Christmas Morning at the Looslis

The fun started the minute we stepped into the Loosli house. Eliza was already showing off on Isaac’s new unicycle…

Ashton showed off his fabulous new bike WITH a huge lock. His previous two have been stolen!

We don’t mind admitting that we were hungry by the time we got to the Looslis house on Christmas morning and we were delighted to be treated to the traditional eggs benedict, which has been a long-time tradition at our house!

It was the best ever! “The Saren and Jared team are pretty experienced at this delicacy!

The assembly line:

After a beautiful breakfast, we went back to opening presents. We had given the twin lego sets that they had set their hearts on. When they dumped out that giant mess of tiny pieces I thought it looked like a nightmare. Within an hour, they came up with their amazing creations!

Isaac was delighted with new shoes…

And Eliza was busy making hats on her new knitting gizmo all morning!

The most treasured gift which will last a lifetime came from Saren who has been working her heart out going through old pictures to find just the perfect historical record, starting from our marriage in 1969 to the birth of our first baby (her), to the birth and babyhood of our ninth baby, Charity. It is astonishing! 

Just to give you an glimpse of our first nineteen years of marriage and family, I took a few pictures of the pictures (not really the best quality). It will be treasured forever!

From our wedding day and early marriage…..

To our first babies, Saren (on her blessing day) and Shawni (17 months apart and great little friends)….

Tal’s blessing day in our mission home in England. 

 

Noah’s blessing day at our family home in SLC!

This was the day we came home from the hospital with Charity. after having four boys in a row, this little girl was about to be spoiled rotten!  One of my favorite pictures! 

Makes me realize why photographs are so important. They catch moments that would otherwise be lost to our memories!

Having at least five pretty major photographers in our family helps to keep those memories alive and in beautiful living color…now…

But having this wonder woman who spent hours sorting through old photos (the good, the bad and the ugly) and organizing them into a priceless treasure is an enormous blessing. Love you Saren!

Christmas Eve Morning in Hawaii

Since we had to leave Hawaii in the afternoon on Christmas Eve to be able to get home in time for Christmas morning with the Looslis’, we had a fun Christmas Eve morning with the Hawaiian Eyres. Everyone had a wonderful time. There is always magic in the air when it comes to giving and receiving gifts! Pictures are worth a thousand words!

This fun gift for Elsie brought delight to everyone (especially Po) who saw this little bird take a drink of water. I  remember having one of those when I was little. Or was it when our kids were little? Or was it at Grandma’s house? Anyway, it brought back fond memories and pure delight to the kids over and over again!

 

Ana was over the moon when she found this little caste iron frying pan for her dad at a garage sale. It was $2 but she talked them down to $1!  She could hardly wait for him to open it. Caste iron is one of his favorite things!

Forgot to take a picture of Ana’s delighted when she opened her Half-Chaps for her riding lessons, but I did take a picture of her Breyer horse collections which she proudly displays in her room and covers up when a small child or week-long visitors come into her room.This is just a portion of her horse collection. The rest is under her bed!  She is quite a horse fan don’t you think?

 

And before we left we saw a demonstration of Camden doing “The Plank”. He is the school champion for his age group and manages to hold this position for 8-15 minutes. Is he a strong guy or what? Only his toes and his elbows touch the floor (although he did tell me that he usually does this on a carpet).

The girls had a fun ride just before we left….

And of course, we made a last stop at the beach right next to the airport to watch Jonah kite surf, one of the hardest sports in the world. He is really getting good!  There are always at least 50 kites up on this beach because the wind never stops blowing there. It was so fun to watch!

Aja packed us a lovely bag of treats for our journey and armed with a Christmas present for the whole family, a new paddle for our paddle board at Bear Lake, generously gifted by Jonah, we headed for the airport in Seattle. We spent Christmas Eve on the plane and at a Comfort Inn for a four hour nap before we headed back to SLC at 5:15 a.m. to join the Loosli Family for Christmas morning.

A Christmas season we won’t soon forget! 

Cutest Christmas Piano Recital Ever

Aja has about 14 piano students who are so lucky to have her! The extra room that Jonah built is just the perfect stage! These two are wizards at making the best of their space, so this doubles as a dining room, Christmas tree room and piano room!

Starting with the most awesome pregnant piano teacher ever who is supported by her husband Jonah who cleared out the garage for the recital, dropped his precious surf board in the process Note the tons of guava/cactus flower that he made jam stashed in the corner….

This piano is terrific! Great touch and the kids could choose their “sounds” for their pieces. We got some pretty fascinating special effects!

After moving the dining chairs to the audience, Jonah built a lovely fire to welcome the guests and Po prepared herself for the performance!

The addition of candles and the table for treats the room was positively magical! Those of you who have been here will appreciate the magic that this actually represents!

Camden played three numbers and did a magnificent job!

Ana surprised us with a beautiful song from Enya that we hadn’t heard her practice! She said that she memorized it long ago and had played it for prelude in Young Women’s several times. She also played two other songs including a fun duet with Aja.

AND Aja and I even got to play a duet for the finale! We tried our best not to get the giggles on the mistakes! The fact that we each have a sister that we usually play duets with made it especially fun!

Grandma Hazel would have been so proud of the whole evening. Having taught about 1000 piano students in her day, she would have LOVED being there to enjoy this fun recital!

A reward system for the kids’ practice is always a highlight. Camden won the award for the most points for his practicing and Ana wasn’t far behind. Each of the students got to go to the table in the kitchen and choose a reward for their hard work according to their points.

A great memory!

Beaches and Bamboo

You can’t come to Hawaii without enjoying the sensational sun on the beaches! We did our best to soak in all that we could!

 

 

 

Note Jonah carrying Po into the sunset in the center below:

Ana and Cam getting ready to jump off at Black Rock:

Our favorite hike in Maui is one that we discovered 20 years ago through our friends who lived there. We named it “The Bamboo Hike” and we’ve been going back in different configurations ever since. We’d never been there when there was anyone there…until now…..when someone put the location in a “Places to See in Maui” magazine. There were twenty cars by the side of the road when we got there. I guess it’s important to share. People or no people it is a simply spectacular hike.

We went with friends of Jonah and Aja, who have now become our friends as well. The Anderson family is adored by the Eyres…especially Po who loves their terrific oldest daughter Sydney:

 

After a walk with everyone to the first waterfall…

….we sent the rest of the group on and we went back to grovel in the fresh clean air of the bamboo forest. It was astonishing! This is Dad’s idea of heaven!

He laid right down and looked up to see the gorgeous tall bamboo trunks shooting 50 feet in the air and just watched and listened to poles clanking on polls when the wind occasionally rushed through.

I sat nearby and took pictures. From the very same spot, the sun coming in and out of the clouds created fascinating and constantly varying colors!

The ground cover was gorgeous as were the colors in each band of growth:

We rejoice for Heavenly Father’s plan for the beauty of the earth!