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!

Back to the Homestead in Hawaii!

It’s always SO fun to come back to this beautiful little homestead of Jonah and Aja’s in Maui! There’s nothing like being crushed into their wonderful world for a few days!

On the way home from the airport, Jonah told us about his latest grand adventure. Every so often the state decides to cull (thin out) an enormous herd of wild cows out in the mountains of Maui. They shoot several of the cows and then hook them up to a helicopter with long straps and bring them out for the use of those who have signed up to get them. Through a friend who happens to be a certified retired butcher, Jonah ended up in the middle of that little episode and helped a this friend to clean, cut up and grind an enormous amount of meat from four cows, two 5-600 pounds and two that were 12-1400 pounds. They quartered, cut and ground, and packaged 400 pounds of meat into three pound bags and gave it away at the ward Christmas party. In addition, Jo and Aja now have about 200 pounds of every cut of beef imaginable in their huge freezer. Jonah, of course is tanning one of the hides for a beautiful cow-skin rug! All I can say is WOW!

 

There were some creative changes at the homestead this year. Jonah had finished the cute chicken houses….

The papaya tree had grown like a week!

The new backyard tub/shower was in full working order….

The house was decked for Christmas with these darling stockings sent by Luvy (the other grandmother) to replace the ones they lost in the fire.

Their cute Christmas tree, cut by invitation from their neighbors’ yard is below. 

We love the new painting in the entry too. That Aja’s creativity never ceases to amaze us! This is painted on a piece of plain plywood. The design, textures and colors are wonderful!

 

This little cherub had probably changed the most since we saw her last summer.

This time we got to meet a new pet that Jonah had just found in their tree in the back yard. A beautiful chameleon which had already turned green from the green on his shirt. The kids fell in love and were delighted to let him crawl all over them and hold the little critter, even Po! Oh man, the other grandkid lizard-lovers would love this little guy! After a few minutes of show and tell, he went back to his family.

Some things were the same… orange and tangerine trees laden with citrus that we enjoyed every morning for breakfast and fresh eggs from their fun back yard as well as luscious fruit dropped off by good friends.

Another thing that never changes is Elsie’s devotion to artwork and creativity.

At dinner Jonah, made the most delicious beef (fresh from the mountains just a couple of days earlier) curry with green papaya from the yard and homemade (of course) naan. Elsie entertained us with her creative use of her naan:

Every morning we attend scripture study at 7 a.m. with the two school kids and their dedicated dad!

And walked the kids to their cute school about 6 blocks away where they eat breakfast before hitting the classrooms. At least half the studentbody eats breakfast at school. Camden has 19 kids in his class! How would that be Josh (who has 30 in his class)?

Shortly after, we dropped the kids off hit the North Beach where we soaked in the sun which was such a welcome delight after leaving the freezing cold and heavy inversion in SLC! We made it back just in time to see Ana’s horses riding lessons and meet her teacher (and the horses of course).

The stables….

And Ana with her horse for the day, Millie…

So fun to watch her do some little jumps on her English saddle!

Downtown Makawao is such a fun place. It’s so great to be able to walk there admidst beautiful scenery in about 6 minutes!

The town has bountiful boutiques and amazing art galleries and it is easy walking distance to the library, the Post Office, the tennis courts, the elementary school, the horse paddocks and most importantly, the thrift store where we bought a cute baby basinet, a teddy bear and one other thing I can’t remember for $1!

It’s just an all around GREAT DEAL!  This fabulous family is living a magical life in the slow lane and loving it! How great it is for us to be able take a peek every once in a while and be delighted by their lovely lifestyle!