may-- liam and mama hit the road to heavenly hawaii

i am usually never without with my phone to record photos and to take notes for the month. while away on our grand hawaii adventure,  at the end of may,  i lost my phone off the top of the car while driving down the kula hwy -- don't even say it.   so much happened in may! we went on a huge trip! visited 3 hawaiian islands, many people we love... a big month.
but this month of big adventures and rapid changes will be a bit short on videos or quotes or anything that my big camera-- or instagram before i lost the phone- did not capture. 
amazing how sad i feel about having lost just the one month's list of saved notes. i have been taking them since liam was born and now things are changing so fast i can't keep up. too many amazing things- creative thoughts, random word plays ( milk comes from the gutter! ) to catch them all and i can't believe how fast he is growing up.  wow.  they were not lying when they said it goes fast.

1 hour to aukland, 9 hours to honolulu. get into city for 1 night layover. get back to airport for trip to kauai. i am not gonna lie... i was a little worried.  liam and i have traveled a lot and every time is different. i definitely couldn't carry him anymore and he had started running in the opposite direction, lying down in protest and other fun tactics so i was worried. we had to have a layover in honolulu so i made it long enough that we could recover, visit waikiki beach and the honolulu zoo. we stayed at a groovy outside clean inside 60's era hotel an isosceles triangle away from the destinations. we went out for sushi at a genuine joint- recommended for authentic sushi lunches, not tourist trap- all wood, all japanese people.  it went very well despite jet lagged,  spinning wild unpredictable liam.  he got a free ice cream at the end so we did ok. whew. we had a blast while there. lots of pix at the zoo of course and a vid of liam singing while riding a giraffe statue. ah well. you can imagine.

we had a great time and even getting to and fro with more shit than i could manage comfortably was not as bad as i thought it might be. yay kauai!

i won't go into the saga of how i lost my wallet in oahu airport and only realized it once we were at baggage claim on kaui... suffice it to say, i don't recall ever having been much more stressed and ali rescued us.
our house was awesome, our housemates awesome. the beach and town were gorgeous and just what you imagined. the wedding was so much fun and it all went way too fast.  we met some cool peeps- what a great crew! but we really missed papa and look forward to returning with him one day.  this was where mca and i wanted to honeymoon originally. it is so beautiful and the nature so big.  like new zaealand. but warm. can't wait to go back when we can all hike and kayak and snorkel....!!

hanale bay magic

no words needed

lovely ladies! love liam

i had a lot of fun making ali's wild bouquet (thank you auntie shawnie for taking liam to the beach! ) the flowers came from a very lovely designer/grower who was the only person who responded to my spam. she thought i sounded nice.  and it turns out had moved to kauai 19 years ago from new zealand! what are the odds.

 it was such an absolute treat to have auntie shawnie join us. thank you so much for coming!

liam made a lot of friends over the week and i was told by a few that his energy was really lovely and a very welcome addition to the wedding party :)

after a week in this lush paradise,  we were sad to leave but excited to be heading back home to maui and so excited to visit with our lovely maui family.


hello keokea!

gramma sissy and grampa tt, auntie shawnie and chance were so great with liam and it was so fun to be on maui this time with a little dude who could do stuff! auntie shawnie took us on a couple of special adventures that were so fun.  lavendar and cheese! what's not to love.

the magical ali'i lavender farm in the kula mist. and we did a treasure hunt! it was liam's first (i love them and i sure hope he does too cuz he's gonna be looking at a bunch of them come birthday party time!) the treasure hunt took us all over the grounds and into every nook and cranny. so fun.

a magical spot

found the stamp!

flower for mama

do a little dance

and take a rest

treasure hunt buddies

and finally collecting our prize after the shop was closed! we were the last ones there by a long stretch and luckily the ladies were nice enough to open the door to us.  liam quite enjoyed  his lavender shortbread (of course)

and another fun outing with shawnie to the surfing goat farm! how cool.... and such yummy chevre. these are some happy goats.

i had the good fortune to spend my bday with our maui family... wow, can't even recall the last time i got to do that! the evening before we all had a big family bbq with kalia's whole family and on the day of we went to the river's house in paia for a glass of wine and then out to dinner at my fave spot in paia.  and then right after we all celebrated chance's bday! good times for the geminis :)

because i didn't have my iphone we're missing all of the little incidental pix and any beach pix at all! couldn't risk taking the big guy out into the sand w/ a toddler and all of our gear... too much. just know that we had many, many awesome beach days. i drove down to the beach at least every other day determined that liam and i soak it up as much as possible! first time i have ever bought spray on serious tanning lotion on liam but i felt it was better than risking getting burnt ( now i know i have been correct in my hunch to stay away and shall continue to do so).
we had a few awesome kihei days but our usual routine was baby beach or baldwin in the am (so gorgeous before the trades pick up) mana for a salad bar lunch and then home for nappie. one time out in the gentle waves at baldwin liam just kept saying " i love the sea, i love the sea" and told me that the sea was very very salty and very very wet. he also said there were rainbows on the sand below the water which is true :)
we met monay (maile)  at baby beach one time and she said that liam had shown her something new: that the little tiny bubbles on the surface made beautiful star patterns on the sand below.
i cannot even describe how much i love the ocean in hawaii and how much i loved sharing it with liam. we were in heaven out there. can't wait to share it when liam can swim! and when papa is with us too!

our last day all together was a sunday and we took a trip to the aquarium and then had family dinner out together at the harbor there in maalaea. a lovely last evening together :)

the band

there was a hopping flying fish in there who seemed very happy. or something

a perfectly warm, breezy late afternoon at sea level

squishy!

grampa tt = grampeachy!

gramma sissy and lee have a turtle encounter

makin' friends

whoa

better in mama's arms

thank you so much to our maui family for such a wonderful visit! hope we can be back before too long

neeiiigh!

PS. i thought i had posted this ages ago!! been sitting here a few months now. oops!! i am now about to catch up..... june comin' soon :)