Christmas

This year we enjoyed Christmas with our family. We went to Christmas Eve dinner at the Benson Hotel to their London Grill, mighty tasty (they no longer have Banana Foster but try their Pistachio Creme Brulee it was amazing).

Then on Christmas morning Kathie and Jim came over for breakfast at our place and we all opened our stockings together here, then loaded up the cars and went to their place to open presents. Jared had tons of fun just maneuvering and climbing all over and through the presents. Of course he just loved ripping up the tissue paper and climbing into the empty boxes. It was good times had by all. Of course we enjoyed Christmas dinner their as well, nothing like Prime Rib and Crab to celebrate the season (thanks again Kathie it was delicious!).

So now another Christmas has come and gone and we are grateful to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for giving us the ability to be together forever as a family. We have had a blessed year and look forward to the New Year with hope and excitement for new things to come. We hope that this Holiday Season was joyous and bright for you and yours,

Love the Elia Ohana

More Snow!

When it first started snowing, just 2-3 inches on this table on our patio.

After snowing off and on all week long, we measured the table this morning and it was 13 inches deep!

We got freezing rain early Sunday morning, and they cancelled Church for the second week in a row. There was a layer of ice about a 1/4 inch thick that would crack and shatter under foot when you walked on it.

Icicles above our neighbors door.

Jared is growing up so fast! He started walking on Saturday after much coaxing from his parents for months he just steps away from the couch and takes four steps away from the couch before sitting down. He started getting the hang of it now and can just stand there keeping his balance with no problem now. He can also walk across our whole house from sliding glass door to sliding glass door!

As for the snow, it has been going off and on almost constantly since last week Sunday. The freezing rain this past Sunday kept us home all day. Then we woke up Monday morning to really heavy snow and about another 6 inches or so of new snow. That's when we measured the little table on the back patio and there was 13 inches of snow on it. They cancelled Ronald's work so he stayed home with us. We tubed down this little hill in our neighborhood, Ronald took Jared on a run too! He didn't enjoy it as much as watching us from the truck. Later in the afternoon Ronald went to an impromptu service project at the Portland temple for a couple of hours to shovel the walks.

We are enjoying all the snow, it really makes it feel like Christmas.

Snow!!!

"Mom, that?"

That's snow Jared, "now, now" (snow without the s), yup its cold!

So all week the weather men on TV have been saying that it was going to be really cold this weekend, and it may even snow. Well for once they were right! We woke up this morning and it was cold, but no snow. However after a few minutes it started and it hasn't stopped yet! We've gotten at least one inch of snow maybe two now and its not melting. Normally it melts instantly around here but its sticking around and it is getting colder so we should have snow on the ground tomorrow as well.

We all gotten bundled up and went outside and made a really small snowman for Jared. He has seen snow a couple of times but this is the first time he is actually recognizing what he is looking at is different from rain. Its too cute.

Decorating for Christmas

Last week Saturday we took an early drive with my parents to go get our Christmas tree. We go to the same tree farm every year called Noble Star and pick out our own noble fir tree to cut down. Last year it snowed on us, this year it was sunny and about 4o dergrees. You have to love Oregon winters.

We got the tree home set it up and then we all went to Mt. Angel where they had a Christmas festival through out the town. It was okay, but the best part is there is this Bavarian restaurant called the Glockenspeil. They had some very tasty sausage and cheese fondue! It was delicious! Then Santa showed up on a firetruck and Jared had fun watching Santa and listening talk to all the kids there.

We started decorating the tree when we got home, putting lights on it and trying not to over do it like we did on our last tree in Utah that was a beacon for Santa so he could land in Herriman (seriously the tree had so many lights you couldn't look at it directly for fear of going blind). It took us a couple day s to decorate the tree but we set up our North Pole Christmas village and Jared just loves pointing at it and saying "that, that" his favorite word.

My First Birthday Luau

Part of the reason my Grandma and Grandpa came in to visit me was because they were throwing my a first birthday luau. It is a big tradition in Hawaii and so that is why all my Aunts, Uncles and Juju B came to Oregon to visit.

A bunch of my Moms family came, my Dad's friends from work as well as his family and a bunch of Mommy and Daddy's friends. Everyone loved the food and it sure was tasty.

I have to thank a bunch of people for a fun First Birthday Luau. My Grandma and Grandpa for all the party favors they brought from Hawaii and even made; macadamia nuts, chocolate covered macadamia nuts plus my Grandpa's homemade coconut candy that he and Grandma made just for my party. Also Grandpa made a ton of beautiful Hawai'ian crafts for my table decorations, and he even made a beautiful coconut ukulele for me (I like to pluck the strings) and a hawai'ian drum (I love to bang away on it). I want to thank my Grandma for cooking her sweet n' sour chicken that everyone raved about, Aunty Caroline for cooking the Kalua pig, Daddy for making the mac salad and cooking the Kalbi and all my Aunts and Uncles that helped with decorating for my luau and helping set up. Also I wanted to thank Uncle Paul for playing and singing the most beautiful music at my luau. That really made the luau!

I am glad everyone that came had a good time, and thank you for the presents, I am finishing up my thank you cards and getting them out real soon.

Grandma and Grandpa get to town!

My Grandma & Grandpa Elia got to town and we went out to met them at the airport at 7:30am! Yikes it was early but I was really excited to see them! It took me a few minutes of staring at them but I slowly warmed up to my paternal grandparents.

I was having fun getting to know Grandma and Grandpa again and playing with them. I liked sitting on Grandpa's lap and us lounging in his Lazy boy chair. I was having a good time with them, they watched my on Monday when Mommy and Daddy both went to work. I was a good boy for them.

Then it was time for my Aunty Michele, Uncle Jordan and my cousin Juju B to get here as well. We really wanted to met Juju B and get to know her! They got here and then our house was pretty full. I had so much to do and look at, although I kind of pretended Juju B wasn't here at times because I felt that she was stealing my spotlight but I still love my cousin.

Then on Thanksgiving day Aunty Caroline and Uncle Paul finally got here too and then the partying could start!!! Of course Mommy was slaving away in the kitchen getting our Thanksgiving feast going and Grandma and my Aunts helped. I mostly terrorized the kitchen, got my Dad in trouble a lot for not keeping me out of the kitchen and was just so excited for all the extra attention I was getting from everyone! I like being the center of attention!

Jared's Big Day

Okay so we took a break from updating our blog, what can we say its the Holidays!!!

On Saturday November 15th, Jared turned the big 01! We went out with Nannie and Poppie Jones to dinner at Claimjumper to celebrate Jared and Ronald's (Nov. 17th) birthdays. It was a fun night and after dinner we came back to our place and Jared opened his presents. Okay I helped open his presents and he played with the wrapping paper and bags. Jared then got a birthday cupcake but didn't really like it too much because some of the frosting got on his nose and basically screamed until we got it off.

Well it was a fun day, our little baby is quickly growing up and he is getting to be such a big boy. Love You Jared!

A Trip to the Zoo

Our Ward did a trip to the Portland Zoo on Saturday and since Laura is on the Activities committee we went. I know you can see the rain coming down pretty hard, but after a ten minute down pour the rain stopped and on occasion the sun even came out. Jared has been to the Zoo before but this time he was actually aware of what was going on. He loved watching the Sea Lions which were by far his favorite. We all liked watching the Polar bears they were huge! The female bear was in the water playing with a pumpkin and it was really fun to watch her.

Over all it was a fun Saturday and we can't believe how big Jared it getting and how much more aware of the world around him he is getting to be, its really fun.

Jared's First Halloween

Happy Halloween!!! Last night we carved pumpkins and Jared got in the act. He helped clean out his little pumpkin but his favorite part was actually taking bites out of the tops of the pumpkins. I have no idea what that would taste like but he was just loving it.

For Halloween Jared was a green Dragon. We stopped by Nannie and Poppies for some Trick O' Treating and then went to our Ward's Trunk or Treat. To bad for Jared he doesn't get any candy!

Beach Day

For the past couple of weeks we've had some beautiful weather here in Oregon, so we decided to take a trip to the coast for some sun! On the way to the beach we stopped at the Nehalem river so Ronald could go fishing for some trout. He caught a few trout but got to see some really big Chinook salmon that are coming in from the ocean to spawn up river. He really enjoyed that, he has never seen them in a river like that!

The Coast was a bit windy but not a cloud in the sky. Ronald let Jared crawl on the rocks on a bit log (see picture) Jared unfortunately bent down to pick something up and fell over and hit his eye on a rock. No blood but he got a pretty sweet bruise that is turning an interesting color of yellow right now. Ronald got in some trouble for that one big time!!!

Lee's Farm

This past weekend we went to the Lee's Family Farm Fall Festival. They had kiddie rides like a mini ferris wheel, burlap bag slides, pony rides, tractor rides and tons of pumpkins already picked and ready to go in huge piles. You just picked out your pumpkins and they loaded them in your car for you! We got three pumpkins, a big, medium and small one to represent our Ohana. Lee's Farm is also a Christmas tree farm where you can pick out your own tree, but the special treat was the fresh cooked Apple Cider and Pumpkin donuts that were covered in cinnamon and sugar. Needless to say it was a very tasty weekend!!!

Hood River Weekend

On Saturday we took a trip up the Columbia River Gorge to a little town called Hood River located at the foot of Mt. Hood. It is a very popular spot for windsurfing on the Columbia river because the Gorge narrows quite a bit and funnels the wind through this spot of the river. However when you go towards Mt. Hood you enter into a beautiful valley that is surrounded by hills and the volcanic soil was found to be extremely fertile and the tempratures just right to grow apples and pears among many other fruits.

Laura and I went there last year about this time and we had a ton of fun so we wanted to do it again. We first went to Rasmussen's Farm where they sell all kinds of apples and pears, some great fruit jellies and some tasty Onion mustards as well. The nice part is that you can sample everything and they cook ebelskevers and let you sample them as much as you like. They also have a cute pumpkin patch and a corn maze that we didn't have time to go through but we did it last year.

Then we went to this other fruit farm that also sells the best cookies, we all love their chocolate dipped coconut macaroons. After the cookie stop we went to the Apple Valley Country store for BBQ ribs and pulled pork sandwiches! Yummy!!! Of course the day wouldn't have been complete without topping it off with a tasty Marion berry milkshake!

All in all it was an awesome time had by all.

Jared Sleeping

We just thought we had better take a picture of the way Jared sometimes sleeps, he sure does look relaxed though doesn't he?