Our last two days in Wailea, the twins opted to go to the kids club in the morning instead of going with me, Meredith, and Eleanor to the beach! While the twins were out hunting geckos and making crafts, the littles and I made sandcastles at the beach and hunted for interesting shells. When kids club was out and Jake was back from meetings, we hung out at the beach and pool again. Then repeat.

There were many things Jake and I went to see last time we were in Maui that we didn’t take the kids to– Haleakala volcano (which is fun if you wake up at 2 a.m. to drive up the mountain to see the sun rise from the top, but didn’t want to deal with the kids on that one) and the Road to Hana (incredibly beautiful drive and amazing waterfalls and hikes, but four kids throwing up in the car on a two-day road trip did not sound fun either). So, the resort/beach/pool and a few easy hikes for the win. Next time, we’d love to check out the Surfing Dairy Goat Farm, Iao Needle Valley and the Maui Ocean Center, and a few other places on our list of things to do, but for this trip, a few hikes, snorkeling, the beach and the pool were perfect.

The sitter we had hired through Maui Nannies earlier in the week wasn’t available the rest of our trip, but the nice old lady at the kids club gave us some recommendations of college-age nannies who worked at the kids club part-time. We hired one to watch the kids for a few hours during the last part of our trip so we could have a relaxing meal out and walk around the town and shops. Jen was so nice and all the girls were great for her.

Jake and I tried out restaurants at the hotel, Ko and Nick’s Fishmarket, and picked up some yummy banana macadamia bread at Island Gourmet. At Ko, we ended up sitting not far from the our new friends, the four-kid family we had met earlier on our trip. It was late at night, but all their little kids were behaving amazingly well and we gave them some much-deserved encouragement for handling a night out with the kids with such poise. They had a baby the same age as Eleanor, although Eleanor looked like she could probably eat her!

The girls picked so many flowers every day; we should have offered to re-plant some! Good thing these tropical flowers grow like weeds here.

The girls were obsessed with all the statues, so that took up a good amount of our days as well.

The hotel was setting up for Christmas while we were there.

Mele kalikimaka!

Our last day chilling at Polo Beach!

Hibiscus flower volcano.

Hip, hip, hooray.

Our trio of hula girls.

Our last breakfast on Maui. The hotel had a delicious Asian-style buffet with every breakfast item imaginable, yummy crepes and omelettes, and some interesting savory dumplings, soups and Asian food.

Aloha, Maui! We will be dreaming of paradise until next time.

Our flight leaving the island wasn’t until 6 p.m., so after one last day of beach and pool, we reluctantly headed to the airport. And so began an exhausting and nightmarish flight home! Our nerves were sorely tested through security wrangling the girls– they were tired, hungry, and it was humid and sticky! The lines were long and security took forever checking Eleanor’s bottles and my breast pump… because, you know, we look like terrorists. A few nice old ladies tried to occupy the kids with games while we tried to get through security and we received many positive comments from others about how great the kids were doing (even when they weren’t). I don’t know if it was just Maui that made people extra positive and kind, but we needed the encouragement!

The airline changed the gate a million times, so just when we though we could put down all our stuff, sit down and find food before our flight, we ended up walking to different gates. The plane was late, boarding took forever, blah blah. Somehow, the airline messed up our seats, so they had one of the twins sitting by themselves, but fortunately another family was in the same position and we were all able to play musical chairs with other passengers in order to get everyone seated together.

FINALLY, we took off on what I though would be a relatively easy flight home since we were flying at night. Everyone would be so exhausted from all the fun and sun that they would just fall asleep until we got home, right? WRONG.

This is how I felt on the plane:

I sat by the the twins and held Eleanor in one row, while Jake handled Meredith across the aisle next to me because she required all hands on deck. The twins watched a movie and played on the Ipod a while, until around 7:30, I told them it was time to go to bed. They dutifully put away the Ipods, got out their blankies and fell asleep. Eleanor was a little tougher to handle… having to change the diaper and put on pajamas on such a giant baby in the tight space of our seat and the even tinier airplane bathroom was not the easiest task. She was a little fussy, but eventually conked out once she was fed. That left Meredith.

The poor girl tried her hardest to fall asleep. But even though the plane was dark, most passengers had turned off their screens, and everyone was hoping for a little nap before landing, Meredith just could not settle down. After tossing and turning in her seat and alternating between resting her legs and head on Jake’s lap, she started turning into the Mr. Hyde side of herself. An overtired Meredith is a very cranky/scary/screaming Meredith.

She was screeching and crying as Jake tried  in vain to hold her and massage her back a little to get her to fall asleep, but she just kicked and screamed. The valiant old lady sitting next to her had an eye mask on the entire time and didn’t so much as bat an eye at Meredith’s behavior, even though I’m sure she was feeling like she had definitely lost the seating lottery. The two ladies from Belgium in front of Jake offered snacks and gum just to keep her mouth chewing and not screaming, but nothing could quail Meredith’s intermittent outbursts and banshee screaming. We let her color and watch a movie, and would every so often, shut it off thinking surely she was so exhausted by now she would just conk out. Nothing worked.

Four hours into our nearly six hour nightmare flight, she was still wide awake and looking like an escapee from the mental hospital, with hair disheveled, pupils dilated, dark circles under her eyes and babbling incoherently. The worst part was that every time she had a screaming/kicking outburst, Eleanor, who was sleeping peacefully, albeit uncomfortably, in my lap, would be startled out of her slumber and would start screaming too. So the entire plane ride, the passengers were treated to a toddler screaming, with the occasional accompaniment of a baby screaming. Lovely.

We clenched our teeth and knuckles through another harrowing hour of Meredith banshee screaming and crying. Every time Meredith cried, Eleanor’s eyes popped wide open and then her high-pitched wail echoed throughout the plane, as we scrambled for a bottle and tried in vain to rock her with a blanket over her eyes back to sleep.

It was undoubtedly our worst flight ever, and I’m betting that for the majority of the passengers on that flight, they had never experienced a flight like that. Horrible doesn’t adequately describe being stuck in our tiny seats for almost six hours dealing with an overtired and screaming Meredith and baby. It’s a good thing all of the passengers were relaxed from their island vacation and were probably therefore more tolerant of our screaming kids! Thankfully, the twins were great and stayed asleep throughout the ordeal, and Eleanor didn’t scream quite the entire time.

Finally, as the plane began its descent at midnight, Meredith suddenly conked out for the last thirty minutes. We all let out a sigh of relief, except that as the plane taxied, Meredith was so out of it that we couldn’t wake her up to get off the plane! The twins were drowsy, but were able to walk off, and Eleanor was asleep, but I put her in the Ergo so that I had my hands free. But despite trying to shake, prod and poke Meredith awake, she was completely out of it, her muscles limp!

Despite being captive on such a horrible flight, the other passengers were incredibly nice. One of the Belgian ladies carried Meredith in her arms for us until we reached the gate where our stroller was waiting, while another man carried some of our carry on luggage while we handled the other kids. I didn’t hear a word of complaint out of any passenger, and for that, we were so grateful! Many people expressed their sympathy for us for trying our best to deal with the kids! Our faith in humanity was restored!

Getting our luggage and car felt like another 20 hours in of itself. I waited for the luggage with Eleanor while Jake ran off with the other kids to grab the car. Between our luggage getting misplaced and getting three sleep-walking kids to the car, it was another hour before we got out of there. After eight days in the hot sun, it was a shock to be at LAX, where it was 50 degrees (so basically, freezing for us), and with the rain pouring down. Far from the bright sun and tropical flowers we had gotten used to, everything looked cold, dark and dreary, and a fight broke out between some homeless people outside the terminal where I was waiting for Jake with Eleanor. Welcome back!

We finally got home around 2 a.m. Bandit was so excited to see us, but we were too zombie-like to greet him properly. We threw the kids in their beds and conked out! It was a good thing we had such a fun vacation… even with the exhaustion and harrowing ordeal of the trip home, it was all worth it.

We will never take Meredith on a night flight again! Or at least until she’s 16!

Lots of love,