Sledding

Gotta love sledding!  And we finally had some nice snow without the temperatures being into the negatives.  So we took advantage of the beautiful day and had some fun.

At one point Emma started pushing she sled back up the hill instead of just carrying it.
Not really sure that saved any energy, but maybe that's just me.  =)

December Stuff

I love December each year.  It's such a fun time, and I love getting ready for Christmas.  There are so many fun activities.  Here are just a few of ours from the month.

We went down to Chicago to go to the Christkindlmarkt they have each year.  Eric and I were both hoping it would be something like the ones we went to on our missions.  The one in Chicago was very small in area, but looked alright.  It had been made up fairly cute.  There were so many people there though we could hardly move.  We were literally (as in the actual meaning of the word 'literally' and not the exaggerated use most people place on it now for added emphasis) touching shoulders with people around us the entire time.  I was holding Emma's hand for fear I'd lose her in the crowd. So many adults meant Emma couldn't see anything other than the person in front of her.  She would try to give herself a little space as we walked around, but each time someone else would just squeeze in front of us.  I had to tell Emma that she couldn't have any personal space there.  Not if we were ever going to move around.  We walked around the place once, grabbed a quick bite to eat, and left.  We only managed to look a little more closely at one shop.  It was a nightmare.  It took us forever to just walk around.  We were all very ready to leave.  Even though it was a bust, I'm glad we went so now we know to never go again.  And we won't be wondering if it's super great like the ones we've been to in Europe.

This was the tree at the Christkindlmarkt.  There wasn't room to move further back for a better shot.

We decorated some gingerbread houses.  It was fun just messing around and adding things all over.  We didn't even try to really make them look real.  Just had lots of fun with lots of icing.




Emma sang in a school concert comprised of the 4th and 5th graders at her school.  It was just as you would expect it to be.  It's always fun to see Emma in these things, but I really wish I liked the song choices better.  Emma was cute as always though, and she had fun seeing her friends.


On Christmas Eve Emma opened up the pajamas I'd made for her (well, I only made the bottoms.  I bought the top to match).

Christmas Day was fun.  Every year we try to cut back, and every year we fail.  Oh well.  We just had a nice quiet day at home this year.  We had a delicious brunch, and then a yummy roast for dinner.  We were planning on going to see a movie in the afternoon, but Emma was getting over being sick, and so we just stayed home and played some of our new games.

And this is before we went to Ohio and exchanged gifts with my brother.  Emma got another lego set from them. Also missing is a taekwondo bag Eric's parents are giving her for Christmas.  It wasn't here yet.

Early the next day we drove down to Ohio to visit with my brother and sister-in-law who were there visiting her parents.  I was excited to see them, but really excited to see my nephew, who was only 2 weeks old the last time I saw him, and is now 18 months old.  He was so cute!  We only stayed for the one night, but it was great seeing them.  And my sister-in-law's parents are great too - it's always fun seeing them.  We exchanged gifts with all of them, and then just played games and hung out.  I miss them already and can't wait to see them again!

Besides our other gifts, I made these hats for Michael and Ben.  Michael loved the ninja turtles when he was younger, so they seemed perfect.  I saw the idea here:  http://chucksforchancho.com/2013/12/08/tutorial-tmnt-beanie/

This video is a cute one of Ben singing along with Michael

 and Eric and Eric played his ukelele.

November Happenings

November went by way too quickly.  I think between having just returned from vacation and trying to move forward towards the holidays everything became jumbled for me.  There were a few standout things from the month that I'd like to document though.

Eric's parents came to visit for Thanksgiving.  They were actually here from the weekend before Thanksgiving, so we had lots of time with them.  They were able to attend a small taekwondo tournament with us that Saturday.  Emma was only competing in a couple events, and ended up taking second place in her form.  The real fun was seeing her be a judge.  She's never done it before, and the school's owner came and asked her to do it.  Any higher belt rank can technically judge a lower belt rank, so Emma can technically judge any belt lower than first degree black belt.  Usually they have adults do the judging though.  Or at least 3rd or 4th degree black belt much older teenagers. And at this tournament, even though it was small, there were several adults and older black belts who could have done it, but for some reason Emma was asked.  I think it's awesome!  And it was so much fun to see her do it.

Mr. Pettis, the school's owner, is introducing the judges.  Including himself, there were 7 judges.

Besides the 3 judges, there is always someone who writes the scores down.  The judges
 hold up their scores at the same time, and they are added together for the actual score.  

For sparring there are 3 judges as well.  Each time a point is scored (or thought to have been scored), they hold up the flag (red or white) representing the person they saw make the point.  It can be hard to see exactly who scored the point, so at least 2 judges have to agree before the points will be awarded.  The sparring goes to 5 points.

Emma awarding a medal to someone.

Emma performing her own form, which won her a medal.

I love that these girls can still be silly and have fun.  They don't take the competition
 too seriously.  They work hard, but know how to enjoy themselves too.

We explored Milwaukee a little with the grandparents, and ended up having dinner at Safehouse.  Eric and I have wanted to since we moved here, and finally made it.  If you haven't gone and find yourself in Milwaukee, you should go.  Lots of fun in this spy themed restaurant.

Waiting to be seated.

Thanksgiving itself was very nice.  We just stayed home and cooked all our own stuff.  Eric and I both love cooking, so we never mind doing something like this.  And everything turned out great!  Can you believe I have no pictures from the day?  Is that normal?  Oh well.  It was great having family in town for the holiday as well.  Thanks again for coming!

And now for a couple random pictures from the month.  Emma made some glasses with her Lego's one day.  And the other picture was just her all bundled up ready for school.  I just thought she was super adorable in her glasses and hat, so I had to take a picture.

Hawaii pt. 9 (last one): Another Beach, Hiking, the Museum, and Heading Home

The next morning we walked over to Kahala Beach by my aunt's house.  It's only five minutes away, and is gorgeous.  There is a really nice hotel up the beach a ways and we wandered up that way and explored the grounds.  Then we headed back to my aunt's for a relaxing morning and so Emma could work on a little of her homework she brought.  She had done quite a bit on the plane on our way there, but still had some she needed to do.  I just didn't want her to have to do it all the weekend we got home before going to school on Monday.  It worked out really well with our plans though.  We did some laundry too.  You know, all the exciting stuff.

Can you imagine living so close to this?

My cousin Matt has some property he wanted to show us.  We headed up (and up and up) near the Manoa Valley on one of the windiest (as in it winds a lot, with several switchbacks, not that the wind blows a lot) roads I've ever been on.  Then his long driveway was super steep.  We finally made it and he showed us around.  There was a hike he wanted to take us on, but only advised it if we had pants and long sleeve shirts to protect us from all the mosquitos.  Eric and Emma were prepared.  I was not.  So I let them go on the hike with Matt while I ran some errands and did a little more shopping.  I did stop at Pu'u 'Ualaka'a State Park on my way down from Matt's place, and this place had the best views of Honolulu.  You could see all the way from Pearl Harbor to Diamond Head.  Amazing.  I made sure to tell Eric to stop on his way down later with Emma, so they could see it and so they could take some pictures, since he had the camera with him.

Parts of the hike were steep, muddy, and very slippery.  Matt
had cut some bamboo hiking sticks for everyone to use.

Great view along the way.

Resting under Matt's favorite Koa tree.

Part of the view from the state park.

Dinner was followed up yet again with another ukelele jam session.  I think I could do this every night.  It's just so nice and relaxing.  And it was so nice having the time on our trip to be able to spend it this way, and not feel as though we had to be running around non-stop to see everything.

The plan for early the next morning was Diamond Head.  Luckily my aunt only lives a few minutes away, so it doesn't take long to get there.  My aunt hikes up two or three times a week in the mornings, so she knows the best time to go.  Not right when they open because that's when all the Japanese tour busses pull up.  It's best to go half an hour later.  This way you're still early and ahead of the day's crowds, but after the huge tour busses.   The hike is made up of several switchbacks leading you up to three different staircases (totaling approximately 220 steps) and a tunnel before you finally emerge at the top of the crater.  On your way you can see inside some of the old bunkers too.  At the top the view is a great one of Kapiolani Park, the Honolulu Zoo, downtown Honolulu, and Waikiki Beach.

You can see how packed the trail always is.  Look at all the people!

Looking at all the people further up the trail.

Almost done with the 99 step staircase!

The spiral staircase.  It's really old.

The Diamond Head lighthouse.

Emma and Jo at the top overlooking Waikiki.

Overlooking the crater and Kahala in the background.

Great view of the bunkers.

Next we headed off to the Bishop Museum.  They have a planetarium where we watched a couple great shows about the stars, which made us want to go back to Mauna Kea on the Big Island!  It's funny talking about this now when it's freezing outside here at home, but the air conditioning inside the planetarium that day was really nice!  We also saw a really cool exhibit on the science of roller coasters and participated in a great demonstration of centrifugal force and centripetal force.  I wish the guy who ran that demonstration could be Emma's science teacher - he was great with the kids!  We explored their Hawaiian Hall all about the history of Hawaii and its inhabitants as well as seeing an exhibit all about iridescent butterflies and beetles, coral and other dainty creatures which was really pretty.  And finally we went in the Adventure Center where we learned more about volcanoes, the ever growing Hawaiian Island chain, and watched them make oozing hot lava.  Really neat.

Jo had learned that tonight was their ward halloween party, and she thought Emma might enjoy going.  So we went and had dinner and Emma was in the parade and did some trick-or-treating there.  We had to be a little creative for a costume though, because we obviously hadn't brought one with us, and I didn't really feel like buying her one just for this party.  So, using what we had, we decided Emma would dress as a typical tourist for her costume.  We had all the pieces.  Just needed to put them together.  She wore her new Hawaiian shirt, really tall socks, had a camera around her neck as well as some binoculars, and carried a guide book.

After the party we wanted to spend one more evening with my cousin Matt, so he came over and we hung out.  He played and sang some beautiful Hawaiian songs (he's really good!), which was perfect for our last night there.  Sometime during this trip Matt had given Emma a nickname.  He named her Pele iki, which means little Pele.  Pele is the Hawaiian goddess of fire.  It's believed the lava is her hair.  Peridot gemstones, which are created deep within the earth and brought to the surface through volcanic activity, are known as Pele's tears.  Peridot is August's gemstone, which is when Emma's birthday is.  So basically, Emma is just a fiery little volcano.  =)  She likes it.

The next morning we finished packing and stuck around for some lunch with Marcellus and Jo.  Then we were off to the airport.  Our return flight was a nonstop flight and was supposed to be later in the evening, more of a redeye.  I had wanted it that way so we could just sleep.  Unfortunately a few months ago our flight times were changed, which bumped up the flight.  The eight hour flight left Honolulu and would land at 5:00 in the morning local time, which was midnight Hawaii time which our internal clocks were set to.  Since I am such a night owl, I'm routinely up until midnight.  So I knew I was unlikely to get any sleep on the return flight.  I just don't usually get tired earlier than that.  I was right.  I didn't sleep at all.  After we landed, between getting our luggage, waiting for the shuttle and going to pick up our car, and then driving home, it was 8:00 local time (or 3:00 am for us) when we finally arrived home.  Needless to say we crashed and slept for awhile.

Our welcome home from our fantastic Hawaiian vacation had been snow.  It was snowing as we drove home from the airport.  Not the easiest thing to come home to, but worth it given the amazing time we had.  I am so grateful to my aunt and uncle for wanting us to come and for letting us stay with them.  I wish I could see them more often.  And while we plan on going back again, this is a trip Emma will never forget.  You never forget your first trip to Hawaii.  It truly was 15 days of absolute bliss.