Yuletide Christmas Celebration

My parents got us all tickets to see the Yuletide Christmas Celebration this year.

The kids enjoyed being downtown.  We got to see the big Christmas tree, we saw the program and grabbed dinner after the show!

Ohio

We went to Ohio the weekend before Thanksgiving this year.  We left on Friday, right after Elli got out of school and traveled over to see friends that evening.  We were able to hang out with 2 sets of friends and then grabbed brunch with 3 other families on Saturday morning!  It was such a short time with our Columbus crew, but so much fun!  I have a feeling that we'll be heading over there this winter....we've been missing our Columbus people!

After brunch, we went to the 'Red Hotel Slide' and celebrated Thanksgiving/Christmas with the Brauchler side of the family.  The kids had a blast and loved playing with their 2nd cousins.  Emery had never met any of her 2nd cousins and it had been years since Connor and Elli last saw them.

 The Great-Grandkids and Grace & Adison...

 The whole Brauchler Family....

 The original 5...

 The grandkids....

When you only see each other every 5 or so years.....you take a lot of pictures :)

Thanksgiving 2016

Connor kept telling me that he made 'shirts' in his class to wear at his Thanksgiving feast!  This is what they made and I think it's the cutest Turkey outfit!

 This is the best picture I could get of the 3 of them together this year on Thanksgiving!

 This kiddo smiled so well for me, though!

Happy VERY belated Thanksgiving!!

Big Kids

Each kid hit a big milestone this fall.....

Connor learned to tie his shoes!  He came home from school with a 'practice' shoe and was motivated to learn to tie.  It took him a few weeks, but he eventually became a pro! Below isn't a picture of him tying his shoes, but it's of him doing his favorite subject....Math!

Elli got her ears pierced at the end of October!  She had been asking to do this for a few years.  She was so excited and so nervous!  She watched her cousin, Kensley, get hers pierced first.  She cried a bit before they pierced them, but was all smiles when they were done!

We potty trained Emery at the beginning of November.  Out of all three kids, she has probably been the easiest!  She was definitely ready!  Since using the potty, she's had only a handful of accidents.  She has also been waking up dry from her nap and in the morning!  A few weeks ago, we bought a pack of diapers and it could possibly be the last pack we will need to buy!!

They are growing up way too fast!!

Maui- Day 4

We spent all of Day 4 on the Road to Hana.  We left around 5 am and didn't get back until around 6:15/6:30 at night.  It was a long day, but worth it.  We enjoyed all of the different stops that we made.  The drive got a little rough when we made it past the town of Hana.

Some highlights from the Road to Hana:

The Three Bears Waterfalls

We went to the Wai'anapanapa State Park and went to the Black Sand Beach.

Below is a picture of the Twin Falls, one of our first stops on the road to Hana.

 One of our first stops on the road to Hana

Our last stop on the road to Hana was Waimoku Falls.  It was a 2 mile walk each way and worth it.  When we got 1.5 miles in, the trail was closed.  We decided to go past the closed sign to see the falls.

Waimoku Falls and the Seven Sacred Pools (we couldn't swim in the Seven Sacred Pools....they were closed)

Maui- Day 6

On Day 6, we did a snorkel trip to Molokini and Turtle Town.  The trip to Molokini and Turtle Town was relatively smooth.  We were served breakfast on our way to Molokini and lunch after we finished snorkeling at Turtle Town.  We saw many sea turtles at Turtle Town.  We sailed for a bit on the way back to shore....the water was very rough on the way back and we got drenched from all the big waves.

Molokini

Turtle Town

On day 7, we went to the other side of the island.  We went to Makenna Beach and Wailea Beach.  We did some quick shopping at Wailea and ate at Maui Tacos.  We spent the evening in Old Lahaina eating and shopping.

Makenna Beach

 On day 8, we woke up early and spent about 3 hours at the beach.  We checked out of our hotel around 11 and drove to the other side of the island.  We spent the majority of our time in a town called Paia.  We ate lunch there and did some last minute souvenir shopping.  We then went to go watch surfers and found a beach filled with sea turtles sleeping.

Our condo....

One view of the condo....

 The other view of the condo....

All the sea turtles we found sleeping on the beach.

 Our long flight home.

 We had a great trip and definitely want to go back to explore Maui more, but also see some of the other islands.  We can't wait to take the kids when they get much older and can handle the long flight and time change!

Maui- Day 5

We spent the majority of the day at our beach and pool.  We did some quick shopping and went to the Old Lahaina Luau.  This was another favorite thing that we did during the trip.  The atmosphere of the luau was really neat.  The entertainers/hula dancers told the history of Hawaii with different costume changes and dancing.  We enjoyed the people we sat with and will definitely be doing another luau when we got back.