Mele Kalikimaka

When you use your blog as a family journal, it starts to become like your actual journal--empty!

After weeks of poor weather, we started the holidays off with huge waves and beautiful sunshine at Brennecke's beach Christmas Eve. Zac ate it up--as you can see below. He was getting as stir-crazy with the weather as we were! He kept walking up to the water line and falling forward as the waves came in, with a surprised gasp and laugh every time. We loved the turns in the water, especially since this beach is sometimes so rocky it's not worth it in the winter.


We rushed home to shower and pick up Steve and Natalie from the airport. We were so excited to have family here for the holidays!

If Cory and Kristen ever make it out to visit (or Natalie, Ang, Karen, any of you ladies who so desire!), I'm going to take her on a run with me to this destination. It's the best running around town, and close to three miles from our house. A perfect distance for a great view.

Brady called me from work on Christmas Eve Day, and said, "Santa is rowing into Kalipaki this afternoon. Do you want to go?" My reply? "That's the lamest thing I've ever heard of in my life." I changed my tune when I realized we could fit in some boogie boarding beforehand, and when Santa's canoe arrival showed up on the front page of MSN that day. I decided if it was good enough for national news, it was good enough for me.

Speaking of news, this picture ended up in our local paper. At least Zac's reaction is a little more favorable to the Hawaiian Santa.

Christmas Eve we sang some hymns, read Luke 2, and had Zachary open his first present. Actually, we opened the present for him. Apparently my chiding, "No, no, no" for the previous two weeks kept him from thinking it was ever okay to touch the wrapping paper.


I know sugar plums are only supposed to dance in the heads of children on Christmas Eve, but there was no way I could go to sleep realizing it was my baby's first Christmas the next day! I kept waking up over and over again, seeing the clock only 10 min past the last wake-up. When it hit 5am, I asked Brady if he was awake. Yep. We turned the monitor up to max volume, and the minute we heard a PEEP from Zachary (a full hour later), we booked it to his room to see what Santa brought.

As you can see from the picture above, Zac loved the biscuits Santa brought. He loved them so much that he wouldn't drop them to open any of his presents. Really, he was pretty apathetic about the whole presents deal, and it took some convincing to even play with them. I get that it will kick in about two years from now, but it was still funny how much of an anti-climax the event turned out to be!

We had a tasty Christmas breakfast with Matt and Megan and family, and Nic and Heidi and family, before heading up to Hanalei for the day--our Christmas tradition now two years standing. It was a spectacular day with sunshine and great waves.

Steve is the most athletic visitor we've had (at least that we've seen surf!), and he picked it up right away. Natalie had a fun time boogie boarding, and we all enjoyed the surf.
We even saw a double rainbow. How picture-perfect!
We ended the day with dinner at Nic and Heidi's. It was a refreshing day, and we enjoyed the time with friends and family!

Santa Baby

It's Not All Sunshine in Paradise

Once a week blogging is a piece of cake when it rains all week/weekend! Nothing much to report, besides 8.5" of rain in "Sunny Poipu," out of their annual 36" per year, in 2 DAYS! It rains more in Lihue than Poipu, but I don't know any exciting stats for Lihue's rainfall the past few days. I just know the clouds are daunting and the ocean looks like chocolate milk. Ew.

At least we had some Christmas parties to look forward to. Friday night was the work party, and Zac sat on Santa's lap, with the above result. That's alright: "Santa's" son even cried his eyes out when he sat on his dad's suited-up lap. Ha!

Our ward party was Saturday. Funny story: Our bishop is very "stern." He was bound and determined that no children would be running around in the gym during our ward dinner and program. To prevent such racket, he personally set up chairs in the back in a huge circle, and surrounded the chairs with Christmas lights and other décor, intending to blockade the play area. It was delightfully tacky. With my running background, I saw it for what it really was—a TRACK! Within minutes of the party starting, the kids were RACING around the track. I asked bishop if he wanted me to time them. I don't know if he appreciated my humor.

I hope weather is better for Natalie and Steve in a little over a week!

Surf 'N Sand

I think I whined enough in my last blog about missing a day of planned surfing. When Saturday came around and it was beautiful, we jumped on the opportunity to head to Hanalei (the beach we'll be taking Steve and Natalie on Christmas Day--rain or shine). We heard there was a swell, and waves are generally good sized on the North Shore. Needless to even mention, we weren't cutting the inside of these babies, but it was fun taking our longboard for some good runs.

We went with two other families--the Clarks and Hadleys--and Zac had fun rolling around in the sand with them. It was also fun to talk to them while we took turns in the water.

Zac loves other kids. Mostly, though, he likes their toys.

I told Kristen that it's not easy to get good surf shots. You look up from playing with Zac and notice the other person up, whip out the camera, and you catch the tail end of most runs. It's still fun to get some pics of each other up.

One thing we learned is the new board was a great investment. We both loved it. The best part is how easy it is to manuever your body on it. You can take steps without sliding off, really pull your weight to one side or the other, and mostly just feel more confidence in your ability to hang on.

Zachary crawls madly over to any pets on the beach. These two dogs let him play for a little while. Zac kept squeeling with delight.

18 days until Christmas! Here's to hoping for more sunny days in December.

Turkeys, Trees, and In Between

Thanks to Mom E., our roll assignment was not a disaster. Thanksgiving morning, we indulged in some physical activity and set about the major task of eating. I broke all my rules and cooked while Brady played football. In all fairness, though, he watched Zachary while I was gone for a good hour on a run. Zac was sound asleep while I rolled the dough, so it was a fair deal.

We ate at the Giles home, with several friends and their kiddos. They had the place pretty decked out.

Zachary, like his parents, loves all things carbohydrate.

Here's our spread. I still think of myself as too young to be cooking Thanksgiving without parents, but it turned out well. I wonder at what point I will consider myself old enough to cook a turkey. We'll see.

The kids were smart and got active right away. The rest of us vegged out, looked at ads, and fought sleepiness. I think we should have gone to the beach, but it was a good time chatting.

My pie is the one with a marijuana leaf inscribed on the top. Hard to see in this pic (look on the table behind the pie stand...pumpkin). With Brady's help, I graduated to homemade crust this year, and could not be prouder. No, the cool whip was not whipped cream, but I'm taking baby steps on my progression towards "cook."

We did hit a beautiful sunset at Poipu Beach before heading home.

Friday we went with the "Work before Play" motto my Dad drilled into me at young age. We got down and dirty, shampooing the carpets, moving all the furniture around, and otherwise obsessing about the cleanliness of our condo. Our place needed it:

Our carpets look fantastic! I can't figure out why people buy these things (shampooers, not brooms). It was only $16 to rent for 4 hours, and it was the best thing out there.

After a long day of working, we took off for the beach. The day was gorgeous, and we decided since we were surfing all day Saturday, we should boogie board. It was fun, but I was antsy to surf. Patience, patience...

Saturday morning, we woke up to pouring rain and gusting wind. Nice. I decided the "work before play" motto does not fly with me anymore. My new motto is "Sun=Beach, regardless of responsibilities." I am one step closer to local.

With jeans and sweatshirts on, we put the house into Christmas mode. We checked out our $19.99 tree from Target 7 years ago, and decided it was the LAST year we would use it. It looked so pitiful! Out of curiosity/boredom, we went to a few stores (i.e. the number of stores on the island), and wound up coming home with a brand new tree and decorations. Rain and wind are very dangerous in Kauai! Thanks to Macy's forgetting to take down their Black Friday deal, we came home with the tree at 75% off. We didn't even get up early and fight crowds. That's my kind of shopping.

We were so excited to see Zac's reaction to all the Christmas decor. As soon as he woke up, we brought him downstairs to see the tree. As soon as we turned the corner and he saw the lights, he just grinned and grinned. We walked him around the tree and showed him each ornament. It was such a precious moment for us.

Our first Christmas together, we decided to buy one ornament each that reminded us of the year, or had some kind of significance. We have a laborador for the year we got Terris, a shovel for the year Brady shoveled The Colony 100 times, an ice skate the year I took my ice skating class to keep my scholarship, a surfing Santa for last year, etc.

Last year, I bought another ornament, but didn't dare to put it up. We both were so anxious about the upcoming adoption, and hoping and praying things would work out this time. I saw this at Macy's and put it in our Christmas box. I completely forgot about it, but when I opened it up yesterday, I couldn't help but get caught up in a flood of memories. We are so grateful for our boy!!!

Edwards Family, est. 2001

In preparation for our Christmas cards, we decided to get some photos taken. We looked up photographers in Kauai without much luck, but we did talk a friend into doing them for us. We actually got kicked out of our favorite location--Brady's daily lunch spot under the palms--but not before getting a bunch of pictures.

There were some problems with lighting (overexposed) and our son not smiling/cooperating, but we came out of the experience with several pictures to treasure.



Brady's Favorite Family Shot:

Can't wait for a black frame around this one:This is overlooking our favorite beach (which is...?):

Zachary's Favorite Shot:

Karen's Favorite Family Shot:

Give us some feedback! By the way, we have already selected the Christmas card photo, so no criticism about Brady's favorite picture.

Another First

This is two weeks past my prediction date. Consider it a rookie mistake. Brady and I were both home to witness his first step while attempting to kick a minature soccer ball. (Once again, I apologize for my squeeky high voice on video.)

Sharing

A Couple of Firsts

Enough is enough...we keep waiting for visitors to do Kipu Falls, but we decided to stop postponing the event and take the plunge. Brady has done this jump many times, but for one reason or another, I haven't had the opportunity. For a year and a half, I've let my anxiety fester, and I was happy to get it over with on Friday night.

Really, it is only a 20 foot drop, but looking down it's still pretty intimidating. I know for a fact that I would never jump off of Shipwrecks (the drop from "Seven Days and Seven Nights").

There's a rope swing this direction. I thought the rope swing was actually fun. Overall, though, jumping off big rocks isn't my favorite Kauai activity.

I've been dying to go to Hanalei, and was especially excited to use my Christmas present--a new longboard. Yes, we are graduating from foam to a real board. We postponed scuba diving and planned an entire afternoon for our first run with the board, rain or shine with big or small waves. Unfortunately, it was almost entirely rain, the waves were choppy, and I got pretty tossed around. Finally, I gave up on the intense waves and went to the kiddie pool to work some "ankle slappers."

We think Hanalei is the prettiest spot on the island--that you do not have to hike to.
Zac had a ball playing in the rain and with Heidi, her mom, and Ty.

Maybe the "firsts" weren't our favorite experiences, but here's for good seconds.