Aloha!!

The highlight of our summer was a two week trip with all of my extended family to the gorgeous beaches of Hawaii!  The grandparents generously covered airfare and hosted us in a lovely home right on the beach in Oahu's rural Laie.  We swam to our heart's content, hiked, snorkeled, enjoyed time with siblings and cousins and feasted like kings.  It was a lovely trip!

Lots of tasty shave ice

 Visiting an archaeological site where there was human sacrifice.  These are just a few of the cousins.

 My cute folks

 Persy tries to do poi balls at the Polynesian Cultural Center without whacking herself in the head!

Gabe is all geared up after scuba diving.  We also did a lot of snorkeling.

Laie Lookout

A jungle hike and swimming underneath a waterfall

We had a fancy dinner on the beach with my siblings.

Stopping by roadside fruit stands for fresh banana, pineapple, guava and mango

The

Joy to the World

We hope you had a joyful and peaceful Christmas! I had so many moments during the past week when I felt overwhelmed with love for my little family and for all our extended family and friends. Thank you!

Gabe with his little brother Rob

Persy with a cousin and Aunt Rachel. Everyone is wearing the snugly PJs.

Nativity

Every year we gather with extended family to reenact the the nativity story and sing Christmas hymns. It is always a memorable night, but this year we were thrilled to have my brother and his kids visiting from Texas. Merry Christmas everyone! What are your favorite holiday traditions?

This year's Troupe. Persy played the roll of Mary, but she still wanted to wear an angels halo to jazz up the costume a bit!

The festive table is set for a meal of clam chowder, rolls and homemade candies.

San Diego Highlights

My wonderful folks invited Persy and I to join them at their time share in San Diego last month. They are always very generous and we've been able to enjoy many travel opportunities as a result. It felt great to soak up the California sun!
Check out these gorgeous California strawberries that we devoured straight from the farm. I don't think the grocery store variety will ever satisfy me again!

Grammy pushing Persy on the swing. They were great to help out with Persy so I could do some running along the boardwalk.

Carousel along the Boardwalk

Fancy Coronado Island-We didn't stay at this famous Victorian hotel, but I think it would be a romantic and very expensive way to spend a week.

Witchy Fun

Yes, we are still here. We've been spending every spare minute outside soaking in all of the sun before this week's snow storm. Here are a few highlights from our fall festivities just to get things caught up. Witch Sightings at Gardner Village

Warm fall stroll through Red Butte Garden


Pumpkin Everything: pumpkin painting, pumpkin patches, and sweet pumpkin sticky rice.

St. George

We had a blast last month in St.George with extended family. Persephone had a wonderful time playing with her older cousins and I had a delightful time seeing several productions at the Utah Shakespeare Festival and also Tarzan at the Tuacahn. It was pretty much an ideal vacation to suit both our interests and I'm thankful to all the extra help that I got from the grandparents and cousins.Lots of Swimming

Snail Collecting

Cousins

Doughnut Falls

My awesome 11 year old niece has been visiting from Texas this month. She spent a couple of days at our house and then we hung out again in St. George. Texas sounds like a great place, but it does lack mountains so we had to get out for a little hike together. (Actually the hike was a littler longer than planned because as the fearless leader I got us lost and we ended up turning a one hour hike into 3 1/2 hours. Whoops!) I'd love to do more hiking before it gets cold again. What are your favorite Utah hikes to do with children?
Dang, she hasn't even left for home yet and I'm already missing her. She was so helpful with Persy too!

Persy Playing Underneath Doughnut Falls

Christmas

We put all of Persy's presents into an igloo tent on Christmas morning. She had a lot of fun playing inside. We spent Christmas in Logan with extended family and had a great time that weekend hanging out, bowling, running, going to "Sherlock Holmes," and even playing laser tag.

Persy and her cousin with their new Mongolian princess hats.


Gabe, exhausted after all the festivities

Nativity Cast and Crew

Every Christmas my family gets together to act out the Nativity. There's always a festive dinner of clam chowder and Christmas candies. There's always the somewhat rambunctious group of cousins running about dressed as angels, shepherds, etc, and there's always the stern warning against lighting house and hair on fire as we each light a candle and sing "Silent Night." It's always a fun event that everyone enjoys!

Our Little Angel

The Wise People

Mary, Joseph, and a Shepherd

The night ended with Persy getting to open gifts from her Grammy and Grandpa.

Birthday Bash Part II

Persy and Gabe had a combined birthday bash to celebrate the milestones of one year and 30 years. Really, Gabe deserves a post all his own, but I was having so much fun at his party that I neglected to take pictures of all the guests. We met with friends and family and had a large pot luck get together at Liberty Park. We had a great time hanging out with some many close friends. Here are a few pictures of Persy opening her gifts.

Our Great Virginia Vacation

Persy and I met my parents in Virginia a couple of weeks ago for a tour of Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown, Yorktown and other surrounding areas. My brother also came with his family. It was so much fun to spend time with him, my sister in law, and their creative and precocious children. They live in Vermont, so we don't see each other nearly as much as I would like. Some of the highlights of the trip included scrumptious crab cakes, making up stories with my niece, strolling the Botanical Gardens, eating Death by Chocolate cake, talking with Melinda about books, a day spent riding roller coasters at Busch Gardens, an afternoon at an impressive aquarium, and going to an evening performance at Williamsburg.

Persy meets Uncle Michael for the first time


Persephone was entertained constantly by my cute nephews and niece. They were very sweet with her and stayed adoring throughout the entire trip.


The View from our Condo