Hawaii, Day 1...

Well, here starts the many postings of our trip to Maui!! I know there are some of you that enjoy reading our blog, but I do realize that I have a tendency to post A LOT. Please realize I do this mostly to keep a journal of all that we do and see, since it's nice to look back at all that we've done. So, if you think I'm going crazy on the photos or rambling on and on, just remember that I'm doing it for us and Dakota, so that one day we can look back and read all that we did.

Anyway, more on the fun time we had in Maui!! We met Grandpa at LAX on Tuesday morning. We obviously got there a bit early, so we headed to the Admirals Lounge for free drinks and breaksfast, thanks to my dad who's a member. It was nice to sit in comfy seats and watch the planes take off. Dakota LOVED the view and screamed everytime she saw a plane whiz by...

Enjoying the admirals lounge, thanks to Grandpa...

Oh, how she loved looking over the seats and watching the planes take off!!

Enjoying the view with Grandpa....

It was finally time to board the plane, which we were fortunate to do first because Grandpa was SO nice to upgrade us to first class. Thank you sooo very much dad. It was so great to sit in such roomy seats considering we had Dakota on our laps for the 5 hour flight. Although, Dakota chose to sit with Grandpa for the first hour and watched the plane take-off from his lap...

Enjoying first class...

Hanging out with Grandpa...

She eventually came over to our side and sat in daddy's lap. I had uploaded some of her favorite TV episodes onto our iPod before we left, which was a total hit! She ended up watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Imagination Movers, Jack's Big Music Show, and Handy Manny for almost two hours.

Trying out daddy's headphones...

Once she had enough with the iPod, she zonked out for about an hour, which was a nice break for us. We enjoyed some great food, which consisted of Macdamia Nut pancakes and some cookies for dessert.

After we landed, I headed off to get our rental car, while Kevin, Grandpa and Dakota stayed back to get the luggage. It took us no more than a 1/2 hour to get everything, and we were off to our hotel by 12:30pm.

We were greeted with Lei's once we arrived at the hotel, which Dakota was fascinated with for a split second, then started plucking it like it was a chicken. LOL. I didn't notice what she was doing until I looked down and saw all these flower petals by my feet. I look up and see Dakota about to have a meltdown because she wanted that thing off of her. Oh well, I feel lucky that she keeps bracelets, shoes, and hairbows on.

Finally at the hotel...

Dakota loved plucking the flowers off of the lei...

After we checked in, we headed up to our room, which had an ocean view. Again, thanks to my dad for getting a room upgrade. We got connecting rooms, which was great because Dakota had free reign to run back and forth through the two rooms. We also got a refrigerator for our room so that we could keep Dakota's milk and juice cold, as well as water and snacks for all of us. A bottle of water at the Grand Wailea is about $8, so we opted to buy a case of water, along with a bunch of other goodies at the local store for a lot less.

The view from our room...

...and ready for the pool!

So, once we settled into our room, we of course headed down to the Grand Wailea's water oasis. I wish I could provide an aerial view of all the pools, but all the trees and other lush vegetation covers a lot of it up. But, I think you can get an idea of what it looks like through all the pictures I'll be posting. On our way down to the pool, you have to walk down a winding path, which takes you through the gardens. I can't describe to you how beautiful it is, but it reminds me a lot of Disneyland on how they keep everything so nice. The Koi ponds were a total hit for Dakota. We didn't see many fish in it at first, but I think we had tunnel vision on just getting to the pool!

As we passed most of the pools on our way to get towels, Dakota started yelling out, "waterfall, waterfall." The girl likes her waterfalls! Within two minutes, we were in the pool and having a great time!! Dakota was in heaven going under the waterfalls and into the grottos. She had never really experienced a waterslide before, so you can just imagine her excitment as we took her down them. There were four small waterslides that take you through all the connecting pools. Then, once you're down the 4th slide, you go through this winding lagoon that eventually takes you out to another pool where there is another waterfall and grotto, a swim up bar, and a rapids slide. Once down the rapids slide, you're taken through the winding river. Like I said, this place is huge!! Here are some pictures of the pool...

One of three waterfalls...

Surprisingly, Dakota really liked them!

Going down the waterslides with Grandpa...

The winding lagoon...

About an 1/8th of the Grand Wailea Pool...

The swinging bridge...

All the swimming got us a little hungry, so we decided to head over to the shaved ice booth and grab us one to share. It was Dakota's first time trying the frozen treat, and boy did she love it!! She got a kick out of scooping out her own bites with a spoon, but soon discovered the straw yielded the best results...TONS OF SYRUP!

Getting our first shave ice...

Dakota trying it for the very first time...

We headed back into the pool for one last swim of the day. We kept thinking she would love the baby beach the best, but we were wrong!! I should have known she'd be a little weary, considering she's not a huge fan of sand. The shoes helped out a lot, but she definitely needed our hand to walk in.

Walking into the baby beach pool...

Now the beach was a whole other story. She definitely needed to be carried down to the water because she was having nothing to do with all that sand. Grandpa gave her a lift down to the ocean and introdued her to the waves. She was kinda diggin' it, but eventually just wanted out. You'd think she would have liked the ocean considering she's such a water lover and lives in Southern California. Although, I have to admit, even though I was swimming competitively at the age of 5, I wasn't comfortable swimming in the deep part of the ocean until I was in Junior Lifeguards. Then I was forced to like it. LOL. Anyway, I think the sound of the waves spooked her a bit, so we decided to call it a day.

Grandpa introducing Dakota to the ocean...

Just chillin after a busy first day...

After all the fun we had in the pool, we headed back to our room to get ready for dinner. We decided to have our first dinner at Cheeseburger in Paradise, which was just awesome!! Of course we all had Cheeseburgers, and shared a basket of fries. After dinner, Grandpa called it a night and returned to his room. The three of us decided to walk around the gardens awhile and check out the tiki torches and koi ponds. It wasn't long before all of us were ready for bed.

Walking through the gardens at night. She loved the tiki torches...

Here's a little video of Dakota on the plane.

Uploading her shows onto our iPod was the best thing we did...