Maui

We have just returned home from ten days spent on the ever-perfect island of Maui!  Paul and I have been going to Maui together for years and I was so excited to take Sydney this year for the second time.  I knew that she'd love the sand at the beach as digging in the garden is one of her favourite pastimes and did she ever.  She would often wake up first thing in the morning and say: "Dig! Dig!"  It was very cute!

Our days were long and leisurely, we were always up super early in the morning and as soon as there was a whiff of daylight we were out the door for our morning walk either up the hill to Wailea or along South Kihei road along the beaches.  We would often stop for a coffee and a muffin before heading home for breakfast on our lanai.  Before the sun got too hot, we'd head to the beach for a few hours.  Sydney would dig for the better part of an hour in the sand playing with all of her sand toys.  Every year I buy a boogie board to use while we're there and she was so funny in the ocean standing on top of it, I think I may have a little surfer in the making on my hands!

Our time at the beach was fabulous, the weather was amazing, and Sydney did so well bobbing around in the ocean with Daddy and me.  She and I built a few sand castles and collected shells and pieces of coral and lava rocks, every day we had a little bucket of treasures to show off!

Once the sun got a little too hot in the early afternoon, we would head back to our condo for lunch and a nap and our afternoons were spent either in the grassy park across the way, reading or swinging with Syd.  One afternoon we headed up to the Shops at Wailea to do a little shopping.  I had promised Syd that I would get her a ukelele when were in Hawaii.  She chose this very cool pink one:

Every year when we go to Maui, Paul buys me a gift from the Tiffany store there.  This year I got a beautiful necklace from the Paloma Picasso collection, the crown of hearts medallion.  It is so lovely and such a wonderful souvenir of our time there!

In the early evening, at about 5:00 everyone in our area congregates in the park across the way to watch the amazing sunsets.  Every evening I would carry my glass of wine across the street and we would enjoy watching the sun dip down into the ocean until we could see it no more.  Syd especially loved all the kids and people and dogs that there were to see, it kept her very entertained while we waited for the sun to set!

The rest of our afternoons were spent either in the pool or lazing on our lanai.  Paul had the misfortune of injuring his foot quite badly while we were gone and was immobile for the last few days of our trip so I decided to take Sydney to the Maui Ocean Centre one afternoon while Paul was resting.  It was very cool, such amazing tropical fish and so neat to learn more about the exotic ocean life around Maui!  I especially loved the jellyfish and the live turtle that they had out for everyone to touch!!

Since we stay in a condo, I typically cook most of our meals while we're there.  Every year I try and think us some new and easy things that I can make for us to enjoy.  This year, with the help of some ready to go Costco fare, I managed to pull off a turkey dinner of sorts, it was delicious!

It is so cool to have established a tradition of our year-end Maui trip with Sydney, I can see how it's going to get better and better every year with her!  She had such fun playing in the sun and spending all that concentrated time with Mom and Dad together as a family, I think she really loved it!

Wishing you all a wonderful New Year's Eve and looking brightly ahead to all the wonderful things that 2012 is going to bring us!