Monday, August 3 and Tuesday, August 4

Monday was a beach morning with D snorkeling and the kids and I castle building. D was so excited about everything he could see that he convinced me to try it. WOW! What fun! How creepy to have big fish swimming all around you and know you are totally on their turf... well surf. After fun and a picnic at the pool G was looking a bit pink so we headed out on an adventure. We saw the Olivine Pools and Nakalele Blowhole and lots of gorgeous coastline. I drove up and D drove back (we stopped where the road turned into one lane and you had to back up and hold your breath to let people past; did you know that there are roads on Maui where your rental agreement is void?). The kids were not good; snipping at each other. Quick dip in the pool and watching the sunset from our balcony capped the day.
Tuesday began with beach, D and I traded off snorkeling or castle building with the munchkins. Our castle was spectacular today with an elaborate irrigation ditch to fill the moat. Our adventure was lunch and then the long and winding trip up to Haleakala Crater(volcanic). 10,023 feet above sea level. If you go scuba diving you cannot make the trip because it gives you the bends just like flying would. Strange, beautiful, like the moon. E was speechless. G was too. You don't exactly know what it will be like until you see it. Incredible.
E has been very good about slowing down and enjoying his experiences. He is not pushing us so hard to go, go , go on this trip.
Tomorrow we are renting snorkel gear for G. He is ready and can handle enough swimming to go out a bit and will be in awe of all that he can see.
M is M. He has been really out of sorts today and not as enjoyable and flexible as he usually is. He refuses to wear a life jacket in the pool so we are refusing to let him go in (he is way to heavy to carry around and with 3 in the water it is too much trying to watch all and have him falling out of a floaty thing). Hopefully M will clean up his attitude for tomorrow.

We have seen the sunrise from the farthest point we could to the east(Kiawah) and now the sunset from the west in Maui and both are equally wonderful. Having so much fun and trying to enjoy as much as possible while we are here not just see it all to get it done. I hope the kids are gathering good memories from this and learning the travel can be fun.
Aloha! B