Puamana: Lahaina, Maui

We just got back from an AMAZING week-long trip to Maui with Dedushka and Grammalene.  I took about 900 pictures during our trip so I have had to really select just some of the highlights for the blog posting.  I will break it up into a few different, categorized postings.  This first posting is where we stayed....Puamana, Lahaina.  It is a gorgeous gated community on the outskirts of Lahaina Town.  We had an oceanfront townhome that was so incredible.  We woke up to the sun rising over the crashing waves and witnessed amazing sunsets every night.  It was heaven!

Views from our Lanai.

 The girls loved playing in the outside hose and shower.

 Puamana beach

 Building sandcastles with Grammalene

 Pool-fun.  The pool in Puamana was actually incredibly warm and unrefreshing so we used the pool only once.

 Kate LOVED the ocean and running in the waves.

 Maggie discovered a few fountains on the property and enjoyed getting her hands wet in them.

 Puamana shoreline

 More fountains

 We bought a little pool for our backyard for the girls to splash in.  Maggie had tons of fun being goofy in the water.

 Ideal setting to BBQ

 Dinnertime

 Mountain view in Puamana

 Kate practiced her surfing skills in the little pool

 Very happy family

 Chasing waves

Channel 10 TV appearence

Here is the TV footage from ABC Channel 10 news report this morning from Tea with the Queen!

Tea with the Queen

Tea with the Queen!  Today Gramma treated Chloe and Kate to the Linde Lane Tea Room in Dixon for a very special "Tea with the Queen" experience.  For Kate's 4th birthday Gramma gave Kate a book called "Tea for Ruby" in which the little girl, Ruby, gets an invitation to have tea with the Queen.  She gets so excited for this special date and in the end you learn that the queen is really Grandma.  It is a very cute book. 

Gramma had the girls dress up and even bought them special tiaras for their tea.

Gramma reserved the special tea cup table...it is actually a big tea cup you get to sit in!

 The tea lunch included scones, cookies, fruit and little sandwiches.  It is such a fun place to have lunch!

 The girls were able to order hot chocolate instead of tea. :-)

 Chloe and Kate received special teddy bears from the tea room.

 Goofy cousins!

 Posing in the tea cup.

The most unexpected part of the tea experience was that channel 10 news was there to do a story on the tea room.  They loved how the girls and Gramma were all dressed up for a special date so they interviewed them and filmed their lunch.  I guess they are supposed to be on TV on Friday morning!  Pretty cool!

BounceU and Six Flags

We have had a busy couple of days with Gramma and cousins Andrew & Chloe.  Gramma treated the kids to BounceU, an indoor bounce-house facility with inflatable climbing walls, slides, obstacle courses and jumping areas.  It was tons of fun...even Gramma went down a few slides!

 I was so proud of Kate...she climbed up this tall tower, filled with 5 layers of intertwined-rope (kind of like a spider web).  It took her a long time to reach the top because she kept slipping down levels, but she never gave up...she kept climbing and kept trying until she made it to the top!

 The reward for climbing the big tower was sliding down a tall slide.

 Even Maggie had a little fun jumping around!

The next day Gramma treated the kids to Six Flags.  Kate rode her very first "grown-up" roller coaster.  She loved it so much she went 3 times!

 Cooling off with cousin Chloe.

 Maggie and I watched the alligators (back left corner of picture) while the older kids rode on the rides.

 Scatabout with Gramma

 Scatabout with Auntie Jess

 Maggie had to be very patient waiting for all the big kids to do their rides so here she is dancing with her snack.

 Waiting for the dolphin show to begin

 Dolphin show

 Tree frog hopper ride

 Ice cream and cotton candy...good way to end a fun day!!!

Kate's Tap Camp

For the past two weeks Kate has been involved in an intensive tap camp that is for children ages 4-6. The camp was held from noon-2:00 each afternoon.  Kate loved her class and teacher and never seemed to grow tired of the intense schedule.  On her last day, her class put on a little performance to show family what they had learned in the past two weeks.  It was so cute to watch...Kate certainly has a natural talent to perform with enthusiasm! She loved her tap camp so much that we have signed her up for more tap classes this fall!

At the beginning of their performance, the kids took their tap shoes off and did some warm-up exercises.

...then the tapping fun began!

Camp Gramma: UCD Raptor Center

Today we took a field trip for Camp Gramma to the UCD Raptor Center.  This year's theme is birds!  We stopped at a donut shop to get a little morning treat while Gramma explained what we would be seeing at the Raptor Center. 

Such beautiful cousins!

 Maggie was more excited about eating her chapstick then eating her donut.

 The Raptor Center houses injured and sick birds.  There were a lot of hawks, owls, falcons and other raptors to see.

 There was even a bald eagle.

 Kate and Chloe made a friend with "Mikey", a red-shouldered hawk.  He would squawk (cry) when we would walk away and then come and say "hi" when we would watch him.

 In the museum they had little exhibits to explore and learn more about the birds.  This exhibit was matching feathers with the right bird.

 BIG owl eyes! So glamorous!

After the Raptor Center we headed to Burger King for a healthy lunch. :-)  

Thank you, Gramma for a fun field trip!