Cruising..........

We just finished another part of our vacation. This was our first cruise experience for all of us. On one of the days the cruise put on a Christmas program. It was nice. You could tell they just kind of threw it together. I sorta feel bad for the workers on cruises. Did you know that they are stuck on that boat for 7-8 months non stop without a single day off! WOW!!! Talk about a fun job. Anyways, this is Cole telling yet another Santa what he wants for Christmas.

Beautiful sunset with my beautiful girls.

Savannah and Cole spent a lot of time in the Camp Carnival during the days and ended up meeting some friends. Savannah and Kambree loved playing together! Maybe they can get together when we go to Utah.

Sunset

I was very impressed at the lack of fear by my kids standing 14 stories above the ocean floor on a moving vessel.

This is Cole attempting to blow out his Birthday candle on December 16th! Happy Birthday MOOSE!!! It was fun to celebrate at his birthday with a fancy 4 course meal! 2 of the nights we had the kids with us, that other 2 we dined with only baby. A lot quieter!

On the inside of the cruise ship

Family pic on the stairs

On day 2 we stopped in Catalina and walked around the island. Day 3 was ensenada. We decided to just stay on board that day and hang around the ship.

The port at Long Beach when we were just taking off

The cruise was fun but would have been a lot funner if Creed was older and could go into the kid's club. The kids loved that place, they had lots of activities and met lots of friends. We can't complain, Nicole booked the 4 night cruise for 149/piece so it was a steal. Good food and plenty of it! Gotta love that. We enjoyed soft serve ice cream with our breakfast, lunch, and right before bed snack.

Happy 3rd birthday Coley!

He's such a big guy people have been asking if he's 3 since he turned 2. So now it is finally official. We love you little moose!

Can you believe this little man!

happy 3rd birthday! He got buzz for his present and he loves it. Check out the cake I made. It was supposed to look like a big cupcake. It turned out more like a hershey kiss. Either way it got eaten :)

2 years old- I know he jumped from baby to little guy

18 months

1st birthday and first taste of funfetti cake!
11 months
9 months. This little guy started crawling at 5 1/2 months and walking at 8. Running by 9. He is our little mover.
6 months
1 month

Hawaii- The end

We were lucky enough to be in Hawaii at a time when there were 40-50 foot waves on North Shore. This is Savannah sitting outside of Turtle Bay Hotel looking out over the rough waves. We tried to head to North Shore to watch the professional surfers the day before this picture but the traffic was California-esque so we headed back to Ko-Olina.
The waves were enormous but there weren't many surfers on this day because the waves were really messy. I still can't get over how good Creed has been this month. I was really nervous about how he and the other two munchkins would handle the travel. They were like pro's. I was also happy that they were able to stay semi-healthy and that their bodies didn't completely crash.


This is our favorite guy from the Polynesian Cultural Center. I can't remember his name right now but he is hilarious. He does the Somoa center and explains all about the Samoan culture. He's also the main fire thrower during the night show, and he is an artist. His paintings and sculptures are sold at the Center along with other places I'm sure. We bought a small print of one of his painting just so we would remember him. The kids loved him and just had to get a picture with him.
The La'ie Temple Visitors Center was decorated beautifully for Christmas. The temple was closed for renovation so we didn't get to do a session but we still loved going to the Temple.


The sunset was amazing as it went down behind the temple. I probably took 50 pictures, but of course I'm not a photographer so none of them really show how great the sunset was.

Savannah got some awesome ink! At a few of the "Culture Islands" they had tattoos that you could get. Savannah ended up with one on each of her legs, two on her right arm and one on her left. I tried getting one down the side of my face but it didn't end up working very well because of my whiskers. Bummer.
Savannah and Samantha petting a weird duck.
Daddy making fire!
Steven trying to make fire! ha ha ha. Kidding
Cute little boy. Creed has such a contagious smile

Ah look at that. I didn't know Nikki put a picture of my tat on here. Even with that tattoo I don't look like a tough guy. Dang!

Canoe parade.

We took a hike to Menoa Falls. A small but beautiful waterfall just outside Honolulu.





About half a second after taking this picture of Savannah hanging on this vine, the vine broke and she ended up flat on her back with a bruised rear end! OUCH!!

Ko'Olina once again. I rented this weird circle floating thing. The kids (minus Cole) loved playing on it.





This is just motivation for me for the coming year. Thank you Nicole. I lost a lot of weight before Thanksgiving and have since gained back about 1o pounds of what I had lost. Something to look forward to.

KAILUA BEACH-the white sand beach!

we ate in Kailua at this place that Nicole and Jolisa loved called Boots and Kimo- they had mac. nut pancakes they thought were supposedly the best ever.

All of us feeding the Sea Turtles at Sea Life Park. A very small but nice sea park, miniature version of Sea World.





Making a hike a dusk. We didn't get quite to the top before the sun started to set. But got to see a beautiful sunset over the island.

Sorry there were so many pictures of our trip. We know it is a lot to look at but we wanted to put as many as we could for our book at the end of the year. We had so much fun and hopefully we will get another chance to go back soon. Here's a link to last year's trip, fun to see how much the kids have grown. And amazing to think we didn't have Creed then, we love that tiny little guy so much and can't imagine our family without him. Crazy to think we thought we only wanted 2 kids. What a blessing he has been in our lives. Anyway enjoy the pics!
Hawaii 2008