Cruzy couldn’t quite make it through bowling, but he and froggy make themselves quite content wherever they go! 😂

We arrived in Maui with a full day ahead of us though we were too tired to do much exploring. We got ourselves comfortable in our cute little Maui Home and went grocery shopping. Everything is expensive here but not really any different than other islands. A gallon of Tru Moo chocolate milk is $9.59 which is about $4-$5 more than at home. Other things are probably about $1-2 more on average. We spent our first full day on Kam III beach in Kihei which is one of several beaches within 5 mins from where we are staying. The boys played a lot together and you’ll see by the photos, look often like twins. They had a blast in the ocean and this was the perfect spot with waves that were fun but not too crazy. They also took a good 45 minutes and played independently. Not by our suggestion, but They definitely needed their own space after spending so much time together. Our home has 3 bedrooms and not only did they choose to sleep in the same one, they chose to sleep in the same bed despite the fact that there are 2 beds in the room 💙💙 We are so happy that they are best friends!

We ended our Aloha Friday at 4th Friday Kihei which is basically a monthly town block party. They close down a parking lot and have food trucks, live music, vendors, and activities for the kids. It was super cool however 6 PM to 9 PM is basically 11 PM to 2 AM for us right now. The kids both fell asleep on the way, Kai spent the first five minutes sleepwalking and we had to carry Cruz who somehow lost his Olukais on the way 😔 I guess maybe when I was carrying him?? So we had to do some slipper shopping before any activities! 🤣🤣 The absolute highlight for me...Cruzy won a prize for tossing a ping pong ball in a cup. They had plenty of “little boy” prizes but he picked me out a pair of palm tree earrings because he “thought I would love them and he wanted to make me happy!” I hope the world gets to see his love light shine because he is so special!! 😍😍

Video of Kai! ⬆️

We did some tide pooling yesterday while Daddy packed up our stuff on the beach. We saw lots of little fish and Kai spotted a crab carrying his lunch 😬 I think it was a snail. They were so excited to do this because apparently they watch You Tube videos of other people tide pooling. They are brave, yet cautious, which makes me feel more and more comfortable with them at the beach. They both play hard in the ocean - kai stays out most of the time, while Cruz likes to play in the sand too. Kai will put his life vest on when he wants to relax, then take it off when he wants to play in the waves. We sure gave him an appropriate name! 🌊🌊

We’ve had some great food and drinks...this Mai Tai with Lilikoi foam was super special...

We like having breakfast at the Kihei Caffe right up the road from our house...these gf mochi pancakes made my day yesterday. I least I did some Zumba at a local gym before I ate them 🤷🏼‍♀️

⬆️Troy’s fried rice, kalua pork, fried egg and gravy 😲

Last night we hung out at Maui Brewing Company. They had live music, corn hole and yummy drinks. Troy likes trying their different beers and I like the POG (pineapple, orange, guava) hard seltzer on tap! They boys played so nice with the other kids and it was a perfect night!

On Monday, we went to the North Shore - Makawao and Paia. We went on a hike at Twin Falls. It was a pretty easy little hike, except for the part where we had to cross a stream! The boys wanted to swim by the waterfall like others were doing but the water didn’t look all that fresh so we went to the beach instead! North Shore waters are definitely a bit more challenging so after a few tumbles, Daddy and Kai had enough and we just hung on the beach, played in the sand and watched skim boarders. I actually had to collect all of the stones and rocks that fell out of Kai’s shorts in the shower so they wouldn’t clog the drain! 😂

Paia is a cute little beach town with lots of shops and restaurants. We had lunch at the Paia Fish Market...it was quite a wait but very worth it. We had mahi, both grilled and fried and it was super delicious! The kids are loving the fresh fish as much as we are 😊 Oh, and of course - shave ice for dessert! Cruzy always orders a large without any syrup! Basically tastes like snow. Haha!

🔺video!

🔺Cruzy has been busting a groove whenever the feeling is right. Paia town moves above! “Do ya like it?!” 🤣😊

We met this super fun girl, Perri @pukaperri from Pennsylvania on the beach the other day. She has lived here for 9 years and has a sweet little 2 year old, Luka, that loved playing with Kai and Cruzy’s toys. She makes jewelry out of puka shells...her line is called Puka Perri and it’s so beautiful! She is sizing a necklace for me! Can’t wait to get it 😊 She told us one of the best beaches to go shelling, so we headed to Prince beach in the morning yesterday and had so much fun looking for shells with our masks and of course, snorkeling! The boys just love it and are both doing so great!!! We saw honus (turtles) swimming right along the shore yesterday. Kai likes to follow them 😊 We talked about endangered species and how we can’t get too close. It’s a little different here than in Mexico where people were picking up baby turtles! 😲

Last night we went to Coconut’s which is consistently voted the “best fish tacos on Maui!” They were delicious...but it’s not hard to make a great fish taco when you have delicious fresh mahi like they do here! The kids gobbled up grilled mahi and brown rice. Oh, and coke 🤦🏼‍♀️

Kai read all 10 books his teacher sent along with him, so after dinner, per his request we went to the library! He had so much fun showing his brother books and couldn’t wait to read him one of his favorites when they woke up this morning. Aren’t they they sweetest?? 💙💙 We are so blessed.

We left around 3pm to catch the sunset around 5:30pm at the summit of Haleakalā (House of the Sun). \240Troy and I had experienced sunrise there with my Dad 10 years ago, so we knew it would be chilly and packed accordingly! It takes about an hour to drive up 10,000 feet to the summit of the volcano. The kids were in awe as we were driving through the clouds...they kept putting their hands out the window expecting it to feel like rain, but it was really just cool and damp. It felt like a cold, gray Pennsylvania day and then all of the sudden, we popped out above the clouds and it was sunny and majestic!! We walked around checking out the views and the boys were fascinated playing with the volcanic rocks. After the sun went down we waited until it got dark and saw so many planets and stars. Cruzy was barely making it - cranky and tired - so we didn’t stay long but it was so cool. Troy brought along a star laser pointer (ordered on Amazon) that he saw a tour guide use here 10 years ago to point at stars. He downloaded an app that is super cool...you can hold the phone up to the sky and it points out constellations and planet/star names. It was so so cool! We saw Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune! 🌙⭐️

⬆️Kai said this boarding token was the best part of the trip 🤣🤣🤣 Unfortunately, we had to give it back. Ha!

⬆️Kai loved using the GoPro to take videos and photos under water 😊

⬆️ You can hear the parrotfish chomping on the coral in this video that Troy took!

Our snorkel trip was over around 1pm and we spent the rest of the day at Big Beach eating poke (basically deconstructed spicy tuna roll) and watching the sunset. The poke is so darn good here and Foodland has the good stuff. Not expensive and super fresh. The tuna is so fresh! Certainly not a traditional way to spend Thanksgiving, but it was the perfect way for the Templetons in 2019 🐠🐡🐟🐙☀️🌊🌴

⬆️ Smoothies!

⬆️vegan chicken Buddha bowl with peanut sauce! Made 2 delicious meals out of this one 😊

⬆️ He managed to eat it all 😊

⬆️This Garlic lime cilantro shrimp was delicious. Cruzy of course gobbled up the shrimp like it was his job! Boy loves 🦐🦐🦐🦐🦐

⬆️ Honeydew bubble tea look us right back to the first time we had it 12 years ago on Kauai! Yummmmm! Kai and Cruzy almost gagged on the tapioca pearls...not fans! 🤣

⬆️ My little Linus sucking on a candy cane that he HAD to have. As usual, he knew what he wanted and enjoyed every last bite of that thing!

⬆️ Cool wooden postcards for their classmates went in the mail on Friday!

We did some more “tadapoling” as Kai called it. Hahaha. We saw crabs, a sea cucumber, a sea snake, and lots of fish and snails. Their new Keens are the perfect shoes for this 👍🏼👍🏼

I managed to get glutened which I always do on vacation...so I was excited when we found a cool restaurant that is 100% gluten free called Maui Brick Oven. It was on Guy Fieri’s DDD...gets great reviews and was pretty pricy, but it was terrible!!!!! Hahaha. It was memorable though, even if not in a good way! Love making memories with my boys! Life is so good 😊

After surfing, we cleaned up and drove to Lahaina. Such a great town with lots of shops, restaurants with amazing sunsets and the oldest, coolest Banyan tree in the United States. It started out as one tree almost 150 years ago and the aerial roots and formed into more trunks. It really is so cool. The boys loved it, kept hugging it and saying they didn’t want to leave it. We promised we’d go back again to see it. Love that they appreciate it!

Daddy help Kai pick his mama out a beautiful plumerial lei! It smelled so good 😊 His sweet smile, surfer hat, armful of special bracelets and that confident shaka 🤙🏼 make this photo one of my favorites. So much aloha!!!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

⬆️Kai’s favorite memory??? Any guesses?? The boarding token from the Pride of Maui! 🤦🏼‍♀️🤣🤦🏼‍♀️

We had dinner at Kimo’s with a great view of the sunset. Didn’t take any dinner photos, but we all had fresh fish as usual. Yum! These photos really don’t do the sunset justice because it doesn’t pick up the purple and blues for some reason. But it was spectacular.

⬆️this is more of the color of the sky!

Cruz was enjoying asparagus! 👍🏼👍🏼

Love the island sole store! So many wooden ornaments...all my style!!! Is it weird if we have a Hawaiian Christmas tree??!!! So cute. 🌈

We had to go back to Monkeypod one more time to get Mai Tais bc they really are so good there!

⬆️ Cruzy LOVED the truffle Parmesan fries! He kept trying to feed them to Kai who was not interested at all. Cruz gave them a 10!

⬆️Troy had saimin (Hawaiian noodle soup) again and I had jalapeño mashed potatoes and Brussels sprouts that were ono! Aww look at that sad Mai Tai glass - no worries it was Happy Hour - another one was on the way! 🤣👍🏼🤣

We did some shopping at the shops at Wailea and the boys got to see Santa. Cruz adamantly wanted NOTHING to do with that at first, but then he decided, on his time of course, that he would. Kai asked Santa for a wallet, a bracelet maker and a surfboard. Cruzy asked for a surfboard, a bracelet maker and an EPIC hat. Haha! Cruzy was trying to act a little overconfident in the photo 🤣🤣❤️❤️

Monday we collected shells again at Prince Beach. It’s so relaxing to put on a mask and snorkel and just float in and out with the current and collect the shells at the shoreline. In Hawaii it’s pretty rare to be able to walk along the beach to find shells. Most are in the water so you do need a mask but the visibility is so good and it is quite relaxing...that is until the winds pick up and the currents get a little stronger...it doesn’t feel so good when it washes you up on the shells. That’s when you know it’s time to stop! 😊

After the beach, we went to Te Au Moana Luau. It was a beautiful evening!!! The weather has been the perfect temperature. Comfortable even in the evenings...wish it was the same back in PA! The boys just love a show! We were in the front row which made Troy a prime target when they picked 2 competitors for a conch shell blowing competition! 😂😂

And the winner is..........CHIEF TROY! 🤙🏼🤙🏼