Holiday Season 2014

As always, the holidays start with celebrating Leif's birthday. This year it was done with a yummy cheesecake!

We spent Christmas with Leif's family. Here's Leif and his nephews watching digger videos... must be a boy thing!

One of our many feasts.

Bedtime stories in an indoor tent.

One afternoon we all went skating and had a blast! I bought a pair of skates the day before, just for the occasion. I think it's been over five years since I was skating last! It took a little while to get used to the feeling again but I didn't fall. :)

Chasing the sliding children with hockey pucks.

Then we spent a relaxing New Year's on Okanagan Lake with my family, complete with a few puzzles!

And some gorgeous views.

Leif was insulted I didn't want him in my "nature" picture.

On our way back home, we stopped in to see this cutie and her family. Happy (super) belated birthday little one!

Science Center

For one Saturday in December, we traded our nice, fast car in for a minivan full of three kids for a Christmas party trip to the science center. We love that place!

An uncle and his nephew both sat still for over ten minutes watching a video of the progress of various construction projects around the city.

Fun building a block house complete with a driveway and "cars".

Sending balls into the cage to make noise.

Teamwork. :)

Amazed by the moving flight contraption above him. He kept falling backwards trying to look up so high.

Such an awesome face of discovery.

Hawaii 2014

It's becoming a bit of a yearly tradition for us to spend some time in Hawaii - a tradition we really love! This trip definitely didn't disappoint.

We went on two sail boat snorkelling trips and they were both once in a lifetime experiences. On the first trip we saw a pod of over 100 spinner dolphins from the boat.

When we went in the water a little later, a part of the pod came over and swam all around the whole group! This is a screen capture from a video Leif took on his GoPro.

Leif got some other great underwater photos.

Another day, we drove up to the North Shore to take in some huge, powerful waves and watch the surfers.

We went to a local market also and the back garden had some really neat trees.

The second snorkelling trip took us farther up the west coast, and we saw the building where we stayed for the first few nights from the water.

The highlight of the second trip was having two bottlenose dolphins swim along the boat's hull. Just before they took off, I caught one of the dolphins jumping out of the water!

This was the beautiful ocean view from our first place.

And the neatest shell we found on the beach.

For the last week, we stayed by these amazing lagoons.

And these super cool pools!

Last year we didn't have a car so we missed hiking Diamond Head Crater and I didn't want to miss it this year! It was a bit of a climb but the views were so worth it.

So sad to say goodbye, but we will see the Hawaiian sun soon!

December Instagram

Oh Hawaii, you have been so good to us. We will be seeing you again soon. #dolphinlove

Time to wear your best party dress! Thanks to my lovely sister for my entire outfit. :) #workchristmasparty #fancypants

It's a little late, but I've finally finished my littlest niece's birthday present! #handmade #crochet #hardestprojectyet