Landon Turns Eleven!

An overnight flight took us from Kauai to Iowa to help Landon celebrate his 11th birthday.  Saturday morning we watched Owen play basketball and then off to the Kahlers for the party.

Owen playing basketball Saturday morning and Sunday morning.

It was a quick, but wonderful weekend in Iowa!  Sunday afternoon we flew back "home" to Colorado. 

Winter Vacation in Kauai!

It's our first winter without high school basketball, so we get to do a winter vacation to Kauai!  We flew from Boston where Don was working to Lihue for ten days in the sun.  Well, the weather didn't really cooperate and we ended up with more cloudy/rainy days than sunny.

The first few nights we stayed at one of our favorite Marriott's.  We love the pool and access to the beach and Duke's restaurant.

We moved to Princeville on the north shore and enjoyed a week at the Cliff's.  A rainy weekend kept us in to relax and watch all the football and basketball games on tv.  As the weather cleared up we headed to some of our favorite beaches - Tunnels, Hanalei Bay, and Hideaways.

Tunnels Beach

Tunnels Beach

Our favorite - shave ice from the Wishing Well in Hanaeli

Hideaways Beach - It was a CHALLENGE to get down to it this year.  Slippery muddy path from all the rain we've been having.

We took a day long tour of the island.  It was informative and fun.

We finished up the week on the Hanalei Bay beach.

 

San Francisco in January

On Tuesday, January 3 we flew back to Colorado Springs.  We were notified the night before that our flight was canceled, but we were put on the 1:20 flight so all was well.  Don had a USAB event in Denver so we made it in time for that and finally arrived home late that night.  Two days at home before packing up and heading off to San Francisco on Friday, January 6. 

The highlight was attending the Golden State Warriors v Memphis basketball game Friday night.  They lost in OT after leading by 24 points.  We stayed in Oakland that night and then switched to the Marriott in downtown SF for the rest of the trip. 

The cold, WINDY and RAINY weather hampered our thoughts of sightseeing.  We enjoyed our upgraded room and relaxed with the many games on tv and eating out.  Don's USAB event was at the Warrior practice facility in Oakland

Christmas in Iowa

The middle of December found us heading to Iowa for Christmas.  Our first gathering was the Showalter family at Dave and Cathy's for a delicious brunch, exchange of gifts and lots of time to visit with Don's brothers, their families, and his mom.

Christmas day we invited my mom, dad, sister Judy and Jim to our home for dinner and a lazy afternoon of ballgames and sequence.  Later in the evening Judy and Jim stayed on and we enjoyed playing Farkle together.  (Note:  Judy and I wanted to play Dutch Blitz but the men would not cooperate).

Christmas Day with mom and dad.

Our immediate family gathered during the New Year's weekend on the alternate year switch off.  Brent and family arrived on Thursday afternoon from Kansas.  Melissa and family joined the fun Friday morning. 

The first order of business was to see what was in their stockings.  Several years ago we switched up things on the stockings - instead of presents they pull out a certificate to indicate what our activity will be for the day.  We love how this has formed so many beautiful memories for us and for the boys.
This year our activities were: 
Friday night at Wasserbahn Hotel complete with swimming at the water park,
Saturday afternoon we all went bowling,
Sunday afternoon we went to Carver Hawkeye Arena and saw the Hawkeyes beat Michigan in OT!

The boys with their stockings.

Time for opening gifts

Ramada Inn Wasserbahn Hotel - swimming, pizza, staying overnight

Water basketball

Pizza at the pool area

Watching football games in our room

Games in our room

Boys in front of the two big water slides

Cam at the smaller pool

Saturday we headed back to Coralville for a big dinner and then bowling.

A table full of love!

The boys did better than Nana!

New Year's Eve started with Bingo for the boys complete with prizes. 

Fun new activity for the boys.

Owen with one of the prizes.  Dollar General had a wealth of fun prizes.

Next on the agenda:  We taught the boys how to play Pit!

Adult time - Dutch Blitz!

Sunday we attended the Iowa v Michigan game.  Cam and April stayed back for a nap.  It was a great game.  The boys were on the jumbotron with their smiles, participated on the floor at halftime doing Simon Saez, and made it on tv (Big Ten) with Herky.  Successful afternoon. 

And once again, just like that, it's time for everyone to go home.  What a wonderful holiday time together!