Christmas

At least its not quite a month since Christmas. I have been editing a lot of photo shoots and have been slacking on my blog.
Here is our Christmas in pictures

Visiting Santas Reindeer

Kates stocking is not quite done thus she gets a generic one

Kate was sick with a UTI and felt terrible

She gets excited about everything. I love it!

Love them!

My grandma came for christmas morning. It was so fun to have her there. 

We are mean parents. =) All Alyssa wanted for Christmas was a power wheel jeep. She opened the rest of her presents and started crying because she didn't get the jeep. Then we found one tiny box hidden under the tree. It was a scavenger hunt to find one last present. 

She was so excited!

Our tree was 13 feet tall this year. We have 20 foot celings so we need a big tree!

Hawaii #2

Looking at these pictures and I can hardly remember being warm even though it was only a week ago. It is so cold and snowy in Utah that it is hard to imagine being hot. I love Hawaii. I could go on a vacation there every year and never get sick of it. If I didn't say this before it was one of the best vacations I have ever been on. I was so relaxed and stress free that it was almost unnerving.

 We went on an outrigger canoe ride. This is not the type of outrigger experience I have done before where you ride the waves in. This was a paddle along the shore line and look at marine life and the coast while the natives tell us about their life. The guys were a crack up. They were telling us how the coral reef is coming back to life and they know that because there are more big predators come back (sharks!) They acted like it was a good thing! The way you know if it is safe to get in the water is if you see a turtle. Then you know there aren't any big predators around. We saw 6+ turtles so I felt better. We actually saw 2 turtles matting. The guys paddled us right over to them and accidentally hit them with our canoe. I felt bad we disturbed them. They said it is very rare to see turtles matting.

 Our road to Hana adventure was just me and my mom. It is my favorite thing to do in Maui. I love hiking to waterfalls and exploring. Even though the road has 620 curves each way, it makes even the tough stomached get nauseated! We have done a lot of the hikes before on our last trip here so we wanted to do the ones we hadn't done. The biggest one we wanted to do was at the seven sacred pools which is the very end of the road. A lot of times the hike it closed due to flash flood risk. We wanted to go there first. We drove the whole road only stopping once so we didn't barf to get there. We made it by 10 am. We left at 630 am! (A lot of driving for a hike but it was worth it). We hiked through a bamboo forest to a 200 foot waterfall. The hike was about 2 miles each way and pretty flat so it wasn't hard. It was beautiful though.

Seven scared pools looking out on the ocean.

 Last time we did the road to Hana the seven sacred pools were closed due to flash flood risk. This time they were open. We swam around in them and enjoyed to view and the peacefulness. It was fabulous.

 We also went on a snorkel cruise. My mom and I decided to try snuba. It is a good intro to scuba diving. My mom and I were the only people that went to the bottom of the ocean floor. We could look at the deeper coral a lot closer. It was a lot of fun. I like not getting water in my snorkel.

Can't wait to go back to Hawaii =)

Hawaii #1

I am incredibly lucky! My mom had a CPE conference in Maui, Hawaii and invited me to come with her. Russ said No problem, Go! .I felt guilty going but once I was there I got over that. It was fabulous. I was compltely stress free. I was ale to do what I wanted when I wanted. My mom had classes the first 3 days. I exercised as long as I wanted to and then went to the pool or beach to relax. I enjoyed reading and drinking a mango smoothie. We did a lot of fun things too. I was post about those on a separate post, right now I only have the pictures from my real camera. Most of my pictures were taken with my iPhone because hiking with my heavy camera hurts my back. By the end of the trip I was ready to come home and see my family and celebrate Christmas!
In the pictures.
We did a small hike to a blow hole. We hiked through lava rocks to get there. Then we did another small hike to some tide pools. That was really fun.
We also went to a Luau in Lahania. Our served turned out the be LDS too and was really funny. He noticed we weren't drinking and that we were from Utah and said, "are you not drinking so you won't disappoint president monsoon." He also played football at BYU. The Luau was a traditional Hawaii Luau so the entertainment was all Hula. they put on a great performance and the food was good. They also had some games and things to look at when we came in before the dinner.

Pig about the be uncovered at the Luau

Blowhole

Me and mom at the blowhole

hiking to tide pools

Tidepools with surf in the background

Luau

at the luau

Blowhole

Snow

We got our first big snow storm of the season. Alyssa was so excited to build a snowman. Unfortunately the snow was not the good snowman making kind of snow. We tried anyway. She wanted to practice her gymnastics in the snow too. Kate was napping but when she woke up I took her out. She was a little timid. She wouldn't try eating it. She took her gloves off and then touched the snow and cried.

Handstand

snow angel

Me trying to get her to try the snow,

forward roll

tiny finished product

Thanksgiving

This year we had Thanksgiving at my moms house. Russ was in charge of the turkey. He makes the best turkeys. I was working at the hospital so I left early so I could get back before the feast. Russ brined the turkey at our house and then was going to take it to my moms to cook it in the morning while I was at the hospital. While I was at the hospital Russ kept texting me saying he couldn't find the keys to the car. I was so annoyed and thought why can't men every find anything. He was freaking out because the turkey was going to be late. Finally I said I will go check my car but I know they aren't there. When I went to my car the keys were in my coat pocket. Oops. I felt bad I had been so annoyed. My brother drove my spare keys to my house so Russ could bring the turkey. Well the turkey got in the over 45 min late due to that. It was a big turkey. Everyone came over at 330. We ate at 4. The turkey still wasn't done. We took the top layers off that were cooked and kept the turkey in the oven for the rest of dinner. I have lots of turkey left over for sandwiches now. Dinner was nice we had my aunt and some of her kids over as well as my grandma. We were missing my grandpa. He loves my mash potatoes (they have lots of butter and cream cheese in the) but he would only take a few bites because he was watching his cholesterol.
We played games after dinner. Then my family went to see FROZEN at the theatre. The only show time that had tickets sitting together was 8:45 pm. It was WAY to late for my girls. Kate was asking to go home and go nigh night. Alyssa was laying on my lap. We loved it though. We can't wait for it to come on DVD!
It was fun to have Adam in town. Alyssa and Kate both loved him.
*All photos are iPhone*

Wish bone wishing

Christmas tree shopping

at Frozen

Playing dictionary

At church

Temple Square

Last night me, my mom and my girls went to Temple square to see the lights. Russ is in Mexico City on business. Alyssa fell asleep in the car and was grumpy the whole time. Kate liked the lights. Then we did a little christmas shopping at City Creek.