Not a vacation, just a regular Saturday with tropical hike and beaches. We are so blessed!

Visit with Grandma and Grandpa Keeling

We were so lucky to get to see Grandma and Grandpa Keeling in Thatcher, Arizona before we flew back to Kauai at Christmas (I know, the Christmas posts are getting a little old, but we couldn't not tell about it.) I have been waiting to get pictures from Holly that show the conch shell lessons before I made this post. We had a great visit. We were talking about Hawaii (Grandma and Grandpa were regular visitors for many, many years), and Grandma went into the bedroom to get some conch shells to show us. Grandpa demonstrated some very impressive conch shell blowing ability and we all tried to duplicate it. None of us were near as good as him, but it was fun trying. It was especially funny to watch Rusty (note the out of order pictures below). He got totally gassed trying to make a noise, and all that happened was a funny little squeaky noise. He kept trying and got the conch shell all spitty, then tried to hand it back to Grandpa to demonstrate again. Grandpa started laughing and kind of looked at the spitty conch shell with a yeah right look. Eventually Rusty caught on. Grandma complimented the "feminine" conch sound that I produced. Mike and Holly caught on quickly. Even the girls tried a couple of times. Yumm, family germs. Grandma also brought out some of her jewelery and the girls had fun trying it on. Kyleigh was happy to see Wilky (the dog) again. We just wish we could have stayed longer.

We love you Grandma and Grandpa!!!

Christmas Misc. pictures.

The arrival of Jenny's Family.

The girls checking for treats in our advent calender.

Pictures of the deer just down from Merrill and Nancy's house in NM.

The kids composing messages for Santa on Christmas Eve.

KyKy and Katelyn practicing the piano at Nama'a house.

Holiday Highlights part 2 - the NM activities

We did lots of fun things while we were in NM for Christmas. Most importantly we got to spend time with the Cook family. We ate and ate and ate and ate. I made four batches of sweet chex mix, which was only a drop in the hat of delicous food. We got to drink hot chocalet and not sweat because of it. We sat next to the fire and loved every second of that. We only got a skiff of snow one day, but the warm temeratures were conducive to lots of fun outdoor activities. We went to Penny Park (an almost entirely made of wood, 100% community built maze of funness), rock climbing, hot dog roast at the city of rocks, shooting bb guns, played ultimate frisbee, acted out the nativity, played dress up and lots of games (including an ultimate challenge night), went rock climbing, played on the swingset, and climbed on the climbing wall. Our ultimate challenge game night was a contest between everyone and the results were based on a combination of your ping pong, pool and farkle placings. Rusty created brackets for ping pong and pool and you played whoever you were matched up with in the brackets. I ended up tying with Rusty for second overall. Mike was the gold medal winner. One day Brianna (cousin who is 12) dressed Kyleigh and her brother Ben (4 months older than Kyleigh) up in costumes. Rusty's mom has the biggest best collection of dress up clothes ever. They came upstairs as a wrestler/cheerleader, caveman and woman, movie stars, indians, and angel/devil. You will see who was the angel and who was the devel below.

Rusty and the girls coming up a tunnel at Penny Park.

Shooting guns in the mountains, with SNOW!

Kyleigh and Ben playing their parts well.

Christmas angels for the nativity.

Not so "ultimate" frisbee, but same place and time and super cute.

Does the fun ever end?

Holiday Highlights part 1.

Woo Hoo, I won!!! Our ward has a "festival of trees" as part of the ward party. 30 families/people/auxillaries volunteer to decorate an 18 inch tree. The trees are used as centerpieces for the party and then donated to nursing homes or other long term care facilities on the island. There are several categories of winners, mine won the most original. This is a picture of the sign that accompanied the tree and the tree is pictured below. You can't see it very well, but there is a sign on the mirror that is on top of the tree that says "You're a star." You also can't see that there are a bunch of small, clear lightbulbs strung on the tree with fishing wire.

Parties for the season were as follows: Christmas kickoff party with the Petersons (as posted previously), Rusty's work party (we came home with an air soft gun and the game chutes and ladders), Ward Christmas party, Graves/Christenson gift party (on the off year when Holly and I don't see our families we try to have a turkey dinner and open our gifts from them), Kid Christmas party (we had all of Kyky's friends over for a great party, and cookie exchange (ladies only, we all brought 7 dozen of one kind of cookie and went home with a fabulous variety).

Kyky with Santa. Katelyn wouldn't even get close.

At our kid party we celebrated Merry Christmas (made snowman pins and cards), Feliz Navidad (made Mexican yarn ornaments), and Joyeux Noel (pictured above, candy stuffed in T.P. rolls, wrapped up. One kid gets on each side and pulls, like a two person pinata). We also decorated star cupcakes and sang Christmas carols. All the kids had so much fun and Kyky loved helping plan and execute the party.

Hanging out after presents during Graves/Christenson party.

This was all before we even left for our Christmas Vacation. Stay tuned for "the rest of the story."