Christmas Morning

The long awaited Christmas Morning and Maggie has the hives. We think she was just nervious the night before about whether Santa Clause could make it to our house with the storm outside.Billy, of course, was the first one up in the house and had to make sure everyone was awake.

Billy started in right away with the biggest present.

He was pretty excited to get Lego Star Wars. He has been wanting any lego's with a light saber for a long time. (It would take me several hours to put this together later that day... remind me never to get any lego's with so many pieces for him again!)

Maggie was excited even thoug she was itchy!

She was happy with the makeup and the Barbie's she got (although I instructed her that she could not wear or use the makeup until she was was 21 years old).

Next was Julie's turn. If you look to the right of her you will se the ketchup and mustard I rapped as a gag gift. She didn't apreciate the humor.

She did however like her food chopper...

And her digital picture frame.

I got a fun game and my favorite... a Symphony Bar.

Next the kids all got to open Grandma and Papa Farr's gifts that they had waited so long to open.

All the kids were happy with their stuffed animal buffalo's... and of course Billy loved the legos!

Drew woke up later as we didn't want to wake him early and have him be awnry for the rest of Christmas day.

He was excited to ride his new four wheeler!

He then also got to open Grandma and Papa's gifts.

Maggie finally went back to sleep as she wasn't feeling well.

Opening Present Before Christmas

The kids got gifts from Auntie Anne in the mail and couldn't wait to open them. I told them not until Christmas but Julie finally gave in and let them open them when they were all together and Billy got home from school.Drew got to go first.
I think Billy and Maggie ended up opening more of the present though for him because they didn't have the patience to watch him open it slowly.

He loved the stuffed frog he got from Auntie Anne.

Maggie got to go next.

This is a HAPPY Maggie!

Billy finally got to go last after waiting for everyone else to open their presents.

Once again, Auntie Anne got the gift perfect. LEGO's, Billy's favorite.

Our Trip to Hawaii

We arrived at Kona Airport after a long flight. The airport was like none other I have been to so far. It was incredible. The buildings themselves were made out of wood that you could smell as soon as you walked into each building.
The planes parked away from the building as we exited the planes via a stair ramp.
Everyone was just relieved to finally be in Hawaii and ready for a vacation.

Our Condos that we stayed in were nice! Each Condo had two bedrooms with two bathrooms, a family room, and a kitchen. They also had a washer and a dryer in each Condo. The kitchen was very useful as we decided to mostly cook our meals the whole week to save money.

We waisted no time and went straight to snorkeling at a spot which quickly became my favorite beach on the entire trip.

At this spot we saw several turtles.

Paul and Staci Joined us. They had already been on the island for a few days before we arrived.

After the first day we decided to take a trip around the island to see the green part of the island. Kona is covered with a lot of Lava rock while the opposite side of the island at Hilo gets a large volume of rainfall every year making it a jungle of green foliage. We stopped at rainbow falls to take a few pictures.

It's hard to get a good perspective on just how dense the vegetation was. It was awesome to see!

There were several trees that had a huge base of what looked like many trees combined. The canopy of these trees spread clear out beyond the base.

More of the dense foliage.

This is the caldera of Volcano on the southeast side of the island.

It is an active volcano that has lava flowing on a regular basis. The lava has switched direction several times and ruined some of the roads that we couldn't travel on any longer due to the lava. Later that day we walked out onto the lava fields and saw where the lava goes into the ocean growing the island every year. Unfortunately the pictures didn't turn out well as it was late at night.

We finished after a long day by driving the 3 hour trip back around the island where we all prepared for the wedding the next day by trying to get a few hours of sleep.

The Wedding Day

A few days before the wedding, Paul and Staci found the perfect spot to be married. There was beach, ocean, rocks, and palm trees. It took some convincing to get Maverick to wear a lei.
This is looking back from the grassy spot where the wedding took place onto the adjoining beach.
Tim and Amelia were excited for Staci
Several wedding photo's were taken before the wedding.

We had to take a few of our own.

Finally the wedding. A Bishop who lived in Kona took time out of his schedule to come and perform the wedding. He had been in touch with Staci and Paul previously to make all the arrangements and suggested this location for the marriage ceremony to take place. After a while Maverick got used to the lei's

In the background behind the wedding party were several surfers taking advantage of the waves and the beautiful day!

A picture of all of Julie's family who attended minus Paul Staci and Maverick.

A wedding dinner was held directly after the ceremony at a small seaside restaurant called "Huggo's." The food was amazing and so was the view.

Tim and Amelia searched the island before the wedding to find a cake.

The restaurant had a view all of the ocean up and down the coast.

The day ended well with Staci and Paul headed off on their honeymoon which would eventually take them to Maui. It was a perfect day and place for a wedding.