Oct 29
Our anniversary was on Sunday this year. I wanted to play tennis with the boys once a week, so we kept our usual plan to play in the morning. Stuart and I decided to go out on our own in the afternoon
. I chose to go to Santana Row to walk around and perhaps to hang out at one of the outdoor dining area. But somehow it was cloudy and rainy that day, so we chose an indoor brewery that we both liked to have a drink too. Can’t believe our wedding was 18 years ago!
Oct 29
I can’t believe how quickly Connor had completed his Invisalign. He began the treatment in February. Only 8 months later, we were told at his appointment that his teeth had moved well and he was done. They took the impression for his retainer and he would initially wear the retainer for 6 weeks non stop> Then the time needed for the retainer would be slowly reduce over time. The orthodontist also recognized Connor for not once losing his Invisalign nor doing anything that delayed his treatment. We are very proud of Connor too and happy that he is done with his braces in his middle school years!
Oct 08
We had to wake up early again on Tuesday as I had planned a short session with a photographer at a nearby beach. After that, we went for a morning swim at the beach again. We all swam around and had some great fun and exercise. Toward the end of our water time, I suddenly noticed tingling and pain on the right side of my body. I recalled an episode of Friends and suspected that I might have been stung by jellyfish. I was a bit scared but fortunately it was not too painful once I was out of 
the water. I bought some HC cream while we were picking up lunch; it took care of the situation in the next few hours. This would be an event that I would never forget. After lunch, the boys talked us into going to the gym to workout. That afternoon, we drove around Kihei and checked out the Kihei Kamala Village looking at all the souvenir stores, and had some ice cream. In the evening, on our way to a local popular grill and bar, we were at a perfect time to check out the sunset, so we
detoured and enjoyed the beautiful scenery. The dinner with live music was a good way to end another fun day.
After needing to wake up early for 2 days, everyone voted to sleep in on Wednesday. We also enjoyed breakfast at the hotel restaurant before we headed out. We did not want a long drive, so we chose a more local waterfall, Twin Falls, to visit. It was only 45 mins to get there; after an easy to moderate hike, we saw the small twin falls. Another memory created there as Logan and I 
walked through the rocks and water to get inside to the falls, I had all their flip flops in my bag. It turned out walking on the rocks barefoot was no fun; both Stuart and Connor let me have it once they caught up and met us near the falls. I made this mistake as I had
my water shoes on, and Logan, who was also bare feet, was just a tough one who never complained. We spent a bit of time there as the water was very refreshing. After the hike, we drove to and had a stroll in a nearby local town called Paia; it was very quaint there with galleries and shops. Connor also picked a pizza restaurant for lunch that served some delicious flatbread pizza. Once we returned to our hotel; we headed back out to the beach for our last swim. We stayed in the water as long as we could. Connor was quite sad as he was not ready to go home the next day. He was p
repared to stay in HI if he could. After cleaning up, we all chose to have Japanese noodles on our last night. We then hit the gym to workout as our last trip there as well.
The last day was mainly a travel day. We returned our swim gears, packed up and headed out to the airport. Connor and I often are the ones who love vacations and were not ready to go home. The flights went well; all four of us watched movies throughout both flights and we returned to our sweet home at 11pm. We had an awesome trip to Maui and I am glad that we did not cancel this trip despite all th
e setbacks that happened before the travel dates. Here are our Maui photos.
Oct 08
We had initially planned to go to Maui in 2021, but it was canceled due to the pandemic. I finally rebooked the same trip to October this year during our fall break. Then the tragic fire happened in August in West Maui; we had considered making alternate travel locations, but in the end we decided to keep our plan and just moved our lodging from Lahaina to Kihei. Two days before our flight out, I received an email from Hawaiian Airline stating that our flight was canceled. I called the airline; their offers in place of the canceled flight were all not good at all (ie.changing dates or changing airport), thus I thought that we might have to cancel the whole trip. Fortunately while I was on hold with the airline, I found a comparable itinerary with SWA and I booked it. Our Maui trip was back on track!
I dropped Buddy off at the boarding place on Friday late afternoon and we flew out on Saturday morning. We arrived at our hotel late Saturday afternoon. We took an easy rest of the day to be familiar with our hotel, the nearby beach and stores while getting acclimated to the hot humid weather. We had some Hawaiian dinner on our first night and Connor enjoyed some shaved ice afterward.
Sunday was our free day; we took our time to have breakfast at the hotel restaurant, then headed to the local beach. The beach was beautiful and we loved the smooth sand. It was not crowded at all too. We talked the boys into going into the water with us; quickly, the boys got comfortable and started swimming around in the water. It was incredibly wonderful and refreshin
g hanging out in the water. After the morning exercise, we all needed a break so we hung out in the room for some games and TV. Logan is into working out lately; he could not wait to hit the gym at the hotel and had his first visit that day. The gym was definitely one of his favorites of the entire trip. Connor also enjoyed working out and often tried talking Stuart and I into going with them. Afterwards, we headed out to the Shops at Wailea. It was surprisingly not crowded; we shopped all around and worked up a good appetite for dinner. We chose a brewery and the boys really enjoyed the burgers.
I was able to convince Stuart to drive us up to Haleakala on Monday morning. We woke up at 7am and headed out after a quick breakfast. The weather up on the mountain was great that day and we made the quiet windy drive in 1.5 hrs. Since it was already 9ish, it was not too chilly then. The scenery was incredible; we took a short hike near the visitor center and took lots of pictures. Being up on 10,000 feet and breathing slightly differently was definitely a great experience for the boys. Even during our drive down, seeing the beautiful clouds around us was incredible; I was so happy that we made this trip and Stuart was a great driver as always. We then found some
yummy pizza and hit the spot for lunch. That afternoon after some rest, we rented a boogie board for the beach. The waves were not strong enough for it, but we, especially Connor, had fun floating around with them. Connor also had bought a ball from the ABC store that we had so much fun tossing around in the water too. After some rest and Logan’s workout, we wrapped up the evening with some Japanese food for dinner. Stuart and I were going to hang out at the pool bar as the hotel had live music each night, but unfortunately all the good tables were taken so we hung out with the boys in the room instead.
Connor seemed to be even more excited for the upcoming holidays this year. He had reminded me to decorate our house early on and he helped me. He also mentioned about wanting to carve pumpkins. So I purchased one pumpkin for each of us and plus one more just in case. However Connor managed to talk Stuart and Logan into joining us, and Stuart and Logan decided to tag team to do one pumpkin. Stuart helped Logan initially but both boys picked up what needed to be done quickly after I showed them. Logan got the job in good time and he did a very nice and clean carve. Connor chose a more complexed design; I was so surprised that he did all the carving by himself and it came out perfect. My skeleton turned out well too despite all of them jokingly did not believe I could get it done. It was a fun family event and we love how they look outside our house now.
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