Bird's eye view

After much reassurance, our oldest son reluctantly accepted that his parents were going to see Maui from way up high in the air.  It seems that he was very concerned about us falling out of the helicopter.  He had envisioned a helicopter without door/windows, seatbelts or any other type of protection.  I was touched when I saw the sincerity of his fear.  We talked about everything that would be done to make sure that we would be safe.  As I mentioned earlier, he reluctantly accepted that we were going on a helicopter before our trip, but was so excited to hear about it after we returned...I bet he would love trying it!  I bet all our boys would!!

Blue Hawaiian Helicopter Tours showed us views that everyone should see at least once in their lives. 
I snapped a quick shot of the monitor that just happened to be focused on The Big Guy Lowe and I!

The Lowe girl with pilot Jason in the background.

The Big Guy Lowe, sitting to my right.

You might not be able to tell from these calm, albeit happy pictures, but when we didn't think we were being recorded we had the biggest, toothy grins on our faces--we found that out when we watched the cd of the trip!  Haha!  We were just so excited to be on a real helicopter!  I'm smiling just thinking of it.  We were even able to sit in the front next to the pilot.  We were told it was because we were the lightest in the group.  NICE!!  I guess P90X really did it's job!  Yahoo!!

Here are a few shots from the sky.  For the full hour-long trip see the cd.

Views of Haleakala at over 10,000 feet.

East Maui

Northeast Shoreline

Central Maui coastline accented by fields of sugarcane.

Giddy riders after their trip.  Our Eco Star helicopter in the background.

What an awesome trip!  We loved every minute and still smile thinking about it.

To celebrate, we could only go to one place for lunch...Mama's Fish House in Paia.

Our food choices are as follows:

Drinks:

The house juice blend and mango-collatas--because we don't drink alcohol all our choices fall into the "virgin" category.  That being said, they were so good!

Appetizers: 

Hood Canal Clams, Kalua pork and Kimchee--this was truly one of the best dishes of the entire trip!

Entre:

Mahimahi caught by Shawn Boneza along the north shore of Maui Stuffed with lobster, crab, Maui onion and baked in a macadamia nut crust--another winner by far!

This isn't an inexpensive restaurant, but it was worth the price.  And then there was the view from our table...

Such a satisfying day.  Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Snorkeling Maui

Our first full day in Maui was perfect!  But, come on, it's Hawaii and things would have to be pretty bad for it not to be good.  So like I said, perfect!

Ka'anapali beach is known for beautiful white sand, friendly swimming and great snorkeling up by black rock.  Our friends, Russ and Karen, had given us a great travel guide with many of their favorite places and activities.  This was one of them and we were not disappointed!!  (Thanks Karen!!)

We set up on the beach with our towels and just soaked in the beautiful sun!  After a short time, we decided to splurge and rent a cabana for the day--again, spendy, but hey, we're in Hawaii!!  The cabana was perfect for a comfortable crash in the sun with the option of pulling the back up to provide shade once we'd had enough beautiful, glorious, warming sun for a bit.

While lying on the beach was one of our goals, another was snorkeling--and we were successful in that regard too.  On Ka'anapali Beach our snorkeling took place by the black rock seen the in the background. 

So much fun!

Part human, part frog.

The Big Guy Lowe is in the background as we look back on Ka'anapali beach.  The spray of water is coming from a turtle that had surfaced right by us!

We followed him for a while as he, or she for all I know, casually meandered back towards the ocean floor.  It was exciting and peaceful all at the same time as we observed how graceful they were swimming.  A little later in the day we swam with four more turtles.  Not a bad way to begin our snorkeling experience!  Just amazing!

After a full day of snorkeling, we headed to explore Whaler's Village, also known as the barefoot mall.  The nick name makes sense as the outdoor mall is located just up from the beach.  We had dinner at Leilani's and quickly fell in love with virgin mago-collatas!  We made a habit of ordering one as often as we could from that night on!

There were many other beaches we visited in West Maui.  Others that made the top of our list are as follows:  *Honolua Bay*

To get to the bay you have to hike down a trail through lush, jungle-like foilage.  The Big Guy Lowe and I kept saying we felt like we were on the show "Lost".

Gratefully, no smoke monsters were spotted, but we couldn't help but make those noises.  We're a couple of goof-balls when we're together...but that was probably already obvious.  Oh well!

The beach here is definitely not a sun-tanning beach.  Rocks are everywhere.  But people don't come here to get a tan.  In the summer it's to snorkel and in the winter it's to surf.

Beautiful corals

and fish.

Tons of them!

 *Mokule'ia Bay* (also known as slaughterhouse bay)

To get to this bay, you have to walk down stairs and over rocks before getting to the secluded white sand beach.  This is a view from the road above--you can't even see that a sandy beach exists.  That might explain why there weren't many people enjoying it with us.

More turtles,

and fish.

*Napili beach*

No pictures but perfect for swimming.

*Mile marker 14 (-ish)*

I'm sure there's a name for this beach, but we just pulled off the road when we thought we saw an area that might be good to snorkel.  How awesome is that?!

All beaches are free to use, if you can find public access to them.  Nice.

So fun!!

 

And guess what we saw here?  Yep, more fish.  It might sound redundant on paper, but I don't think we ever got borded of seeing those beautiful fish!

 

In addition to West Maui, we also headed down to South Maui around Wailea for a day and had a great time too.  During our next trip to Maui we will most likely try to stay in this area so we can explore more!!  We were pretty impressed with the locals at Big Beach--you could sure tell the locals from the visitors by the way boards were handled in the waves.  Made for great entertainment!!  We did choose to stay away from Little Beach after it was explained that "clothing was optional".  How about that for a shocker?!  

Snorkeling in Maui was all we hoped it would be.  Now that The big Guy Lowe and I have had such wonderful adventures together, we're excited to head back to the islands with our snorkeling boys!!  August seems so far away, but I think we can stand it...YAHOO!!

Maui on the horizon!

The day was really here!!  After a busy evening the night before, all was set for The Big Guy Lowe and I to head out on our trip to Hawaii--a trip we had been planning for over six months!  All had been thoroughly organized the weeks leading up to this day.  Each of the boys were given a Father's blessing.  Grammy and Grandpa HB arrived and it was time for us to leave.

I have to say, I was extremely calm about our decision to go.  I felt a peace that all would be well with our boys and that we would be fine too.  I had been feeling that peace since the evening before as The Big Guy Lowe and I discussed what we should do regarding our trip and our family.  I am so grateful for that blessing of peaceful heart.

We said our good-byes, and Grandpa HB drove us to the airport.  It was really happening!

After a quick bite in the terminal, we headed to our gate and were soon on our way!

After about 5 hours and 19 minutes we touched down in Maui!  That put us at the perfect time to talk with all our boys as G had just returned home from school!  It was fun describing the palm trees and ocean and reassuring our boys that we would be taking many pictures to show them.  They were excited about the package they had received from us just that day, and that made me happy.  I had prepared a package and letter for them to get each of the days that we were gone.  The packages included fun toys, candy and hawaiian-type things just to let them know we were thinking of them and loved them.  I had brought the completed packages over to our neighbor Sue, and she was planning on delivering them daily.  Thank you for your friendship and wonderful help Sue and Gary!  We are so grateful we get to be your neighbors and friends!! 

After getting our rental car, a convertible Ford Mustang, we headed to our Bed and Breakfast, the Ho'oilo House which was located just south of Lahaina.

The Ho'oilo House was beautiful!!  The grounds were amazing and the view was even better!  We parked and unloaded our luggage so we could explore our room.

The main room and common room for guests.

Walking to the right, we headed to our room.

The Big Guy Lowe is sitting outside our doors.

The views from our room were spectacular!  We looked out onto the Pacific Ocean.

To see other views of our room, click here.  The flowers on the grounds were amazing and so fragrant!

After getting situated, we decided to explore the nearby town of Lahaina.  We had a serene lunch on the waterfront at Kimo's and then walked through the town.  We stopped in a few art galleries that were on Front Street.  Something that we enjoy doing is getting pieces of art when we travel.  We happened to find two original pieces of art that we both fell in love with.  We knew they had to be expensive, but $39,000 and $45,000 were a bit more than we were prepared to spend.  We did enjoy looking at them though!!  :)

After walking around town for a bit longer and then picking up a few lunch items at the Safeway grocery store (we literally picked up a few things and spent over $120.00--spendy food!!), we headed back to our house.

How could we resist a quick dip in the pool before collapsing into our bed?  We were exhausted!!

We enjoyed the sunset from our room and then enjoyed an early night.

What a beautiful first day!  So wonderful!!

Emergency Room visits are never fun

What a day, er, night I guess.

Looking back, everything turned out just fine, but we had a few hurdles to get to this point...and it all started with a little cough.

As a mother, I've found that I can deal pretty well with stomach flu, daily cuts and abrasions that come with boys playing, and other similar things.  But, I've also found that I experience my greatest stresses with respiratory illnesses.  When these little guys struggle breathing is when I really get nervous.  I will never forget the three nights in a row that I sat up with D as he struggled with Croup.  So many prayers offered from my mother's heart in his behalf.  I've truly learned the power of prayer--especially when given in behalf of someone you love.  Well, Monday was not like those nights.  But there was that little cough.  And in addition to the cough, our littlest had been incredibly irritable all day!  The Big Guy Lowe and I had fun things planned for our family, because we were getting ready to leave for Maui the next day, and Grammy HB would be watching the boys while we were away.  After finishing all our fun activities, we arrived back home.  The Big Guy Lowe asked if J felt warm to me.  I didn't think he did, but with how grumpy he had been we decided to give him some Ibuprofin.  It was about that time that we took off our little guy's shirt and grew concerned.  Something just looked wrong.

At closer observation, we recognized that as he was breathing, his tummy would balloon out and his sternum area would plunge pretty deep into his chest.  It was when I saw this that I asked for the phone.  I immediately called our pediatrician's office and to my great relief they were still open--it was about 6:55PM.  After explaining to the nurse what I was observing in our son, she calmly asked a few more questions and then instructed us to take our son to the Emergency Room as he was showing the beginning signs of respiratory distress and he needed to be evaluated and treated.  Tears immediately came to my eyes as I realized that what I was trying to push away as "mother fears" were indeed worthy of concern.  I hate it when that happens.  Calls were quickly made to Grammy HB and I headed to the hospital with J as The Big Guy Lowe waited for Grammy to arrive before joining us in the ER.

It's amazing how fast you can be seen in the ER when you have a 2 year old that is having problems with his breathing--that's how it should be.  It is also a good thing that our hospital has a Pediatric ER completely seperate from the general ER.  Before we knew it we were back in our room and The Big Guy Lowe was with us.  Now came all the doctors, x-rays, treatments and waiting.

We were all pretty scared at first.

It seems that our little guy did have a fever of 101 degrees, not out of control, but still a fever.  We had many doctors, nurses, and other therapists come in a listen to his lungs.  He actually grew somewhat accustomed to having people use a stethoscope on him--he learned to sit quietly when they were listening to his breathing.  Our doctor said that their main concern was pneumonia, but x-rays would let us know.  Getting the x-rays taken wasn't fun at all, but we did accomplish it in a reasonable amount of time for a two year old.  Then we waited...

and waited...

yep, and waited some more.  Gratefully I happened to have two Hotwheels in my purse.  As the mother of three boys I never leave home without a car or two...for this very reason!  You just never know when they will be needed.  A Respiratory therapist came in and gave J his first Nebulizer treatment.  He responded very well and his breathing seemed to come a bit easier.  We all experienced a measure of relief at that point.

(Have you ever seen anthing cuter in a hospital gown??  Not that I want to repeat this situation ever again!)

As we were waiting, The Big Guy Lowe and I had a pretty casual conversation about our trip to Hawaii.  We both agreed that neither of us had any problem cancelling our trip--we just wanted to make sure our little guy was okay.

After waiting a while longer, our doctor returned with the diagnosis that our son had complications from a household virus--NOT pneumonia.  We were so relieved!  Another breathing treatment was given and we were instructed in how to give him additional treatments at home.  Our J looked like he was feeling much better and even smiled and said "thank you" to his doctors.

It was with great relief and gratitude that we left the hospital that night.

After much discussion and soul-searching, The Big Guy Lowe and I decided that all would be well and we would continue with our plans to leave for Hawaii in the morning.  Grammy HB, my mom, is an amazing person, someone that I have no doubt loves our boys and would do whatever was required to take care of them.  I am so grateful for her love of the boys...and her love of The Big Guy Lowe and I.  She reassured us over and over that all would be well and there was no reason for us not to leave on our scheduled vacation.  As I finally went to sleep late that night, I felt a peace that all would be fine.

I'll just add a little follow-up to this post.  Grammy HB was able to take J into the pediatrician's office for a follow-up appointment on Wednesday morning.  They determined that he did indeed have pneumonia and needed to be put on a strong antibiotic.  My mom assured us that he was doing well in spite of being sick and was taking his medicine, eating, sleeping and playing without a problem.  She reassured us that all was well and we should continue to enjoy our vacation.  Both The Big Guy Lowe and I looked at each other while we were sitting in our room in Maui, because while sitting in the ER, we had agreed that we wouldn't go on our trip if J had Pneumonia.  Hmmm.  We're extremely grateful that all ended well and he is doing fine.  I cannot share enough of my gratitude for my Mom and how lovingly she took care of our boys in our absence...even a two-year-old with pneumonia.  We love our family greatly--both immediate and extended, and consider ourselves extremely blessed. 

I love to see the temple

It was the weekend before The Big Guy Lowe and I were to be heading off on our first real grown-up vacation since we had children.  While we were SO excited about the time we would share in Maui, we were also a little apprehensive about leaving our boys.  While we knew all would be well, we wanted to share some time together walking around the temple--so we could talk about the blessing we have of being together forever.

Even though the weather this spring had been wet and cold, this day was beautiful!  Perfect for our family trip.  The spring flowers were out and so were the Lowes!

I love this picture of the boys standing by the reflecting pool!  What cuties!

We even had a nice gentleman offer to take our family picture.  Too bad I wasn't paying more attention to the shadows here.  The picture still makes me happy.

I love the blessings that are possible because of the sacred ordinances that are performed in temples--throughout the world.  Our family will be together forever because The Big Guy Lowe and I were sealed for time and all eternity in the temple.  Our family is priceless.

We then walked around the rest of the beautiful grounds,

reverenly played by a fountain...

(You can't be near water and not put your hand in, really, it's impossible!)

And then we sat on the grass and sang "I love to see the temple".

I love knowing that our family will be Together Forever.

I love my family.