Hawaii

 Hawaii! We got to visit Hawaii this January with Luke's parents, his brother Zach and his wife Jayme, and our niece Kelsey. It was tons of fun. We love family vacations. It was also nice to get out of Wyoming in the middle of winter. I did not miss those sub zero temeratures!

  We flew into Maui for the first half of the week. We snorkled and played on the beach and relaxed. Monday Luke, Zach, Jayme and Philip went scuba diving while Cindy, Kelsey and I played on the beach. It sprinkled a lot while we were there but it made for some awesome rainbows.

This was our sand castle. We decorated it with coral we found along the beach. It was one of Kelsey's favorite moments of the vacation.

We drove to the top of the Haleakala volcano. It was windy and cold! The view was pretty cool though.

Kelsey turned 6! We tried to tell her that Hawaii is like Neverland and you don't grow up. She didn't buy it and was determined to have her cake!

One day we took the road to Hana which is a windy road to a small town. You mostly take the road for the view and the adventures along the way. This was the best hike we stopped for. We hiked through a bamboo forest to reach 3 waterfalls with pools to swim in. There was a fourth waterfall after a 100 yard swim through one of the ponds but only Luke swam it. He and his brother and dad also jumped off some cliffs into one of the pools.

After Maui we flew to Oahu and stayed in a house on the North Shore. We spent lots of time playing on the beach, which was my favorite part of the vacation. Here we are boogie boarding...

and playing in the sand. Everyone got a turn to be a mermaid (or merman). 

We stayed in Laie which is where the LDS temple is. I learned that it was the first one built outside of the continental US.

Luke lead us on a hike to Laie Falls but apparently took a wrong turn and we never found the waterfall. The view was pretty good.

We spent one day at the Polynesian Cultural Center.  

Here is Luke trying to start a fire with a stick and we are enjoying the Hawaiian Luau.

We had a great time with family and enjoyed the warm sun!

Christmas!

This has been a crazy Christmas season! It didn't even feel like Christmas until a week before. We started off having some friends over for an ugly sweater party where we played some minute to win it games. I only had my camera phone so the pictures are not great.

Trying to get the cookie from the forehead to the mouth.

See who can stack the cups up the fastest. The babies thought it was the greatest thing to get to knock over the tower.

 The Saturday before Christmas we had my Mom's side of the family Christmas party. Lots of food, games and fun!

I had to work Christmas Eve so we did our family gift exchange early. Here are Luke and Eric modeling their gifts.

 Lindsey sporting her Slytherin purse direct from Harry Potter World!

 We introduced my family to dominoes last Christmas and they loved it so much they had to get their own set.

Christmas Eve we had a little get together with some friends. I never remember to take pictures! We went caroling, played some games and listened to the Christmas story. Just as we were all getting ready to leave it started to snow. Everybody was so excited that we would be having a white Christmas!

I had an awesome cold just in time for the holidays so our Christmas was pretty low key. Here is Luke teaching me how to play Cribbage, the new game he got.

It is a tradition in my family to do a puzzle over the holidays. Here we are continuing the tradition.

Baxter loves to stick his face in the snow then come and share it with us!