Piano Recital

Grace had her first piano recital last night.  She has been taking lessons for the past year and seems to be quite musically gifted.  She is excellent at reading music, but also enjoys playing around on the keys and creating her own songs.  She has composed three songs so far and has even written them out note by note on staff paper.  She has also written words to go along with one of her compositions which she performed at a church talent show last fall.  We are so proud of our little musician!

Grace, along with other first year students,  receiving her award for taking part in National Guild.

Grace with her piano teacher.

It Happened in Monterey...

 Aaron, the girls, and I spent a wonderful few days enjoying Monterey.  On Saturday (after running a half marathon) we drove out to the central coast and enjoyed some yummy local hamburgers and sweet potato fries.  The girls of course were so excited to sleep in a hotel that we didn't waste any time putting them to bed that night.  The next morning we went to church in a nice Monterey ward and then spent the afternoon napping and exploring the beautiful beach.  Aaron and the older two even sneaked in a quick trip to the hotel's in-door pool before bed-time! The next day (Monday) we spent at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.  The girls were fascinated by all the different marine life.  It was also fun to walk down old cannery row. We headed home that evening exhausted and happy.  I love taking trips and making memories with my family!

We broke out the Saltwater's...

 ...now it is officially spring!

A Little Piece of Paradise

Aaron and I recently returned from a wonderful get-away to Hawaii.  The girls stayed with Grandma and Grandpa while we flew over an ocean to a fun-filled and romantic island paradise (I know, I know...it sounds like a travel ad, but I'm being so sincere!)  We really packed in the good times during our five day stay on the island of Oahu.  We spent ample time at the beach, but didn't do much laying around.  We swam, played frisbee, snorkeled, kayaked to a small island of the shore, and surfed!  Yes, surfed...we took lessons from an awesome lady on the north shore of the island who has lived there most of her life and used to compete professionally.  She was an excellent teacher and Aaron and I both rode the first waves we attempted.  What an amazing feeling to catch a wave standing on a surf board!  The lesson lasted about two hours and each of us caught several good waves.  I was so surprised at my ability to get up and hold my position as I glided through the water, and at how much I enjoyed the feeling!  This was our favorite part of our trip for both of us. 

We also went on a beautiful 6-mile hike/trail run that was breath-taking.  Although we stopped a few times to take some pictures, we ran quite a bit of it (some of it was unrunnable because of steep inclines, exposed roots, and slick footing.)  In the end we both wished we went a little slower so we could have enjoyed more of our spectacular surroundings, but it was still so much fun.  We spent an entire afternoon/evening at the Polynesian Cultural Center.  It is truly a fun cultural experience and a great representation of several of the Polynesian islands.  Our favorite spot at the center was the portion that represented Samoa...the guy that put on the show was hilarious.  We also enjoyed a Luau there that night followed by their nightly show which was a delightful production of singing, dancing and story telling.  Earlier in the day we also checked out BYU Hawaii and the Hawaiian LDS temple which were both close by. 

We ate at some amazing restaurants (I think we had sushi at least 3 times...both of our favorites), went dancing, went for walks on the beach, and ooooed and awwwed at our spectacular view of the ocean from our balcony.  We could actually lay in bed and see the water out our big window (we totally got hooked up when we checked into our hotel, with an unexpected room upgrade because the guy liked us!)  I feel so blessed to have been able to go on this trip.  I loved being able to spend every minute with my best friend and companion.  I am so in love with my husband!  He makes me laugh and we have such a good time together.  He truly made being in paradise paradise!

Our first night on the island, after an evening of dancing and a walk on the beach.

A night view from the beach right outside our hotel (in Waikiki)

The view from our room's balcony early one morning while the moon was still in the sky.

There were so many cool trees on the island that we fell in love with (a tree-climbers dream!)

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints church building in Honolulu where we went to church on Sunday...such a cool building!

Aaron at the beginning of our hike/run

During the Hike

One of the splendid views on our hike

Aaron as he's catching a wave!

With our surf boards following our north shore surfing adventure.

In front of the Laie, Hawaii Temple

One of the shows at PCC during the day

Just after our Luau at Polynesian Cultural Center

A stop on our scenic drive to Kailua Beach

Kayaking from Kailua Beach (ok, so that's not us, but we couldn't take a picture of ourselves kayaking so we took a picture of these guys doing it...but that's more or less what we looked like!)

My knight in shining armor!

This is Hanauma Bay...the amazing location that we snorkeled.  I was surprised by the many different types of fish we were able to see.  It was fun to have such a close encounter with sea life.  One little fish literally stared into our face masks for quite so time, which made us laugh under water!

View of the Bay after snorkeling in it.

Aaron swimming "laps" in a calm section of beach.

Green Feast

Tonight we enjoyed our St. Patrick's Day "Green Feast."  The menu consisted of a hodgepodge of green foods which really didn't belong together, and would have never been served side by side at any respectable meal!  But on a night like this green eggs, green fluff jello, grapes, avocados, celery "ants on a log," shamrock cupcakes, and a side of peas can live in harmony on a green St. Patrick's Day plate! 

New Years Eve

Yes, I know its February...but as I was transferring photo files to our computer I realized that I never posted these fun memories.  We had a blast on New Year's Eve!  It ended up just being the five of us...well at least it started out as five.  We lost Daphne before 8:00 p.m. Eve was next, dozing off on the couch around 10:00 p.m.  Grace was going strong until just after midnight when we made her go to bed (she wanted to stay up longer!) And then there were two. 

 The evening was filled with activities and good food.  We sang Disney Karaoke songs, played Guitar Hero and Dance Dance Revolution on the Wii, played a card game, watched a little Dick Clark, and toasted in the New Year with Martinelli's and our traditional kiss at Midnight.  We then ran outside and shouted "Happy New Year" while making a racket with kiddy tambourines and cymbals!

The girls dipping fruit, pretzels, marshmallows, and cinnamon bears into chocolate fondue.  Aaron is beat-boxing to "Wanna Be Like You" in the background!

Grace and Aaron dueling on their guitars.  Eve getting sleepy in the background.

Eve enjoying her New Year's.

A view of the Room

Grace getting a tutorial from Dad on how to shake it!

Here's to a great one!

Disneyland

 One of our family gifts this year was a trip to Disneyland.  We spent Monday and Tuesday at the most crowded place on earth....I mean the happiest place on earth!  Despite the tremendous amount of people who all had the same fabulous idea that we had, we really had a wonderful time on this trip together.  We learned that long lines actually gave us a fun opportunity to bond, that our team-working skills were improved by maneuvering through seas of people and planning logistics of line-waiting, lunch-table-finding, and fast-pass stratigizing.  We also learned that we could count on the good ol' Enchanted Tikki Room to have no line when faced with the one to two hour waits on everything else in the park, and that an entire family of five can bust a move on the dance floor when an eighties band is playing live on stage!  One of my favorite lessons that I learned is that an hour is not too long to wait in a line leading to "its a small world"  when it brings a smile and a giggle to a stone-faced, hard-to-please one-year-old, and leaves a constantly chatting 7-year old speechless!  I am so glad we had this fun time together!  We also got to meet up with newlyweds Lorraine and Steven for a couple of hours inside the park, since Disneyland was a stop on their honeymoon.