because life caught up with me...

Here's some highlights from the rest of the break:


I love the Washington, D.C. temple with the Christmas lights!


The girls and I at the pretzel factory in PA.



This is the spot where Martin Luther King gave his "I Have a Dream Speech"! Washington day trip was way fun!

Outside HersheyWorld! (Obviously!) The whole family (and Kent) went up to PA and did Hershey and Lancaster. It's been a long time since I've done been up there! Way fun!

I'm back to school now and am really looking forward to this semester. My classes are going to be challenging and I'm going to really need to stay on top of things. I've been getting better every semester about not procrastinating my schoolwork and I think this will be the test! I'm taking five classes: Hawaiian Language, Book of Mormon II, Intercultural Communications, Shakespeare, and Western Humanities II. All but the first are Honors classes. I will be writing a lot more than I have previously. I'm still working at the Reading/Writing Center, which I really enjoy. I haven't really had a chance to do anything too fun yet, but have gone to a couple basketball games! I only have one class on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so I plan on spending some quality time with the beach on those days.

Philadelphia and Boston!

On Thursday Kent and I left for Boston to visit his sister Hillary. We anticipated driving about eight hours and making a two-hour stop in Philadelphia on the way. The Philly part went as planned, but we actually ended up driving for closer to 10 hours, thanks to traffic in Connecticut.

We got to see Independence Hall in Philadelphia--this is the room where the Declaration of Independence was signed! It was amazing to be able to go there and see the site of such an important part of our nation's history. We also got to the see the Liberty Bell!




This flock of birds came over as soon as Kent and I sat down with our lunch of (of course) philly cheese steaks. We had occasionally thrown a few pieces of bread into the throng, but the birds got impatient and began to fly up close to us. I was curious and held out a piece of bread to see one would eat out of my hand and it did! Holy cow!

Our time in Boston was an absolute blast! Hillary and her husband John were incredible hosts! They have a cozy apartment right on the beach outside the city. We got to go shopping with Hillary the next morning before the impending snowstorm and went out to breakfast the a cafe called High Tide. It was soooo good. The snow hit at about 2 that afternoon and didn't really stop. It snowed almost a foot, if not more. Sunday was pretty much the same way. We managed to get to High Tide again on Sunday for another awesome breakfast...and then the snow came again. We spent our snow days playing MarioKart, Guitar Hero, and board games, and watching movies and Arrested Development. Kent and I had never watched it before and we love it! It's one of my new favorites. We only got through about half of season one though, what a bummer.
Even though we couldn't get out on Friday or Sunday, we managed to get to the city on Saturday in between the bouts of snow. It was still snowing, just not as hard. It was a lot colder than Hawaii!


We met up with Hillary's friend Kristen, and then went through the Boston Commons, Faneuil Hall, Quincy Hall, and browsed through some stores before heading to lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe. We headed over to the North End and went to Mike's Pastries before we saw the movie "Yes Man". The whole day was an absolute blast! John, Hillary, and Kristen were great tour guides. The city's Christmas decorations were amazing, especially when the lights came on after dark. It was well worth braving the cold.

Home for Christmas!

This is what Laie looked looked like the day before I left for home. The highway was closed and there was no going in or out for anyone! The rain just kept coming and it looked like a possibility that going home would have to be postponed a few days. Luckily the rain stopped and the sunshine came back. We ended up renting a car in order to get to the airport--we lucked out and got a free upgrade to a convertible! It was a great way to spend driving around the island on our last day! Thanks to Rhonda for driving and for people uploading flood pics on facebook, since I didn't take any!

Having Kent come home with me was a blast! We arrived on Saturday the 13th, my brother Andrew's birthday! We got to celebrate with him in that evening, which was great. Before we left Oahu, I picked him up an instruction book on folding dollar bills into Hawaiian-themed shapes. He so far has managed to fold his money into a fish. Our Grandma Hoffmann sends us new $1 bills for our birthdays, so he has at least 17 to practice with!

On Monday, Kent and I went to the historic district of Harpers Ferry. Before the Civil War, Harpers Ferry was the site of an attempted slave uprising led by the white abolitionist John Brown. The National Parks Service has a pretty interesting set up with restored houses and displays on the history of the town. Literally right next to the National Park is a cute street with shops owned by local residents. There are several gifts/souvenir shops, a couple jewelry stores, pottery stores, and more! I used to work at Harpers Ferry Books on this street, where I sold new and used books in the lower level of a converted house. We also walked up to Jefferson Rock overlooking the merging of the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers.


The weather on Monday was incredible! It stayed up in the 60s most of the day. Kent and I took advantage of the warm weather and went to get a Christmas tree! Having a live Christmas tree is one of my favorite things about the season, and I was glad my family had been too busy with concerts, etc. to have gotten one before we got there. We picked out a pretty good one, in my opinion. It smelled AMAZING. Getting the tree home was pretty easy, but I didn't anticipate how difficult the rest of the process would be! Usually Dad and Andrew take care of cutting the stump and getting it into the base while Mom, the girls and I would make hot chocolate inside. None of us are too fond of the cold. I still didn't do any sawing this time, but I watched (and tried to help where I could) as Kent got the stump cut straight and cut to the right height. It was a lot more involved than I had previously believed. Kent did an awesome job! We got the tree into the house and then spent another half hour getting it to stand straight before we could put on the lights. The work is well worth having a live tree!

Tuesday was my birthday, and it was a great one! Kent took me out to lunch at one of my favorite restaurants, which was wonderful! The warm weather left quickly--the forecast was calling for freezing rain during the afternoon so school ended early. Our school district is kind of wimpy when it comes to the weather. But it meant that my siblings came home a couple hours early, so I won't complain! The freezing rain didn't really happen, so my family stuck to tradition and went out to dinner wherever I chose (Casa Gonzales for Mexican, whoohoo!).

On Wednesday Kent and I headed to Shepherdstown, the local college town. It's pretty similar to Harpers Ferry, just without as much historical significance. I still love it though! We walked around and looked around in the different stores and got some delicious pastries at the bakery. This is us at the Rumsey monument and then the interior of one of the stores in Shepherdstown.

After leaving Shepherdstown, we picked up a bunch ingredients for Thai Chicken Wraps, a Carollo family fav. Kent did most of the work, but everyone (that wanted to) was able to help make them. They were super easy to make and made the house smell awesome! They went over pretty well with everyone here.