That Time of Year

Yes my Friends... It is that time of year again. And I don't mean Turkey and snow and lights on trees... though we are not opposed to those things... The Times of which I speak is that of the Monroy Household's Annual Holiday Fitness Challenge.

Every year, between Thanksgiving and New Year, David and I have a little friendly competition. It varies from year to year but almost always involves some form of abdominal exercise. ie. sit ups, crunches... you get the idea. This year we are also including push-ups and/or arm weight repetitions. So the rules are as follows:

We have a daily chart and we are required to write our totals at the end of the day and keep a running total day to day. We are not required to tell our competitor (read: Spouse) of our totals for the day until bedtime. (it keeps it a little suspenseful)

So today was the first day of competition for this holiday season. Without knowing it, we both totaled 400!.... and so it begins! The winner gets bragging rights for the whole year. We have spent a few New Years Eves on the floor doing crunches until we both conceded to a tie so we will see where we end up. We just figure that this way, the extra chocolate and whipped cream that comes with the Season might not stick around quite as long.

Feel free to join us in our quest and let us know who wins in your household!

Joel Peter H.

We are celebrating another birth this week. My dear friend Becky gave birth to their 5th child, Joel Peter H., in their home in Honolulu. We are praising God with them for this beautiful new gift of life. We can't wait to meet him.

Special Gift

My Friend Sara dropped by this evening with a special gift for me. Sara's sister is a florist here in the Twin Cities and Sara was helping her with a show today. She found this lovely orchid lei in a display and asked if she could bring it for me. When she walked up to my door with it, I burst into tears.

I do so miss my beautiful Hawaii but for a moment on this lovely Fall evening in Minnesota, the Aloha Spirit is alive and well and I feel so blessed to have such a thoughtful friend. Sara drove about 40 min out of her way home to bring me the lei fresh.I know that the pictures don't do it justice but it had the desired effect. What a special gift from a special friend.

Fall, Food, Fires & Friends

On this beautiful Fall evening, the kids were blessed to have some friends over for a sleepover!We had dinner outside in the crisp evening air.The kids all ran around and played... Daddy Started up a fire to keep us all warm and of course to.....Roast Marshmallows!
Yummy!!!



We love the fall, food, fire & good friends.

Good Night

Sleep Tight!

Samantha & Ellie

While my Husband is in Hawaii, my dear friend Samantha and her daughter Ellie have come to visit from Washington State. We have had a wonderful time of fellowship, interesting and inspirational conversations and catching up on Chick Flicks... (we discovered that for the most part, we weren't missing much)
The kids have had fun getting to know Ellie who was in her mommies tummy during their last visit.....
She is a delightfully sweet baby girl and it makes us all wish we had one! It has been a wonderful visit and we are so sad that it is almost over but so blessed that they came.

Hawaiian Get-A-Way

David flew to Hawaii for the weekend to visit Ashley and meet Kana'i, our beautiful Grand Daughter. He got there on Friday and got to attend the Baptism for Kana'i on Saturday, along with his Mom. He will be flying home tomorrow and I will get more details on the rest of his trip but in the meantime, I wanted to share these pictures that he sent me.....Kana'i MarieAshley, Will & Kana'i David with his Mom, Ashley & Kana'iIsn't she Sweet!!
Great Granny!
We are so happy for Ashley and her Family and the many blessings that lie in store for them.

Fall Harvest Orchard

With the air turning to the crispness of fall, it was time to head out for a day at the Fall Harvest Orchard in Delano, MN. Let me start by saying that "Getting There" was not half the fun. After 2 detours, lots of driving in circles, and getting lost, we arrived at our destination an hour and a half later.It was well worth the effort though. It was a beautiful sunny day and the apples were ripe for picking. It was so fun to watch the kids picking their apples and crunching into them. There were lots of farm animals with their newborns and this was a farm where holding all the animals as much as you can is encouraged.
Sara kept heading back to this adorable baby goat who just loved to be snuggled.

We were there with our homeschool coop and all the kids had so much fun being together and exploring the beauty of Fall.... before Winter steals it from us!

Corn

The other day, my friend Sara gave us some fresh picked corn from her garden. My little Jonah was so excited. After he helped me shuck the corn he carried around an uncooked ear all day waiting till it was time to cook it.
He was so excited when dinner time finally came around. He plowed through two ears and had the time of his life doing it!

"The Duke of Hawaii"

This week, we have some dear friends who are in town from Hawaii. We got to spend some time with them on Friday and then today we had them over for lunch. We were telling the kids that "Uncle Duke and Auntie Vivian" were coming over and that Duke is the Lt. Governor of Hawaii. This was very exciting to the children as they have been learning all about Presidents and Government Leaders. Yesterday Josiah exclaimed in his excitement, "The Duke of Hawaii is coming to my house!" Here he is with his friend "The Duke of Hawaii".
The kids had lots of questions for them, especially wanting to know if they had ever met any real Presidents. Duke and Vivian were wonderful guest and the kids so enjoyed getting to know them better.
We loved getting to catch up and "talk story" and David got to get out all his pent up Pidgeon...(for those of you who don't know, Pidgeon is what they call the local slang in Hawaii. Any good local Hawaiian boy grew up speaking this version on English) It was such a blessing for us to spend the afternoon with our friends and pray that God blesses the rest of their stay in Minnesota.

Granddaughter!

We are excited to announce the birth of our first Grandbaby! Kanai Marie was born to Ashley and Will on Monday, August 18 in Honolulu. We are so excited for them and can't wait to get to know this precious little gift from God!

The Rest of the Trip

Here are a few pics from the rest of our trip to California... My Mom and I playing our favorite game, Mancala...
Grandma playing Candyland with the kids...
Tickles and snuggles with Jonah...

Going out to breakfast at "Hanks"...
With Grandpa...

By brother Nathan works there and whipped us up an awesome breakfast.
David came for the weekend and we spent more time up at my Brother Fernando's house.
The kids had fun playing down at the creek...

Then Fernando and My brother Matthew took David Fishing at this beautiful spot.
They caught lots of fish and had a great time together.
They had to hike into the spot and almost stepped on this Rattle Snake!

Back at Grandma's with cousins and lollipops.
And Swimming everyday!

Baskin & Robin's 31 Flavors Ice Cream!
This was a childhood hang out for me so it was fun to go back with my kids and enjoy the ice cream.... My favorite: Chocolate Chip Mint... But I also had some chocolate-peanut-butter for old times sake.

Here we are, happy to be heading home!
The kids were great travelers and it was a fun adventure! Thanks to my Mom and family for making it such a fun and special trip.