November happenings

November was a wonderful month!  I went on many different trips (which is my all time favorite thing to do).  I got to spend time with family and friends and remind myself what I have that makes me truly Grateful at this time of year.

Our cat Peter fits in any size box she can find:)

Our annual family trip to Great Wolf Lodge.  Julian brought his friend, Jacob Greathouse, along and they had lots of fun playing together.  The twins were also there this year and had fun with Hayden and Grady Holwege.

A couple of the kids wanted to play on the ropes course at Great Wolf Lodge.  Unfortunately no one had packed sneakers and they wouldn't let you on the course with just flip flops.  I had to run into the store and grab some water shoes so they could participate!

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Happy Birthday Hyrum!  His office staff made him wear this birthday sash all day:)

More remodeling.  This time we replaced the carpet in our upstairs hallway with hard wood...

...The finished hallway.  I think it looks fantastic!

Our yearly trip to Mt. Hood for Thanksgiving.  Once again Hyrum provided us with a fantastic feast of "Turk and Mash"

It's always super fun if it snows while we are on Mt. Hood.  It makes our little visit so much more magical.

The hot tub feels so nice with snow falling all around.

Took a little family walk in the snow up at Timberline Lodge.

Hyrum's brother Jason joined us up on Mt. Hood for a few hours.

Jason and Townsend playing shuffle board in Timberline Lodge.

Emerson and Dad playing ping pong in the Lodge.  

Another month for the memory book...Goodby November!

Maui, Hawaii

This was our third trip to Maui.  This time we really just took it easy.  There were no big "must see" sites that we had to check off our list.  Hyrum spent the mornings in his Medical seminars and then we spent every afternoon at the beach or taking small hikes.  This was such a wonderful, relaxing trip!

November 12:

A lovely walk along the path at Kapalua during sunset

"Dragons Teeth" Kapalua

You really can't beat a sunset in Hawaii!

November 13:

We went up to Haleakala Volcano to hike a little on the Halemau'u trail.

We walked a few miles out to a great view of the Haleakala Crater.

It was so amazing to be above the clouds and see gorgeous blue skies above us and clouds obscuring everything below us.  As we were getting back in the car to head home off the volcano we picked up a hitchhiker that needed a ride back up to his car after hiking all day on the Halemau'u trail.  He said it was an amazing 12 mile hike and totally worth doing if we could fit it into our schedule.  Hyrum and I decided that we should take advantage of the wonderful weather and hike the trial the next day!

November 14:

You have to start your hike with a hitch from a stranger to the Visitor Center at the top of the mountain.  

The famous "silverswords" that grow only in the Haleakala crater.

Hiking, down, down, down into the crater.

It was like walking on the moon.  Such a desolate landscape.  The hike was mostly downhill into the crater but it was pretty steep in some parts.

Gorgeous different colors of sand inside the crater. 

We stopped at the Holua cabin for our lunch break.  We had some Nene birds visit us and beg for some food.  These birds are only found on the island of Maui.  They were very persistent but there were signs all over telling visitors not to feed the birds so we kept our lunch to ourselves:)

After lunch it was up, up, up back to where we parked our car.  This was a grueling uphill climb.  After hiking all day it was a very steep climb at the end.  I have never been so happy to get to the car. I was a bit nauseous at the car but I think it was exhaustion and altitude sickness. Once we drove down off the volcano I was fine.  This was an awesome hike and I hope I can take my kids on it some day.  It's such a unique experience to hike through a volcano!

November 15:

Went for a fun day of driving, site seeing and shopping in Wailea (old church above)...

and Kihei (delicious fish tacos and fun shopping)

November 16:

We drove the road to Hana and stopped at some new places that we hadn't seen the last 2 times we were in Maui.  This was a fun little water fall hike, Pua'a Ka'a.  We ditched the lower falls where all the tourists stopped and hiked up to a very secluded water fall.  We had the place to ourselves:)

Hiking down from the waterfall.  It was super muddy, my shoes got so full of mud I decided to leave them in Maui:)

A very old church along the Hana Highway in Ke'anae.

We tried to capture a selfie with a wave crashing on the rocks...this was the best we got:)

Pretty waterfall on our walk down to the view point at the bottom of Nahiku road.

The view from the point.  Super lush green mountains and beautiful ocean below.

VERY sketchy bridge...no wonder they closed the point to vehicles.  You have to park and walk out to the end of the road.

Fun botanical garden (Kahanu Garden) with old Hawaiian ruins.

At the botanical garden

The view from our cabin in Hana, it was so beautiful!  This was such a cute, cozy little cabin that we stayed in for a night.  We woke up to rain pounding down on our tin roof.  So happy for a cozy place to be warm and safe.

Isn't this place so cute? It was a perfect way to spend our last night on Maui.

November 17:

We drove the back road from Hana.  We stopped at the Palapala Ho'omau church to see the grave of Charles Lindbergh.  I liked this stained glass window of "Hawaiian Jesus"

Best way to finish off a trip...gelato in Paia!

Another trip to Maui in the books.  I really enjoyed how relaxing our days were.  I got to sleep in most days as Hyrum went to his classes.  We did a bit of snorkeling but didn't stress about finding the perfect spot.  If it looked good we snorkeled:)  I loved that we got to stay a night in Hana so we didn't have to do that long drive all in one day!  I love Hawaii!

Back to my Happy Place...California!

Paige and Zach wanted to meet up with some friends at Disneyland and needed someone to come watch their twins.  I really couldn't imagine anything that would make me happier than volunteering for this job:)  This was a super quick trip, I was there Sunday through Wednesday and had the best time of my life playing with these two cuties.  Paige and Zach took Remy to Disneyland, they had a great time with some friends and were able to relax and not worry about the babies.  My sister Riann and I got to have a few days to play with the cutest babies in the world:)

Look how happy I am!!  This is my "best day ever!" face:)

Yummy sushi dinner with the DeShetlers before they left for Disney.  Remy is the cutest!

They are the best!

We took the babies to the duck pond.  

The DeShetler twins in a swing for the first time!  I had to find this photo of my twins, Townsend and Emerson, to compare to my nephews.  They loved the swing so much!  Both of them were smiling and kicking their legs...just like my little babies 14 years ago:)

Mommy was SO happy to be with her babies after 3 days apart:)

Paige brought me this delicious macron from Disney.  I had to say goodbye to these two babies and I was so sad.  I wish they lived closer.  I love these little boys so much!