Maui, Hawaii
To take the kids? Or not to take the kids? That is always the question, right?
T.J. and I went back and forth so many times on whether or not we should take the girls to Hawaii with us, but as you can see, we ultimately landed on bringing them along. We probably saw some inspiring Pinterest quote that was like "Don't wait to travel with your kids! Take them now! The world is your oyster! Make your own adventure! GO CLIMB A MOUNTAIN!" Which, when you put it that way, sounds amazing! But when you're climbing said mountain with a sweaty toddler on your back asking for snacks, and the "adventure that you're making" turns into stepping on actual oysters and crying a lot, it can really make you rethink the whole thing. 😂
And that's where the hidden blessing of photos and videos comes in. Because when I look through these photos and watch the little video we made, I just see us as a family, making memories with our kids. I see the joy in June's eyes and the grin on Sunny's face and kinda forget the rest!
After traveling for almost 24 hours straight, we landed in Maui, grabbed a ton of groceries at Costco and then crashed for the night in our Airbnb. But of course, being six hours behind the East Coast now, June was up at 4am and begging to go to the beach. She waited, bless her little heart, until 6:48am when T.J. and his Mom were finally able to take her to the beach because the sun had come up! She was beyond thrilled.
Sunday night T.J. and I went to a dinner with the group that we were there to meet up with. It was both delicious and enjoyable, and it was so great seeing everyone again! I had a giant serving of shave ice with coconut sweet cream on top and it was incredible!
T.J. and I spent the next two days in a conference room with that same group of people, while the girls spend them by the pool and on the beach with T.J.'s parents.
For our final two days of the trip, we spent one morning on a smaller "locals" beach with a few friends, spent hours out by the pool, drank macadamia nut iced coffees, enjoyed a fish taco lunch with friends, and took long walks with the girls in their strollers. Also, I basically lived in these amazing rust colored pants all week.
The night before we left we were on the beach chatting with our friend Glen when June suddenly started screaming because she'd been stung by a Portuguese man o’ war! The poor girl was so sad, but was also super brave! We made it back to our little condo and got her all fixed up, and while doing so she requested to watch nature videos about the Portuguese man o’ war because that's how she rolls. 😂We have since watched it like 27 times.
I'm definitely going to be printing some of the images from this trip because not only do I love them, but I want them to serve as a reminder to me to seek out moments like this for our kids. To take the time and make the effort to make memories, big or small, for us as a family. Whether that's a trip to somewhere beautiful like Maui, or just an afternoon in our backyard!
Growing up, did you travel a lot as a family? What memories do you have that are extra special? I'd love to know!