Christmas in Kauai

Christmas with family in Kauai! Last Christmas my family decided that the next Christmas was going to be in Kauai! My family was welcomed to the Island with a nice tropical storm. 

I took my family to Hopii Falls! This was one of Callie's favorites from when she was here last time on the island. But with all the rain we were getting the waterfall was gushing more water than I had ever seen! Callie and I braved the jump while my mom frantically ran back to the car. We both survived and kind of wanted to do it again but didn't want Mom to have a heart attack. We also went to trivia at Chicken in a Barrell. We totally are telling ourselves we got second place. One of the categories was Greek letters. We studied all day so that we would be ready! The only reason we didn't get first place was because our team was really small and each Christmas item someone was wearing was an extra point. My mom rocked it on the music round. She knew almost every song. I loved seeing her sing all the songs she grew up with!  

When the rest of the family landed we went to snorkel at Lawai beach. We saw every fish there is to see in the sea. We stopped by the spouting horn on our way back and I think we will remember the passed-out druggy girl in the parking lot more than the blow hole. We couldn't believe how still she was sitting in her car. Her door was open and she was super slouched with her chin touching her chest. We had to stare for a while to make sure she was alive. When we saw her hand twitch we ran out of there. That girl is going to have serious back pain when she wakes up. 

We had a lovely Christmas Eve hanging out at the Villa after church. We took a nap by the pool read our books, watched the most amazing sunset, and had a wonderful Christmas Eve devotional about my Grandpa Manuel from my dad. We played bells, ate some yummy food, and watched Polar Express

We took about 200 photos of the sunset from our patio. I mean is that gorgeous or what? We did several different combinations. We had the best room in the whole villa! 

Ava said Merry Swiftmas and I just loved that. We kept finding our conversations leading back to Taylor Swift. We played lots of family games in the evening. 

I'm not so sure what happened in these photos but we laughed pretty hard once we saw it. 

Christmas day couldn't have been more amazing. We ate some yummy food opened gifts and swam in the ocean! Gavin, Callie, and I made a sandwomen. We kept joking all day that someone would ruin Christmas if they didn't participate in something. Ava kept trying to get everyone to eat a sandy chip through what are the Odds game. Thankfully Christmas was saved because everyone participated and Graham ate the chip. 

 

We thought our sandlady was kinda cute. Callie found some grass to make a skirt and I put fresh flowers on her head. We loved Sandy. There was the Chiefs game playing on TV that day and I think this was the first time I even thought about football on Christmas. Us girls were thrilled when the cameramen showed Taylor in the box cheering on Travis. 

Ava showed us a video of a kid saying can I pet your dog? Can I pet your dog? So when we saw this fella was on the beach that's all we could say. 

Graham wanted to play his ukulele at the beach and he sounded pretty good. We spent the rest of the afternoon swimming in the pool at the hotel. We went down the water slide, and even got Mom to play Chicken Wars for a minute! Gavin surprised me with Taylor Swift tickets in Singapore next spring!  I think I am in shock! 

We paddled up the Wailua River the next afternoon. We all paired up on paddle boards! Surprisingly we made it to the waterfall a lot quicker than I thought we would. We wish we had brought our snack though. 

Grayson was the only one saying he didn't want to get wet. But every time I looked at them paddling this is what I saw. Both boys in the river.. Glad I wasn't sharing their board.

The boys never made it to the waterfall.. The rest of us enjoyed the lovely walk and falls! Because of all the rain everything was so lush and green. 

We had dinner that night at Keoki's Paradise! Sooo yummy! We all wore our white dresses mom got us for Christmas! Keoki's has the best Hula pie in the whole world and carrot bread. 

We spent plenty of time at the beach, eating snow cones, and shopping on the southside. I think everyone wanted to buy everything from Poipu Surf. I get Kama'aina which is 10-20% off at different stores. My family was eating this deal right up. I probably went and checked out several times because people kept finding things they wanted. Everyone found something they loved. 

We loved seeing the Hawaiian monk seal and turtles at the beach! We had a family movie night one evening and my dad put on The Fall. We were literally laughing so hard the whole movie. It's about two punk teenage girls who climb to the top of a radio tower and get stuck. The girls say shi* every other ward. It honestly was hilarious. We had a good time watching that. 

The Grand Canyon of Hawaii! During the hike, my dad's wallet fell out of his pocket when he almost fell. When Ava was hiking back up the mountain she saw it lying on the ground. Lucky day for my dad! He was able to buy his yeti that night with the wallet! This is a Christmas I won't ever forget. I had the best time being with my family on my island. We laughed and laughed and it was fun having someone come to celebrate the holidays with us. A Christmas I will never forget. 

December times!

My December started off with a holiday party for all concierges on the island who work for Marriott worldwide. I was a bit bummed that we couldn't bring a plus one. I enjoy my co-workers but sometimes we are just not on the same level. I was worried about being trapped in a boring conversation for 4 hours. Turns out I was right. Everyone got drunk and to be honest I don't really think drunk people are that funny. The smell of alcohol makes me nauseous and I just don't enjoy seeing grown adults act like they are twelve again. We had some people standing on the tables whipping their napkins around their heads. While others were shaking their booty a little too much on the dance floor all while trying not to tip spill their fancy drink. I just didn't understand. The party wasn't a complete loss because I won the giveaway, I ate some really nice food, and I got to see some of my serious co-workers loosen up a little. 

I got a text one night from someone in the bishopric asking if I would speak on Sunday. I'm not one to say no ever so I agreed to it. I was a little frustrated they were asking me so late into the week I only had a few days to prepare. Non the less I got my talk done and was ready to speak. The morning of my talk I woke up at 8:38 and remembered that ward counsel is at 8:45am. I flew out of bed and just had time to brush my hair and teeth before throwing on a dress and sprinting out the door. When I walked into ward counsel I saw the Relief Society president holding some Lei's I just looked at them and thought how pretty. When I sat down everyone seemed extra excited to see me that day. Everyone was saying hi and smiling extra big. I thought that was odd but didn't think too much into it. Anyway afterward counsel, I was walking into sacrament and the bishop told me that I would be speaking with Elder Utchdort today... um, what? Then I remembered the leis and how happy everyone seemed to see me and that was because they were all just told who would be at sacrament meeting and who was speaking with him. I panicked for just a minute but then felt totally fine once the meeting started. I decided to just stick to what I had written and speak from my heart. I don't want to brag but I think I totally killed it on my talk. Everyone was laughing and I see could almost every single person looking at me the whole time. I would write down what Elder Utchdorf talked about honestly he was just talking about everything. After the meeting, someone told me that Elder Utchdorf told them out of all the times he had been to Hawaii my talk was the best talk he had ever heard. Someone else told me my talk was better than his. Another girl met me with tears and said my talk helped her so much. I emailed a copy to three people who stopped me on my way to yw's. I'm not going to lie I felt proud of myself and now I have a pretty cool thing I can share in two truths and lie. Just kidding. But honestly, this was an experience I won't ever forget. I was glad Gavin snagged a picture.