Maui–The Hyatt Regency

Ah, Maui.  How we’ve missed you.  It had been 9 years since we’d been to Maui (the last time we went was with my family just 2 months after Dan and I got married).  So we were so excited to go again.  We flew out of San Jose with everyone on Friday morning, June 29th.  It’s always so fun to meet up with everyone at the airport.  The kids got to sit with their cousins on the plane, and we finally got to meet baby Savannah.  The 5 hour flight went by pretty quickly, and soon enough we were landing in Maui.  We hit the ground running (an old family saying:) and went straight to Da Kitchen, a restaurant recommended to us by my uncle, Mike, for lunch/dinner.  It was so good.  A great start to the trip!

No longer starving, we headed straight to our hotel . . . . the Hyatt Regency Maui Resort and Spa on Kaanapali Beach.  This is the hotel my family has always stayed at, and we just love this place.  It feels like home (on Maui:)  The pools were relatively empty by the time we got there, and we had just a few hours of swimming time before it got dark, but it was a fun way to spend our first evening in Hawaii.  

 

The 5 married couples:

Hey wait . . . . what’s going on here?  Who’s watching all the kids? 

And here, I’ll throw in the scandalous one.  Haha.  Poor Michael had to take this picture!  And notice how white we all are!

Our first of many beautiful Hawaiian sunsets:

Saturday morning we went to the buffet breakfast at Swan Court.  This is one of the things we love about the Hyatt and one of the main reasons we wanted to stay here for a few days.  We had to get our Swan Court fix!

It’s probably more of a nostalgia thing for us.  I mean the buffet is great, don’t get me wrong.  We love their omelet bar.  But it’s the fact that we’ve been coming here for so long.  Ludi’s been working at the Hyatt since we started going there and got attached to our family a long time ago.  She was so happy to see us again.  She loves my parents.

And she loves Michael!  She remembered how she used to try to help my mom get Michael to drink milk when he was a baby because he was so little.

We spent all of Saturday just hanging out at the Hyatt pools.  We wanted to take advantage of our time there since we’d be checking out the next morning to switch over to our condos.

Scuba divers!!  The hotel offered a lesson in the pool and then they got to go out to the ocean.

They are ready for the big open ocean!      

Another thing we love about staying at the Hyatt is the fun path that runs along the beach past the row of hotels.  We love to walk the path down to Whalers Village . . . . a fun outdoor shopping center with cool restaurants and shops.  We did this Saturday evening.  Destination – Leilani’s.  A restaurant in Whalers Village right on the beach.

We stopped along the path at the Marriott and played on the hammocks.  

My favorite family picture of the trip: 

Cool tree along the path:

We finally made it down to Leilani’s, and found the wait to be 45 minutes.  Just fine when you have a gorgeous beach to wait on. 

We got to watch the sunset on the beach, and then our pager buzzed, and we were all seated.  Leilani’s was such a fun place to eat.  Awesome atmosphere and great food.  They didn’t have anywhere big enough for all 23 of us to sit together, so we had to split up.  But that was fine.  Sometimes it’s fun to just be our own little family on big family vacations.  We ordered pork nachos (some of the best nachos we’ve ever had), an awesome Teriyaki style burger with pineapple, and for dessert . . . . Hula Pie.  Why did we not take a picture of the Hula pie??  Oh yeah, we were so mesmerized by the deliciousness of the dessert, it didn’t even cross our minds.  And if we stopped eating for even a second to pull out the camera, the kids would have finished it off before we got a chance to take another bite.  Oh yes, it was that good.

Oh, and I ordered the most incredible virgin Lava Flow . . . . next time, I’ll order one for the kids too.  James did not want to give that thing up.  He would drink it up as fast as he could whenever he would get it. 

Leah’s Preschool Graduation

Leah is finally graduated from preschool!  Today was her last day and they had a little program for the families.  When we got there, the kids immediately started playing with all of Miss Susan’s fun educational toys.  I wish I had all of that fun stuff at my house!

For the program, the kids sang their favorite songs they had learned this year.  And then Miss Susan presented them with awesome year books she made for each of the kids, filled with pictures, cute poems, and their favorite things about preschool.  Oh, how we love Miss Susan!  The best preschool teacher ever:)

There was a page at the back where the kids could sign each other’s year books.  They loved this.

This was the carpool gang: Leah, Brady Talbot, Dalton Bellows, and Travis Lee.  Leah loved riding home with her cute “friends that are boys” from our ward:)

Well, this girl is definitely ready for kindergarten!  She has grown so much this year in preschool, and I am excited for her to start school and all the adventures that await for her there.  We sure love you, Leah!!

Dance Recital

 

The girls were so excited for their dance recital . . . . especially Leah, since this was her first recital.  Her very first time being on a stage, really.  When we watched Annie’s school dance show (the Peter Pan show) a few weeks ago, Leah asked me, “Is this the same stage our dance recital is going to be on?”  “Yes,” I said, and her eyes immediately lit up. 

The girls took dance from an amazing lady in our ward, Heidi Mills.  She started up her own studio in October, and we were one of the first people to sign up.  The girls love Heidi.  She is so great with the kids and an amazing dancer.  Leah’s class was a ballet and tap combo class, so she had 2 dances in the recital.  Her first one was a cute little dance to “Flight of the Bumblebees.”  She’s on the far left in the picture below.  The girl in the middle looks just like her from the back, but that’s her friend, Jocelyn.

Leah’s second dance was her tap routine.  They were supposed to start out asleep on stage.

There we go:) 

Annie’s ballet routine was a graceful butterfly dance.  Heidi’s mom, who lives in Utah, handmade these beautiful wings, and flew to Reno this morning to bring them to the girls.  And to see the show, I’m sure.   

After all the girls did a little dance for the finale, they presented Miss Heidi with roses and a huge group hug!  Heidi put in so much work for her first dance recital . . . . especially with all the homemade costumes.  But they all looked so cute and the show was awesome!

After show pictures (inside the high school because it was so windy outside!):   

Annie with her friend, Ashby.