Carly’s Second High School Basketball Season

Carly was pretty reluctant to play ball again this year.  It requires a lot of time and physical energy, weekend commitments and she doesn’t necessarily LOVE playing.  She got some pressure from teammates though and in the end decided to “just do it”. She’s a great player and I love watching her out on the court.  Fun that we have a nice new shiny high school and gym.

She played on JV again – which she was thrilled about because she didn’t want the pressure of being on varsity and her friends were all on JV.  The season started in November and her last game early February.  The varsity team lasted longer so the end of the season banquet was scheduled for March, but then the coronavirus hit and everything got cancelled.

I hope to see Carly back on the court next year!

UPDATE:  On April 21 we learned via email that Carly received the Wildcat Award for her team.  No awards ceremony do to COVID.  So proud of my girl!

Maui, Hawaii {Day 6}

We took advantage of the resorts offer to get complimentary breakfast vouchers in exchange for having our room cleaned only two of our days here. It was a nice breakfast buffet. After breakfast we had to go up to the room and pack up for our 10am to check out. We put everything in our car and were planning to enjoy the resort facilities for the rest of the day before heading to the airport for our redeye flight home. Unfortunately the weather was not looking good and we were only been able to catch a few rays of sunshine in between the rain.

We decided to head to the Gazebo for a second breakfast/lunch. Again I got the white chocolate macadamia pancakes although I hate to admit it but they were better the first time around. 

We got back to the hotel and it was raining again so we hung out in the lobby for a little while trying to catch a break in the cloud cover. It only got into the 60s today which makes laying out in the wind not entirely pleasant.

Around 4pm we finally called it a day and went to the gym to fit in a workout before showering and cleaning up to head to the airport. A nice service that the resort offers is that they have hospitality villas available for guests to use when they have late flights and need a place to clean up.  We had a little hiccup with them giving us the keys to a room that already had people inside, but in the end we were able to get showered in privacy.  One more stop at Ululani’s where we each got our own shaved ice treat in our favorite flavors – mine was: pina colada, passion fruit and red raspberry – Justin’s were: pina colada, red raspberry and ???

We had a late night flight out of Hawaii so we could have a full day in paradise before heading home – too bad it ended up being a rainy day.  We arrived in Seattle at 7am and were able to make it home before Katie and Drew left for school.  Katie had made us a cute little sign.

Maui, Hawaii {Day 5}

We attended church this morning at 9am which meant we had plenty of time this morning to get ready as we are still on Seattle time for the most part. The church services were nice. In the past we have attended church at an older building right on the along the beach; however, it appears that that church is now for the Tongan branch so we attended services in a larger building that was still pretty close to our hotel. As we we’re heading back to our hotel after church we saw a little craft fair going on in a parking lot. We ended up passing it by and then deciding that we wanted to go check it out so we turned onto the front street of Lahaina to turn around; however, being that close to Ululaui’s we couldn’t pass up a shaved ice treat. 

We looked a little at the shops in the area but as usual we aren’t big shoppers and didn’t last long or purchase anything - except for a small square of chocolate macadamia fudge. Similarly we didn’t have any luck at the small craft fair either. I’m still hopeful we can find a little something to bring back to the kids either at Costco or Walmart before heading to the airport tomorrow. Today was our most sunny day so we took advantage of that and spent the afternoon at the resort in the sun. Justin tried a little bit of snorkeling again but again the water was pretty choppy and he wasn’t able to see much of anything. 

We enjoyed some ice cream mid-afternoon

I wanted to get some hula pie at Duke’s and luckily they have a location at the Honua Kai resort next door (where we stayed the last time we were here with the family).  We got it to go and found a little table nearby.  We enjoyed it immensely! 

We caught our last Hawaiian sunset tonight along the beach.

Even though we hadn’t actually had an actual meal today (leftovers for lunch) neither one of us was very hungry so we decided to pass on going out for dinner and instead went down to the fitness center for another cycle workout. This time we opted for a 30 minute class and it was much more intense than earlier in the week, but it was nice to be active.

Maui, Hawaii {Day 4 – Kapalua Coastal Trail & Haleakala Sunset}

Today was the first morning we did not set an alarm so it was nice to enjoy a laid back morning. We started our morning by driving out to the Kapalua coastal trail and hiked along the beautiful coastline for about an hour and a half. We started at Onelia Beach and went out to Kapalua Beach and back. We had perfect temperatures and a slight sea breeze. 

Then we drove to Lahaina for breakfast at 808 Grindz Cafe - a dingy little restaurant in a strip mall that we’d read had fantastic breakfast especially their egg benedicts.  We had a bit of a wait for a table but it was worth it.  My favorite eggs benedict is still at Chow in Bend, Oregon.  We also ordered a side of pancakes with their famous mac-nilla sauce which basically made it a dessert.

We drove around trying to find a parking spot so we could check out the snorkeling around Blackrock but didn’t have any luck.  We went back to our resort.  I decided to hang out there in the sun while Justin ran (literally) down to Blackrock with his snorkel gear.  Bummer for him that it wasn’t very good, but that made me feel better that I hadn’t missed out on anything.

We weren’t able to get tickets to drive up to Haleakala for the sunrise – they now limit the number of people they let up to the summit each morning – so instead we decided to go for the sunset.  I’ve been pregnant on all four of our previous trips to Maui so this was my first opportunity to go up to the top of Haleakala.  I was the lucky (not) driver there and we hit some serious traffic making our way to the other side of the island to head up the mountain.  It was cloudy a lot of the way up but it was clear once we got above the clouds toward to top.  It was SO cold and windy.  And there is SNOW in Hawaii!

Really it was one of the coldest experiences of my life!

We set Justin’s phone in the rocks to take a time-lapse video of the sunset

Most people left right after the sun set, but the best colors came later!

We also scored with a full moon.  Driving down the mountain by the light of the full moon was awesome.

We stopped in Kahului for dinner at Da Kitchen.  The portion sizes were huge but we weren’t overly impressed with the food.  Justin also thought the fish and chips were a little too greasy.

I can’t imagine the sunrise being any more magically than the sunset tonight.  So worth it!

Maui, Hawaii {Day 3}

We found some good reviews on a malasada place in Lahaina that we wanted to try out this morning. There was conflicting information online as far as what time they opened this morning so last night we called the number that we found hoping to find out what time they open so we didn’t show up too early or too late. Justin called the number and didn’t get an answer; however, they called him immediately back and when Justin asked what time they would be opening in the morning the guy said he’s the cook and they are planning to open at 6:30am however he likely wouldn’t open till after 7am and then he stated that that’s basically how things roll in Hawaii - very relaxed. He told us that his name was Ben and that when we came we should mention that he had talked to us last night and that he would hook us up. He noticed that Justin’s area code was (206) and since he used to live in the Seattle area we were apparently cool.  We were surprised when we pulled up and saw that his shop was basically some folding tables under a canopy right outside of a church building.  Ben had just gone inside the church so his daughter was taking orders.  We ordered a half dozen (sugarcoated, one smore, one chocolate filled, and one passion fruit filled). When Ben came back outside and we made the connection with him he got right to work. He made a special malasada for us coded in a sugar candy coating and then filled it with passion fruit filling. That was by far my favorite. He also cooked us a chocolate malasada with chocolate filling and made Justin a special malasada with a slice of fried spam in the middle. Then he filled a brown paper bag with a bunch of sugarcoated malasadas for us to take on the go. We knew from the short conversation we had with him on the phone the night before that he was a chatty character and it certainly was the case this morning as well.  We visited with him for quite a while and he fed us the entire time.

This morning was our obligatory sales presentation. Within moments the sales lady had found out we had five kids, didn’t like cruising Carnival since I expressed it wasn’t family friendly, to which she asked if we were LDS and apparently she was as well.  Anyhow, she had a job to do and we ended up much more interested that for our good. No, we didn’t buy anything, but it always sounds so tempting.  The most tempting was the access owners get to overstock lodging around the world. We got to play around with the website and you can get week long rentals for CHEAP – like $30 a night.  That was hard to pass up.

We spend the rest of the afternoon lounging in the sun. We played a round of corn hole which was a very close match.  

We went into Lahaina for dinner and ate at the Lahaina Pizza Company.  We were seated outside, and had a beautiful view of the ocean, but it was CHILLLY!  I forget to take a picture of a our deep dish pizza, but it was yum.

Topped off dinner with another round of Uluani’s shaved ice.