Family Luau

Years ago, 30 to be exact, a beautiful baby girl was born.  She had black hair and was as cute as a button!  Since then, she has been a delight and joy to us. 
So, we had to have a grand party for her 30th birthday.  We decided to have a Luau. 
The best part was how everything came together: Bryan and Celeste said they would make fruit drinks, Laura said she would help with dinner, Tana said she would bring fun people, Kaelynn said she would decorate, David said he would pay up and show up!  The final added touch was a surprise find from Celeste. She found leis, sarongs, and garland and it just gave our Luau the final touch it needed!  Thanks everyone.
Here is some photos of our Luau:

We had a Tiki Bar at our Luau... with yummy fruit drinks

Axton loved the Luau and is shown here doing a dance move!

Dirk was happy to be here! 

Bryan is a buff bar tender.. Celeste is his lovely assistant! 

Happy Birthday beautiful Laura!

Kaelynn is our pretty Hawaiian dancer

Thanks to Celeste, Kaelynn got all dressed up!

Mother Daughter pose for Laura's birthday

Aloha

Thanks everyone, we had a great time at the birthday/Luau party.  I think we need to make this another family tradition!  

Malama pono!

Eli is ONE

 Eli turns One today!  

Happy Birthday Little Guy

Newborn Eli

This is Eli when he was born... he had a rough start!

Eli's hair!  We fixed it cute for the Girls weekend.

Eli with his favorite rag

Eli's first Christmas

I just love this picture.. 

Learning to walk

Tired Eli

Cute little Eli

Eli's photo session with Grandma! 

Eli, give me your "Please" look

Give your "Say Hey" look

Happy Birthday Eli... we love you!

The Beauty of the Earth- Canyonlands

Overlooking Canyonlands

We hiked up this trail to an Arch, this is what it looked like from behind us.

The Arch over looking Canyonland.

Arch

A nice lady took our picture!

A big canyon where the Green River flows 

Looking down off the cliff

More Canyons

I like Canyonlands!  

Me too!

This is a big world!

We had a great time.. I will post more pictures of our trip to Arches later. 

Jeff and his Black Hat

D. Jeffery graduated from SUU with his Masters of Accounting on Saturday.  It was wonderful to see Jeff sporting his black robe and grad hat and then his Masters hood.  We sure enjoyed the weekend with Jeff and Sarah and Eli.  Once again they brought cold and snowy weather with them- but we still had a great time.

Jeff walking in with all his pomp and circumstances!

THE EXCITING MOMENT

receiving the "Hood"... 

Congratulations!

Shaking hands with the PRESIDENT!

Leaving SUU behind and moving forward!  

"Good Job Dad!"  Eli gave Jeff a big hug after graduation.

The family!

Eli wants to try on the hat!
True to the Excell tradition a younger person puts on the graduation hat, and now when Eli graduates, Jeff will wear his hat!  The roles will be reversed!  GET IT?  It is awesome.  

The Happy Family

"Okay Mom, enough of this...get this hat off me!"

A proud Wife, Dad, Mom and Brother! 

Good-bye SUU