Christmas and Such

After our amazing Hawaii trip, we came home to ever-welcoming Montana and a balmy -20 degrees. Having a 90 degree change in less than two days did not put me in a very good mood. For the first time ever, I actually considered moving away. It warmed up after a week or so as we came toward Christmas.
For Christmas, we went up to Henry's parents' house and spent a couple days with them and his sister Katherine and her boyfriend Logan. It was a nice relaxing time and we had a lot of fun.

Some pictures of cookies Hank and I made - I think we started a new tradition!


For New Year's, we went out with some friends and enjoyed a night on the town. We hadn't done that in a really long time and we had a blast!

Just before heading out for the evening:


Passing around the New Year's hat some very drunk people gave us.


My turn with the hat.


At the end of December, we put our truck up for sale and at the beginning of January, we sold it for our asking price! We are going to miss it very much - we loved that truck but it is going to free up a lot of money in our budget without the monthly payments and allow us to meet some financial goals we set for ourselves.

Our last days with the truck.


So far, 2010 has started off with a bang and we are anticipating our best year yet! Henry goes back to school tomorrow and it is really exciting to think about how our lives will have changed by this time next year. Happy New Year's Everyone!

The Last Hawaii Post!

Our last day in Hawaii was wonderful. We went on a zip line adventure with Kauai Back Country Adventures and had so much fun! We got to go on eight different lines down through a canyon. It was a little scary the first few times but we soon got the hang of it and were running and jumping with the best of them!

At the top of the course.


Amanda going across line two.



A view of the stream below Henry's leg. He's wanting to show how high we were.


Perfect shot of Henry as he goes on line four.


We were extremely lucky and got to see Mt. Wai ale ale on one of the very few days each year it's not covered by clouds.


Henry was able to take a video of line five, the longest line. It was about 980 feet long and our average speed on all the lines was about 30 miles per hour. Enjoy!


After the zip line, we had some time to kill before we met my step-brothers for dinner so drove around and went to Wailua Falls and the Spouting Horn to watch the water shoot through the hole.

Wailua Falls:



Spouting Horn:


That night we met my step-brothers for dinner at the Beach House and had a wonderful meal and a wonderful time spending time with people we don't get to see very often.

Thank you Dad and Karen for a wonderful trip to Hawaii! We had so much fun and hope we get to do it again someday!

More Hawaii...Finally

Good grief, Charlie Brown. I am having the hardest time catching up on this blog.

Back to our Hawaii trip - after the day of the helicopter ride, Henry had to spend a couple days doing homework. On Saturday, he did homework for about half the day and then we were able to go to Hanalei, the little town by our house and check out a craft fair/farmer's market. It was really fun and we were able to get most of our souvenirs. We were also introduced to Shave Ice (and yes, it drives me crazy that they don't call it Shaved Ice). Their claim that it is better than snow cones is true in our opinion. If you're really nice, they will even tell you the secret of putting a little bit of condensed milk on top which really takes it to the next level. Then we went to a beach and just relaxed, reading in the sun and sand.






On Sunday, we spent all day at the house while Henry did homework and I hung out on the beach at the house and read.

On Monday, we went snorkeling with the whole fam at Poi Pu beach on the southern side of the island. I saw so many beautiful fish and was even able to spot an eel. Henry was able to find a sea turtle of which I was very jealous. I did get to swim with turtles on our trip to the Big Island and I was really happy he got to do that too.

After snorkeling (no pictures, sorry. I doubt that anyone wants to see me in a bathing suit anyway), My Dad, Karen, Henry, Hailey and I all went to lunch at the Puka Dog place! It was so stinking good - I had to take a picture of it.



I have been craving them since we came back home and I wish we had found them earlier in the trip so I could have eaten one every day. My Dad bought us some of the sauce to take home and it is already gone. We love putting it on our bratwursts. So good. We are going to have to go to the website and order more because mustard no longer satisfies me. Must have mango sauce.

Then we went to the Kauai Coffee Plantation where we were able to get gifts for the people who took care of animals for us. We also got some gifts for ourselves! I even tried a little bit of coffee and enjoyed it. It was delicious.


The Coffee Plantation:



Some of the beautiful flowers at the plantation:

Bird of Paradise


Hibiscus


Some cool trees that Hailey calls "organized trees" since their branches are so even.


Ok, this post is getting long enough so I will have to do one more Hawaii post. Special shout out to Adam and Diana who went to Kauai on their honeymoon, discovered Puka Dogs and then told my Dad about them. THANK YOU!!!