Maui Ocean Center

On Saturday the weather was supposed to be overcast with a possibility of rain, so we decided to head to Maalea to the Maui Ocean Center Aquarium to be inside and out of the rain.  We did learn however that it really doesn't rain on Maui, it just sort of mists and lasts only a few minutes.
Here we are at the aquarium.......... we saw so many amazing fish it was a great day!

A sea horse

Here are the kids looking at the living reef

A lot of the aquarium was outside, it didn't rain but it was windy!!  Here is Makenna holding a starfish!

Chris reaching in to grab one..... and then my turn!

Baylie wasn't afraid to touch the starfish

There were several types of star fish along with some sea anemone, sea cucumbers and oysters - Lindsay has a starfish but it's not your typical kind

In front of the living reef

I think I was trying to help Baylie pick up a star fish

Inside, they had a huge area where sharks, rays, tuna's and all sorts of other fish lived.  This guy kept swimming over us while we were in the tunnel - we loved it!

Shark!!  The other fish are tuna and you can see a ray along the bottom

Ali, Baylie and Jace sat in front of the glass mesmerized!

Cute Baylie sitting on a wooden turtle.........

We enjoyed the day at Maui Ocean Center, it was a great opportunity to see all sorts of fish and marine life that we normally don't get to see. Kenna and Chris saw some cool things snorkeling that they recognized from the aquarium.  It never did rain and the kids were anxious to get back to the resort to swim and hit the beach!

Honua Kai - our home on Maui

Our home on Maui was the Honua Kai resort, this is the same resort where Chris and I stayed 2 years ago.  It's an amazing resort. This time, the second tower was finished and the grounds had added 2 new pools and several more hot tubs and koi ponds! It was just as beautiful as we remembered and were happy to be able to share it with the kids.

Here is our room - there are 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, one on each side of the picture. Next to the kitchen, hidden behind the wall on the right is the washer and dryer. It was really nice to have those in room to be able to dry towels and swim suits!

This is the view from our lanai, which ran the whole length of the condo.  Each bedroom had it's own door to the lanai and the  living room was just one big banana door to the lanai.

Here is Chris on the way to the pools, stopped at one of the koi ponds

Baylie, taking a break from the water

Kenna hanging out trying to get a tan

Ali's favorite part about this resort was the slide, she would count how many times she would go down it - on one day, she was at 62!  We couldn't keep her off the slide

SPLASH!!

Swimming back to the steps to go down, again!

Jace has found another koi pond right near the pools.  He loved the fish and never tired of seeing them!

Kenna, reading while soaking her feet

Jace, practicing his boogie boarding before we headed out - and we have Baylie learning to snorkel in the bath tub!

Playing around in the pool 

 Such a beautiful pool

The flowers on the grounds were amazing - all types and colors

They also had great flower arrangements inside the resort, this one is in the lobby

More hibiscus

We saw this rainbow one day in between the two towers that make up Honua Kai.  I loved it!

This was my view from the pool area looking out towards the ocean....... doesn't get better than this!

We had an amazing time at this gorgeous resort and it was so hard to have to leave - Chris joked that a tent on the beach was in our price range should we decide to relocate - that was pretty tempting knowing we were coming home to snow and cold!

Hawaii 2012

We had the wonderful opportunity to take the family to Maui.  This has been a LONG anticipated trip as we booked it last May.  We left on the 16th of February and came home on the 23rd.  This is probably our last big family trip before Lindsay leaves for college so I wanted to make it a good one! With over 400 pictures, I've decided to break the posts up into a few different ones so this one is all about the beaches!

This is all of us along the harbor in Lahaina (okay, nothing to do with the beach but I already had the next 2 pictures downloaded before I decided to make a few posts)

Again in Lahaina and I believe this was on Lindsay's birthday!

To the BEACH!!  The condo we rented was fully stocked with boogie boards, noodles, beach chairs, sand toys and even a cooler so we could pack a lunch if we wanted.  This is at DT Fleming beach just about a 5 minute drive from Honua Kai, our resort.  Emily, Ali and Kenna are trying to catch some waves.

Kenna caught one!

she comes

Lindsay and Emily caught some too!

Jace loved jumping the waves as they came up on shore

Baylie LOVED playing in the sand, here she is burying Ali in it - this is at Baby Beach in Lahaina

Ali coming back from snorkeling at Baby Beach..... Chris and Emily are still out there, look closely and you can see them

Baylie, built so many sand castles!!

I snapped this just as a wave got Kenna good!

Here I am chillin out watching the kids.  This is at the resort which was right on Kaanapali Beach

Jace loved to stand on the boogie boards acting like he was surfing.  Here, a wave came up a little too far for him and he's trying to catch his balance as the boogie board started moving.... it was so funny!

More sand castles......

Lindsay coming back from snorkeling with Chris - everyone is in the background behind her

Kenna helped Baylie with some sand castles

                                               Lindsay and Jace helped her too

We had such a great time on the beaches of Maui.  I think the kids would have been completely content in never leaving the resort and just hanging out at the beach and the pools.