Ashley's 15th Birthday

Ashley had a good birthday. She did have to go to school, but her friends made it special, and she got a giant donut delivered to her from Shakka and Gawbie. Her cake request was a red velvet cake decorated with the logo of her favorite youtube channel, Random Encounters. She sent me the picture and it actually came out pretty similar to the logo.

Instead of going out to dinner this year, she requested a steak dinner at home (one that allowed her to have her own big steak). We delivered and she was so happy with the yummy food. She enjoyed her presents and the time with family. She got the game, werewolf, for her birthday, so we ended the night off with a few rounds of werewolf. It was a fun day for her.

A couple of weeks later, she got her learner's permit. She was so happy to pass the test on the first try. 

We celebrated by going out to lunch at a sushi restaurant. Ashley is our only child that likes sushi, 

Rachel's Wedding

I made a quick trip down to Arizona for my niece, Rachel's, wedding in January. She was married to JD Hancock in the Snowflake, Arizona temple on January 4. I was grateful to Danny for letting me go. I was also grateful that we were able to find another flight for me when me first scheduled flight down there got cancelled the day before departure due to a plane crash at the Provo airport. Then the second flight we booked kept getting delayed on the afternoon of. The 6pm flight did not leave until closer to 8. But at least it did leave. My brother, David picked me up from the airport around 10 and then we all went to bed quickly. 

We were up around 5:30 am the next day for the 3 hour drive to Snowflake. Bunny was sick, so she didn't come with us. Dad was also staying at Davids, so it was just the 3 of us in the car. We got to the temple about an hour early and sat in the waiting room because it was not warm enough outside to sit for very long. People started showing up around 9:30 for the 10 am sealing. The sealing was beautiful. JD had a lot of family there. From our side, we had the 3 in our car. Steve and Pam, and Marjorie's family which exception of Elizabeth who is on a mission and Brigitte's family since Brigitte was due to have a baby any day. My favorite part of the sealing was seeing all of the buffalo plaid mixed throughout the crowd, including socks, ties, skirts, dresses, and jewelry. After the sealing, there were some pictures outside, but Rachel and JD had done a photo shoot at the temple a couple of days earlier so they did not need to stay long. 

After the sealing, there was a luncheon just down the street from the temple at a church building. We stayed and ate and visited for an hour or two. After we left the church, we went back with the Williams to their airbnb to help Marjorie with desserts and to visit. Besides, we had nowhere else to go. Then we were off to the reception. The sunset was beautiful that night.

Marjorie made cheesecake bites in a buffalo plaid pattern and brownies, since those are Rachel's favorite dessert. They also had veggies and dip, a cheese platter, and a hot chocolate bar. We stayed for about an hour, but then we had to take so we didn't get home too late.

I flew back home the next morning. I was glad that I was able to go to the wedding. Rachel and JD have made a temporary home in Snowflake, and then will move to the Pheonix area in the summer. After that, who knows. But I think their plan is to return back to Snowflake if they can make that work. JD has a lot of family there and Rachel likes the small town feel there 

The Butterfly Biosphere

I took the 3 younger kids to the butterfly/bug museum during the Christmas break. They were so excited to find a friendly butterfly.

We also found all of the Christmas wreaths for a prize I think this tarantula liked his wreath.

And the kids, of course, played on the play things.

They also got there just in time to touch a cockroach (or millipede? I can't remember which one). It was a fun outing.
 

Alyssa's 17th Birthday

Since Alyssa's birthday fell on a Sunday this year, she chose to do her birthday dinner on Christmas Eve instead. As usual, she chose to go to Tepanyaki We were super disappointed to discover after arriving that they take reservations now. As we sat in the waiting area, we watched many groups come in and after us and get seated before us (because they had reservations). It was really frustrating. Evn more frustrating is that they told us it would be a 45 minute wati and then it ended up being 2 hours. At least we had a big bucket of fortune cookies to feast on while we waited. I think some of the kids had at least 10. We were so grateful to finally be seated.

Dinner was really good, as usual. On the back of his menu, Camden drew a picture of our wait. if you look closely you can see all of our unhappy faces and the times "4:30-6:30" We all had a good laugh when we saw it. Camden was obviously not happy about the long wait either.

On Alyssa's birthday, she requested French beignets for her treat instead of cake. And we could actually enjoy her treat this year because we were not so stuffed from our Tepanyaki dinner.

Birthday girl with her gifts.

She had a good birthday. We cannot believe that she is only one year away from being an adult. Time is going way too fast.
 

Christmas Fun

We enjoyed our Christmas season. December is always so busy. And we didn't really get into the Christmas spirit until after we got back from Hawaii, so we had decorating, shopping, wrapping, Christmas parties, work, and Christmas fun to fit into just a few weeks. Danny brought home a Christmas cookie decorating kit from someone at work, so we decorated cookies together one evening.

The boys had a Christmas concert at school. I got there about 10 minutes before start time and didn't realize that people came so early to get their seats. I was able to find a single seat on the second row that I slid into. then 6 people next to me got up after the first song, so I was able to slide all the way over to the middle for both of the boys songs. Camden is in the green striped shirt in the top picture (he looks like he has fluffy grey hair, but it is a santa hat). Tyler is in the green shirt in the bottom picture.

We had a Christmas party with Danny's parents and his sister's family. We acted out the nativity as part of the party. We also each researched another country's Christmas traditions and shared them with each other. And we enjoyed a ham dinner and a lot of yummy Christmas treats.

The kids were excited on Christmas morning. Alyssa was actually our only child that woke up before 7 am. Very unusual for her.

Here they are in front of the tree that morning.

Camden won the prize for the tallest present, a super long pixie stick.

Ashley got matching socks for her and Lula. Lula was not a fan of them, though.

We are so blessed and especially recognize our Savior and his birth. We are so grateful for him and his love and example and all that he taught.

Right after Christmas, we also took the kids to see The Little Mermaid and the Hale Center Theater. We all enjoyed the show, even Alyssa who complained about having to go.

Camden's Basketball Season

Camden had his basketball season from October to December. He started off really strong, even making a couple of baskets in the first couple of games, but then he lost steam, I think. Or got bored with the games. Whatever the reason, he just didn't seem to try as hard in the last games of the season. but he still claimed that he was having fun and that he loves playing basketball. Here is a picture of his team.

 

More Hawaii: Some Cool Random Pics

 I had a bunch of pictures that were cute, pretty, or showed an experience that didn't fit in anywhere. So this post is dedicated to those. This first one was my first view of aHawaiian beach. The water was so blue and I was just in awe of the beauty. I think I took 100 pictures, and this one was one of my favorites.

The kids in front of our rental house all dressed up for the PCC. The pool was just out of the picture to the right.

The adults took a walk to the beach one of the nights. It was only about a quarter of a mile away. It was too dark to see anything though.

There were a lot of Aloha's in Hawaii. This was a poinsettia tree set up for Christmas. 

The trees and vegetation were so cool. These monkey trees were everywhere, but this was one of the coolest we saw.

We walked through the international market and they had some cool photo ops inside,

These cars were so cool looking, so we had to get a picture of them with the boys.

Such pretty flowers there. This one fell off of the tree that is right behind Tyler.

Another pretty flower that we found.

Our group photo at the PCC taken just before the luau.

Another PCC photo that we took at the beginning of the day.

Our cousins introduced us to the game "Warewolf." They would play it while we were at the house and not swimming or sleeping or eating.

Another Aloha Christmas Tree in the mall.

Cousin time was one of the highlights for our kids on this trip.

Our ride for the week. It was a 12 seater van. We were a little more squished in this ohoto because we also had our luggage. This was right after we arrived. But for the rest of the week, Maryn and I sat in the first bench seat. Alyssa and Robbie in the second bench seat. And the other six kids divided up the last 2 benches. It was fun to be all together, but hard to find parking sometimes.

The temple grounds were beautiful.

The island as we were flying in. Our family did not take this photo (it came from Brian's family), but I'm sure our view was about the same. If you remember from my first post, we were all banned from opening the window and talking about the view.

Here is the outside of our van. Tyler was sad to return it to the rental agency and say goodbye to it.

Sunrise over Honolulu from the airport as we waited to board our flight home.

Christmas time in Hawaii. It felt so different than Utah. These kids sure had fun together. We can't wait to take our next trip with this group.

Our flight home was easier than the flight out. The only hitch in the trip home was when we got to the parking lot in Salt Lake City and found our car in the freezing cold (most of us were wearing shorts) only to discover that the automatic doors wouldn't open. we finally used the actual key to unlock the driver's door, and everyone climbed in through the front (including our luggage. The car battery was very dead. Danny called the emergency jump start number and someone showed up a few minutes later to jump start the car for us. It took a long time on the battery charger for it to start but it finally did and then we were off. We were all exhausted when we got home, and we may have let the kids sleep in the next morning instead of jumping right back in to school.