2014 Priest Laurel Dinner Dance

The stake had their annual Priest Laurel Dinner Dance.  The theme was "Under the Sea".  The youth leaders did a fabulous job as always.  It is a really fancy event.  They decorated the entire place to look as if we were under the ocean.  They had a drop ceiling with blue fabric draped across the cultural hall, balloons that looked like coral, and other balloons that look like bubbles.

One of the highlights is a live band!

And the other highlight of the decorations are the flowers.  This year, Kim made all the flowers, and they were beautiful.  The leaders put live goldfish in the tall vases.

Picture of the flowers as they were being made by the master florist.

Snow, snow and more snow

We've had a lot of snow lately.  Work has been closed, and school cancelled quite a bit.  That means we've been spending a lot of time at home, and we love it!  Our day usually begins by shovelling all the snow on the driveway, and then figuring out what we are going to cook and do the rest of the day.  We made an old hawaiian favorite on a very cold winter day...ox tail soup.  It was just like home!

And after we finish shovelling for the day, we built a snowman...

We've had a lot of fun together this winter!

Lillie turns 9

We just cannot believe that Lillie is already 9.  We granted 9 wishes on her special day.  Her wishes were: stay home from school, have daddy stay home from work. see the Disney movie Frozen, play games at home, have chocolate ice cream cake, sleep in mom and dad's room the night before birthday, sleep in mom and dad's room on the birthday night, have nishime for dinner, and receive at least 5 birthday gifts.  We all had a great day with Lillie on her special day.

Lillie's favorite meal...nishime and crab sushi.

New outfit from cousin Nai.

New boots from Nana.

Daddy's birthday

We had a lovely evening to celebrate daddy's birthday.  Mom made his favorite japanese food, and the cake was made in the toy easy bake oven!!  What a fun night!

New Year's Trip to NYC Part 3

Ever since we took lillie three years ago to NYC, she has wanted to see the statue of liberty up close.  So that's what we did today.

And we were like locals taking the subway all over the place.

New Year's Trip to NYC Part 2

On our second day in NY, we had heard about the largest Japanese market in the US, so we knew we had to check it out.  The food and the grocery selection was outstanding.  I felt like I was back in Japan.

We then ventured to FAO Schwartz, walk around Times Square, and ate dinner at Lidia Bastianich's restaurant, Becco.  It was the highlight of trip, we ate there twice.

The New Year's Trip to NYC Part 1

On a whim we decided to take a trip to New York City to celebrate the new year.  And that we did!!  We started off driving anout 4 hours into the city.  It is not a bad drive at all.  It's just right.  After we checked into our hotel near Times Square, we headed to a great Chinese restaurant called Shun Lee.  The food and ambiance was spectacular.

The decor had these really cool dragons all along the wall.

We then took a horse and carriage ride through central park and around the city.  It was very cold, but luckily we had these heavy blankets to keep us warm.

Then we went to Lincoln Center for an event for children.  It was a new year's eve circus extravaganza.  The circus acts were really interesting and the event was very festive.  It was a great way to ring in the new year.