couldn’t believe we were asking him to sit still for a 10 whole minutes.

We walked up to the 3rd Street Promenade to kill a little more time and grab some food.  I took Juliette into her first Urban Outfitters and we bought a bottle of electric blue nail polish (as if she wasn’t already hip enough!).  Shane picked us up, key in hand, just as Juliette and I were finishing our evening tea and hot chocolate and we made it back to the condo in time for Isaac to get to bed at a reasonable hour.  Look at us, going with the flow!

Tuesday we packed up our things and said goodbye to our little home at Marina del Rey.

Pastries and coffee at Tartine…

And then Juliette and I spent an hour romping around Manhattan Beach while Isaac dozed in the car.  It was chilly that morning as well, so we steered clear of the water, but we hunted for shells and played tic-tac-toe and drew pictures in the sand.

Juliette won our long-jump contest.

Isaac’s awake!  Kind of.

We dusted the sand off our feet, grabbed a quick bite, and were soon airport-bound.  This trip didn’t go entirely as planned, what with the fever and the gray skies and the lost key, but then again, not much does go as planned these days!  We proved ourselves adaptable, if nothing else.  Sweatshirts can be beach-wear, too.

Ooof.  March thus far has been a month of too much work, too little time with the kids, and no time for myself, but I daresay I’m over the hump and able to carve out a couple of hours to sit in a coffee shop and reminisce about our final days in Maui.  MAUI.  Already feels like a lifetime ago that we were there.

Juliette and I had booked a snorkeling trip with the Chens early-early on Wednesday, so we walked to their hotel in the dark and perched at our favorite photo op while I sipped my coffee.

The sunrise boat ride out to Molokini Crater was actually one of my favorite parts of the whole expedition.  So serene and pastel – I love Maui in the morning.

Juliette was super-excited until the moment we anchored and people started flipping into the water.  You mean, I have to get in?  All the way?

But after a little coaxing, several snorkel adjustments, and one more in-water pep talk, she went for it and we both ducked our heads underwater.  And front and center, as if they were waiting for us, were so many fish.

Thumbs-up for pushing through the nerves, Kiddo.

Meanwhile, Shane and Isaac lived their own best lives.

We all hopped back into the boat after an hour of snorkeling and started to zip toward shore when our guide quickly brought us to a halt so we would all watch the mama and baby whales playing in the water remarkably close to us.

Stunning creatures.  Top moment.

We made it back to the boys just as Isaac was wrapping up his morning nap.  Time to swim some more, I guess!

Isaac added the word whoa to his vocabulary while on this trip and would say Whoa!  Whooooooooooooa! as we spun him in the water.

You look good, Buddy.

Our family pool time was really one long, sweet continuous top moment.  What a treat this was.

And speaking of treats, since it was our last full day in Maui, I splurged on an overpriced poolside pina colada.  Worth it.

We took a short sun-break back at the room after lunch, but Juliette was begging to go swim with N after 30 minutes, so back out we went!  Maybe it’s because our trip was winding down and I was so intent on soaking in every last detail, but goodness, the sky looked extra-blue and the grass looked extra-green that afternoon.

Juliette and Isaac played hide and seek and tag and I sat in the shade.  For two minutes.

And for record, “playing tag” is really us chasing down Isaac and trying to get him into his stroller.

Finally, though, Isaac was strapped in and Juliette was dropped off with her best bud.  Buddy and I walked over to the market for iced coffee and a box of souvenir cookies.  We came back an hour later to these two living large.

I mean, it’s hard not to be giddy when you’re in an ocean-front cabana.

We walked back our place to rest and freshen up a bit before meeting up with the Chens for a final round of Mai Tais.

We don’t do a lot of kicking back on vacation in this current season of life (love you, Isaac!), but this was as good as it got!

And one last sunset…

I love our family time, but vacationing with friends is next-level.  So thankful for these people.

Whooooooooa!

Baby footprints on the beach!  Freeze-framing that one, too.

These five spent several minutes standing at the edge of the waves, wanting to see how far into the sand their feet would sink.  Isaac played that game for about four seconds and then opted for his own game of seeing just how many baby footprints he could leave in the sand.

One more game of chase-the-waves…

A round of high-fives for a top-notch day…

And goodnight, sun.

Shane tucked in Isaac while Juliette traded in our swimsuits for dresses and grabbed a shirley temple and a matcha mojito at the hotel bar.  There was a guitarist playing cover songs across the room and when he started crooning Harry Styles’ Watermelon Sugar, Juliette and I bopped along.

My grown-up girl…she makes a good date.

We talked about school and friends and Isaac and sports while we ate our matcha creme brulee.

Thursday!  Just a few precious hours left…

One last acai bowl, one last round of beach play…

(You can see from Isaac’s onesie that he very much enjoyed the acai as well…)

We got our mileage out of these $5 sand toys!

Keeping Isaac from destroying Juliette’s masterpiece wasn’t easy.

DON’T DO IT, BUDDY!

Pure mischief, this kid.

A final dip…

A final rollick with friends…

And a final group pic.  See you in Seattle, Chens!

Isaac really got the hang of the beachfront showers.  Life skills!

A quick pause at the lucky mermaid, where I made a quiet wish that I’ll see her again next year…

Mahalo, Maui.  Our trip didn’t start quite as planned, but gosh, those last few days were a dream.

Shane awoke on Monday feeling right as rain, so he made plans to play some island pickle ball while I took Isaac for a sunrise walk.  A pre-sunrise walk, actually.  Buddy was up at 5 am and jiggling the door handle begging to go outside by 5:30…  The hotel coffee shop opened at 6am and I was first in line!

Dark, schmark.  This boy was ready to roll.

A new day dawns in Maui!  Such promise…

Isaac loved this wide-open lawn.  I thought I’d sit down with my back against that tree and finish my latte while he ran wild, but then he tried to cut in on a couple of guys playing football, then he tried to climb the rocks down to the ocean, then he started chasing after a stray cat, and then I gave in and the two of us played a too-early game of tag.

We headed back to the room around 7:30 to find sister still snoozing.  Rise and shine, girl!

We walked up to the market for acai bowls and a sausage scramble.

Morning nap for the early riser…

And then pool time!

So much pool time.  The four of us felt so good to feel so good.

Isaac dug his first water slide.  Next year he might be zipping down this thing on his own!

Juliette’s freckles were poppin’ by this point, which made me so happy!  (They’ve already faded by now…)

We did the slide circuit several times over, lunched at our lounge chairs, and then got back in.  I had a fleeting thought that maybe we should go exploring, go see something new, but then again, if it ain’t broke…

At this point I think Isaac officially pooped out.  WE DID IT!  We exhausted the energizer bunny!  Afternoon nap was goooooood.

There was some late afternoon beach play…

And then dinner at the Chens’ hotel, where Isaac refused to sit still at the table for even a minute (bunny was BACK!), so Shane and I took turns playing with him out front while the other parent ate.

Evening zoomies on our favorite lawn…

And then a set of pushups to round out the day?  We walked back to our room and Isaac snoozed deeply while Shane, Juliette and I watched Rookie of the Year, which was just how I remembered it from 30 years ago, for better and for worse.

Tuesday morning brought more coffee and scones in the dark.

I will say, I do very much enjoy watching the sky turn from blue-gray to lavender to pink.

Isaac stopped to take a call on the grass…

And then Juliette joined us as Shane was heading out for pickle ball day 2.  This girl does not awake with quite the same joie de vivre as her brother, but she comes around…

His pants were soaked and came off within a minute of us landing on the beach.

And then the onesie…  I tried to teach this kid a healthy respect for the ocean, but when the water is that warm and the waves are that gentle, it’s a hard lesson to learn.

Just one more quick dip, Mom!

Ok, now she’s awake!  And ready for a game of tag!

We dried off back at the room and then settled in for a little doze.

Isaac has the best surfer hair post-nap!

We beached a bit before lunch.

And pooled a bit before lunch…

And then actually got in the car for the first time in several days, to grab fish tacos and sandwiches at the food trucks at South Maui Gardens.

We laid low the rest of the afternoon, having hit our sun limit by 1pm.  But when the cloud cover rolled in, back to the pool!  I walked Juliette over to the Chens’ pool so she could swim with N, then circled back to our pool to hang with Shane and Isaac.  I wish I could freeze-frame the sight of the two of them swirling and laughing together, caught up in their own world…  I mean, you know I tried to freeze-frame it, but pictures hardly capture how sweet it was.

Isaac’s afternoon nap had done him good.

Back to the beach!

I waded into the water with Isaac and let the waves lap at his legs.  Juliette said she was too tired to play anymore, but her fatigue was short-lived.

Seriously, these are the gentlest waves ever, but the look on her face!  Such drama!  I love her.

It was so cloudy that night that it was hard to tell when the sun actually set, but I’m fairly certain it was below the horizon by the time we headed in.

Ok, I’ll stop now.

…after ice cream.  Another two glorious days in the books.

When planning a vacation with two children, one of whom is a strong-willed, rambunctious toddler, there are a number of emotional stages a parent goes through in lead-up to the trip.  Case in point:

Stage 1 (6 months prior to trip):  Unbridled excitement.  Trip is booked!  Maui in February!  Let’s gooooo!

Stage 2 (1-2 months prior to trip):  Mild anxiety.  Gosh, I hope we don’t get sick and have to cancel our trip.

Stage 3 (one week before trip):  Cautious optimism.  There’s so much to do before we leave.  But Juliette is positively bouncing off the walls with glee and we all feel good and I can’t wait to see her zip down that waterslide!  

Stage 4 (2 days before trip):  Utter forlornness / temptation to bail.  I “got an early start on packing” but really just have a pile of clothes and diapers that can’t possibly fit into our three suitcases.  The house is a mess.  And, wait for it…baby boy just got sent home from daycare because he threw up after naptime.

Stage 5 (night before trip):  We have come full-circle back to excitement!  Baby’s bug seemed to just be a one-day thing and the rest of the family is unscathed.  Bags are packed.  House is clean, with much help from the determined-to-swim nine year old.  Out-of-office assistant has been turned on.  Alarm is set.  We’re really doing this!

WE WERE DOING THIS.  We arrived at the airport early Friday morning and we were pumped.  Isaac was in good spirits, I had packed a couple of special toys and snacks to keep him entertained on the six-hour flight, and Juliette was adorably over the moon.  Seriously, let’s goooooooooo.  We could almost taste the shave ice…

We were stuck on the runway for about an hour due to a minor maintenance issue, but we rolled with it.  And then, just as the plane was cleared for take-off, Juliette looked at me, the color immediately draining from her face, and said the three words no parent wants to hear on an airplane:  my stomach hurts.  I encouraged her to take a few deep breaths and close her eyes and she fell asleep almost immediately, her dozy brother following suit and collapsing against my chest before we’d even left the ground.

She opened her eyes 20 minutes later and smiled weakly, saying she felt better, and I thanked my lucky stars, but the relief was short-lived and suddenly we were reaching for the barf bag with five and a half hours left on our flight time.  Ugh, that poor girl.  She used up all the sick bags in our row within an hour and I had to ask the flight attendant for another, at which point she handed me a ginormous garbage sack.  I thought that was a bit much, but Juliette spent most of the flight with her head in that bag, heaving at 15-minute intervals, whimpering in between that she just wanted to turn around and go home.  It was brutal.

Isaac, thankfully, was content for most of the flight, playing with the window stickers and suction spinners I’d ordered from Amazon earlier in the week.  Shane and I took turns with the kids, but he did the majority of the bag-holding and I in turn bear-hugged Isaac through his 30-minute crying fit as we neared the end of our flight.  We’re a good team.

I don’t think I’ve ever been happier to step off a plane, though Juliette was still feeling awful and clutched her garbage bag all the way to baggage claim.  I sent Shane ahead to pick up our rental, not wanting to make Juliette walk any farther, and then stationed her behind a column where could discreetly wretch while I chased Isaac around between yanking our suitcases off the conveyer belt.  That whole fiasco was in my top five toughest mom moments, no doubt.

But Shane arrived curbside with the car, hero that he is, we loaded our circus into it, pit-stopped at Target for electrolyte water and wine, and checked into our room at the Grand Wailea without any of our usual “Hooray, we’re here!” photos because all we cared about was tucking our sick child into a clean bed.  Juliette melted into the sheets, relief flooding her face.  The worst was behind us.

I walked up to the market with Isaac to pick up some dinner for Shane and me and we ate on our patio, very tentatively easing into vacation mode.  I took Isaac for a walk to burn off the last of his pre-bedtime steam and introduced him to the magnificent Pacific.  

He was undecided about the squishy, uneven ground.

But give it time, Buddy.  You’ll love it here!

We came back to find a slowly-recovering sister.  She was still up every hour or so, choking up her few sips of Gatorade, but she managed small bouts of rest in between and by 9pm she was sleeping soundly.  Praise the Lord!  

Then I threw up at midnight.  DAMMIT!

My stomach woes were short-lived, but I was a little achy and low-energy on Saturday and spent much of the day napping in the room.  The kids had a good day, though, and I was so happy to see Juliette on the mend and enjoying pizza by the pool.  If anyone had earned the right to feel good that day, it was her.

The pool threw Isaac for another bit of a loop, but like the ocean, I assured him he’d learn to love it.

I napped while Isaac napped (and then some), but there are worse rooms to be confined to…

By late afternoon I felt good enough to take Isaac for a nap-walk in the Ergo, though that tuckered me out and after a watching a sunset rainstorm pass by our patio, we fell asleep together at 7pm.

Sunday!  Gosh, on Sunday I was a new woman!  Isaac and I had each logged 11 hours of sleep and I felt great.  I headed out the door with the kids at 6:30 for a sunrise breakfast.

Isaac cheats at cornhole, by the way.

Reunited!  The Chens had landed the previous evening and the kids met up for a round of super-sized chess.

Juliette decided that if Isaac was a chess piece, he’d most definitely be the Queen, going any which way he pleases, mowing down anything in his way.

That Maui morning light is so beautiful here…

We headed back late morning to see if Shane was up and ready to play.

Since we’d skipped the leis upon our arrival, I went to the front desk and asked if we have a first day do-over – they were happy to adorn Juliette and me with fresh orchids.

Shane, unfortunately, was the last soldier to fall and needed to spend much of the day sleeping off his aches and pains.  Storytime with Isaac took most of the energy he could muster.

It was a bummer to see Dad down and out, but the kids and I managed to find our groove – Isaac grew fonder of the pool, Juliette grew fonder of Isaac in the pool, and we all grew fonder of Maui in general.  This felt good.

Like, really, really good.

SO GOOD, you guys.  What a joy to see these two play in the water together – this was the trip I’d been dreaming of six months earlier.

Isaac took a late morning nap with his dad and then Juliette and I headed out to work on the hotel scavenger hunt.

She was looking very Carmen Sandiego in her hat and glasses.

We made it through most of the scavenger hunt and then popped back to the room to pick up brother for poolside (in-pool?) iced tea.

Shane turned a slight corner and joined us for a bit.

Juliette and I crossed the last item off her scavenger hunt list on our way back to the room and swung by the front desk for prizes.

Isaac weaseled his way into getting his own prize and was very pleased about it.

Watch out, though – his fish bites!

It took us upward of 20 minutes to get from the front desk to our room as the kids zig-zagged the lobby and played 13 rounds of hide and seek near the elevators, but the lack of need to get anywhere fast was one of my favorite things about this trip.

Juliette wanted to do some swimming with N at his pool in the afternoon, so I dropped her off with him and took Isaac up to the market for a smoothie break.  One slurp of my avocado smoothie and he was all grins, asking, “Mo?  Mo?  Mo?”

More, Mom?  Pleeeeeeease?!

I picked up a cheap set of sand toys for Isaac, feeling like we’d delivered Christmas in February, and then it was back to the room for afternoon nap (or so I thought).

LaV and I toasted with poolside Mai Tais while the big kids swam and the little kid (didn’t) nap with his dad.

At 5pm Shane and I called off hopes of a late nap and I took Isaac down to the beach to try out his new sand toys.

Again, looking a little concerned…

But…that water looks kind of fun?

Let’s do it.

I held Isaac’s hand as the water lapped at our feet and he clutched my fingers tightly but cracked a small smile.  Ease into it, Kiddo!

It was ultimately the trusty plastic shovel that made him forget about the strange feeling of sand between his toes.  Once I pulled that out, he spent a good 30 minutes filling his pail, a few grains at a time.

The boy was focused.

The beauty of Maui is largely lost on a one year old, but there were moments that I felt like he understood, just for a flash, how spectacular this place really is.

Juliette, meanwhile, was enjoying being the Chens’ second child.

But…wait.  Is that Sister?!

Such a sweet, happy reunion, Isaac bolting toward her, yelling, “Joo-yeh!!!”

I say this every year, but every year that we watch these kids get such a kick out of playing tag with the ocean, my heart swells.  The magic lives on.

Isaac watched from a distance, but I could see him scheming.  That looks fun…

And then, he was off, with a major case of the beachfront zoomies.

We chased each other until the sun dipped below the horizon, Isaac’s butt soaked, our feet caked with sand, my cheeks sore from grinning.

Goodnight, Maui.  More joy (with a fully-healthy family) on the horizon!

One last batch of island photos.  Need I even narrate?  More of the same old, same old.  That glorious Maui same old, same old…

We scored the perfect pool chairs on Tuesday morning and camped out there for several hours.  Isaac took his first and second naps poolside while Juliette popped out of the water only for her hourly sunscreen application.

I swam for awhile with Juliette while Isaac dozed in his dad’s arms.  I always went down the slides first, partly so that I could be at the bottom when Juliette landed, but also because I loved to look back at her as I slid out of view, her beaming at me and yelling, “Go Mommy!!!”.  Eight is great – she’s so much fun to pal around with these days.

And…he’s up again!  Time for lunch.

We drove up to Paia and chowed down on pizza from the Paia Flatbread Company – their Mopsy pizza with Kalua pork and pineapple and mange bbq sauce was outstanding.

Isaac and Juliette are achingly sweet together most of the time, but this picture is also quintessential – him unknowingly digging his nails into her arm or pulling her hair and her looking at him like, “Why would you do that?!”.

We popped over to Ho’okipa Beach after lunch to enjoy the crystal clear water and watch the kite surfers, but the wind kept us from lingering too long.  Take us back to our quiet little beach at Wailea!

Late afternoon pool play…

And then sunset at Makena Cove, which was just a few minutes south of our resort but a totally different beach landscape.

My attempts to get Isaac to nap that afternoon had been unsuccessful and I knew we were risking a sunset meltdown, but once Shane tucked him into the Bjorn, he fell into a silent daze.

Too…tired…to…fight…it.

Photog-in-training:

I had asked Juliette if she wanted to wear her swimsuit to the beach, but she said she didn’t want to get wet.  The call of the ocean never fails!  We both left with wet hems on our shorts.

Shane headed out for a cocktail with Jack after dark.  Isaac fell asleep without much fuss, Juliette started watching Hamilton for the umpteenth time, and then BANG!  We were all startled by an extensive fireworks display, which was a mostly-nice surprise, minus the baby wakeup.

Wednesday!  You know the drill.

We opted for beachfront chairs that morning and La Verne rented a couple of boogie boards for the kids.  Juliette mostly loved it, until a wave took her under and forced saltwater up her nose.

Who you lookin’ at with that mean mug, baby?!

I put Isaac in the Bjorn and waded out in the water with him, where the gentle waves could lap at his legs.

Reading break after another gnarly fight with a wave…

And more of this…  I remember feeling some baby fatigue that morning, wishing I could just put Isaac down and walk away for a couple of hours, but then a mom in a nearby chair saw me holding him and said with such sincerity, “Oh, I miss those days so much it makes my heart hurt!” and I recalibrated.  This phase is hard, but it’s also fleeting and so full of goodness when I lean into it.

The plus-side of holding a baby – nobody asks me if they can bury me in the sand!

Morning, Bud…

Juliette can’t ever resist the urge to try again.  I love that about her.

The sun felt particularly strong that day and we’d blown through most of our sunscreen, so we decided there was no shame in just enjoying an afternoon in our hotel room.

Juliette snuggled up with little bro…

And then I snuggled up with Shane, at which point Juliette exclaimed, “You two are so romantic!” and asked if she could snap a picture.  “Romantic” is one of her favorite words these days – I’m glad we make the cut.

Evening pool sesh…

And then over to the Chens’ beachfront cabana for pina coladas and one last sunset.

And…there it goes!  The kids clapped extra-loud for the sunset that night as whales flipped their fins and spouted water in the foreground.  

Tuckered.

We had an afternoon flight on Thursday, so we were able to squeeze in a couple of hours of beach play before heading the airport.

We don’t see nearly enough of these folks in Seattle – so fun to be neighbors for a few days.

And…the pool is on the way to the room, so why not?

Isaac and I headed back to the room to finish packing while Juliette and Shane did one last loop (or three) on the waterslides.  Oh, baby…you are not the easy-going-est of travel partners just yet, but I sure do like having you around.

Juliette tossed coins into the fountain as we were checking out – I asked her what her wish was and initially she said it was “to have kids some day”, but after realizing how high those stakes were and how hard it was to land a shot, she wisely adjusted course.  “I hope I have fun with my grandparents when they come to visit!”

Stuck it!

And with that, we were Seattle-bound.  I know, so many photos (kudos to Grandma Schnell for letting me know she’s looked at all of them!) but so many memories.  I want to remember forever how blonde Isaac’s hair looked in the sun, how it would get just the slightest bit curly after taking a warm nap in my arms.  I want to remember Juliette’s utter glee as she came down the waterslide, how her head would disappear underwater for just a moment and then she would emerge gulping and laughing.  Those sunrise walks with baby boy were the stuff of dreams.  Shane and Juliette’s matching Husky hats and the way those two play together as the very best of buds.  Acai bowls and fresh poke and a frosty pina colada, sipped with one of my favorite ladies.  We haven’t gotten out much these past couple of years, but ooff…what a way to re-emerge.

By Sunday we’d already fallen into a sweet little routine – I was up early with Isaac for coffee and a stroll, Shane and Juliette dozed for an extra hour or two, and then we rendezvoused at the beach to claim our chairs and soak up those morning not-too-hot hours of sun.  I came to love my sunrise walks with the baby, when the beach paths were quiet and the ocean was calm.  Traveling with a human alarm clock isn’t the worst thing in the world.

Now, onto the business of playing!  Let’s get to it!

Juliette and Nico bobbed in the waves and built sand castles and lounged on the beach chairs until the ocean called them back in again.

Freckle weather!  My favorite.

Ta-da!!!  A sand village, where all are welcome.

Meanwhile, Isaac intently watched it all go down.  He wasn’t quite ready to sit up in the sand on his own and spent all of his beach time in my or Shane’s arms.  My back was a little worse for the wear by the end of the week, but when I remembered how Juliette would dart straight into the ocean as a toddler when we visited Santa Monica, I relished the ability to keep Isaac close.

Isaac’s face here…  “Watch out for those waves, Mom!”

We found ourselves needing a sun-break by 11am and headed back to our room.  But since the pools are on the way, Juliette took a quick dip.  Swim life 4-ever.

We made the short drive up to Kihei for lunch at Kihei Cafe and then hopped over to Ululani’s for shave ice, which hits the spot like nothing else on a hot afternoon.

I’ll give you one guess as to how we spent our afternoon…

We found that our pools started to clear out around 4pm and so we took advantage of the mellow vibe and lingered until dinnertime.

While Isaac didn’t love the pool like his sister did, he’d tolerate bobbing around in Shane’s or my arms.  We’ll make a fish out of you yet, Buddy.

I recall this evening as one of our favorites – good moods all around, no plans to speak of, plenty of just soaking in the joy of the moment.

Sunset from our room…

And the sweetest silhouette.

Jazz hands for another stellar day.

We mixed it up on Monday morning – Shane got out for some pickle ball while Juliette and Nico took a ukulele lesson at the hotel.  First, though, ACAI!

While the kids worked on chords, I walked with Isaac.  I must have gone up and down this beach path a dozen times in our few days there, but it never got old.

I thought maybe we would leave the resort that day, but…nah.

The waterslides stopped running at 4pm, so Juliette and I darted to the topmost slide at 3:50 and managed to hit 9 out of 10 slides in 10 minutes.  We were quite proud of ourselves.

5pm beach rendezvous…

And a picnic dinner from Island Market at our favorite spot.

Something about a good sunset just makes you want to put your arms around the people you love.

I took Isaac back to the room while the rest of the gang went out for ice cream and while it was hard to bid farewell to our friends at 6:30, I can’t imagine a sweeter place to nurse a sun-kissed baby to sleep.

Until a couple of weeks ago, the last time our family boarded a plane was in February 2020 when we went to Maui for a glorious week of swimming and beaching and sight-seeing.  We’ve often harked back to that trip over the past couple of years – at the time, we were so blissfully unaware of how drastically life as we knew it was about to change.  Shane and I started making plans for Maui 2021 before we’d even landed back in Seattle!  Last year’s trip clearly didn’t happen, but we were bound and determined to spend this year’s mid-winter break someplace warm and sunny.  Since the Covid-related news is largely encouraging right now, and since we had the hotel points to luxe it up at the Grand Wailea, we decided to go for it – let’s bookend this pandemic (knock on wood) in Hawaii!

We were up at 4 am to catch our early flight and while the shlepping of the car seat and the extra baby stuff and the baby himself left Shane and me a bit sweaty by the time we got to the gate, we boarded without a hitch.  Let’s goooooo!

Juliette gave Isaac an ‘A’ for his in-flight behavior.  I knocked him down to an ‘A-‘ only because he pooped mid-way and changing a poopy diaper in an airplane bathroom is damn near impossible, but really, he did great.  Took a couple of naps, ate some snacks, squawked just a little, and loved looking out the window.

Big sis sent him mellow vibes when he started to get antsy.

He looked out at the other planes as we taxied on the runway in Maui and then looked over at me like, “Why don’t you ever let me sit in your lap on car rides?!”

We landed around lunchtime; I had a shoulder caked in spit up and the tiniest bit of baby poop on my shirt, but we made it!  A woman who had been sitting a couple of rows behind us stopped me in the Maui airport restroom to let me know I had such a sweet babe with such an attentive big sister.  Nailed it, kids.  It was another shlep to collect our bags and get our rental car, but we managed without any crises and started to see the light at the end of the travel tunnel as we pulled away from Avis and set our GPS to Wailea.  Juliette was starry-eyed even on the relatively unremarkable drive to the hotel, saying “anytime I see palm trees I know I’m someplace special”.  I was swept up in the excitement as we pulled up to our grand hotel entrance, replete with flowers and waterfalls and fountains.  Talk about special!

Our room wasn’t quite ready, but we grabbed our swimsuits from our bags and headed right to the changing rooms – Juliette was itching to get in the water.  We found a couple of empty chairs near the kids lagoon and got down to business!

We played in the water and ate poolside burgers and then got settled into our room.  I put Isaac down for nap while Shane and Juliette sat out on the patio, but…

Buddy was far too pumped to sleep.

We changed gears and Shane took Isaac for a walk to eke out a stroller nap while Juliette and I set out on the scavenger hunt the hotel put together for kids.  We found all the landmarks and then walked down to the next-door resort to grab drinks and dinner with the Chens, who had landed just a couple of hours after us. 

Cheers, friends!  I slurped down my Mai Tai, munched on some poke, and then took the kids to the outdoor lobby to let them get the rest of their post-flight wiggles out.

Dessert to-go, served with a side of sunset…

Ahhhh…the first night of vacation.  Such a blissful, so-much-to-look-forward-to kind of feeling.

Isaac was pooped by this point, so I took him back to the room and we watched the skies turn dark from our patio while the rest of the crew hung down by the water.

It’s like Juliette was offering Maui an arms-wide hug…this place is so very easy to love.

Falling asleep was hard for Isaac, but waking up was easy!  He started rustling at 5:30 on Saturday morning, so I threw on some clothes and took him out for a walk to allow Juliette to catch some much-needed extra Z’s.  I was bleary-eyed, but Isaac was quick to remind me that hey, it was actually 7:30 Seattle time.  Thank goodness the hotel coffee shop was open.

Being up before the sun isn’t high on my list of vacation to-do’s, but gosh – this moonlit walk really eased the pain.

Literally up with the roosters…

Isaac was napping before the sun even rose, but by this point I was high on beach endorphins.  Wearing a tank top at 7am?  Felt so good.

I met up with Shane and Juliette for breakfast and chowed down on the loveliest acai bowl.

Pool time!  We snagged chairs at our favorite spot, inflated Isaac’s little raft, and spent the whole morning swimming.

And napping.

And bein’ cute.

And swimming.

Jack and La Verne had scored an extra wrist band to allow Juliette to swim at their hotel pools, so we bopped over there around lunchtime.  These kids have been buddies since birth and it thrills me to see how much they still enjoy each other.  Plus, their shared love of water is insatiable.  A perfect vacation pair.

Baby in a sun hat!  [Insert ALL the heart emojis.]

We found ourselves in need of a sunbreak by early afternoon and spent a couple of hours relaxing in our room, but Juliette was itching to do the pool circuit again before dinner.  Sunscreen, swim, rest, repeat.

We ate dinner at our hotel and then headed to the beach for another stunner of a sunset.

The kids literally waved goodbye and then clapped for the sun as it made its final dip below the horizon, as if offering a big giant THANK YOU for all it did for them that day.

Kids playing wave tag is my most very favorite thing to bear witness to.

Goodnight, Maui!  More to come.

It’s been tough finding time to dive into vacation photos as my evenings are often spent catching up on the work I didn’t quite finish during the day (#homeschooling!), but I just poured myself a glass of red, put on some Jack Johnson, and am feeling the island vibes as I look back on our few days in Maui.  Such simpler times, way back in February…

Oh, to start each day with a breakfast of fresh, tangy fruits…

And then hop right into the pool!  After our grand tour du Hana on Thursday, we committed to laying waaaay low on Friday, claiming a couple of poolside chaises first thing in the morning and then just chillin’.

Juliette’s resort look #1:

And #2:

And #3, my personal favorite:

We played and swam and waded and reveled in the feeling of having nowhere to go.

Live your best life, kiddo.

Juliette is at such a great pool age – brave enough that she wants to do the slides and cannon-balls, but cautious enough that she still loves to just hold onto my shoulders and take a spin around the pool with Mama.  I haven’t played so much, so hard with this girl in months.  We both ate it up.

We left the hotel on an afternoon mission for Hawaiian shave ice and found fluffy, fruity treats at Ululani’s.

…and then it was back to the beach for more sand and surf.

Saturday was much like Friday – sunny, mellow, and carefree.

Shane rented some snorkel gear and waded out with Juliette early in the morning.  She wasn’t super-keen on keeping her face in the water, but Shane got out for some good fish-finding and turtle-watching.

A couple of kids handed off their boogie board and floatie as they were leaving the resort and we spent much of the day just bobbing around on our new toys…

Then, we hit the slides.

Again, and again, and again.

We drove into Lahaina in the afternoon for pina coladas with an ocean view.

And then, a magical sunset on a quiet little stretch of beach at Makena Cove.

I could watch this girl play in the sand forever.

Whales!

Sayonara, sun.

Sunday was also much like Friday, easy-going and blissful.  I thought that by Sunday I’d be itching for another adventure, but after a morning walk along the beach, I was feeling just fine about settling into my pool chaise for the foreseeable future.

Nice height, Jules!

We did venture out in the afternoon for a “hike” (a 10-minute walk along a paved trail) at Iao State Park.

We climbed the 133 steps to the lookout (Juliette counted every one!) and then enjoyed the pay-off.  I love these rugged Hawaiian landscapes.

A quick stop for ice cream, because…just because.

And then right back into the pool.  Juliette was insatiable, swimming stronger and further day by day.  And the slides!  The slides…  Not pictured here is the Lava Tube, a twisty-turny slide that spits you out so fast you can’t help but get water up your nose.  Juliette loved it.

We headed to the beach for one last Maui sunset and Shane caught some mini-waves on the boogie board.

Maui, we heart you.  So much.

Monday.  Monday…  Monday was go-day, we just. weren’t. ready.  We ate one last plate of fresh fruit, went for one last dip in the pool, grabbed a few last rays of sunshine.

Juliette tossed a coin into the fountain out front as we were leaving, wishing that we could come back the very next day.

What a trip!  What a restorative, luxurious (well-timed!) respite in one of the most beautiful places on earth.  This past month has been hard, to say the least, but I’m so thankful for those few days of zen before the storm.  Someday, when this madness is over, those aqua waters will call us back.

It feels impossible that a month ago we were in Hawaii, footloose and fancy-free.  COVID-19 was hardly on our radar.  And now, as of today, we are officially, fully, per-the-Governor’s-orders homebound.  How quickly the tides have turned.  But more on that later…I’m still wrapping my head around our new normal.

So…Hawaii!  In February!  How we anticipated this trip, saving up Hilton points and shopping for swimsuits and snorkeling across the basement rug in anticipation of a much-needed mid-winter break.

We stepped over the threshold of the Grand Wailea on a Wednesday afternoon, were adorned with a matching set of leis, and skipped giddily down to the pool while we waited for our room to be ready.

Ah, the pool!  That aqua, sparkling, glorious pool.  Pools, actually.  We found that one waterslide took us to another which took us to another.

(That dangling front tooth popped out two minutes after I snapped this picture.  Thank goodness.)

From the pool it was a short hop down to the beach for wave-jumping and tide-chasing.

We checked into our room late in the afternoon, traded our wet swimsuits for dry ones, and then chowed down on poké and pizza at the pool bar while whales splashed in the distance.  I kid you not.

We ended the day with sunset wave play…

And a dip in the hot tub.  And it felt. so. good.

We woke up Thursday eager to take on the island.  Good moooooorning, Maui!

Though our primary Hawaiian intention was to sit back and sun-soak, we figured we owed it to ourselves to spend at least one day touring the island’s sights, so Hana it was!  The long, slow, winding, epic Road to Hana.  Capital R.  Bring it on.

We hit play on our audio tour, telling ourselves that we couldn’t stop at everything, but dang it!  How do you drive past this without stopping?

While parts of our guided tour were a bit cheesy, kudos to the host for excellent direction-giving.  Up ahead on the left, you’ll see three parking spaces by the side of the road.  Pull into one of them, look back across the street, and climb through the dark hole you see in the rock face.  Uhhhh…ok?

OK!  So cool.

 

This kid is down for anything.  I love it.

Once we emerged from the lava tube, we high-tailed it to Nahiku for roadside stand banana bread and windy wave-watching.

Viewpoint alert!

Ice cream alert!

We grabbed a quick lunch and then allowed ourselves one final stop at Waiʻānapanapa State Park before buckling in and pressing on to our final destination.  This place was worth the detour!  Black sand and aqua ocean.  Such a good color combo.

 

At this point we put the pedal to the metal (which on the Road to Hana means soaring at about 30 miles per hour) and pressed on toward the Pools at O’heo.  We were determined.  And when we got there, they were closed.  The high winds made for unsafe swimming, but no matter – we figured we’d see what the nearby Pipiwai Trail had to offer.  And it had LOTS.  Rushing waterfalls and a gigantic banyan tree and a magical bamboo forest…is this real life?

Juliette was a trooper.  As was Shane, who spent the entire hike recounting a very detailed version of The Lord of the Rings (again!) to keep her excited and engaged.

Bamboo isn’t native to Maui, but if ever there were a testament to the invasiveness of this plant, this is it!  When the wind gusted, the hollow trunks would click against one another to create the most zen percussion sound I’ve ever heard.

Waimoku Falls!  Made it!

We camped out on a rock for a few minutes to have a snack and rest our feet, then turned right back around…daylight would be fading soon!

The final leg of the loop back to our hotel at Wailea was through Kaupo, which was one of the bumpiest roads I’ve ever been on, but once we were over the hump, we were rewarded with silky-smooth asphalt winding through wind-blown landscapes.

Shane pulled over at the side of the road to check out the view from this bluff and was nearly blown away.  Like, literally blown away.  That wind was insane.

We dashed back to the car, closed out our audio tour, and then Juliette drifted off to sleep in the back seat while the sun turned the sky pale pink.

Good night, Maui.  GOOD NIGHT.

I loved our evening treks across the beach bridge.  At this point we had seen our sights and made our family visits and eaten our meals for the day; there was nothing left to do but revel in sun and surf and quality time with one another.  Saturday’s beach-time was especially satisfying, as the sunset was particularly beautiful and Jules was particularly fun.

Moana’s voice piped through my head every time Juliette waded out into the water – I’m the girl who loves the sea, It calls meeeeeee…

The ocean calls me too, kiddo!

Juliette and I romped in the water for a good hour that night, playing until my dress was soaked up to my waist and we were both exhausted from wave-jumping.

A swell of foreboding storm clouds rolled in and we wondered if we should dart for cover.

As quickly as the clouds rolled in, though, they rolled out.

We were packing up shop for the night when Juliette found this amazing sand-plane a short ways down the beach, so we delayed bedtime by a few minutes to let her take a quick flight.  Such a magical place, this little stretch of sand…

By Sunday I was itching to get out of town, so my mom and dad offered to hang with Juliette while Shane and I drove down to Saint Petersburg to check out the scene there.  We grabbed coffee at a hip little shop and then strolled down the main drag, ending up at The Mill for brunch.

We walked off our bacon and eggs with a trip down to the Dali Museum on the waterfront.

And then, not wanting to deprive my parents of additional solo time with their granddaughter, Shane and I lingered over iced Americanos and Monopoly cards at Indian Shores Coffee.

We landed back at my parents’ condo mid-afternoon and heard all about their turtle-watching adventure with Great Grandma Alice.

Then, POOL.

Then, BEACH.  The ultimate daily rhythm.

We ate dinner that night at a beach bar on the waterfront, feasting on crab cakes and broiled shrimp one last time.

The ocean seemed extra-warm and extra-mellow that night, so Shane and Juliette waded way out in search of dolphins.

When they didn’t find any, Juliette asked Shane to be her dolphin.  Being the stellar father that he is, he obliged.  My happiest of happy places is on a quiet stretch of beach, my feet dug into the warm sand, watching these two be silly together.

On Monday morning we packed up our things and turned in the keys to our beach-front abode.  Knowing that we had a long day of travel ahead of us, I caffeinated with a double latte at the Coffee Mill.  My Grandma opened this store 40 years ago in a brave, faith-filled effort to make a living for herself after she and my grandfather divorced.  Though business ownership was demanding, it sustained her and the few of my family members who worked there in various capacities throughout the years.  I so vividly remember visiting this store as a kid, staring wide-eyed at the rows of candy jars, feeling like I’d hit the jackpot when Grandma handed me little bags of gummy fish and jelly beans and Holland mints.  My Aunt Karen eventually took over the Mill and just recently sold it, but I couldn’t resist returning for a stroll down memory lane.  The smell of roasted coffee and the creak of the wood floors took me back, though I dearly missed the sight of Grandma’s smiling face behind the cash register.

We met up with my Aunt Karen and my mom’s cousin Gail for breakfast that morning, getting the scoop on more family happenings…

And then set out on an alligator hunt.  We found what we were looking for at Taylor Park, in the form of two beady eyes peering out from the water 30 feet off-shore.  Juliette gasped excitedly, but lost interest once she realized this particular alligator wasn’t going anywhere.

We stopped by my Grandma’s place before heading out of town and I was thrilled by her exceedingly warm welcome.  She hugged me and grabbed both my hands and gushed over how happy she was to see me.  She knew me!  Like old times!  And then she went to introduce me to the friends at her lunch table and drew a blank with my name, remarking that she hadn’t seen me in years and years.  It was as if our visits over the previous few days had never taken place.  I held back tears, knowing that by the next day she’d likely have forgotten me completely.  I’m not so good at living in the moment – I’m much more prone to reminisce about days gone by or look ahead to the next great adventure.  But for Grandma, the moment is largely it.  So I took a deep breath, steadied my voice, and asked her if she wanted to show me around her place.  And just as she did on my previous visit, and on the one before that, she took my hand and led me through her endless courtyard, remarking about the trees and the squirrels and the sun overhead.  I nodded encouragingly, telling her how beautiful it all was, how happy I was to be there with her.  In that moment.

I hugged Grandma extra-tight as we said our good-byes and then she wrapped up Juliette in the warmest, most grandmotherly embrace a kid could wish for.  I’m so glad Jules had a chance to meet Alice, a woman who has lived a life of unwavering kindness and generosity and faith.

Tears stung my eyes again as we made our exit and the door swung closed behind us, Grandma smiling and waving from the hallway.  My heart overflowed with both gratitude and sadness on our drive to Tampa.  Gosh, good-byes hurt.  But after lunch, as I watched Juliette happily slurp up drips of key lime popsicle juice and chatter about Great Grandma Alice and turtles and pelicans, I felt the scales tip toward gratitude.  This trip was all I’d hoped it would be.