Follow Us...

I guess it makes sense that Blogger (or more accurately, Picasa) limits blogging/picture taking fanatics like me to a certain amount of space. What do you know? After just 2 and a half years of blogging, I've reached the end of it!

So I invite you all to follow us over to the new blog:

http://vmfamilyfootprints.blogspot.com/

It's going to look and feel very familiar, (hey, if you've got a good thing goin' why change it, right?) but it will be a brand new, space-filled blank slate for the next few years of VM Family Adventures. I'll post this new link here in the sidebar, so you can take your time to get it bookmarked. See you there!

Meanwhile, Back at Home

While Dave and I were living it up on our second honeymoon in Hawaii, things were far from boring back at home. I can't emphasize enough how grateful we were to have Mom and Dad generously fly out and thoughtfully care for the girls for the week. What peace of mind we had knowing they were in such loving and capable hands! We knew it would be work to take care of them, but it was our hope that the time with their granddaughters would allow Grandpa and Grandma to get to know them that much better. This is exactly what happened! I know this because Mom keeps calling to tell us stories about the cute little things Ella and Delia did. They forgot their camera, so we gave them our older one to use and here are a few of the pictures I found on it.
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We were all a little worried about Delia. Managing her energy and willpower takes delicate balance. She's a mama's girl and she's working on that potty training. However, she could not have done better! She was never sad we were gone and warmed right up to Grandma and Grandpa.

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The girls enjoyed a number of outings with Dave's parents. They went to the park and the cheese place. They went out to eat at Red Robin and the mall. And they got some more use out of the zoo membership. We know the girls enjoyed all these special trips to their favorite places because they have told us all about them. Dad was able to get out a bit too with some friends. One day he went golfing with men from our church and another day he went to Big Trees with an old family friend who drove up from SoCal for a few days.

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I think I'm right to assume that the best times were the ones just had at home. Ella said her favorite part of the week was playing outside with Grandma. Mom said her favorite part was simply hearing the girls singing praise songs together. The girls jumped right into their every-day activities, like dress up and baby dolls, while Grandpa and Grandma watched and learned and participated in every detail of their lives.

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Hawaii, Day 5: Pineapple Tour and Lahaina

We were technically scheduled to depart Hawaii on day five, but our flight was a night one, so we still had a whole day to enjoy. It was a little tricky because we had to be packed and checked out of our hotel by noon. We spent the morning taking a mile or maybe two (who really knows when you're strolling through sand with water lapping at your feet?) walk down the stretch of beach that connected our hotel to Black Rock. We hopped in for dip, watched paddle surfers and shared our favorite memories.

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We were so excited to find this Maui Gold Pineapple Tour for the afternoon of our final day. A pineapple bus picked us up and drove us out to the fields while a friendly tour guide named Carlos gave us lots of information and history about Hawaii and its pineapple exporting. We were surprised to learn that Hawaii is actually only responsible for about 7% of the world's pineapple growing. And though Maui Gold still owns half of Maui, they use only a small fraction of it to actually produce the fruit. It's much more profitable for them to make money off their land with tourism. Makes sense, I guess, but was surprising. Within a few years, the pineapple industry will be completely obsolete in Hawaii.

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We exited the bus into the fragrant fields to watch workers actually harvesting and hear giant-machete-wielding Carlos tell us more about the fruit. Pineapples are given a 1 to 5 rating based on ripeness with 1 being green and 5 being golden and most ripe. Most pineapples picked and shipped (the ones we eat from the store) are ones or twos. Carlos chopped up samples for us from each rating. By number 5 we were in pineapple heaven. Nothing has ever tasted so incredible! How will be ever go back to eating regular pineapple?!

We were told to wander around and select as many pineapples as we were able to carry home. Carlos said, "Don't pick the pineapple, let the pineapple pick you." Dave and I found 6 that jumped out at us, the perfect combo of gold and green. Sure enough, the ones we have eaten so far have been heavenly.
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Stuffed with pineapple, we headed over to Lahaina, the shopping, restaurant and gallery district. We spent the afternoon wandering around this town picking our souvenirs and eating a Hawaii classic, Shave Ice. Day 5 was perfect.
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Of course the overnight plane ride home felt long, but the time in Hawaii was just right. We were ready to say "Aloha" to our tropical paradise and "Hello!" to our girls. Ella and Delia had such a good time with Grandma and Grandpa. They didn't appear to miss us at all. We gave them their presents (these dresses and hair clips and some hula girl dolls) and told them all about Mommy and Daddy's vacation. Who knows? Maybe we'll make it back some day with the girls...but not for a long while. For now, I'll call this the trip of a lifetime.
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