Christmas in Hawaii!!!

Sorry for the long delay between posts.  December was a busy and super exciting month for us.  We were lucky enough to get to spend 11 nights in Hawaii over Christmas!  The very best part is that my family from the states were able to come over to join us, so we got to spend Christmas with family.  This trip has been in the planning pretty much since we got orders to Japan.  We were supposed to take a family cruise to celebrate my parents 40th anniversary, but then we had Brock and the timing didn't work with the move, so we shifted gears to Hawaii.  It was an amazing trip and I can't really think of much that I would do differently if given another shot.  Here are just a few highlights of the trip. 

Here is the crew at the crack of dawn...see how it's still dark out.  We had early tickets to the Pearl Harbor memorial.  

We went to a Comedy show at our hotel, and Lily was called up on stage.  It was a really great show and the girls laughed out loud so hard the whole time.  They loved it!  It definitely made it extra special that Lily was on stage.  

Here's Brock showing off some coral he found on Waikiki beach.

The kids on Waikiki

 Loved this photo of Reagan!

This is another from Pearl Harbor, along with the headphones shot below.  

We got to the trail at 6:30 AM to begin our hike to the top of Diamond Head.  

Reagan and the girls soon passed us up and were the leaders up the mountain.  

Towards the top is a tunnel.

The view from the top!

The luau

Reagan trying her hand at some ball whirling game.  

Photobombed by Morgan!  :)

The girls with one of the hula girls.   They also got one taken with the tattooed hula guy.

After a week on Waikiki, we headed to Barbers point beach cottages to finish out the trip.  Here Dad and I are enjoying a drink in front of the cabin.  The beach is to the left.  

A part of the beach at the cabins was full of tide pools.  The girls enjoyed exploring and even found a few sea urchins.  

 Brandon was so proud of this shot!

The girls put on a Christmas program for us.  It was SO cute and even came with a hand written program of events.  Morgan is playing a drum that they purchased and reagan is shaking her stuffed animal that was filled with beans to make a Maraca.  The girls sang 4 or 5 Christmas carols to us.  I think out neighbors also enjoyed the show.  

On Christmas Day we took a drive up to the North Shore.  The waves were spectacular and we loved getting to see all the action.  The triple crown of surfing had just wrapped up it's competition a few days earlier, so the waves were impressive.  

 Waiting for the Pineapple Express train at the Dole Plantation.  

Reagan at the Dole plantation.  

We did so much more than I can begin to write about.  I had over 1000 photos just on my camera.  Brandon, Jess, Lily and Andy went golfing on the Marine Corp golf course, and just 2 days later, President Obama played the same course.   I got some shopping in, which was wonderful!  We had an awesome Anniversary celebration at Duke's Canoe club for Mom and dad.   Christmas Eve was filled with some of the same appetizers we always have at home, so that was perfect.  All in all, we all agreed that it didn't "feel" like Christmas, but for us, it was oh so nice not to have to spend Christmas alone.  We will forever have these memories of our Aloha Christmas and I'm sure years down the road when we are freezing cold in the Iowa Winter we'll wish we were in Hawaii again.