Leo at the Estes Park Christmas Parade

Leo, Skye and Elise visiting Santa and riding the donkeys at the Estes Park Christmas Parade. We go up to Estes Park most years with Rebecca and Chris and the kids to see the parade and collect free candy off the sidewalks. This year was pretty warm which was nice, and a lot of fun, as usual!

Stolen!

My bike got stolen yesterday. I'm really bummed. I ran some errands around 3pm, trying to get some Christmas lights and stockings. Christmas stuff is selling out like crazy here. We got one of the last Christmas trees yesterday (and it cost $90 for a 5 ft tree) because the Home Depot, the grocery stores, the little stands on the street, were all sold out. I've been unable to find lights. We're making our own ornaments.

Anyway, the Walmart (2 blocks from our house) was PACKED full with people. Two different Salvation Army groups were in front. My bike was locked to the bike rack in between the Salvation Army groups. There were a lot of bikes there, although when I looked later a lot of them looked suspiciously broken and rusted out. In the 45 minutes or so that I was in there, someone stole it. It was just a front suspension mountain bike, not one of those $1000 Boulder bikes, but nicer than a lot of the cruisers and beaters around here. The worst is that it was packed with little add-ons - my split seat, my handlebars for short people, my headlamp's bracket, and worst of all - the trailer bike hitch, which we had to order from the UK because no one in the US sells it. We use our bikes to commute and Leo LOVES his trailer bike, so I need to figure out a new way to get to work and to get Leo to preschool. Anyway, it's hard to feel the aloha or the Christmas spirit this weekend.

Pennies

Today we were explaining to Leo that he gets WAY more presents than we ever did when we were kids. Leo asked why. We said that our moms didn't work so we make a lot more money and we had 4 kids so the money had to get spread around a lot of kids. Leo said to me, "Do you want to be as rich as ME?" I said sure. He said, "Well all you have to do is save your pennies! Save your pennies in a smooshed penny book and save any other pennies you find. Then you will be as rich as ME!"

Teacher

Last week, Leo told me that when he grew up he wanted to a teacher. I told him that was a great idea. He said he wanted to teach kids that were 1 year old. I said that was great, just like Leify. He asked if he would be as tall as Leify (who is well over 6 feet tall) when he grew up. I said probably not. He asked if he could keep growing and never become an adult, would he be as tall as Leify. I said it wasn't possible to keep growing tall and never become and adult. Then I had to explain genetics and probability and we spent the rest of the bike ride home discussing the difference between possible and probable.

Pictures

I hadn't had a chance to post up pictures from the last couple months. We had a lot of visitors and had a great time seeing everyone!

Leo's friend Cameron came to visit in Oct. It was Halloween. Cameron dressed up as a transformer and Leo dressed up as a spider and then in his flashing costume. They mostly practiced their martial arts and collected candy.


Cameron's mom Linna and sister Kate at the beach while Cameron practices his snorkeling:


For Halloween, Paul made a life-size, cardboard replica of Leo's head. He stuffed the Leo doll and put him on our doorstep to freak out our neighbors (which worked wonderfully). Here's Leo sitting on the Leo doll and being freaked out.


Leo and his magic translucent leaf:


My sisters Kristin and Vicki and my niece Joylin came to visit last month:



Joylin and the "silver guy" street performer:


Paul, Joylin, Vicki and Kristin on the way to Hanuama Bay:






Leo doing the crazy lily pad jump at Wet N Wild:


Sometime during the craziness, we went kayaking out in Kailua bay and hiked Mokulua island.


Paul's parents, his sister Ann and her husband Mike came to visit last month. Here we are with Paul's parents at the Pali lookout:



Leo, Ann, Mike and Paul climbed Diamond Head. Leo climbed the stairs himself.

Christmas present

For the last few days, Leo has been explaining to me that he's going to get me a Christmas present. I asked him what it was. He said he was going to get me a shirt. He said that my shirts don't fit me because you can see my belly. He said that I'm getting bigger and I need bigger shirts. So he is going to take me to the Goodwill store (where he and Paul recently bought a whole bunch of Hawaiian shirts) and will let me pick out a shirt for myself. He said they have all different sizes and all different kinds and I can find one that I like. (Then maybe I can cover up this big belly!)