Night out for the adults!!

We used to be a group that went out every week, now with kids, we are lucky just to get out sans kids (not that we don't love them immensely, but...). We decided to get babysitters and party a bit. We started at PF Changs, chatted and then hit up some bars. There was a Jenn and Matt Q and A game to see how much our friends knew about us. Fun times. Definitely going to miss this bunch! Can't wait to come back, visit and "check out our rental" (all for tax purposes, of course)

Family Christmas Photos

Our Hawaii Ohana got together for a collective and then individual family Christmas pictures. It was definitely sad to think that this is the last year we will have Hawaiian scenery for the back drop of our Christmas cards, but always fun to get together with friends.
Here's a photo that didn't make it into our Christmas card this year...

Them be fighting words

My family has some weird phrases that Makaela has picked up on and now uses with Matt. One is "bachagaloop" (not sure if anyone knows how it's spelled) and "knucklehead". Well what do "knuckleheads" eat? Knuck-sandwiches, of course! Here is Makaela threatening to give Matt a "muckle-sandwich".

Mia's New Shoes

Mia has started walking so I thought it was time to try her out in some shoes. She had an interesting time getting used to them.

Matt's Back!

After an entirely too long deployment and a stop over in San Diego, Matt finally got home and in typical Hoffman luck style, his arrival couldn't have been more botched. Unfortunately, I had jury duty selection today and while I was trying my best to get to the airport on time to pick him up, the Hawaii justice system made sure that I missed his landing, so there was no family there to greet him when he got home. I had totally envisioned some exciting reunion moment we see on TV, but no such luck. However, he did get to give Makaela a bit of a surprise.

After we picked the girls up we headed out for a family dinner to welcome Daddy back home. It was great being back in Ko'olina together as one big happy family again.

Crazed Gunman

Matt has been in San Diego while he had to "check back in" and while he is in San Diego, he loves to go to Barona to play poker. While he was in the midst of a poker game, the security guards came in and told everyone to run to the nearest exit (probably not the smartest move on the security guards part). People were taking their time until they heard someone was in the casino with a gun and then pandemonium broke out. I guess a gunman ran in to try to rob their plexiglass case of money and started shooting into the casino. Seriously?? Matt was in Iraq for a year and made it out unscathed, but then he runs into a gunman in a casino- we really have the worst luck. Then in efforts to capture the gunman, they closed the roads in and out of Barona, hoping to trap the gunman, but also stranding casino patrons. Matt was exhausted, so he went to the front desk of the hotel and requested a room. The only good thing that came out of it was that Barona offered Matt a free room for his "inconvenience".

Makaela's Family Tree

Makaela's class is learning about family trees at school, so she had a homework assignment to draw the faces of her family members so they could make it into a tree at school. There were a lot of circles, so she felt she had to fill them. I think our trip to NY made an impression on her because she decided to draw Uncle Mike and Aunt Cate for her family tree. Guess all that time with Uncle Mike and Aunt Cate paid off.