settled into a groove

We have successfully acclimatized ourselves to an easier, slower way of life. It's too bad this can't last forever. The days have all been roughly the same: beach, pool time, lunch, shuffleboard, nap time, all the while chronicling all of the above with various electronic devices. We usually add one small excursion into the mix somewhere, and try to add a night time swim if we can. The kids are fascinated that they don't have to wear "sunscream" when we go swimming at night.

Yesterday we took the kids to the Maui Ocean Center, the nicest acquarium I have been to. They had an amazing shark exhibit, with hammer heads, nurse sharks, stingrays and manta rays. The kids had a great time, and really enjoyed spending more of their allowance in the gift shop. Jackson got a windup scuba diver ("scooper diver" according to both kids) andKenzie got a stuffed sea turtle. Jackson was excited she got the turtle, because "now I don't have to share Myrtle the Turtle with my sister anymore!"

Poor little Kenzie lives in perennial fear of losing pool priveleges. Everytime she gets in trouble she gets a panicked look in her face and asks "do I still get to go swimming in the swimming pool?" I think we need to come up with some new consequences...

Kenzie continues to keep the grounds clear of any fallen flowers, most of which end up in our condo. Jackson is the master swimmer now, able to swim a good 20 feet by himself, and was very excited to have defeated a 6 year old kid in a find-the-rockets pool game.

Another highlight for the kids has been feeding their leftover toast in the mornings to the songbirds that invariably flutter up to the lanai while I'm having my morning coffee.

Steph and I have both gone snorkling out in front of our condo... this is a huge bonus of our location, and enjoyed seeing a wide variety of tropical fish and coloful coral.

Anyhoo, we're all having a great time. It is incredibly gratifying watching our small children having so much fun. They are so incredibly happy here. There are a million small joys here that you just don't notice if you don't have kids with you (like the sound of the SugarCane Train whistle that elicits such excitement from our kids 20 times a day). Tonight is the luau, and thank goodness I cancelled our reservations to the 6 time best-of-maui awarded Old Lahaina Luau (it doesn't feature a fire dance), and switched to the widely panned Royal Lahaina Luau. The other night at Whaler's Village their was a free hula show, and the only comment Jackson had afterwards was "why didn't they have a fire eater?"

Cooper