Christmas 2015

A wonderful, family-filled Christmas!

Christmas Eve 

CHRISTMAS DAY

Time in papa's gym.

Sleep-over!
One of these years it will work!

Mom and dad came over on Christmas day.

Days following Christmas

Time for games

and lego building!

Hurt's Donuts!

Fruit Loops donut!

Owen says thumbs up.

Adult game time when the boys go to sleep.
April won in Dutch Blitz.

Showalter Christmas

Showalter Christmas at Dave and Cathy's house on Sunday.

Monday - ice/snow day

The Kahlers could not make it back to our house.
We spent the day inside with activities.

Kasen mixing up a new batch of playdough.

Stories

and drawing.

Read aloud time in papa and nana's bed.

Iowa Hawkeyes BB game

Landon & Owen came for another night on Tuesday and we
went to the Iowa vs #1 Michigan State game.  Iowa WON!

New Year's Day

Go Hawkeyes!  New Year's Day at our house for the
Rose Bowl.  Fun day even though disappointing game.

Baby Ayla, daughter of Josh & Katie

Darrel, Janet, Josh and Katie

Dad and Mom

Judy with her granddaughter, Ayla

The Fun of Christmas with these five!

Cam - 2 years

Kasen - 5 1/2

Cade - 7 1/2

Owen - 6 1/2

Landon - 9 (1 mo shy of 10!)

Hawaii - The Big Island

Our third week of vacation was spent on the big island at Kona.  We haven't been on this volcanic island for many years.  We are staying at Wyndham's Kona Hawaiian Resort.  We are in a two bed/two bath beautiful condo.

Shrimp on the beach patio at
Bubba Gump's

Day trip across the island from Kona to Hilo via the northern passage.

Lava fields

Rainbow Falls

Pe'epepe Falls and Boiling Pots

The beauty in the flowers!

Volcano Day Trip
We booked a day/evening trip to get us to the Volcano National Park to see the "glow" of the recent active crater.  We were picked up at 11:00 and our first stop was at Kona Joe Coffee Farm where we viewed coffee bean plants, toured how they roast and package.  We at a picnic lunch at the Farm.

Our trip to the south end of the island came with a delicious stop at the Punalu'u Bake Shop and then to a black sand beach where we saw a dozen turtles sunning on the black sand.

Back on the road we were off to the Volcano Park where we viewed the crater of Kilauea Iki and hiked a mile to and through the Thurston Lava Tube.  We had a nice dinner at the historic Volcano House and could see the smoke from the eruption.   At sunset we were driven to the Jaggar Museum to view the "glow" of the active crater.

Coffee bean plants

These were delicious!

crater of Kilauea Iki

Smoke from the active volcano

Entrance to Thurston Lava Tube

Snorkeling Trip

We saw many sea caves.

Captain Cook's monument

We snorkeled in three great locations.

Many, many dolphins - spinners that were fun to watch.

Night at the Ranch
The all you can eat steak was enough to get Don to sign up for this trip!

Last Day on the Hawaiian beach