Hawaii Vogelzangs

Elle and Jill came for a few days before their trip to Kauai. Enjoyed showing them around the island and we tried to get in the Christmas spirit with a (very) scaled back version of our annual cousin Christmas cookie party🎄

Girls’ enjoyed the 5th & 6th grade dance! Olivia helped plan it at student council with a theme of Candy Cane Lane 🎄

Uncle Dwane and Aunt Jen visited after their trip to Maui! So fun to show them around and enjoy time catching up – beach time, hiking, shopping and lots of good food together!

4 field trips last week and I got to go along for 2!

Olivia went to the Hamakua Marsh to plant and learn about the wetlands and endangered birds.

Graham went to the Marine base to board the Polynesian Voyaging Society’s boat, the Hōkūleʻan and learn about how ancient Hawaiians navigated the oceans and also how to tie boating knots.

Brooks went to the Hawaii Youth Symphony orchestra Kids holiday concert where they learned each instrument in the orchestra and enjoyed sing-a-longs and Christmas music.

Graham went to Hoʻokuaʻāina, a community non-profit where the kids learned how to grow and care for taro and its importance and history to the Hawaiian culture. The kids helped pull weeds before having a mud pit race.

The Carusos came to visit for Thanksgiving! It’s been so fun to show people around our spot here and it was a new and different Thanksgiving experience here in Aikahi. We cooked our meat (turkey and brisket!) on the school Imu (the kids had worked to carry the lava rocks during school that week and others helped to dig the whole for the pit), we got our sides from Whole Foods (highly recommend!) and enjoyed a hike and the beach on Thanksgiving day with very minimal time in the kitchen. A great few days connecting with friends and enjoying the beautiful weather and surroundings here – lots to be thankful for!

Nov 14-18

We had an exciting long weekend in Colorado celebrating Josh & Callie! An epic airport reunion started the trip when we arrived 2 gates down from the PA flight carrying 16 of our Balmer family members 😁

The kids had so much fun back with their cousins and Poppop, and we all enjoyed the time with family. It was a weekend of missing Mom, but such a beautiful and special celebration for Josh and Callie. The Vail backdrop felt like something out of a Hallmark movie 😍 congrats to the newlyweds!!!

On Saturday we visited Pearl Harbor for the first time as a family. We saw the USS Arizona memorial and went through different museum rooms and watched a movie summarizing Dec 7, 1941. The kids reported afterward that it was “actually fun” so we’ll consider that a win!

The kids had an extra long weekend off of school so after a busy Halloween night we headed to Kauai for a few days.

The weather was great and surf was high which made snorkeling and swimming not possible at most spots on the northshore. But we had fun running from the massive waves, building sand castles and practicing surfing. Found a cool playground, went to a local farmers market, and lots of surf shops, and food trucks. We got plenty of shave ice and smoothies!

A major highlight was a boat tour of the Na Pali coastline. Only accessible by boat, helicopter or a 12 mile hike, the coast is incredible. We also drove up into Waimea Canyon which had some amazing views. The kids’ highlights were the dolphins on the boat trip and surfing all day Monday in Hanalei Bay! It was super fun for mom and dad to be back 5 years after our trip here for our 10yr anniversary and show the kids some of the spots we loved.

Eden made an iMovie about the trip 👆🏼

I’ll let the pictures explain this one.🎃😁

Eden has been doing bouldering, which is kind of like rock climbing but without a harness. She has a membership so can pop in any time and goes for Thursday classes. It’s going well so far and she’s having a lot of fun!

Other news is…she got contacts! The time felt right with so many scenarios of needing to remove her glasses (pool, beach, water park, etc.) and since she hit 12, we decided to go for it. So far so good!!

Brooks has been very anxiously awaiting this milestone 😁

Our good college friends visited for a few days after our trip. It was so great to reconnect with the Dulls and explore the island together – lots of surfing, snorkeling, and beach time…the southern CA crew fit right in! Their entire family is adventurous and funny and it was super fun to host them here!!