Gardner Family: Aloha!

Aloha! We just got back from a wonderful week in Hawaii! What a gorgeous place!

We took a nonstop flight from San Francisco to Maui and then rented a car and drove to the west coast where we rented a condo near Kaanapali Beach. My sister Katie and her family shared the condo with us, and it was great for the cousins to see each other. We started the trip off with playing on the beach. Tommy took a bit to warm up to the sand and water but eventually really enjoyed digging through the sand. With all the kids needing their various naps we didn't do as much stuff as we used to when we were swinging kidless adventurers, but it was so fun to take Tommy and see his reaction to new things! (And we had nearly 10 years of kidless adventures so we feel we had more than our share anyway!)

So, we hung out on the beach, at the pool, in the condo and had a great time relaxing. I borrowed Katie's snorkel gear a couple times- the first time the waves were so big the sea was too churned up and all I could see was sand! A couple days later I went and saw some great fish and even saw a sea turtle which I had never seen before. It actually startled me as I turned around in the water and there it was - about 1 foot behind me! Laws of physics were defied as I jumped in the water! I'm glad it wasn't a shark or I really would have had a heart attack!

We also drove up the coast a bit and saw a blowhole where the high tide sprays water through an erosion in the lava rock (see picture below.) By luck we timed it right with high tide and saw some spectacular sprays.

Unfortunately Dave was a little sick the later half of the trip which was a bummer since it was his first vacation in many, many months of very hard work. (Other than a few day trips on Saturday afternoons around the San Fran area and job interviews.)

It was so beautiful. What an amazing place. It seems like a dream now that we are back in rainy California - it has been raining straight since we returned!

Cousins on the beach

...So I had this great idea that we could get a super cute photo of the three cousins wearing matching Hawaiian outfits. We tried and tried on various days to get just one photo of them all smiling. Katie's kids were always adorable but Tommy would have none of it!!

On arrival at the condo - Tommy was boiling in his long sleeve shirt so we took it off for this cool guy look. (Note his love for the sticks - maybe he's locating the water sources as is Gardner family tradition!)

Buried in the sand!

Dave and Tommy look at rocks while the sea sprays from the blowhole. Collecting rocks is of course another of Tommy's passions. He didn't care much at all about the blowhole.