Maui Trip - Days 1 & 2

08-9-08

Hawaii is beautiful. Jess and I woke up at 6am this morning, ready for a wonderful day at the beach. With the time change, she was actually ready to wake up at 3am. I had to explain to her (and I am sure she understood…. ha) that she had to go back to sleep, because Mommy was not getting up to play after a very loooong day of traveling…. at 3am!

The shuttle picked up the Griswold clan at 6:40am yesterday to take us to DFW airport. We got up before 6, so that we could be ‘curbside’ like the lady on the phone said to be. We flew out at 8:50am, with a pit stop in Phoenix. We got to visit Matt in Phoenix, since he works at the airport. It was great to see him and for him and Jess to meet. The flight from Phoenix to Maui was long, but we made it safe and sound. Everyone has been getting along so good. The kids did better than I ever imagined on the plane. No fussing. No crying. It was great-- and Jess got her own seat from Phoenix to Maui. She loved it!!

We got to Maui around 2pm. Five of us took the shuttle. The other 6 took the 12 passenger van (the Silver Bullet lives!!!) we have rented for the next 10 days. Our shuttle driver was a pretty wild driver. That was a scary ride, but we made it. When we arrived at the Grand Wailea, we were greeted with beautiful fresh flower leis.

We were all very tired. Very hungry. Very unable to express our excitement, due to our exhaustion. It is very… different… traveling with a baby. It was kind of overwhelming for me yesterday. Okay, a lot overwhelming. There is just so much…. stuff. After holding Jess in my lap all day while traveling… trying to keep her entertained, fed, clean (I changed about 20 dirty diapers on the plane. No fun.)… all in a tiny little airplane seat… for what seemed like an entire day… I was exhausted. Drained. Beat. When we got to the hotel, I had a rotten attitude that I just kept praying would go away. I was just so tired. I had gotten zero sleep (okay, maybe a total of 4 hours one night and 2 the next) the two nights previous. Here we are in the most beautiful place on earth and I am in a bad mood. That just wasn’t going to continue if I had anything to do with it!! So, we check in. Jess and I have our own room with a gorgeous view. They brought her a little crib and it is so precious. She loves playing in it.

We all put on our suits. It was 3pm by now. Even though, our bodies felt 8pm, we weren’t going to let this day get by us! We figured the first thing we needed to do was eat a decent meal and then head to the beach. We ate a meal… it wasn’t very decent, but very expensive. During dinner, Jess was very antsy, so I took her on a stroll. I showed her some flowers and let her pick one and hold it. When we got back to the dinner table, a waiter told me to take the flower from her, because it was poisonous. Great. So, I took the now shredded flower out of her hands. A few minutes later, she was doing something funny with her mouth… I immediately reached in there and pulled out a flower petal… yes, the poisonous one!

Jess was very tired (like all of us) but she also never got a real good nap all day… and we had been up since before 6am. We decided it was best for all of us to go to bed after we ate. Here it was, beautiful, sun hadn’t gone down yet, and all we wanted to do was go to our rooms and sleep. So, we did.

Jess and I got in the tub together before bed. All was wonderful and then all of a sudden she had a break down. Then, I realized that of course she was having a break down. To her, it was midnight!! So, we quickly finished getting ready for bed and we crashed. It was 7pm. I even fell asleep with the tv and lights on, because I was planning to get back up.

Midnight…. The alarm goes off. Who the heck set our alarm for midnight? Was this a joke? I thought I reached over and turned it off. Nope. At 12:10am, it went off again. Must have hit the snooze. I was about to rip it out of the wall, but I found the off button just in time.

Now, it is almost 8am on Saturday and we are about to go to the beach! Jess is watching Praise Baby on our mini DVD player. Bye for now!

10:15pm

We had a great day today! I really enjoyed getting up so early this morning. It was so nice to sit and drink coffee, check email, journal, and enjoy the beautiful view… all while listening to my sweet angel talk to me in her own words. Around 8am this morning, we all headed to the beach. It was SO NICE so early. Only a few people were out and the sun hadn’t had a chance to take over the palm tree shade on the beach. I had Jess in the backpack carrier—she LOVES this thing more than I can explain. She kicks her legs, pulls my hair, and screams through tooth filled smiles! It is really hilarious when I first put her on my back. Jess and I laid under an umbrella with Aunt Shara and watched the kids build sand castles and play on boogie boards.

Abbie is not so sure about the sand. She does not like to get dirty, so she kept saying she wanted a shower and she wanted to go home. So cute. The Grand Wailea grounds are truly amazing. The pool area is unbelieveable—caves and waterfalls, rope swing, slides, kiddie beach pool, swim up grotto bar. So neat! And the most beautiful flowers and plants everywhere. Jess napped on my chest for a short time and then I took her back up to the room to attempt a nap. Eventually, I gave up and joined everyone back outside. We laid out by the pool… and then back at the beach. My mom took Jess up to the room after she broke out into hives on her face (which she does on occasion). I think I might have had some of my sunscreen left on my hands when I put some of her special sunscreen on her face. Oops. That will not happen again. We walked to dinner next door at Cheeseburger in Paradise at the Shops at Wailea. Then, we took a nice shopping adventure through the local ABC to buy water, diapers, wipes… and other necessities. It was quite the short hike back with two (almost three) of Shara and Matt’s sleeping children in strollers and grocery bags containing lots of huge bottles of $.99 water (since the Evian in the room is $6.75).

Now, Jess is sleeping and I am about to crawl in bed next to her. Our bed is so comfortable with feather mattress cover and comforter. Goodnight!