small things: Maui with everyone!

To celebrate our 32nd anniversary and my parents 50th, we decided to take the whole family to one of our favorite places, Maui. We went over the week of Thanksgiving and had a blast! We took a ton of pictures, so editing my choices for this post was quite difficult (photo dump ahead). The kids have posted a lot of their own pics on their social media already, so I'm behind. It would have been easier on myself if I had just posted while we were on vacation, but I guess I was just too busy vacationing. Go figure! Normally when Joseph and I go to Hawaii, it's to slow down, sleep and relax. It didn't take long to realize that with this crowd,

our rest would be of a different kind.

My parents have been married for 50 years!! Goals!!

It was such a pleasure to spend time with them and to celebrate their love.

We have been married for 32!

I always love going on vacation with this man!

The ocean was great but we clearly loved spending time in the pool.

Some of us had an acrylic art class in a cute little cabana.

I loved being able to create with some of my favorite people in such beautiful surroundings.

Although we each had the same subject, each painting was unique and beautiful.

I think we all agree that our favorite activity was going snorkeling off a sailboat.

We got to see so many turtles and several of the kids dove deep to swim along beside them.

It was so peaceful and beautiful. The water was the most incredible cobalt blue.

We jumped off the bow of the boat (I even did a back dive off the side), they fed us well, and we soaked up the sun. AJ was a trooper until they put the life jacket on him. Loving water, he really prefers to be free to splash. So he wasn't in the water very long. Jacob and Lisa were in their element, of course. In the lower picture, we are struggling to stand up because the wind in the sails made the boat tip (too funny) . This photo is only one in a series of hilarious stages of our instability.

We highly recommend The Island Star

So fun!!

One day the kids took a short excursion to some waterfalls and a muddy bamboo forest.

Us old folks stayed and played with AJ around the pool.

We had the benefit of accessing a telescope which is Esther's dream gift for Christmas.

She and I took it out to see what we could see. The moon was our limit.

We also love zip lining. But I gladly remained behind with my parents to watch AJ. Besides his nap, he loved the sand beach of the hotel pool. It was then that I discovered he'd rather be on his stomach to splash in the water and move the sand around while kicking his feet, all at high speed. He didn't care at all that the water got on his face. He'd gasp, smile, then go right back to his work.