A Strongly Worded Letter

This is the reversible loft bed that we want to get for Carson. Of course--we plan on getting the awesome TENT as well...
Read on below to see why purchasing this bed has been such an ordeal:

Dear IKEA,

After traveling to your nearest store in Draper, Utah on a girls trip last weekend ONLY to find out that you no longer ship items out of state--I have to tell you that I am very disappointed that your internet store and shipping policies SUCK SO BADLY.

Oh yeah--and stop dragging your feet and just BUILD THE DENVER STORE already! I feel like filing a discrimination suit because it just isn't fair that people who don't live next to an IKEA store can't enjoy the great deals on anything that won't fit in a suitcase.

As it turns out, I found the bed I wanted to buy for Carson on Ebay, so HA! The last laugh is on you! As for my poor friend Sarina who wanted to buy $1500.00 of furniture and wall hangings for her new house--YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED!

It is a good thing that us girls have fun no matter what, because we weren't feeling the love for IKEA or anything Swedish by the time we left...and we were in Utah.

Some day we will look back on this and laugh :) As for now, I fart in IKEA's general direction!!!

Most sincerely,

Lisa Lowe

Staying in the Maui moment...

Now that we have combined pictures from everyone on the trip, there are a few more Maui pics that need to be given blog time--

Carson, the "Beach Rat":
The Sand Hot Tub!

It is always a good time in the hot tub :)

This is an excellent picture of the Grand Wailea Hotel where I plan to stay at some point. That point might be after winning the lottery, but it is ON MY LIST! It is absolutely beautiful!

Carson and I had a great time swimming in the ocean, or in this case singing and cuddling in the ocean. Thank you, Bob, for taking this picture! I love this moment (that actually lasted for about 20 minutes)

Carson is one NO NONSENSE TOUGH GUY. Seriously, lighten up Son!!! :)

This is my favorite picture of the whole trip. Here are my boys walking on the beach--talk about two peas in a pod!! LOVE IT

Sadly enough, I believe that the month of Maui has now concluded, and it is back to real life where seniors want to get out of school and Spring Fever is at a fever pitch.

Darn. I love Maui!

Where did March go??

With no excuse besides the cliche that "time flies when you are having fun", I hereby change the month of March to one word:

MAUI.

We ventured back to Maui for Spring Break, and it was a fabulous trip that showed us just how resilient Carson is as a traveler, and reinforced just how much we LOVE THE BEACH! We stayed at the same condo from 2 years ago in Maalea Bay and this was our view:
This is how we ate:

This is the air mattress where Carson slept (as you can see in this picture :) )--which turned out to be perfect! We introduced Carson to a big boy bed one week before the trip, and he adjusted beautifully when we went to Maui.

Daddy and Carson are ready to go to the beach. I can explain how we spent our time in Maui in 2 sentences--we hung out at the Condo and watched whales in the bay. AND--We went to the same beach (Wailea beach) 6 times. That was our trip!!

It was wonderful.

Carson is a walking injury waiting to happen. Here, he volunteered to show the camera his current black eye (running into a door) and bruise on his head (fell down on the tile in the condo within the first 30 minutes of arrival). NICE WAR WOUNDS, Carson!

Carson and I enjoy a moment while Daddy cooks dinner. Whales would breach out of the water at all times of the day, so it was fun to watch for them from our balcony or down by the pool!

Jeff and Carson were best friends on this trip. The infamous "Hakuna Matata" dance was going non-stop with these two, and Carson couldn't get enough of "J.J.".

Here, J.J. shows Carson some bananas growing on a tree. Carson really loved seeing the "nanas"!

We went to the same beach every single day. Wailea Beach just might be my favorite beach on earth. It is surrounded by high-end hotels and resorts, but it is the perfect beach area in my opinion. The villas in this picture go for $11,000 per week. I think that is outrageous, and I would rather stay at the Grand Wailea Hotel for a cool $7000 per week instead. I'm serious--I LOVE the Grand Wailea! :)

Carson is a 100% beach kid. He loves the sand. He loves the water. He loves sitting in a sand hot tub full of water!

We have this nifty little beach tent that we got last year when we went to Florida. It worked great to provide a little shade on the days when we stayed at the beach for many hours. Daddy and Carson are striking a pose:

Here is the family out in the water. Typically, Mike and Carson built sand castles and such, and I just floated out in the water humming the "I love vacation" song. After awhile, though, Carson would need to get the first few layers of sand washed off, and everyone would come into the water. There was also one day when Carson just laid on my shoulder out in the water and we sang some songs and cuddles. I loved that day!

On March 23, Mike and I celebrated our 13th Wedding Anniversary! We went out for a nice dinner while Bob and Jeff watched Carson. This was a great start to "Lucky 13" as we have declared this year!! :)

I love this picture! Jeff, Carson, and Mike all sitting out on the Lanai in what seems to be deep thought...

This IS Hawaii--Carson just got into the culture a bit! Mike bought him these sunglasses, and I was shocked at how much he loves them! Once he saw Daddy wearing sunglasses, we couldn't keep his sunglasses off of him--

We are showing off our sunglasses yet again--and Carson's "JaWa" towel look as we leave Wailea Beach...

I wasn't joking about how much he loved his sunglasses! When the glasses are combined with his favorite "Bug" pajamas du jour, Carson looks like a little thug! Lighten up, son!

Why, oh why is it SO HARD to get a good family picture??? I think the planets will have to align before all three of us take a good picture all at once! This is what we got in Maui--and I'll take it :)

In conclusion, MAUI is one of the best places on earth and I am sure that we will return soon. It certainly defined the month of March for us this year and went way, way too fast!