maui, hawaii!

after our time in oahu, we caught a quick plane (only 30 minutes! after an 11 hour flight, that felt like 3 minutes! uh-mazing!) to spend a few days on the beautiful island of maui before heading home. we technically only had 2 full days to spend on the island because of travel, so we tried to slow down our pace a little and just relax and enjoy everything our resort had to offer and only head out to explore things that were close by just a bit.

there are families far more seasoned than us when it comes to traveling with little ones, but one of the biggest things i always tells people who ask me for a tip about traveling with kids and babies is to plan your trip, and then if any way possible, tag on an extra full empty day to your planned itinerary if you can. we’ve learned through experience it gives you a little bit of wiggle room, a way to still enjoy your travels together and not feel rushed or stressed since you’re often moving at a slower pace and trying to juggle jet lag as well. i feel like one of the best ways to make sure you have a successful time is to allow your itinerary to be flexible and having some extra hours in there not specifically dedicated to anything specific. then you really do get to almost everything on your sight-seeing list because you have that extra morning or afternoon you originally didn’t account for.

anyway, that said, on the flight back to new york city, josh and i talked about how we should have tacked one more day onto our time in maui, or even just 12 more hours. i think it would have given us a lot more space to manage our schedule and really see more of that beautiful island. but, you live and you learn and now i get to say, “guess we left something for next time!” ;)

a few photos from our time in maui below…

we stayed at the sheraton maui resort and spa, which really went above and beyond in making us feel at home. i feel a little bit silly sharing this photo above, because that kind of welcome treatment is just too good for us, but it really was so sweet and made us feel right at home. once again, thanks so much to starwood for inviting and hosting our wonderful stay!

there was a lot to do on the hotel property, so we spent an entire day at the hotel on their beach and pool grounds. they have the coolest set up, with a lazy river around the entire pool side restaurant, the cliff dive grill, that connects to the pool. there is also this fun slide in the very middle of the lazy river that josh, eleanor and samson enjoyed! they have a couple fun activities for kids set up each day like hawaiian games, ukulele lessons and lei making. my kids got really into the hawaiian games. ha! anything that’s a “game” and they are crazy happy!

coconut and pineapple smoothies all day everyday! and edamame, too!

this baby girl of mine sat beside me in our gazebo one afternoon while i nursed conrad and asked me a million questions about life. questions about dragons and astronauts and how a baby grows and why is the ocean so salty…. she’s so curious and interested in everything, and it’s the biggest treat to sit beside her and watch her little wheels turning.

on saturday we rented a tiny car and drove further than i’d like to admit trying to find a spot where a friend of mine says sea turtles by the masses congregate, but…we never found them. we did, however, find a delicious restaurant called star noodle on our way back, so it wasn’t entirely a loss! we ordered our food take-out style and enjoyed eating in the crammed car together. josh and i took turns holding conrad while the other ate and samson and eleanor enjoyed hanging out and eating in the back of the car with their back seat windows rolled down and shouting “hello!” and “aloha!” to everyone walking by the car. haha. it was one of those moments where we just tried to make the best of our situation and i think we did a good job. also, that vietnamese crepe! so good.

before we went searching for sea turtles, we had breakfast at the gazebo which came highly recommended by friends of ours (and many of you!). we had to wait about 45 minutes for a table, but it was well worth the wait (i just played on the beach with the kiddos while josh held our spot in line with conrad). we shared a plate of fried rice and some pineapple macadamia nut pancakes (with coconut syrup) and it was probably our favorite meal of the trip! put this place on your list if you’re heading anywhere close to maui!

samson pouring syrup onto his pancake all by himself!!! i can’t deal.

i have no clue what i’m doing with my left arm in that photo on the right (i think i was trying to brush my hair away from my face?), but i loved being twins with eleanor in our matching suits! (they are by mara hoffman. mine is from here and e’s from here.) probably only a few more months i can get away with this sort of behavior before she’s like, no mom. let’s not match.

we took the littles to teppan-yaki dan at the hotel one evening, which was a big highlight for us because the kids had never been before and it’s always fun to witness their sweet faces when they see these sorts of things for the first time. the whole “volcano of fire” thing (rings of onion with a little olive oil in the middle) was like magic to them!

thanks for following along on our oahu and maui adventures! thank you again to starwood for making our stay so great.

ps. i listed where things are from that we’re wearing/ using at the bottom of my last post. if i missed anything, ask me in the comments and i’ll try to get you the info!