Mele Kalikimaka

Aloha from the Hawaii of the east. Sure we're missing palm trees, pristine beaches and sunshine, but we have weather FORTY degrees higher than average temperatures, each day we're hitting new records - it's crazy.

We decided to find our own cold and went to ICE!. If you've never been, it's basically a gigantic freezer filled with enormous ice sculptures. Some of you may remember when my dad accidentally karate chopped the Grinch's hand off doing a jumper a few year's back (Ice & Other Breakable Stuff). The theme this year was Santa Claus is Coming to Town, based on the classic TV special. We wandered around their 28 degree freezer in the issued giant blue coats, admiring the creations and sliding down the ice slides. Then we froze and exited the tent into the biggest plume of warm air outside - so odd.

The warm temps didn't dampen our Christmas spirit. We cranked the air conditioning up, snuggled up in footy pajamas, and waited for Santa's arrival...and he came. Whew. My brother had been a bit of a stinker on Christmas eve and I guess was a bit nervous. He ran out Christmas morning, read the note, and screamed with excitement - "MOM! Santa says we have been VERY GOOD boys!!! He's not mad about yesterday!"

Our family continued my mom's family tradition of crazy stuff at the breakfast table. This year it was Christmas tree glasses, antlers or Santa headbands, and racing cars. We FaceTimed with my grandparents and cousins while they ate breakfast - they got clown noses! We love this tradition. Another family tradition is to read from Luke 2 on Christmas morning. This year was kind of special because my big brother was able to read part of the verses in the scriptures about Jesus's birth - pretty cool.

Here are three photos highlighting the morning - Bodie opening a present wearing his new Chicago Bears gear (I got the NY Jets), me, celebrating as I opened a bus, and my dad wearing his footy pajamas, new Dolphins hat, and his new "statement" blazer. I think the minnon to the left captures how we all felt about this outfit - our eyes were popping out.


Hope your Christmas was filled with the merriest of memories and your own fashion statements.

Christmas Shenanigans

Tis the season to be kind, wear funny stuff, and have fun for no reason at all - hey, that sounds like every day life to me! We had our annual Christmas brunch which filled our home with 400 cookies, 200 friends, one dozen casseroles, 3 spiral hams, and a mess we didn't mind cleaning up. (hmm, maybe this should be a song...)

We also joined a few dozen friends as team "Sweaty Santas" for the Snowball Stride 5k. Clearly we have fast friends because our team had the winners for the 9 and under boys and 40-49 women. This was my first real race as a runner, so a few days before the race I started strategizing about how I would win. I got my "lap time" around our yard down to 14 seconds and ate a big pasta dinner the night before, I was set. My mom might have mentioned (a few thousand times) that 3.2 miles is a bit further than a lap around our yard and there would be a need to pace myself, but I was mentally prepared for the challenge...

Then the gun went off and I left my mom and Gater in the dust. About a mile in, my shoes got MUCH heavier and my dad trotted on. The "dust" and my mom caught up to me and I slowed them to a screeching halt. "Let's go Bodie," I was told. I watched my dreams of first place whiz by me, one person after the next. How could my intense "house lap" training fail me? And I ate pasta?!?! Okay mom, remind me what "pacing yourself" is again? She explained as we jogged, then she drug me along, then we walked, then jogged, then she drug me along, then we jogged, then...is that the finish line??? BYE! I have never run so fast in my whole life. I gave no indication of my intentions. I saw that finish line and didn't want to loose to anyone else, I had already lost the race, at least I would beat my family, and I did. They had cared for me and ruined their own race times, all to ensure I would finish. I repaid their kindness with selfish victory and boy, was it sweet.

Fortunately for me, my parents are awesome and didn't kill me. They are, as you know, both responsible for my competitive genes. I may have also mentioned after the race - a few dozen times - that I beat them. So I guess my house lap training DID pay off! We celebrated after the race with hot chocolate and fudge - like all good runners do!

We were also lucky to have a December visit from my Nana and PopPop, do Christmas crafts with our awesome neighbor JoAnn, eat Christmas cookies, visit with our cousins, plan and participate in our church's Christmas party, eat Christmas cookies, attend friends' Christmas parties, and visit the national Christmas tree. Lucky, lucky us.

And this has nothing to do with Christmas, but it's a daily activity, so my mom wanted to capture it - perhaps also as proof for any medical insurance claims that may need to be filed in the future. We have grass around the majority of our yard with one strip of concrete that provides a walkway to the curb. My new game - and I'm teaching Gates the game too - is to throw and catch a football WHILE leaping over the concrete. It's a challenge because I have to look up for the football, which usually means I miscalculate the jump, which often leads to impressive wipeouts. It's awesome.

I'm Thankful for...

I'm thankful for family, cruise ships, warm destinations in winter, my little brother, and endless bacon at a buffet. This is my gratitude list this Thanksgiving. My mom's parents celebrated their 50th anniversary this year and instead of a huge party with lots of people, they asked for a huge trip with a few people. I love them a lot, so I agreed to travel to tropical islands and celebrate their marriage milestone. We visited Costa Maya and Cozumel, Mexico and the Cayman Islands.
There was no shortage of shenanigans, with my grandma and grandpa usually serving as the instigators. On our first night in the formal dining room, my grandma handed out frisbees and boomerangs - nice. A few nights later we got jumping frogs that we competed to flick into a glass in the center of the table - again, thanks to grandma. On Thanksgiving we wore a fashion-forward turkey hat and the day after thanksgiving we celebrated with Christmas tree glasses - classy. Needless to say, we didn't win the popularity award with our neighboring tables, but we sure had fun.
Our adventures on and off the boat kept us busy. We went snorkeling with turtles, played hours and hours of ping pong, ice skated, rode tons of water slides, became fiercely competitive at shuffle board, shot hoops, enjoyed mini golf, climbed the rock wall, and did a massive blow-up obstacle course in the ocean.

   (Sidebar: my mom made a comment as she and my dad were helping me and Gates swim several yards out into the ocean to get to the obstacle course - by the way, who does that with a two and five year old? - that they may not be the smartest parents, but they sure are fun. My grandpa quickly jumped in with a smile and agreed, "Yes, you are NOT the smartest parents...") Why let the dangers of an ocean stop some memories!The obstacle course was RIDICULOUSLY fun - so glad we risk our lives to experience it - thanks mom and dad!

Speaking of fun, my grandparents reserved the Flowrider, a man-made surf machine on the cruise ship, for just our family and we had a blast. Watching everyone ride/surf was fun, but seeing the wipeouts was definitely the funniest part - my dad had some impressive ones.
The whole trip was absolutely "picture perfect," thanks grandma and grandpa!

Six.

Bodie is old. He's six. He's been hanging out with my parents for 2,190 days - wow. And because nothing with Bodie is low-key - he is my mom's son, you know - we've been celebrating all month. The highlight of the birthday celebrations was a bowling party with eight of Bodie's buddies. We ate cake shaped like a bowling pin, snacked on bowling pin cookies, and drank from bowling pin water bottles - like I said, nothing is low-key. Thanks to the bumpers, everyone bowled decent and we all had a blast. Oh, this is probably a good time to mention why Bodie has scab artwork across his face.

My dad and I went to get Bodie from school earlier this month. He was so excited to see my dad that he started running at full speed, flung his arms back to jump into my dad's arms and give him a big hug. This would have all been awesome except Bodie tripped and his face absorbed the ENTIRE fall. Yep, pretty gross. His teacher - and several other parents - watched the whole thing and said she got nauseous thinking about it all weekend. Nice. So we left sections of Bodie's skin on the sidewalk and walked home to assess the damage. The impressive part, Bodie didn't cry...at all. Crazy.

My mom came home to find Bodie with multiple blue Transformer band-aids strategically covering his face. My dad may not be a doctor, but man, he sure knows how to adhere band-aids and Neosporin. Bodie wasn't fazed a bit. These pictures were taken after it started healing and looking much better.

Birthday celebrations took place all month and included singing at Sunday school, singing waiters on our cruise (more about that on the next post), and clown cupcakes at school - seriously, I think he was serenaded at least a dozen times. My brother sure knows how to do birthdays right. Lucky me to have you for a big brother - Happy Birthday Bodie!

Old Fashion Family Road Trip - Part 3

I didn't know much about South Dakota, except that it is below North Dakota on my globe. My first introduction to this fun-filled state was when we crossed the boarder from Minnesota around 9pm at night and my parents asked if I had any energy left. I was pretty sleepy so my reply was, "Just a little." Then I saw it - a one hundred and fifty-six foot long waterslide sticking out of the side of our hotel. "I HAVE TONS OF ENERGY!" I yelled, "Let's go!!!" And so we did. From 9 to 11pm at night, the four of us slid down that crazy waterslide and played in the fun pool until we nearly fell asleep floating. I knew then that this state would be a favorite, and it was.

The next morning we were off - trying to get from east to west in South Dakota is quite a trip. The good news is the speed limit is 80 miles per hour, so we flew! We made a stop to see the world famous corn palace - yes, an entire building decorated in corn. Decorating the building is an annual town event that's been going on for about 100 years. They use like eight colors of corn and do some pretty over-the-top designs - yes, the Willie Nelson picture to the left is COMPLETELY made of corn. While interesting, I was more amazed that the birds weren't eating the building - I guess they know it's the pride of the town. That's us with the town mascot, Corny!

Using our cool road trip app, Roadside America, we found the Pioneer Auto Museum. There is no way I can accurately describe this place, but if you're ever in Murdo, South Dakota - you've got to go. My dad was in Heaven - 402 classic cars. Millions and millions of dollars worth of beautiful, old cars. Oh, and TONS of other wacky odds and ends. My mom loved seeing the original General Lee - I guess Daisy Duke is from South Dakota.

My dad bumped into the owner and relished in their chat. I met the owner's daughter (who's about 55) and she took me on a scavenger hunt of the property. And Gates, well, he wasn't too impressed - even when we found this fun sign with his name on it. The place is filled with unexpected greatness. It looks like a junky old warehouse from the outside and once you enter, there are endless cool treasures. We were told that the TV show American Pickers has filmed there more than 80 times, buying all sorts of history. This place is the kind of thing you find only on a old fashion road trip - lucky us.

How could South Dakota get any better? Oh, it could. We arrived in Spear Fish and stayed with my dad's Aunt Trish and Uncle Gregg. They are not only super nice, they are super fun too. We walked in the door to the most amazing dinner smell and they pulled out a huge bin of toys - needless to say, Gates and I became instant fans of Gregg and Trish.

Making it to Mount Rushmore was the ultimate goal for our trip. So what did we do when we got to this historic landmark...jump of course! Except Gates - he pretended not to know the crazy jumping tourists and he just looked cute. This site definitely lived up to all of the hype. It's pretty amazing how a bunch of guys made this incredible statue by blowing off chunks of rock with pieces of dynamite. While we were there, we watched some old films about the process and the day it was dedicated. I asked if we were allowed to climb up their faces. The look, more than the response, ensured me that no, this was not a climbing stop. This was a learning stop and we all walked away a little smarter.

And our fun in South Dakota just kept on going. There was this guy who was snacking in the median of the road. And then this guy who walked in front of our car. Oh, and this guy...we LOVED him.

My parents actually discussed rolling down the window for a better photo - HELLO PEOPLE, he is a BEAR! Bears eat people. I am a people and do not want to be his lunch. Thanks to Gregg and Trish's advice, I am still alive and able to type this blog. Whew.

 

We left our great company and fun South Dakotan adventures and headed south to Wyoming. To be honest, Gates and I napped a lot through Wyoming. I'm sure it's a fun state, we were just on a very remote highway and took the opportunity to snooze. We did make a stop for a treat at Dairy Queen in Cheyenne and then hopped back in to make it to Colorado by dinner.

 

Our buddies, the Nelsons, recently moved to Louisville (outside of Boulder). We were super excited to see them, their new home, and check out their fun little town. Lucky for us they like boys because the four of us were only quiet for this one photo and it took us an hour (and a million threats) to finally go to sleep.

Awesome friends are just that, awesome. Sure it's great if they live across the street from you, but life doesn't always work out that way. While I loved having the Hickmans and the Nelsons near by, this trip showed me that having friends all over the country is also great. As my mom always says, don't invite our family to visit unless you really want us, because we'll probably show up!