Merry Christmas Wishes 2017!

So I'm 6 months behind on this blog, but life has been crazy with moving from India to vacationing in Hawaii, vacationing with our family in Idaho, living apart from Leonard for 4 months (and he moved to a new apartment in India), to moving in with family in Nevada to start the school year, to learning of my baby-in-utero's health concerns, to moving back to Canada and staying in an AirBnB, to finally moving back into our own home 5 days ago after having it renovated since our tenants destroyed it, and learning most of our earthly possessions were destroyed while they traveled from India back to Canada.  Whew!  What a run-on-sentence, and what a year!  But tomorrow our two oldest children return after finishing their semester of school in the States, so our whole family will be together again in our home for Christmas and to start the new year.  2018 can only be better as it seems like we're practically in a brand-new home now, we'll replace whatever items we can, and do our best to move on with those that we can't, we'll add a new baby girl to our circle of love, and hopefully I'll get a chance to start blogging regularly again.  Until then, here's our annual Christmas letter.  We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and 2018!!

Dear Loved Ones,

2017 has been a challenging year for our family, so we wanted to focus our Christmas letter on the things we are most thankful for.

We are grateful for the opportunity that we had to live in magical India.

We are grateful we got to celebrate 20 years of marriage with a family trip to Hawaii.

We are grateful that we love our family and friends in the West so much that it made us sad to leave them.

We are grateful that we love our family of friends in the East so much that it made us happy to return to them.

We are grateful for Leonard's work that provides for our family and lets him make a positive difference in this world. We are grateful for Jennifer's work that keeps our home and family life running smoothly.

We are grateful for our children's resiliency and that they handled 3 major moves in a year and a half with such grace.

We are grateful for modern medicine that let us learn of Macy's health concerns before she is even born, so we can prepare to give her the best life possible.

We are grateful for this festive season- the twinkling lights; scents of pine, pumpkin, and peppermint; delicious flavors of cookies and candies; glorious Christmas music; and the tangible feeling of brotherly kindness in the air.

We are grateful for this festive season that our family will be reunited back under our own roof again.

We are grateful for this festive season to celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ who loves each of us so much that He made it possible for us to be forgiven of our sins, live again after death, and to be with our loved ones forever!

We wish you and your loved ones a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year in 2018!

Love,

Leonard, Jennifer, Kaleb, Noé, Gavin, Teague, Hiram, Ali

(and coming soon- Macy) Reil

The North Shore

We drove up to the North Shore several times on our trip and I cannot accurately describe what a beautiful ride it is driving up the eastern coast of the island.  The lush mountains are on one side, while the majestic ocean is on the other.  It truly feels like paradise!  I don't know the name of the little island on the right, but I saw a mural of this scene painted on the outside of an art shop that painted a face under the water, so the island was the face's hat.  So to me, it will always be Hat Island.

I grew up near the Rocky mountains in the desert that are just that- rock.  These mountains were all covered in green and so magnificent.

 

Hat island from the other side.

So many of the mountains touched the clouds.

I couldn't capture it well, but the ocean was the loveliest aqua.

The first beach we visited.

We visited the quaint town of Hale'Iwa and ate lunch at Killer Tacos (although it wasn't my favorite Taco Shop).

I made us drive further down the highway, so I could get a picture of both signs.

My Noé Lynn-y, found her Hawaiian name at this cute boutique Noe Lani.

The second beach we visited.

These beaches were a lot less populated, but they had a lot more rocks, twigs, and other debris in the sand and water.  And the water was colder than that at Waikiki.

Looking back the other way.  It's still a lovely place to be.

We watched at least a dozen canoes launch from here one right after the other.

What wonderful exercise to paddle out on the ocean.

I was so excited when this sea turtle poked his head up and swam by us.

I'm so glad we got to visit you again Hawaii, and I hope we get to visit you many more times!

Sharp Shooter

When my hotel has a professional photographer on site, you bet I'm going to hire him!  He captured some fun shots of our family in this beautiful place.

So Happy He's Dad

I'm so glad that Leonard is the father of my children.  He is one terrific Daddy!

And I'm so excited that number 7 is on her way!

To celebrate Father's Day we called both of our dads, had professional family pictures taken, ate lunch at California Pizza Kitchen, then had Baskin-Robbins for dessert.  Thank you Leonard for being so wonderful!

BYU- Hawaii

As BYU alumni, we had to make a quick visit to its Hawaii campus.

Enter to Learn, Go Forth to Serve.

I love that this mural had the Pledge of Allegiance around it.

We took our kids to see both BYU and BYU- Idaho's campuses in 2014, so it was only fitting to take them here too.

More tiki warriors amongst the beautiful vegetation.

We also drove by the Laie Temple and PCC to show the kids.