I am finally posting about our trip to Hawaii!  Sorry it has taken me so long.  As you know I went to OK right before and right after going to Maui, so I've been doing a lot of catching up on basic life maintenance around here.  Now that we finally have clean clothes and some food in the house, I guess you would all like to know some of the details.  This will be a multi-post series!

We stayed at the Fairmont Kea Lani in Wailea, Maui, on the beautiful shores of Polo beach.  It was a wonderful family resort, full of other families just like ours, with great restaurants and amenities.  I'll give you the photo tour:

The beach at the resort.

Our villa - 3 bedrooms and a beautiful ocean view.  See the island of Kahoolawe in the distance.

The view from the back porch.  There was even a little pool so you could get the sand off of yourself after some beach time.

This was the main pool.  There were usually lots of people there; I am not sure when Paul got this nice calm picture.

This is pretty much Katelyn's idea of heaven.  She could not get enough swimming!

Audrey preferred the baby pool.  She focused on pouring and splashing.

The tannest we will ever be.

Sigh.  Can I go back there yet?

(Reality calls:  "Mommy!  Audrey is poopy!")

Part 2 coming soon!

They were at the kitchen table eating breakfast, and I went to the bathroom so of course all you-know broke loose. 

Katelyn (yell-tattling to me):  Mommy, Audrey's trying to get me in trouble!

Katelyn (yelling at Audrey, who was probably only about a foot away):  Audrey, STOP BOSSING ME!

The Artist-in-Residence strikes again.  She also got the new recliner and her polka-dot chair.

Katelyn is very ambitious when it comes to burritos.  (She did not quite finish this one, though.)

Scene:  Upstairs, girls are playing together when suddenly Audrey clobbers Kate without warning.)

Katelyn:  Audrey hit me!

Mommy (in spite of having witnessed the incident): Audrey, did you hit Kate?

Audrey (the picture of innocence): No-ooo.

Katelyn:  Yes she did!  (to herself, hands on hips) These things ALWAYS start like this!

*   *   *   *   *

(At lunch.)

Katelyn:  Mommy, this dinner taco is spectacular!

Scene: passing a construction site.

Katelyn:  Mommy, that's called an instruction site.

Mommy:  Wow, cool.  What are they doing?

Katelyn:  They are making piles of dirt.

Mommy:  Do you think they are going to put a building there?

Katelyn (laughing until she can barely breathe):  No, Mommy!  You are so silly!  They are making piles of dirt for people to play in!  Not buildings!  Silly Mommy!

Because they will grow up and stop using such cute lingo, and how quickly I forget!  Even as I am writing this I have forgotten many of the things I heard throughout the day that I wanted to list here.  Approximate translation follows in parentheses.

Audrey:

Elmo Wall-E!  (robot monster)

I yuck it!  (I don't like it)

Cah-see (coffee)

Keh-bup (ketchup)

Kicken (chicken)

Babas (bananas)

Geeps (grapes)

Bee-nuh and caa-yee  (Peanut and Catty, her nighttime cuddle friends)

I yah you.  (I love you)

Katelyn:

Mommy, will you separate my bed? (change the sheets)

It hurts berry berry bad.  (very very bad)

It's not gymnastics, it's a forward roll.

Audrey, stop being the boss!

Greenbear is my son.

Let's play puppet show! (that means any play-acting with toys)

You are my very best mommy.

(Spontaneous random outburst of joy) I love God SO much!  I can't wait to get to heaven and see how big Jesus is!

*     *     *     *     *

(after a period of silent thought) Mommy, I have decided that tonight I am going to dream about my Strawberry Shortcake and My Little Ponies.  I am going to pretend that they are all real and that we are eating popcorn at the movies.  It will be GREAT!

11:00 am today:

1:00 pm today:

After it sat for 10 years in our garage, Paul gave the Camaro to my cousin Michael today.  This was definitely a win-win situation.  He is great with cars (plans to go to mechanic school in the fall, actually) and loves to fix them up.  I think we were both a little sad to see it go; we have many fond memories of our college life with this car, and it was Paul's uncle Shannon's, after all.  But we did not have the time or inclination to care for it as the classic it is.  It is time to embrace the new era, of carpooling and preschooling and really really living in this house.

We're going to completely clean out and organize the garage, but just for today, just because we could, we did this...

Farewell, old girl!

3 weird things that happened today:

1.  Kate apparently tried to go potty during the middle of the night (good for her) but unfortunately in her half-awake state mistook the end of her bed for the potty.

2.  Kate fell on a cactus while playing in the backyard while I was cooking dinner (Audrey was napping).  Of course if I knew there was a cactus in the backyard I would have done something about it.  Didn't know I needed to be looking out for that sort of thing.  There were only a few spines in her leg but you would have thought I was removing the leg itself to hear her shrieking.  Drama!

3.  And then to make matters worse, when I threw her in the tub and put Audrey in there too, Audrey pooped in the tub. 

I'm sure it was no coincidence that today was Realife group night.  These kinds of weird things always happen on Tuesdays.

BTW, if you noticed that hell froze over today, it was because I cleaned the oven for the first time since Audrey was born.  I know it has been that long because the last person to clean it was the housekeeper.