The Millington Fam: Hawaii!!! (Graham turns 1!)

We took a last minute trip to Maui, Hawaii from December 20^th-27^th to celebrate Graham’s first birthday.

We went in with fairly low expectations, but it ended up being a truly magical vacation. The weather was warm and sunny which was especially nice as we were conveniently missing the worst week of rain Santa Barbara saw all year and it was the first time I felt like we were on a true ‘family’ vacation. Graham had just as much fun as we did and loved all the water and land activities there were to offer on the island.

We started off with a difficult plane flight (Graham needed constant entertainment):

but the fact that we had no delays in either direction made up for our high-energy baby.

When we got to Hawaii, the heat greeted us right away and Graham was a happy camper once he got out of his warm pj’s:

The hotel provided a crib and Graham was a champ, sleeping and napping very well every day:

and enjoying the great view when he woke up:

After a quick trip to the store for some sand toys, we wasted no time getting right out to the beach:

For Graham’s first time in the ocean, we used his floating tube because we were worried about the waves breaking right along the shoreline. You will notice in almost all of our outdoor pictures, Graham is usually in his full length, sun proof, ‘crab’ outfit – so cute, and his face has a ghost-like hue because of all the sunscreen we lathered on. Graham loved the water:

Because of the aforementioned waves, we spent most of our hotel time at the pool instead of the beach. Graham and Nick would play in the pool’s waterfalls and caves and even found a waterfall to pass under along the way to the pool:

We took Graham to his first Luau. Before the show started, he got a chance to play with some of the noisemaking devices used by the dancers:

He also enjoyed the views and music:

Mommy and Daddy thought the Luau was pretty fun too:

Graham was a big fan of hiking around the island. Our most adventurous day took us on a hike with swinging rope bridges. So fun! Graham was high energy during the adventure and exhausted by the end:

For Graham’s actual birthday, we wanted to make sure the entire day was all about him. We started with a family trip to Baby Beach. Baby Beach was a strip of coastline that was protected on either side by reefs, creating a lagoon full of calm, warm water. We set up Graham’s toys and let him loose. He had the time of his life. He found the water right away. He enjoyed playing in the shallow part and headed into deeper water without a care in the world. Good thing Mommy and Daddy were there to save him:

He crawled (and even practiced walking) all over the beach. After many mouthfuls, he decided that he loved sand and could eat it all day long:

We took our exhausted little dude home for a nap before heading to our favorite restaurant in Maui for his big birthday dinner:

Everyone at the restaurant was so helpful and accommodating and Graham had an amazing and tasty introduction to chocolate for the first time:

He was a little miffed when we first took away the cake, but he was thanking us minutes later as he experienced his first crazy sugar rush:

Happy Birthday dear sweet Graham! Love, Mommy & Daddy.

The next day we were off to visit the volcano (Haleakala). The cooler temperatures were a nice break for the afternoon:

Our visit began in clouds but as we descended further into the crater, we were able to see some incredible colors and plants:

Christmas in Maui was as good as it gets. There was a display of Santa’s sled being pulled by dolphins in front of the hotel. On Christmas morning, Santa was rowed to shore in a canoe to meet the children. Graham and Nick posed (for the not-at-all white Christmas morning) with a rainbow in the background:

Graham wore his festive red vest for dinner:

No trip to Maui would be complete without a drive along the Road to Hana. We stopped for a quick hike but were eventually chased back to the car by mosquitoes:

Our second stop was farther along the road and we seemed to avoid the mosquitoes on that one. We saw a lovely waterfall with a beautiful pool below:

We also made a quick stop to explore a lava tube:

At the turnaround point, we took a 4 mile detour down to the coast and enjoyed a truly spectacular view:

We also met some interesting wildlife along the road:

One of the perks of the time change was that Graham would come to dinner with us in a good mood then fall asleep in his stroller (the people watching and warm weather really helped lull him to sleep):

Nick and I enjoyed nice romantic dinners while our baby slept and then when we got back to California, Graham spent the next two weeks sleeping in an extra hour each morning while he got over his jet lag. Ahhh, just perfect.

On our final day, we went to breakfast and Graham sat in a booster seat for the first time:

He also practiced taking and eating large chunks of bread by himself. What a big boy:

We visited a spectacular and very active blowhole. I didn’t end up getting any good pictures, so you will just have to believe me. Graham thought Daddy was a super hero for taking him to such a cool spot: