Catching Up - December Part 2

The second part of December found us with some welcome visitors.  With Eric not here for Christmas, it was nice to have other family here to share it with.  We spent a week at Bellows AFS which is an Air Force installation that exists purely as a recreation facility for military families and is located on the windward side of Oahu.  For those of you not familiar with Oahu, it's located just outside of Kailua (which is where President Obama and his family stays when they come here).  We had a cabin right on the ocean with a beautiful view.  Marcus discovered during this week that he really likes the taste of sand.  He didn't just experiment with the taste of sand, he ate handfuls of it.  Here are some pictures of him actually playing in the sand and not eating it.

He even got a chance to go boogie boarding.

While we were at Bellows he figured out how to walk and he became unstoppable.  He wanted to walk everywhere and he wanted to do it all on his own.  He has since learned to hold hands when he's in parking lots and crossing streets, thank goodness!

Good thing Uncle Bill was there to keep him out of the ocean!

The next day it was time to head for home, but not before seeing Santa Claus land on the beach.  Marcus got his very own candy cane and beach ball from this Hawaiian Santa.  He even rode up on a jet-ski.

On the 23rd, we went for lunch at The Willows.  This is a big deal for me and my mom as they serve the same Chicken Curry that my grandma used to make and my mom still makes today.  It is absolutely delicious and deserving of the hectic drive into Waikiki, even during a rain storm which seems to happen every time I go to the restaurant.

Even with the rain, Marcus had to try out the restaurant's water feature.

On Christmas Eve, we got all dressed up and headed to the Post Chapel's Candlelight Vigil.  We had planned on going to the caroling event they had on the 19th, but completely forgot.

And here's an extra bonus video of Marcus enjoying his first cinnamon roll ever! Just a warning, this video is about 4 minutes long.  (I can't get it to upload right now, but I'll update this post when I get it working).

Christmas Morning!!

A new tricycle from Santa!

A percussion set from Santa!

A shape sorter from Uncle Ernie and Aunt Megan

A cool Elmo backpack with zippers, snaps and Velcro.  He wears it everywhere.

That's it for December.  We spent New Year's Eve eating crab and watching New York's New Year's Eve with Chantal.  The best part of that, besides the crab, was that we were done watching it at 7 pm and Marcus could go to bed without missing anything.

January and February didn't have as much activity as November and December, so they should be easier to catch-up (theoretically).