Ben turns 5...

Ben turned 5 today! I still think of him as the little guy around here... so it's hard to believe how fast he is growing up. We had dinner tonight with friends and then home for birthday brownies. :-)

Harper

Today it was quiet and I found her under the tree... little turkey!

Buddies

Superfans

The boys were up before 7 and counting down the minutes to the big game... Sam has become quite the little sports fan. He wants to watch ESPN and college games all the time. Somehow he has managed to learn a lot of the players, team stats, rankings etc. Just like his dad!

Tree!

It was a beautiful day to go Christmas Tree hunting! We tried a new farm today... and all we could find were Charlie Brown trees.

So we drove to another farm! And they had lots of BIG trees!!! Sam wanted this one...
But we settled on this one...
Harper passed out on the drive between farm 1 and 2. She missed the entire tree hunt at farm 2... which did take a LONG time. My sister knows... it takes me forever to find the perfect tree.
She woke up once it was tied to the roof. :-)
It's up and decorated! There are quite a few ornaments that keep ending up on the floor (thanks Harper), and several branches are over-loaded... but the kids had fun doing it and they love it, so I do too!

Maui... Day 6

The windy and stormy conditions brought in some big waves today... the boys had fun body surfing at Napili Bay. Even Brian got knocked down. If you look closely in this photo you can see Ben's foot sticking up near Brian's head. Tomorrow we return home... back to reality.

Maui... Day 5

Yesterday we the clouds and wind rolled in... but it was still warm enough to play on the beach! We spent the morning at Napili Bay and then checked out the Maui Ocean Center.

Maui... Day 4

Hung out today at Kaanapali Beach. Happy hour at the Mai Tai Bar started at 10am! We played at the beach, had lunch, spent lots of time at the pool and then everyone crashed for a while before dinner. Brian starts his conference tomorrow in Wailea. We will have some time to hang out in the morning before he drives down south.

Maui... Day 3

This morning we drove up north to the Nakalele Blowhole. It is a rocky hike and not the greatest for younger kids, but they all did great and loved it. The blowhole is the result of the ocean wearing away the shore below the lava shelf. With each wave, water is forced through a hole in the lava shelf resulting in the "eruption" of water similar to a geyser. The waves and water were pretty amazing.

Tonight we took the kids to a Luau at the Royal Lahaina Hotel. They LOVED it... especially the end when they were dancing with fire.
Only a few more days before we return to the rainy NW...