Christmas 2010

We were so lucky to be able to fly home and spend Christmas with both of our families in Utah.

Here are some of the highlights of our holiday:

Seeing our bed and spending many comfortable nights between our two houses. Some elves even decorated our room for Christmas before we got there.

Decorating sugar cookies

Dinner with our besties at our favorite haunt (Italian Village)

Thanksgiving (again) with Madison and the gang

Watching the little nuggets get excited about Santa, presents, and Christmas in general.

It was actually pretty obscene how many gifts these little boys had to open (this is only half of it - but to be fair, these are gifts for all 13 people in my family)

Enjoying so much diet coke before we go off of soda for the New Year

I mean REALLY enjoying it . . .

Playing lots of games with both families and Curtash

Being there for baby Chloe's blessing

Parties literally almost every night of the week, and when there wasn't a party, there was a gourmet meal being prepared or a favorite restaurant being visited.

Going snowboarding twice

Going swimming with the babies

Being reunited with Alex, who recently got home from her mission

Eating this pizza that was big enough to swaddle baby Chloe in

Throwing a surprise 60th Birthday party for my mom Cheryl. She is always the one throwing parties for everyone else, and it was time she enjoyed being the center of attention for once! She was totally surprised and we spent the night roasting her and basking in her coolness. Doesn't she look great for 60?

Although we didn't get a White Christmas, we woke up to this a few days later

The only real bummer of our holiday season was our car accident. We were driving by Fashion Place Mall going to get Tanya's wedding ring cleaned when a minivan pulled right in front of us. We didn't even have time to react before we t-boned them. The airbags went off and it was pretty shocking. We walked away with only some cuts and bruises and whiplash. The girls in the other car seemed completely unharmed, even though their car was pretty banged up. We were driving in Tanya's mom's beetle and we feel so bad. She loved that car. It was the other car's fault and they got a ticket.

I took some pics with my phone. Our car . . .

And theirs . . .

Overall we had a great Christmas and are lucky to have two awesome families.
Last night we got back to Hawaii and it feels good to be "home"

Sand to Snow

Within 24 hours, we went from this

(Billabong Pipe Masters Surf Competition)

To this

(Snowboarding at Solitude)

And we couldn't have been happier about it. Thanks Dirty Curty for the free tix.

We are a little over half way through our winter break in Utah, and so far it has been eventful. More details to come on the following:

• Hitting all our favorite restaurants
• Meeting our new niece and nephew
• Countless family parties
• Hanging with friends
• Our car accident (both cars totaled)
• Surprise gifts to each other

and more . . .

Warm Wishes

Last weekend we got our Christmas on with friends at our ward holiday party and a Christmas crepe spectacular!

We are so lucky to have good friends out here to celebrate with.

Cheers!

HOLIDAY, O, A HOLIDAY

This must be one of my favorite Vampire Weekend songs. I love the lyrics, I love the music video, and I love that everything Vampire Weekend related reminds me of my dear friend Ashley B. Ever since I saw this year's Tommy Hilfiger commercial it has a whole new Christmas meaning. I have been riding my bike around Laie with this song on repeat just stoked out of my mind to be going home for Christmas in 2 days.

Please enjoy.

Buoy Tree

We pass this tree all the time and I just love it. Last week Rod stopped the car and took a picture of it. If we had a tree like this in our yard we would definitely make our own buoy tree.

Dear Rodney

Dear Rodney,

Can you believe it's been

Thank you for the wonderfully dreamy anniversary date last weekend.

Shopping + Honolulu Light Parade + Santa sandcastles = Christmas fun

Kai Market was delicious and so nice.

Thanks for not eating your shrimp head

I love having a Christmas themed anniversary. . . so romantic.

Most of all, thank you for getting a KING bed - it was such a nice break from our springy full. . . twas like sleeping on clouds held up by angels in an air-conditioned sky.

Most of all. . .

You are my one.

O'Neill World Cup of Surfing

This week was the O'Neill World Cup of Surfing at Sunset Beach. It was the 2nd part of the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing. Basically for this event they set aside a week to have it, and then just wait for the waves to get good. I would wake up every morning and check online because I have been waiting to go to these competitions since the day we moved here. Thursday was the day! I played hooky and we spent the entire day spectating and being showered with SWAG!

Tanya modeling some of our prizes (vans trucker hat, tank top, and sunglasses). We also got more trucker hats/sunglasses, ties, beer cozies, bandanas, a beach umbrella, and lots of Rockstars.

These were the mens finalists, and Raoni Monteiro from Brazil won. We were front and center for the awards ceremony.

These were the womens finalists. 16 year old Tyler Wright from Australia won.

Here they are just soaking in the glory. Next Up: The Billabong Pipe Masters this week.