More Friends

1 day after Laura and the kids went home, Michelle, Tom, Pearson, and Colette came to stay with us for a few days. It was so good to see friends from the girls old school. We all had so much fun catching up with each other. We had fun playing with them at the beach. Olivia loved to entertain Michelle. Thanks Michelle for being so gracious and playing and entertaining our baby girl; she loved every minute of it. We enjoyed having you guys. Colette filled us in on all the happenings at Main Street. Julia and Pearson sure had fun wrestling around (WWF for kids anyone).

Family Fun/Kid Crazy

Our next visitors, 2 weeks later, were Auntie Laura, Matty, Alli, Papa, and Grandma. We had lots of fun at the beach surfing, stand up paddling, whale watching, playing at the miniature golf course, hiking to Twin Falls and swinging on the rope swing into the water fall, swimming under the waterfalls, and playing here at our house. We all had so much fun....


















The day we went to the beach to do some stand up paddling, we saw the most amazing site. Brian got to experience it first hand. Yes, that is Brian right next to a baby and mommy humpback whale. He said he was able to smell the breath of the baby whale and see the barnacles up close. He also said the baby whale came up and looked at him. They came right up next to him while he was paddling. AMAZING!!

Humpback Facts: These whales travel to the Hawaiian islands from Alaska around December through March to breed and have their babies. The adult whales can weigh up to 40 tons and get as long as 50 feet (the size of a large school bus). They do not eat while in the Hawaiian waters. Mothers lose about 20,000 pounds from feeding their babies while here (only because their breast milk is 50% fat, vs. humans is about 4%). Baby whales gain about 4 pounds an hour. Wow!!

Friends Fun

Wow, it has been a while since I have done an update. So here it us. We had our first friends, Dana and Phil and boys (yeah, we know who loves us), come and stay with us in the middle of January, right after Dave and Alli went back home. We started off at the Westin for a wonderful four days of relaxing, playing on the water slide, pirate ship, and taking professional family photos at the beach. We then went snorkeling at La Peruse Bay where Dana and I saw a 3 foot barracuda, stand up paddling with just the adults for an all day excursion, hiked twin falls, whale watching cruise, and the Zeips did a lot of other explorations on this island. We had a wonderful time and can't wait for next year!!
Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you, when we were at the Westin, the girls and Owen were able to try out snuba in the pool. They absolutely loved it.

Kite Surfing

Well, as you know, one of our main focuses here on the island of Maui is kite boarding or kite surfing. Brian's job is all about this sport, and our new past time is all about learning and perfecting this great new extreme sport. The above pic is Dave kite boarding out in front of their place at sunset. Our girls love to hang out at kite beach and watch mommy try to learn this challenging activity while daddy goes out trying his wake board tricks while kiting.
Well, Julia has been begging to try to learn this sport, however it is a little too challenging for an 8 year old. But, she was able to take a little ride along with one of the Cabrinha riders, Cameron. Here is a little clip of this amazing ride.....

Iao Valley

The rainy hike to the Iao Needle with Uncle Dave and Auntie Alli. The waterfalls were absolutely amazing. It was pouring all day and we couldn't kite board, so we decided to go check out the waterfalls. The river was rushing down the valley and the road up to the lookout was a little crazy for a little minivan, but all worth it for the spectacular views (and did you expect any less when hanging out with Dave and Alli, always some kind of adventure)....

Christmas in Maui with the Diller family

We picked up my parents first at the airport on the 11th of December and Dave and Alli the next day. We then picked up Jon, Angie and Baby Jaylon on the 16th. Yes, the whole Diller family together for Christmas in Maui. Dave and Alli rented their own place down in Spreckelsville right on the beach. The rest of the family stayed with us at our house, cozy, cozy. So fun to have baby Jaylon playing with the girls and interacting with them. Grandma and Grandpa had a lot of time hanging out with the grandchildren. They were so wonderful playing with them at the beach, making Christmas cookies and gingerbread house with them, taking them to the aquarium, and helping them with their fruitstand. I know the kids had a wonderful time with their grandparents. We went to kite beach just about every day to kiteboard with Dave, Alli, Jon and Char (Brian on the days he wasn't working). Super fun, and a great beach for the kids to hang out. They have their own little lagoon to swim in. Angie helped Char and Jon rescue kites (a lot of exercise running way down the beach and carrying kites and boards back up the beach).
We also went on a really cool hike to two waterfalls with the whole family (except Bri who was working and making it possible for us to have fun on this day, sorry). Baby Jaylon and Olivia even made it, carried in a front pack and back pack. What a beautiful hike.


Angie was able to try out the stunt kite along with Dad, Julia and Olivia at the park on
Christmas day.





























This is Jaylon's idea of fun at the park..









Christmas Day
After a very early morning of Santa presents (5:45 am was the time to start the day according to miss Emma), we had a wonderful breakfast with our traditional omelet and sticky orange buns that Mom slaved over the day before. Emma was a great help in the kitchen and learned how to make the famous sticky orange buns (she'll have to teach her mommy). After very full bellies, we then retired to the couches for a wonderful reciting of the beautiful Christmas story from the Bible about the true meaning of Christmas, the birth of Jesus Christ. Julia did an amazing job reading, even with her littlest sister in the background repeating some of the words. We then resorted to the kids favorite part, the presents. What fun it was to spend our first Christmas in Maui with the Diller family. We missed the rest of our family and friends, however, and wished we had our whole family here. Maybe next year.
After the presents, we took off for the park to fly stunt kites and play. We then went off to the beach for a few hours of body surfing and boogie boarding. Now that is a fun Christmas day. Fun in the sun!!!!! And of course, back for our yummy turkey Christmas dinner and pumpkin pie for dessert. Uncle Jon, Auntie Angie, baby Jaylon, and Grandma and Grandpa returned to Santa Cruz 2 days after Christmas, but not before getting one more day on the beach with kiteboarding. Jon even tried a couple flips while kiteboarding. Cool sport!!! Uncle Dave and Auntie Alli will be here a couple more weeks before they return home to their frozen tundra.
Thanks for making a wonderful Christmas for our family. We loved every minute of your presents, oops, I meant presence. God has truly blessed us with an amazing family and the ability to spend time together. We have much to be thankful for. We hope that everyone reading this has an amazing New Year, 2008 and may God Bless You and your families!!!

Early December Activities in the Tropics

Well, since the weather here in the middle of the pacific is still nice in the winter, instead of bundling up and enjoying cold weather, we are coming up with new ways to entertain ourselves outside. The girls have been begging for a pet, so, of course ,we sent them out to the back yard to capture two chameleons. Brian made a really cool aquarium for outside in our carport. Emma's chameleon is called Honey Pie and Julia's chameleon's is named Strike. They are very excited to have pets to take care of. They catch grasshoppers for them to eat.
The other fun past time the girls have been doing is running their own fruit stand. Papa made a really cool stand for them when he was here, and Julia and Emma made the sign. We have an
abundance of orange trees, tangerines, lemons, grapefruits, avocados and bananas on our property, and we couldn't possibly eat it all. So, our entrepenural girls decided to make some extra money selling the fruit.