Christmas in Hawaii, part 1

Merry Christmas from Maui! ... a little late, but better late than not at all!

That's right, people. We spent our Christmas and New Years in Hawaii this year, and it was so wonderful! I started writing this post while we were there, but never got it finished. So, I'm posting a first bit now, with plans of further posts in the coming days. (I mean, who wouldn't mind looking at numerous palm tree pictures while all that snow continues??)

The skinny on our fabulous trip... it was a part-family vacation, including Dad and Mom Bishop, Janice and Jay (Brian's sis) and their two kids, Brent and Jenalyn (Brian's bro) and their six kids. This trip was a surprise Christmas present for most of the kids -- except Sammie, who has been packing her bag for the beach every day for the past two months! Here's part of the group, on the first morning after we arrived...
We flew in on Christmas day, and stayed most of our time at a condo timeshare in Maui, that Janice and her family booked. We also spent a couple days on the rainforest coast side of Maui, and a few days on Oahu. So, here's part one, the Hana rainforest coast...

We drove the Hana highway, said to be one of the most scenic coastline drives in all of Hawaii. This was our "scenery"...
And this...
Well, they don't call it a rain forest for nothing, right?! Our best view was this one, but that was only when Brian soaked himself running to a "lookout" point to get this picture...

At one point, we started on a scenic detour to see an arboretum. But we had to turn around when we came to this...

Our brother-in-law, Jay, rented a motorcycle for the 3hr Hana Highway drive. I always tease Brian about packing a huge plastic rain poncho (he takes it EVERYWHERE we travel!) Well, this time it came in handy for poor Jay, the soaky wet rat... (not the best picture of him, but it was the best I got!)
I asked a lady at a souvenir shop whether that kind of torrential downpour was a bit overwhelming, but she just laughed and said it's quite normal for winter time. They get around 300 inches of rain per year on that side of Maui!!

We stayed the night in cute little cabins at Waianapanapa State Park (I loved hearing Brian's mom try to say that one!) Here's the outside...

And inside... last updated in 1952?? They weren't much to look at, no one was allowed to go shoeless (poor Spencer didn't get to crawl once), and I thought we might float away in the rainstorm that night.

But the surroundings were secluded, and the coastline views in the morning were spectacular!We took a morning walk down to the ocean, to watch the waves crash on the rocks...


Spencer wasn't too impressed...
After the rain cleared off, we took a drive further up the coast, to see some more of the coastline and visit some waterfalls. This one was just off the road, quite spectacular...

A guy was sitting by its side, weaving baskets, hats, and flowers from coconut fronds. He's been sitting there weaving, and selling his wares, for 30 years! wow!
Sammie got a little bird, like her cousin Eric's, for $3. Jenalyn got a darling hat for $15, but I didn't get a picture of it.

We drove to Oheo Gulch, or the Seven Sacred Pools, which was much more astonishing in real life than in these pictures. The water was really high (from all that rain, I imagine), and was just gushing over the rocks to the ocean.

The sign behind me says something like "extreme danger, don't walk past this sign or you'll probably die." I stayed on the right side, even though Sammie and Grandma thought I was getting too close.

The "hike" down to the falls was perfect for small children; Sammie and her cousin Ashton gathered lots of rocks and sticks on their journey, some of which stayed in our trunk the rest of the trip!
We did a little stop at a bay, so the kids could finally say they were in the ocean. Spencer loved it...

But not as much as Sammie...

That's all for now, folks! But rest assured, there's more sunshine to come. Stay tuned...

Leading up to Christmas

We had some amazing Christmas celebrations this year, each one fun and memorable, for sure! We started with a gift exchange and party at Brian's parents house, the Friday before Christmas. All the kids got such fun presents from Grandma and Grandpa Bishop. Sammie especially loved her new hoodie towel, and Spencer's too. Unfortunately, we forgot the camera that night, so sad. But just imagine tons of delicious food and goodies, lots of songs and music, and great family time together.

The next day, we headed to Blackfoot for a Hone family Christmas party, complete with the traditional ham wraps, frappe, and chocolate goodies. We had our first ever live Nativity this year, with all the grandkids playing a part. It was so cute and fun... Sammie, Sara and Anna were angels. (Yeah, one angel had a nose fixation.)
And Spencer and Bryson were sheep. Use your imaginations, people... a headband and onesie make a great sheep costume, right Spence?!

Or you can go the fancy route, like Bryson did... ribbons and all.

We should have had each of the kids pose for individual costume shots, but we didn't. So, here's how they looked, in general. We had Mary and Joseph, a shepherd and three wise men bearing gifts. The grandparents especially loved it all!

We stayed at my parents' place for a few days and caught some good snow, which Sammie enjoyed until she touched it...

Spencer mastered (or worked on) the art of getting up and NOW, down, from the furniture itemes, and thinks he is pretty amazing for all he can do...
We stayed long enough at the Honestead, that Santa got the memo to come a couple of days early for Samantha and Spencer. How exciting!!

Sammie was overjoyed, and LOVED her new bicycle (really it's a tricycle, but try telling her that!), and Spencer loved his fun lights-and-buttons toys, too!
We left my parents' house and headed to Utah for even MORE fun parties and good food. Again, I was camera-less for some good family time. Sigh. But we had a great time being with everyone, just waiting for Christmas to arrive!

Our Christmas pictures...

I started this blog way before Christmas, to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! This was our family's attempt at Christmas pictures...

Hope you all had a lovely holiday season. We sure did!!

Christmas Angel Girl

A couple of weeks ago, we had our church Christmas party -- a big breakfast, followed by a Christmas play and singing. It was really nicely done and we had a fun time. Samantha REALLY enjoyed the whole affair.

As they started setting up for the Christmas play, they told all the little primary children (who had been practicing for weeks) to go get their costumes on and sit on the risers. Samantha watched all these cute children coming out as shepherds and angels, sitting front-and-center on the risers. She got a big pouty frown and turned to me and said, "I want to do that too!!" I told her she could probably sit with them for a little while (thinking no one would really care, and it would last about 5 mins before she wanted to get down). She insisted that she also wanted an angel costume. I walked with her to the "costume" room, and the "costume" lady said they had a few extra tinsel halos and collars, luckily. So, Sammie pranced up to the stage all proud of her new angelic do! And... she STAYED there the WHOLE hour-long play! She sang with all the other children, she got goodies from Santa, and she looked sooo very cute.

Funny how much more interesting a Christmas play becomes when you have your OWN help-yourself angel to watch!

Happy Birthday, Samantha!

Sammie called Grandma Karen after we got home from church on her birthday. She said, "Hi Gramma Karen. I just called so you could wish me a Happy Birthday." Grandma Karen said, "Who is this?!?" HA! The truth is, Samantha sounded SOOO grown up that Grandma didn't even recognize her voice. Must be because she's THREE now!!

We had a fun time celebrating her birthday. On Saturday, she helped me make a cute little princess dolly birthday cake. I have to say, I'm proud of the way it turned out... much better then I expected! Samantha wanted to eat it right away, but we talked her into saving it for her birthday, so we could share with everyone and sing Happy Birthday to her.
She woke up on her birthday to streamers and special a Happy Birthday banner, which was very exciting. She immediately put on her princess dress-up dress, and started finding ways to reach the streamers...

At church, her nursery class sang to her and gave her a little box full of chocolates and candy. This was her last Sunday in nursery class, as we'll be away for the next few weeks -- when she gets back she'll be in Primary! Wow!!

We had family over for cake and ice cream after church. Samantha LOVES playing with her cousins, probably more than anything else. So, it was a perfect way to celebrate. She opened presents and had fun "sharing" them (or showing them off?)


Her favorite presents were a new princess vacuum, one that makes noise and everything! -- yay! (sarcastic yay from Mom.) And a pair of new princess shoes that light up when she walks -- or jumps! Here she is, making them light up for Grandma and Grandpa...

We went to a little Christmas concert that Brian and I were singing in that night. Sammie loved the music, and loved sitting with Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Reed. Then we played games, and Sammie even got to stay up a little late so she could play with the grown ups!
We sure love our girl, and are so excited to have a three-year-old Sammie!!

Visit from Wade

My brother Wade came for a fun visit last week, just in time to help us celebrate Sammie's birthday! (She definitely thought his entire visit was dedicated to that very purpose!) He stayed a few days and we thoroughly enjoyed having him around, though we didn't take too many pictures.

We took a little day trip up to Bogus Basin -- just about an hour out of Boise. It was really a pretty view, more than 6000 ft high, overlooking the entire valley. We took some fun pictures of each other and the view...


Wade's camera got MUCH better pictures than ours, but I forgot to ask him to download them to our computer, so you're stuck with the best of our camera -- not great but it gives you an idea what it was sort of like...
We also had a fun outing to Carl's Jr., which Sammie REALLY appreciated! It was one of her birthday presents -- something she had been asking for all week. No pictures of that, because we don't want people to think we're totally obsessed with Carl's Jr. (even if it's true that Sammie IS!)

After the kids were in bed each night, we thoroughly enjoyed playing some fun games together. Wade introduced us to Ingenious! and we had some nice rounds of Settlers of Catan. Good times!
Samantha was enthralled with Uncle Wade and loved following him around, asking what he was doing every two minutes. She especially loved the fun Birthday princess presents he got for her... he is definitely a favorite now! :) Come again soon, Wade!!