Merry, Merry Christmas!! Yawn, Yawn Yawn....

1:30 am -- I finally turn off the reading light and put down North and South (January bookclub book that just happens to be my new favorite sappy BBC love story -- thanks Katie!!). What a great Christmas Eve. Party at Grandpa's was the best! Trip to the cemetary to sing to mom, followed by the traditional Wall family teriyaki steak, stuffed mushrooms, 7-layer dip, artichoke dip, sausage rolls, fruit, veggies, shrimp and more.... Fiona and Bobby and Anna, Tamera and Cory all joined us this year (for a total of about 32 or 33 people!)

The new and revamped Manger Scene (thanks Brooke it was good and Rob your addition of Samuel the Lamanite was great as well) was wonderful! Cameron had been waiting for weeks to be a shepherd and he took his roll very seriously. Baby Jonah stole the show as they layed him in the great manger Anna made. (And Christopher and Adam fine acting!!)

Of course, Dave and Scott had to do one horrible piano/guitar duet and Adam and Dave grossed me out by wrestling and Dave getting desperate so they starting giving each other wedgies.

Cousin presents were fabulous -- the kids couldn't have picked out something they wanted better if they had done it themselves.

The Jammie dance/mambo line was fun as ever, with a pile on Grandpa to end the evening. I really do love our Christmas Eve tradition. It is a little wild, a little long (got home about 10:30 pm) but the kids love it -- I love it and it is so fun to be all togther.

3:30 am - 5:30 am -- "MOM, MOM, MOM... can we get up a open presents now? We are all awake." (We as in I just woke them all up!!) Who was this... our 4-year old... no it was Lauren who is 11 and has way to much energy and excitement at 3:30 am. So, for the next 3 1/2 hours every 20-30 minutes she would run upstairs and say, "can we get up now."

5:30 am -- MOM, MOM, MOM... DAD please wake up. Finally Dave said everyone get in bed with us and go back to sleep. So all 5 Hess's tried snoozing away. As Cameron climbed in bed, with a huge smile on his face, he said "Dad, don't be mad.... but Santa left me a real gun... a real one!!"

6:45 am -- Meow!! Somehow the cat got out of his room and came upstairs to be let out. Ok, so we finally gave in and we all got up and mom working on 2+ 20 minutes here and there hours of sleep started the day. And yes, I am still yawning!

The next two hours consisted of screams of delight, excitement and incredibly excited/gracious kids. They loved everything so much they stopped along the way and played with things, looked at things, laughed and talked. Somehow with all of their excitement the gift opening lasted probably 2 hours.

The best mental picture I will always keep in my mind if Cameron in the shower using his new shaving kit Lauren gave him. He has already had two showers today so he could go lather up his face, hang up the batman mirror and act like Dave shaving in the shower.

And the new wii games -- if anyone ever said the wii is for our kids they've never watched Dave play the Wii.

(Kenzi is dying to get on Webkinz and try her new trading cards so I will write about Christmas day on a different post.)

Day 10: December 11 -- The Red Eye Home

No Personal Entertainment Devices, but within seconds of boarding the plane Kenzi and Cameron were sleeping. After a long 6 hours (somehow Kenzi got the best ride, her head on my lap and her feet on Dave) we were home.

Ok... talk about cold shock. We went from swimsuits and flipflops to snow and 30 degrees. Nice Sterling picked us up and we shivered all the way home.

We arrived back in Bountiful... the end of our vacation. Tanned, tired and longing to return we went inside to discover our wonderful friend Val and brought us a gallon of milk and a huge breakfast casserole with a note "We thought you might be hungry -- Merry Christmas!" Sweet Val made it feel ok to be home!!!

Day 9: December 10th -- Aloha to Hawaii

With much sadness (everyone begging to stay another day) we got up early, cleaned up and checked out. After a quick stop at the swap meet (we just had to go back and get a few more things) we went back to the north shore.

We stopped at Sharks Cove again and then met Bethany and Adam & Stacey at Hukilau beach. There were some intermittent sprinkles, but nothing big enough to spoil the day. Adam and Stacey and Lauren tried building a snowman in the sand, Kenzi boogy boarded until she was blue again and Cameron "high-yayed" Karate kicking the ocean for 2 hours. The kids found a big hole another family had dug in the sand and had a great time playing there.

Just as it was time to pack up a little rain storm came by... the result... the most beautiful double rainbow I have ever seen. It was a full rainbow that crossed the entire ocean and I got the most beautiful picture with Dave. As we watched the rainbow Dave told the kids "This is a sign from God. We are supposed to move to Hawaii." I must say, we couldn't have planned a better ending to our last beach day.

We sadly packed up and went back to the Cottles to shower and get rid of the sand. The girls and I got locked in the bathroom which added just a little more fun to our final hours in Hawaii. All of the Cottles then joined us for take out on Sharks Beach (yummm more shrimp and lunchables for the kids???). We all watched the sunset, ate yummy food and wished we could stay longer!!!! Does it get any better than this?

Reluctantly we said goodbye and headed back to the airport. Everything was smooth and after taking some pictures we left Hawaii.

Day 8: December 9th -- Temple & PCC

Dave and I got up early the next morning and drove back to the North Shore to go through the temple. I had done baptisms when I was at BYU Hawaii and had always wanted to do a session. Everyone was so gracious and kind and it was a beautiful session. It was cool to see the layout of that temple before the renovate it this January.

We picked up the kids and heard all about their sleepover with Bethany, movies, breakfast at the cafeteria and playing with Anniston.

It was time to head to the shrimp trucks (Subway again for the kids?!?!) and it was definitely worth the wait. Yummmm.... why didn't we just eat that every day?

Next... Polynesian Cultural Center. We loved this of course and enjoyed the canoe rides, shows, luau and especially the night show. They also loved the fishing and Cameron and Lauren got to be in the Tonga show. Cameron kept saying he didn't want to see the fire dancers, until we reassured him they wouldn't be throwing any fire on us. The luau was tasty and the kids loved getting leis. We were all fascinated by the night show (except for Cam who was zonked) but we did wake him for the fire dancers.

Day 7: December 8 -- The Perfect North Shore Day

If you could plan a perfect North Shore day -- this day would be it.

We started off early and headed to the north shore. We took one of the scenic routes (ok so they are all scenic routes) and stopped by the Dole Pineapple Plantation. We didn't really plan to do much of anything other than go look at some pineapples growing, but we didn't last very long there. We got out of the car, took a picture and went in the Dole store. The girls and I were buying a few Christmas ornaments while Dave took Cameron to take care of Mother Nature (Cameron's new favorite way to say he has to go potty "Mom, Mother Nature is Calling!"). When they got out of the bathroom Dave came up, hardly breathing... I thought he was having a heart attack and said we've got to go -- NOW! We got out to the car and he finally starting breathing. Let's just say Dave doesn't like things that are tourist set up type deals and the Dole store was too much for him to handle.

Our first stop along the beach was Hailiua -- home of Motsomotos shave ice -- with vanilla icecream of course! When I went to BYU Hawaii this was one of the places our totally cool surf instructor took us so I had been dying to go there. It was everything I remembered and still just as cool. What a great little town!!

Next stop -- Turtle Beach. Brutus the turtle was conveniently lounging in the sun on the shore while we were there and another guy was bobbing in the ocean. The kids loved seeing the huge turtles up close and personal.

Waimai Bay was the swimming/relaxing beach stop for the day. This is the beach my friend Anne and I went to a lot. It was beautiful, not crowded at all, and as usual, relaxing. The kids had a great time finding miniature sand dollars on the beach. The Cottles joined us for a while and the kids loved having Anniston there.

We were then off to Sharks Cove to play in the tide pools -- we didn't actually know about this in advance and just happened to stop when we saw them. It was low tide and we couldn't have hit it at a better time. We saw tons of tropical fish, a miniature eel, a "peeing" sea cucumber, tons of sea urchins and crabs. Oddly enough, Kenzi the one who generally loves creepy crawly things, was a little freaked out by everything swimming around her ankles and being so up-close.

It was time to head to BYU Hawaii and drop off the kids for a sleepover. Adam and Stacey offered to let the kids stay over night so we could go have a nice dinner and go to the temple. The kids thought this was one of the greatest adventures of the trip. They got to eat at the cafeteria and then came back and made movies with Bethany. I am told there was hysterical laughing througout the night. (And... Adam got some practice with changing poopy toddler boxers -- thanks to Cameron.)

Dave and I headed off to a perfect little place on the North Shore called Jamesons. We sat right in front of the ocean with tiki torches and dined on seafood and macademia nut cookie pie with fudge. It was the perfect ending to a perfect day!

December 7th -- Day 6: A Relaxing, Beautiful Sunday

When we booked the trip I was a little worried about Sunday, but it turned out just great.

It started at 4:30 am with Dave and I both being awakened by cars, yelling and quite the scenes below. We went out on the patio and just laughed. A few blocks down from our condo are some "not so nice" bars -- that only come out and open their doors at night. (Lauren was just dying every night when we walked by... fortunately Kenzi was totally oblivious and Dave and Cam stay at the condo when we go out on our nightly ventures). But it was a wild Saturday night and people had had a little too much to drink. Watching the police down the street break up a fight, the drunk guy pass out at McDonald's and more we were just so happy we have Word of Wisdom! When the girls woke up in the morning I made them promise not to ever taste a drop of alcohol or touch any kinds of drugs.

So... off the church went. It was really cool! We slipped in a minute late (only got slightly lost for a minute on the way) and they were singing the sacrament song. I'd say 3/4 of the ward were Polynesian and I just loved looking around at the shapes, sizes and accents of everyone. As they passed the sacrament I could feel the spirit so strongly and was so happy that we know the life we know... what a contrast from what Dave and I saw the night before. (Ok so a few more tears that morning.)

It was testimony meeting so we got to hear from the soldier returning from Afghanistan, the lovely islanders who were so sweet, the cute investigator who talked about Revelelations and looked like "Ignaya Montoya" from Princess Bride and the sweet little girls who had their testimonies written down so they wouldn't forget anything.

It was cool to see the Sunday School schedule where they teach Gospel Doctrine in 6 different languages!

After church another bit of bad news. We were home changing getting ready to see the other side of the island and Kenzi announces she isn't feeling well -- I'm guessing from what she said another case of strep. I can't complain too much because so far any sicknesses have come with as "perfect of timing" as we could ask. After some calls to our nice Dr. and some mix up on prescriptions, we ended up just putting Kenzi on Cameron's prescription.

Again, thanks to Ibuprofen we headed off to a Buddist Temple at Beautiful Valley of the Temples. It was so beautiful! There was a bell you would ring before entering the temple and we took off our shoes and lit incense in front of the 18 foot gold buddah.

The kids again found a penny squisher and loved feeding the fish and the birds that would eat out of their hands.

A beautiful drive around the island, with some stops and picture taking along the way, and we went to see the Cottles. We sent Kenzi to sleep in the spare room so we wouldn't share germs and had a fun lunch with them. Cameron and Lauren had so much fun playing games and playing with Anniston. We then headed over to the Temple. I forgot how beautiful it was over there. The grounds were gorgeous and they had trees decorated from all of the stakes on Oahu with a scripture theme. It was fun seeing the visitor center adorned with surf boards.

We had a beautiful drive home and the kids came home and crashed! Since it was Sunday and everyone was dead we didn't do our nightly walk, but I did do a trip to the pharmacy to load up on more Ibuprofen.

December 6th -- Day 5: Swap Meet and Kahulia Beach

After wandering through the shops for a few nights, the girls were ready to shop! We headed down to the swap meet and ran into Bethany. We got some fun stuff, ate some pineapple and coconut and got some fun souveniers. Fortunately or unfortunately Cameron is a horrible shopper and we stayed about 1/3 of the time I had planned. (I guess it was good for the budget though!)

We weren't too sad about leaving so quickly since the sun was shining and we were headed to Kahulia beach (a one time nominated top 10 beach) and a #1 beach in Hawaii.

We traveled through the Poly Highway and made a quick stop. It is amazing to see the dense jumgle! When we were getting ready to leave a tour bus of Japanese teenagers got off. A cute group of girls stopped by and started touching Lauren and Kenzi's hair -- they seemed fascinated by the blonde! The girls said hello in Japanese and they really loved that! They immediately got out the cameras and we all took pictures!

Next off to the beach and it was lovely!!! Dave's favorite so far. White sandy beaches forever and no crowds and you could walk out for a long, long way.

Adam, Stacey and Anniston met us there and Cameron turned into the Karate Kid again and "high yawed" at the water all afternoon. Kenzi the boogie boarder was hilarious! She couldn't get out of the water. She was riding the waves all of the way in. After a couple of hours in the water her teeth were chattering and she was cold, but she wouldn't get out... she said she wanted just one more wave!

Lauren the sand women was in heaven because of all of sandy hills to climb and Adam the sculpture turned Lauren and Kenzi into mermaids.

After a long, sunny afternoon at the beach we loaded up and headed home with a quick stop to Subway... yes Subway ... that is what the girls wanted. I found a great Aloha salad next door and then we stopped at a beach on the way home and watched the sun set.

We came home, had showers to get the gallons and gallons of sand out of our hair, ears, swimsuits, etc. Cameron fially had a chance to swim with his scuba diver he bought at the swap meet!

The girls and I wandered around downtown and found more penny machines and then decided to mix it up a bit and enjoy Chocolate Macademia nuts for our bedtime snack.