Christmas In July

Well, it's Christmas, but not really in July. Try December. But being as how we are going back to Hawaii soon to be there when Cassidy has her baby, and we spent Christmas there, I thought I should get on the ball and do a post about Christmas before we go back.

Christmas in Hawaii is really fun. We love the beaches, and being on the beach on Christmas day is just cool. Lexi graduated from BYU in December, so as soon as she was finished in Provo, she flew out to Hawaii and was there a week or so before we got there. This little guy is getting so big, and has such a cute little personality. He is delightful.

One of the first things we did was go on this hike to Makapu'u Point. We've done this hike before, but it's a nice hike that is pretty easy and stroller friendly, so we decided to do it again. Plus it has a beautiful view of the ocean and a little red roofed light house when you get to the top.

A few more pictures of the hike: (when you see our hair, just keep in mind that it was VERY windy)

We went to the beach, even though it was kind of cold. Lexi was the only one brave enough to take Truman swimming.

We went to Pearl Harbor again.

It is such a sacred place, and there is a special feeling there. This wall with all the names of men whose lives were taken makes me so sad.

Truman was pretty good, except when we tried to watch a movie about Pearl Habor. He kept squirming and trying to get off his Mom's lap to run around. She wouldn't let him, and finally he yelled, "put this naughty boy down!" We couldn't help but laugh!

After going to the beach one day, we searched for the Black Pearl ship from Pirates of the Caribbean. We finally located it in an obscure ship yard in dry dock. We felt kind of bad, and knew that Captain Jack Sparrow would definitely not approve.

We went to Germaine's Luau and had lots of fun. Jeff even won the drawing they hyped up like crazy.

Here he is with his major award: a flower lei, a hat, and a drink bottle.

No trip to Hawaii would be complete without lunch at the Shrimp Shack and.......

shave ice at Matsumoto's.

For our traditional Christmas Eve day hike, we hiked the old Poly Highway. It is so lush and beautiful! Cassidy was not feeling well, so she stayed home. She was in the early stages of pregnancy and suffering from morning sickness, and also got a bad cold to boot. I felt so bad for her and tried to help her out as much as possible.

Tru was full of vim and vigor, so thank goodness we had him on a leash. He was on a dead run the whole time. And for some reason he kept yelling "faster reindeer, faster!" as he was running. It was pretty cute. (although Lexi got a work out!)

Truman pretended he could actually see something in the binoculars.

The hike was kind of cold, but the views were breathtaking.

For Christmas Eve we did the traditional breaking of the Santa pinata. Truman is all ready with his cardboard saber!

After we took turns, the pinata finally broke and Truman was in hog heaven with the candy!

Christmas morning we got up early to see what Santa brought before we headed off to church. Lexi was happy to get a ukelele. She wants to learn how to play one.

Truman LOVED his train set. He wanted us to play with him, but not actually touch any part of the train set, which was a little hard to do................

Instead of a traditional Christmas dinner, we decided to have a BBQ on the beach at Waikiki.

Lexi asked James to teach her to surf, so here they are trying to catch a wave.

The surfers

Cass was still feeling pretty sick, so she took it easy most of the day.

It was a very lovely Christmas Day for all (except poor Cassidy, who got sicker by the moment)

The next day we went to see the blow hole and went snorkling at Hanama Bay

The blow hole it pretty cool to see. It's hard to catch it just right with the camera though. This is a pretty good shot.

Hanama Bay is really beautiful and a great place to snorkle.

Jeff all set to snorkle!

Truman had a blast running amok on the beach. It was a very fun day.

We had a wonderful time in Hawaii, even though it was a little colder than we expected. James and Cass were so good to let us invade their small apartment, especially with Cassidy not feeling well. She was a trooper, but it was a little rough for her. The snorkling was our last day before we flew home. But then we had some fun times at our house, so stay tuned for the rest of the story!