O (cheap) Christmas Tree

It's Aaron again...Wow, 2 posts in a day, that's gotta be a record. But we couldn't NOT post this. We got our Christmas tree this year from a place called Wise Buys in Roseville--it's like the Dollar Store but this place has everything $10 and under, including Christmas trees! When we first heard about it, we were skeptical, thinking that the trees would be crap. But lo and behold, they are not crap, and we walked out of this place with a beautiful tree...the beautiful part = it was only $10.88 after tax. Needless to say we're pretty proud of this.
...and in case we don't post before then, MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

HAWAII

So, this is Aaron again, and I've decided to temporarily take over as the "blogger" in our relationship as my wife has recently (if you haven't noticed) taken a liking to not blogging like she used to. So, in order to continue to appease our faithful followers and let them know we are still alive and doing well, there are a few new posts, starting with our awesome trip to Hawaii :)

We went to the big island over the Thanksgiving week and stayed in Kona on the west coast of the island with the entire Coons family including the little kids. Teresa has more pictures that we'll hopefully get and post (or if she posts them herself on her blog we'll put a link that you can follow to see them there), but here are some highlights we got on our camera.

We wanted to get the "Hawaii experience" by not only enjoying the beautiful beaches (and the perfect 80+ degree weather in November) but by also exploring the other side of the island where the rainforests, waterfalls, and volcanoes were. But first, here are some pictures of us during the week enjoying the beaches:







The water was the perfect temperature and practically see-through. On one of the beach days we went snorkeling and saw a ton of fish, some of which can be best described as the fish in Finding Nemo, seriously. We also saw huge sea turtles that weren't afraid of us and actually swam right along with us in the ocean one day, it was a cool experience.

Here are some pictures of us on the other days when we went to explore the rainforests with nature trails, waterfalls, and the volcano. On this side of the island it felt more like November with the overcast clouds and rain, which is pretty normal for the "Hilo" side (Hilo is the major city on the west side of the island for those of you who don't know). As far as the volcano went, we weren't able to see any of the lava (that would require at least $100 each person for a helicopter tour which we weren't about to do for multiple reasons) but we were able to get close enough to see a huge smoking caldera (in the picture set below), which was really great:










(***DISCLAIMER***: Ok so I wasn't educated about how the other side of the island would be cold and rainy, so while my dad was driving us to the airport to leave for Hawaii and knowing that I didn't pack any warm clothes, he suggested that I take his hoodie--his TIGGER hoodie. In case any of you could tell in the pictures of me wearing the tigger hoodie, I want to make a point that it is my FATHER'S and for some weird reason he likes Disney stuff with Tigger. Not to make fun of my dad, but I'm just clarifying. However, props to my dad for not only being secure to have a hoodie with Tigger on it, but also because it was much needed and I would have frozen my butt off without it--thanks dad) :)

Anyway, here are some other random pictures from the week:

We went on a cool boat ride we found at this resort:


This was the view from the condo we stayed in

Our nephew Kayden enjoying the sand:



We had a blast--it was way too short--and we can't wait to go back. A big thanks to Greg and Teresa for everything!!!