Thanksgiving Highlights

Brady and I decided to head to Utah for Thanksgiving this year. The whole Edwards clan made it, with the exception of Mom and Dad! Thankfully (haha, catch the pun), Angela aced the organization and made it a fabulous meal. (This is the least work I have ever done to participate in the preparation. I had a miserable cold, and didn't get up for the day until 1pm--and we ate at 2pm! Prepping for dinner was never easier.)

Some of the highlights include:

The dinner, of course, complete with the bird, gravy, homemade stuffing, rolls, mashed potatoes, candied sweet potatoes, salad, jello salad, spinach dip, veggie tray, and all sorts of pies.

We met Logan for the first time...

We got to see how girls play together--somewhat of a novelty in our family of mostly nephews. They found stashes of make-up, played with their "babies," and were joined at the hip.


We raced the Edwards boys in a 4X400. The boys pulled a victory, and the girls lamented their racing style the rest of the day, each of us convinced we could have done better. Maybe next year?

We played the cup game for the second year running. Notice Ryan's tongue...

Paul and Ryan worked hard and made it possible for us to attend the BYU v. Utah game! We watched the Utes lose another heart-breaker in the final minute of the game, going down 17-10. What a rush! I forgot just how high I could jump when I am standing on bleachers.

We were able to see my Utah siblings--Emily, Kevin, and Natalie. (Scott was in ID getting his teeth pulled.) Emily introduced us to another nephew, Quinn, who is now a year and half. It is crazy to meet a nephew for the first time who can run around all over the place and is saying words! (I would include a picture, but it was very unflattering--complete with Hawaii chocolate all over his face.)
Post-game excitement stayed high as we watched BYU basketball take on North Carolina in the Vegas tourney. We lost, but were able to stay with them for most of the game.

Sunday, I came upstairs and saw the kids all reading books together. I thought that was a pretty sweet moment.

We took our family shots outside, and decided it was way too cold to stay out for long.
Sunday night, we went to Temple Square to check out the lights. They never disappoint!

It was a good trip, and we are excited to come back in January!

Just Your Lazy Saturday

It's been a long time since we traveled north, so after doing some Christmas shopping, we went to Hanalei for a hike. We had perfect weather for our 2 mile ascent, and passed very few people throughout. Those are two main ingredients in our definition of a good hike.

From the lookout, you can see 1/5th of the island. From that vantage point, it really does make you realize you are on an island, with so much of the coastline in view.

Brady spotted these strawberry guavas. We ate tons of them. They are sweet, with a little tang.

One of the "few people" we passed snapped this one when we were coming back down:
After our hike, we went over to Hanalei Bay. We have been there one other time, but it was cloudy and did not stun us. This time, we ate our sack lunches and walked the beach for over an hour, and loved it. Hanalei means "crescent," and the beach here is long and shaped in a c-curve. We enjoyed watching surfers of all levels, and we sincerely wished we had our boards, too. We really need to get on this surfing thing if we have any intention of getting decent at it.

Yum.

Sand and 'Smores

We arrived at the beach after dark. Our first priority was setting up the tent...setting it up far enough away from the water. In the middle of night, the crashing waves seemed to be getting closer and closer, but I figured I was worrying too much. When I got up in the morning, I found the water came fifteen feet from our tent in the middle of night. That was close!
Below, the gang(Nic & Heidi & Ty, Matt & Megan, and Karen) contemplate if the rip-current is too strong. Matt went for a little morning swim and we're glad he made it back...the ocean is pretty strong here. We ended playing football at the waist deep level.

Matt and Megan patiently waiting for Brady to cook their pancakes.
Nic didn't sleep too well because of the waves and slight breeze. He was trying to wake himself up all morning.
Doesn't this look refreshing?So does this.
After the beach we headed up Waimea Canyon and found another hiking trail...try this one, "The Po'omau Trail". Among the vegetation we found these cool upside-down flowers. I thought about bringing some home and putting them in a vase for Karen, but I couldn't figure out how that would work. Ha ha.

The ridge in the center of picture was our destination--the Po'omau Scenic Overlook.

This waterfall below is the last picture I took before my camera battery died. The overlook gives view to three waterfalls from one spot. The other two falls are even better. Karen and I are planning to hike the trail again and go further in. I'll be sure to charge my batteries.

A Sugar High

We've been training together for most of the fall to prepare ourselves for the Old Sugar Mill Run. This past Saturday, the race commenced and we hit the pavement hard for 10 miles. We actually both exceeded our expectations for how we would perform. The competition was fierce...all 50 of them. Karen was the first woman to cross the finish line and actually finished fourth overall with a time of 1 hr 13 minutes (7:18 miles). I tried to take on a 50+ year old for first place, but ended up eating his dust and took second with a time of 1 hr 11 minutes (7:06 miles). Admittedly, the training was fun (don't tell Karen). She's already trying to find some Turkey Trot in Utah for Thanksgiving. I'm still trying to walk normal.

The sweet part about winning is we got these awesome mugs, in case we want some hot chocolate in Hawaii.