Here's the kiddos opening their gifts from Mema and Papa.
Julia made this lovely ornament at school. The picture was taken at the beginning of the school year and then the kids decorated them this month. Isn't it cool?
Ryan and I like to get new family ornamets each year. We went with the spirit of Aloha on this one.
We went ice skating on Christmas Eve with our friends, John and Jorjann (we found the one and only ice skating rink on this island). It was soooo exciting! We haven't been since Evelyn was a baby and so we were all looking forward to it. The kids complained about having to bring their warmest jackets ("It's too hot outside, Mom!"), but once we got inside the rink, they were quite glad Mom made them bring them. :) Ryan stubbornly refused to bring his and paid for it dearly (his ears were quite frozen). But we loved every minute of the cold--it finally felt like winter to us!
Anyway, about the last time we went skating--Jacob was in hockey shoes and he could barely keep his balance. The rink provided buckets for the kids to turn upside down and they could hold onto them to skate that way. Well, look how it's evolved now! Dude, they have WALKERS! Where were these things when I was a kid?!
There was this small area roped off for small kids/or regular beginners who needed to walkers. It was looped like a regular raceway so that everyone was going the same direction. It didn't take long for Evelyn to get the hang of it and want to try out the rest of the rink. If you're wondering where the pix of Julia are at--she was too fast. She already knows how to skate and she was off as soon as we hit the ice.
Look in the background of the video below (I know, it's kinda fuzzy). A young girl in a white jacket with a stripe across the front is going by--that's Julia. She's good, eh? Jacob is in a black jacket and he takes off in the very beginning (before Ry points).
Seriously, nothing like ice skating and hot chocolate! I've promised the kids that I'm going to take them again next year during the winter (Marcus will be 4 then and be able to handle a walker--this year he stayed home with my Mom). It's our way of experiencing a bit of winter (but as soon as we got outside, off went the jackets--too hot!).
We were given an early Christmas present last week--a good friend of ours called us up early afternoon and informed us that we were to be dressed up (classy/dressy) and ready to go by 6:30pm. We rolled with it. When our friend arrived, he presented us with tickets to go and see the Nutcracker in Honolulu! What an awesome gift! He even chauffered us since parking is slim pickings down there. We made good time and had about 30 minutes to walk around. There was this one strip that was decorated and labeled "Honolulu City Lights". Here's some of what we admired:
Yeah, only here would Santa's helper be in board shorts and sporting some Aloha wear. :)
After admiring everything, we headed to the theater. We were seated somewhat near the back row, but right in the middle of it. It was perfect. The orchestra was beautiful and the dancers were AMAZING! Incredible talent! My favorites were the Chinese dancers while Ry really liked the Arabians (they were soooo wonderful!). We enjoyed it so much, we've decided to make it a tradition of ours--from now on, each year that Ryan is home, we're going to go and see the Nutcracker. We actually saw it two years ago (right before Ry joined the military) and we were taken with the show then, too. I'm quite looking forward to this new tradition!Evelyn came home from school with an adorable ornament that they made in her kindergarden class. I love it when they make homemade ornaments!!!!
Marcus came home from Nursery last week with a special ornament which he made. I LOVE it!
We took my mom to see the Laie Temple and to see the Visitor's Center. It was completely decorated for Christmas and very beautiful. The temple is sparkling white now (when I last posted pix of it, it looked very gray). It's said to open in either July or August. We are VERY excited for that. Here's Evelyn and Julia enjoying the manger scene.
While Ry and I were at the obstacle course, Mom took the kids to our big playground. Marcus absolutely loves this place (literally just down the street from my house).
Evelyn all decked out in her Aloha dress. Of course, she practically lives in dresses and skirts (princess to the core!).
To kick off Christmas vacation, Ryan and I went to go and scale an obstacle course that Ry and his soldiers use for PT. I warned him before hand that I probably wouldn't be able to do some of it but as long as he helped me, then I was definitely in.
The first obstacle we come to is an 8ft wall. Ryan took a flying leap at it and swung his body over, making it look so easy. I took a big jump and couldn't even touch the top. Ry helped me get up. :) The board was pretty thin--I was trying so hard not to move for this pic cause I was literally abouty to fall off!
Next up is getting down a cliff using the rope. Put it in between your legs and lean out. No problem.
Now this, on the other hand, was the exact opposite of easy. Notice the step below my feet? (I'm not standing on anything--that thing was several feet behind me). We're supposed to stand on that and jump up to the log I'm hanging off of and swing your body around and jump off. The log I'm hanging off of was so far in front of the lower log that I couldn't reach it. Again, had to have Ry's help.
Dude, here I am on yet another log. Climb/walk up it to get up to the cliff. That thing was so slippery and there was nothing to hang on to. I think I actually felt some fear when I got up a bit and my feet started sliding backwards...
There was two logs, and apparently the one I tried before was the hard one. This one here was shorter and had some grooves that I could hang on to.
Marcus was so excited all day--he had the biggest grin on his face when he woke up and the first thing we said to him was "Happy Birthday!". Since Ryan had to work, we ended up opening his gifts in the evening. The other kiddos were actually outside playing with friends, and Marcus's friend, Leilani, was with us (sitting right next to me). It was all good.
Here he is opening his gift from Mema and Papa:
To go along with his new fire station, our gift to him was some emergency vehicles. He laid them all out and was sooooo excited to play with them.
Christmas break has started and life was already a bit crazy and hectic with the holidays around the corner. Dashing throughout the morning to get kids showered and out the door to school, cleaning around the house while having special time with Marcus, picking kids up from school, homework, dinner, dishes, ect......
But then, sometimes I spy something that makes me stop and realize that in all the craziness we call life, there are such truly special moments that happen and we have to pause or we'll miss it. I spied one such moment today and ran to get the camera because it's too precious NOT to document so that I can go back and see it over and over.
Here's my beautiful moment:
All the kindergardeners performed three holiday songs yesterday. Mom, Marcus and I were there to watch Evelyn perform.
This first song is called Hola Amigo. If you can't find her, Evelyn is the little girl in the middle with pigtails and pink bows (brown shirt). She was so excited and so into the song she about took off her classmates heads with the hand movements! I was laughing so hard I'm surprised that the camera wasn't shaking.
Our company had it's Christmas party this week. It was a chili cook off with a surprise for the kiddos--Santa came! He and his wife showed up on a huge Harley. The kids went absolutely wild.
We overhead on child exclaiming "LOOK! It's Santa, the real Santa! Look, of course it's him cause he's on a motorcycle!"
???
Apparently, to some children, real Santa's ride Harley's.
The kids swarmed him as soon as he exited the bike.
The line formed pretty quickly. Each child had the opportunity to sit on his lap and receive a package of goodies and a present (DVD's).
Marcus LOVES Santa. He kept going back to say "hi"and blow bubbles with him.
Jacob was busy all night playing football and soccer with the other boys. He paused long enough to smile for the camera and give Santa a hug.
If you can't read it, it's the 1st Annual Chili Cook Off. "Sappers Lead The Way". :)
These were just way too cute not to post. We were sitting at the edge of a field where Ryan was playing football (it was the battalion Christmas bowl). The players were waaaaay too far out to get any good pictures, so I turned the camera on the kiddos. Evelyn was being quite goofy for the camera.
