Island Excursions

We went on several fun excursions around Maui.  Below are a few highlights from the lava fields, sugar plantation and goat dairy.

The lava fields are incredibly fascinating.  After driving through lush greenery to get to our destination, all of a sudden the landscape dramatically changes to large expanses of lava rock.

I love this picture of Will and Maggie!

 Off in the distance you can spot the island of Molokini, which is a snorkeling hot spot.

One new excursion that we experienced this trip was going to the sugar plantation museum.  Though it is a small museum we learned a lot of interesting historical facts about the plantation and the sugar process.  The mill was built in the early 1900's and immigrants from around the world came to work in the fields and mill.  Numerous plantation communities were formed to sustain these immigrants and oddly these communities no longer exist.  We also learned that sugar cane fields are burned before harvest. The sugar and water are all preserved in the sugar cane shoot, even when burned.  The juices are then repeatedly pressed and purified through various steps until the sugar crystals are sent to C&H and the leftover molasses is fed to cows.  (This is all a very abbreviated version of the real process).  Soon the Maui Sugar Plantation will close since production is too expensive to keep up and it is cheaper to buy overseas.

These enormous trucks are used to scoop and haul all the burned sugar cane.

This is the big scooper to pick up all the cane.

Sugar Plantation

Surfing Goat Dairy...always a family favorite!  

In past visits, we have been able to purchase a bag of hay for $1 to feed the goats.  I guess they have changed their procedures since all the baby goats were getting sick from the kids feeding them hay.  We ended up having to pay for a tour, which turned out great!  We were the only ones on the tour so the girls got to exclusively feed the goats and we learned all about the dairy and the island of Maui from a tour guide who was born and raised on the island.  The highlight of the tour was taste testing all their various goat cheese.  It is unfortunate that the cheese is so expensive because it was all so AMAZING!

Kisses

Maui Ocean Center and Iao Needle

We took the girls to the Maui Ocean Center (aquarium) after Kate was diagnosed with pink eye.  Her pink eye was a perfect excuse to skip swimming for the day and do dry-land activities.

Touching sea cucumbers and sea stars

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Maggie's favorite part of the aquarium was the simulator of a humpback whale's bubble net.  She would enter this exhibit over and over again.  Lights would turn on, bubbles would flow through tubes and a voice would say "you have just been swallowed by a humpback whale."  Maggie loved it!

Jellyfish

The stingrays swimming over our heads in the ocean tube was quite spectacular!

Little did I know when I took this picture that Maggie would be swimming with wild sea turtles only a few days later!

 Ahh, a shark!

Iao Needle is a gorgeous destination, through lush rain forest.  This "needle" was a historically significant lookout point for various battles.

Exploring around the Iao Needle park

Flowers found at the Iao Needle

Breakaway 2016: Move

A couple of weeks ago the girls participated in our church's Breakaway (a.k.a. VBS/vacation bible school). This years theme was the Olympics.  Kate and Maggie joined several hundred kids for a very fun-filled week learning about being active for Christ.

The bounce houses are always a huge hit with the girls.

I couldn't find many pictures of Kate during the week...this is the best I could track down.

 Yummy otter pops!

One of the coolest parts about Breakaway is that the kids are encouraged to think of others and so the church sponsors mission projects across the world.  This year the kids were encouraged to raise funds to help build a clean water well in Africa.  We partnered with some school friends and set up a lemonade stand/bake sale one afternoon.  Despite the crazy heat, the kids happily and energetically sold lemonade for over 2 hours and raised $106.06 for The Water Project!!! 

The next day, the kids got to stuff all their earned cash into the special missions box.

It was another fun and memorable Breakaway!

Family Weekend

We had a very special weekend with the Loscutoffs.  On Friday afternoon Walt, Helene, Peter and Megan all came into town to hang out, eat good grub and swim.  The weather was HOT and perfect for jumping and splashing in the pool!

Maggie LOVED jumping into the pool with Uncle Peter and Dedushka! 

We celebrated Kate and Maggie's birthday while family was in town.

We love Uncle Peter and Auntie Megan!

On Saturday morning we headed to the pool for a swim meet.  Kate and Maggie did an excellent job and they were rewarded with yummy snow cones!

Maggie is such an adorable and amazing little swimmer!

Gramma, Papa, Dedushka and Grammalene all came to the swim meet to cheer on the girls.

 "Go! Maggie, Go!"

We always love out visits with Dedushka and Grammalene!