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.

Olivia the Korkeler

We went to the beach to go snorkeling with Matty and Alli on their last day here, hoping to see turtles. The waves were too big to see anything in the water that day, but the turtles decided to make a showing anyway and came almost all the way up to shore. They were feeding on the rocks right out in front of where the kids were playing in the sand. Olivia decided she wanted to try snorkeling, which she calls korkeling, and would not take no for an answer. Here is a hilarious clip of her getting the snorkeling gear out of the bag and putting it on all by herself.

Surfing Day

Off we went to Cove Park for an adventure filled day of surfing and frolicking in the ocean with Matty, Alli, Grandma, and Papa. Matty had a great time learning to surf on the blue foam board and was not afraid of the waves. Alli got up a couple of times on the surfboard and then went tandem surfing with Emma. They had the most fun paddling out to the surf and just holding onto the surfboard as the whitewash covered them. Their other favorite thing to do was looking for hermit crabs and crabs in the rocks.


Here is Matty shredding it up on the surfboard.


Tandem surf time with Alli and Emma!! Alli and Emma looking for crabs.




Alli having a great time surfing- what balance..

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Here are a few video clips of the kids surfing. The first one is Alli doing amazing on the surfboard. The next one is Matty ripping it up and the last one is of Olivia surfing on the board all by herself, getting braver and trying to get to her feet. Amazing for a 2 year old.





End of our fun day!!! Here is Julia and Matty goofing off...

Horseback Riding

We were able to get all the kids on a horse at Julia's horseback riding lesson. Matty was able to
have horseback riding lessons with Julia and ride his own horse. It was so cute to see Matty and Julia trotting their horses side by side in the arena. Matty did amazing for his first time riding. Supposedly Matty and Julia come from a long line of horse riders according to the teacher. Must be those old west riding ancestors? Alli and Emma were able to ride with each other or with Olivia. They all had so much fun. They rode horses for close to 2 hours. Matty said he couldn't believe that it was his first time riding a big horse and a horse by himself all in the same day. Emma and Alli got a kick out of trotting on their horse. They couldn't stop giggling or jiggling.
Here is a great clip of Matty and Julia trotting on their horses.

Halloween with Matty, Alli, Papa, and Grandma

We all were so excited to have Matty, Alli, Papa, and Grandma for Halloween. Our festivities started with Emma's classroom Halloween party. Matty came to help me with the kindergarteners and Alli was able to participate in all the games. We had a great time. Then we had Julia's classroom party. Matty was able to participate with Julia in all the games, and Alli observed. We then started getting ready for Halloween trick or treating. The only cousin we were missing very much was baby Jaylon. He was dressed up as a little pumpkin, so so cute, and we were able to see him on skype.
Here are some great pics of the kids outfits.
The two pretty princesses.











Basketball head, I mean basketball Matthew.


Cute little Minnie Mouse.

Julia played her part at Spiderella.












We went to Paia for dinner at 4:30 and sat across from Woody Harrleson at Flatbread Pizza. The staff was all dressed up and a lot of kids from the girls school came dressed up to eat there as well. We then went down a little ways to a very nice, expensive neighborhood, Spreckelsville, that is very popular for trick or treating. The streets and sidewalks were filled with many kids and parents. The kids had a great time until it started to rain. This was a perfect time to end the night. It was the first time we had seen people dressed up sitting on a golf cart and passing out candy. That is the ritz for you. The kids enjoyed coming home and taking inventory of their candy and then proceeded to devour many pieces, get all jazzed up, and then, my favorite part, sugar low and nightie night.

Emma's Field Trip and Julia's 8th Birthday

Emma went on her first official kindergarten field trip a couple weeks ago. We went to Wailuku stadium where the fire department set up a huge fire prevention show including a burning house, a car with the jaws of life taking the roof apart, smoky the bear, fire suit donning contest and, to top it off, the fire engine with the ladder extended 75 feet up in the air with a fire hose expelling water onto the crowd below. We got absolutely soaked. The backdrop for this show was absolutely amazing. Here are some pictures to explain this.
Emma and her friend Lennon (who is from China and has been teaching Emma some Chinese).


Happy Birthday Julia!!


Julia turns 8!!! Her birthday present the day of her birthday was horseback riding lessons. I can't even express to you how excited she was. For those of you who know Julia, know that she loves, daydreams, and is obsessed with horses at this stage of her life (a little like mommy was at her age I guess). Here are some great pictures of her first riding lesson.

We then had a birthday party for her at a local park close to our house (which is also where her horse riding lessons are, in the backdrop of the park). We all had a fun time watching the horses, playing a soccer game, playing on the huge play structure, and beheading the monkey pinata. Overall, a great party and a great day. We were blessed with one of the nicest days for this time of the year. Wish you all were here to enjoy it with us.