Back to Reality and Merry Christmas!!!

So our last day on Maui was great we did everything one more time, snorkeling, surfing swimming... then it was time to come home. The flights were a little crazy and I am going to try and make the story as short as possible. First, about two hours or so into our flight to Seattle a man had a heart attack and that made things crazy for awhile but he was okay so I went to sleep(Bobby slept through it). Then as we were making our final decent into Seattle we saw a bright flash of light outside the window and as was confirmed by the flight attendant, we got struck by lightning!!!WHAT!?! Apparently it is a common occurrence because the crew acted like it was nothing. So our next flight was delayed an hour, which turned into two, which turned into three. There was some kind of mechanical problem with the plane which is always a confidence builder. Anyway we finally board the plane and the attendant tells us we are still waiting for the Pilots(nobody can drive in the snow in Seattle). They arrive and tell us they have found another problem with the plane and they are going to try to fix it by phone instruction, at this point they start a movie...not a good sign. So they fix the problem but now the plane needs to be de-iced and it's going to take awhile because they don't know what they're doing, then they tell us that they used to much fluid and it seeped in the windshield and shorted out all of their equipment so now we have to wait for someone to fix all of that! There was a point when I told Bobby that we should get off the plane while we were still living, but eventually we made it home. It was great to see the kids, not so great to see the snow. This is a picture of our backyard, there is a three foot wall back there and you can't even see it. We are going to have ourselves a swimming pool when it all melts :)

The kids are enjoying the snow very much and Bobby is right there with them which is great. He made a sled out of an old wheel barrow and they are having a blast with it.

Merry Christmas!!!

On Christmas Eve the kids all worked on a thank you note for Santa, and of course put out some milk and cookies, which Milena ate as soon as no one was looking, she even ate the carrots we put out for the reindeer, she cracks me up.

I french braided Stacia's hair so she could wear it "bumpy" on Christmas day and Milena said she wanted me to do hers too, I didn't think she would actually let me do it but she held as still as a two year old can and we did it. It's her first time with braids so I had to document it. Aren't they cute?

Christmas morning was a lot of fun. Milli really got excited and it was fun to watch. Lauren liked to open the presents, she is at the age where we should just get her paper because that's her favorite part.

Every year the kids go on a treasure hunt for their last gift, Stacia and Landon got a Wii which they are making very good use of. Thank you Santa!

Milli got a race car which all of the kids are enjoying, it's making me very nervous for the future, hopefully they will be better drivers when they turn 16 or watch out world!

We went to my mom's for brunch after we opened our gifts and we had a wonderful day. We are so thankful for our families and all of our awesome neighbors, and we are so thankful to have the Gospel in our lives. We are truly blessed!!

We hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!!

Happy Birthday to ME!!!!

Today is my birthday and it was the best day ever!!! It started out with Bobby serving me breakfast in bed and then we went to the beach. We enjoyed the sunshine for awhile and then we did some snorkeling. It was awesome we saw so many cool fish, including a couple of puffer fish.

We saw all these little sand crabs running around and it is amazing to me how much they blend into the sand. You would never even notice them if they didn't move.

Bobby has been wanting to go surfing but there aren't that many good surf spots, so today he surfed on the man made wave which was really fun. He said it was pretty hard and that it's not like anything he's done before and he has done it all, so that's crazy.

This evening we went to a luau which was so much fun!! They had some silly activities that we tried, this was like a javelin throw.

They slow roasted a pig and we got to watch them dig it up, although we're pretty sure that's not the actual pig we ate, it was still pretty cool.

This guy was awesome , it's hard to capture something like that in a picture, but it sure was fun to watch.

I went up on stage twice to hula dance. The first time was voluntary, they wanted people to come up and learn a dance, the second time they picked me out of the crowd. It was a little embarrassing but it was fun and I'm glad I did it. Bobby really should have been up their with me but he hid behind the camera when he saw the girl coming to get him.

On our way home we saw all these trees lit up and thought it looked cool so we stopped and got a picture.

Wow what an awesome day!! This has been the best week and best birthday!!! Thank you so much Bobby for all of this and everything you do for me. I feel very lucky to have such a wonderful man!! Thank you to everyone who helped with our kids, this was such an amazing trip and I love and appreciate my family so much!!!!
And of course thank you to Frankie, the condo was amazing and so was the use of the Audi!

The road to Hana

We went on the road to Hana yesterday, which is something we also did on our honeymoon and which I do not have fond memories of. The first time around we did it really fast and didn't stop much and then on our way back down Bobby was driving so fast and the road is so curvy that I ended up throwing up on the side of the road. This time was much better, we actually saw all the cool beaches and had a lot of fun.

This was a bamboo forest, it was pretty cool. There was a little hike to get to it which was pretty easy, but on our way back down we went off the trail which was a bit harder, it was muddy and slippery and we were wearing flip flops so it was kind of comical and of course I fell on my but at least once.

At one of the stops Bobby found a coconut and decided to use the skills he's learned from "Survivor" to open it. It was so yummy!!

This was a black sand beach, it was really pretty, just like everything else in Maui.

Don't we look hot in our super cool water shoes?

Me cliff jumping into one of the seven sacred pools.

Bobby cliff jumping.

What a fun day, it was an all day adventure and of course Bobby drove like a crazy man on the way back but I didn't lose my lunch so it was all good.

Our first days on Maui

We arrived on Maui Wed. night around 8:00pm, and it was a beautiful evening. We went to dinner and then came to our condo and crashed for the night. In the morning we woke up to the loudest thunder I've heard in quite awhile. It was pouring rain outside and it lasted all day. On the evening news they were interviewing locals and they said it was the worst rainstorm they've seen in 30 years!! Leave it to the Ginn's to bring the great weather with us. We decided to drive around the island because that was pretty much our only option and we ended up having a decent day, very relaxing.

These are some mud waterfalls we saw on our drive, it was crazy, there were rocks and mud all over the roads.

It cleared up enough in the evening for us to do a little grillin' for dinner and we even went for a little swim in the pool, which we had all to ourselves because it was still raining a bit.

This morning Maui was again it's beautiful self. This the view we have from the lanai... not to shabby.

We went down to the beach and did some boogie boarding, well Bobby did some boogie boarding, I tried but the waves beat me up so I just sat on the beach and read my book which was just fine for me.

Then we went down the road to a different beach and went snorkeling. I got a bit claustrophobic but Bobby held my hand until I could relax enough to do it on my own. What a good man I have.

Our attempt at having a picture together.

We saw some dead crabs and wondered where all the live ones were.

Then we noticed that the live ones were black so they were harder to spot but once we knew what we were looking for we saw them everywhere.

We had such a great day today and we feel like even if today is the only sunny day this trip was a success.

Family Night Gingerbread Houses

The Bender family invited us over to build some gingerbread houses tonight and it was so fun. Nicole made all the pieces and frosting from scratch which is amazing to me because I would have no idea how to do that. Some of the parts were a little askew but we made sure the Benders got all of those ones :) So of course the kids had a blast with all the decorating , I definitely ate more candy than I put on the house, and I think the Dad's should get new jobs as architects, if you look closely you can see Jason sticking out his tongue in deep concentration. What a fun night! Thank you so much for including us !!

Thanksgiving x 2

Mama Lemke had to work on Thanksgiving Day so we decided to have our big family party on Friday. My family still wanted to have our own Thanksgiving , and I already had a turkey so we had thanksgiving two days in a row. Both dinners were very good and I have to say it didn't help in my quest to be swimsuit worthy for Hawaii, but it was worth it.


At Grandma's house the girls made pretty pictures with all grandma's scrapbooking stamps.

The boy's were very serious about their Yoga on the Wii Fit, it was pretty funny to watch.

Everyone had a great time and a relaxing evening.