Happy 3rd Birthday Nora! Oh and what a trip to Maui on your 3rd birthday....

I cannot believe it but Nora turned 3 on March 4th! She had such a great birthday celebration which I think she plans to have the celebration continue for the whole month of March.

On her birthday we left on a jet plane for Maui. She was SO excited to go. We had a wonderful trip. My sister, parents and Poppa T were there for all or part of the time. This trip was truly special. Nora did a great job on the plane rides. She only was upset for a total of 10 or 15 minutes on the two long flights... Not bad at all. She is a good little traveler. She received a lot of special treatment from a lot of people traveling that day. A flight attendant on our flight from Honolulu to Maui bought Nora a drink for her birthday....Nora thought she was so cool.

A few highlights from our trip:

• Nora thoroughly enjoyed watching the boats, whales, kayaks and other water activities from our lanai each morning during breakfast. She would yell out to the whales telling them to come out.
• Palm trees are not palm trees they are calm trees according to Nora
• When Nora isn't listening which seems to happen more and more lately... we ask her where her listening ears are. She had several funny responses... she would tell us that she left them in the ocean, at the beach, in the pool, on the airplane, at the restaurant, in her bed, at Bumpa's, she even stretched to say that she left them at Ellie's house where Papa Al (Ellie's grandpa) took them.....It was hilarious.
• Nora danced for us daily. She can really shake it.
• Everyone at Makena Surf became Nora's friend. Wherever we would go people would say "hi Nora" etc... She made lots of friends from age 2 to 90.
• She danced for the water aerobics class one morning.
• We went to Sarento's for her birthday dinner and she was treated as royalty. All of the servers and management came to our table to wish her a happy birthday, she had her own photo shoot, special beverage (lava flow), own dessert... you name it, the girl got it.
• We rented a boat one morning and Nora loved it as did everyone else. We stopped in an area on the ocean called Wilson. While there about 25-50 turtles surfaced around our boat. We cruised over to Molokini where Pete hopped in to swim. While he was in a few of us threw chips in so the fish would nibble at him. We also saw several whales one which swam under our boat. I was freaked out because I thought the whale would flip our boat... We hope to make the boat trip an annual event.
• Nora told us before we went on the trip that she would swim in the ocean but not in the whale water.... She figured out the whales are in the ocean....after day 2, she went in and loved it. I got her to go in when we were walking the beach one day. She looks at me and says "Mama, I have to go potty." I told her to sit down where the water comes up and pee. She did and let the water wash up on her and she giggled. From that point on, the ocean was her friend. She also went to the bathroom quite a bit :)
• Nora endured her first bee sting while we were walking the beach. As we were walking she stopped in her tracks and started crying... I grabbed her foot and ripped the bee and stinger out. After about 10 minutes she calmed down. Thankfully she is not allergic to bees..... She had a limp for about a day.
• She has mastered the hang loose sign

Nora waiting to leave the morning of her 3rd birthday.

Getting on our plane from Honolulu to Maui.

First day at the beach.

Nora's swimming suit was a little to big once it got wet.

This picture is one of my faves.

Pool time with daddy and blue man

Bumpa and Nora

Wanna go snorkeling?

Nora's birthday dinner at Sarento's

Ama, Lissie, Nora and me at Sarento's

Bumpa, Ama and Nora

Nora was given a lei....

Happy as can be getting her dessert!

Blowing out her candles.

Thong man on the beach again.

Bumpa getting buried in the sand.

On the boat.

Nora dumping water on Lissie..

Swiming with water wings for the first time. She did great!

Our trip in a nutshell. We all had so much fun. It was the best trip in a long time. We are having a tough time adjusting to the 5 hour time change but that's ok.....