Maui 2017!

 Sunday, January 22, late afternoon, we made our way up to Billings, MT to stay the night so that we could catch an early flight to Hawaii. The boys were super excited that the day was finally here!

Heading to Billings!

We flew from Billings to Denver, had a few hours there to eat some breakfast and then get stuff for lunch on the plane from Denver to Maui. The 2nd flight was 8 hours long, but Grandma Foulger made sure the kids were all stocked with treats and lots of things to do on the flight. We were lucky to have individual tv screens so we could watch movies and tv shows, which really made the flight go faster. Grandma Foulger sat with Carson and Travis on the long flight and Landon wanted to sit with Grandpa, so Christian and I got to sit by each other.

On our way to Denver!

We arrived in Maui around 4 in the afternoon and were met with leis. All the guys went and picked up the cars and then we made our way to Costco to stock up on pop, water and treats for the week. We grabbed dinner at Wendy's before we got to our hotel which was an hour away from the airport. We stayed at the Ritz Carlton in Kapalua, Maui.

All the guys loaded into Jabin and Megan's convertible to go get their cars. Megan arrived a little bit before us, so they were able to get their car. We weren't cool enough (there were 5 of us) to have a convertible, but we rocked a white mini van pretty good!

 We got to our hotel and hung out in grandpa and grandma's room chatting until it was time for bed.

Tuesday, the kids got up and were ready to head to the beach! They found some giant snails by grandpa's room (we were right next door to them) that they had fun watching.

We decided to head down to the beach by our hotel this day because we were going to have to get ready early afternoon for family pictures that night. It misted rain off and on all day, but it didn't stop us from having fun on the beach. The boys loved playing in the waves and using Uncle Kent's boogie boards.

Jabin and Carson taking on the waves.

Carson and Travis.

 Christian helped dig a hole and then bury each of the boys in the sand.

Travis' expression cracks me up!

Carson's turn.

Landon was a little hesitant of the ocean our first day. He loved to play in the sand and find seashells!

Christian Travis, Lyndi, Bob, Jabin and Carson playing catch out in the waves.

 Grandpa helping Landon play in the waves. They knocked him over more often than not. One time, while Landon was sitting on the beach playing, a big wave came in and flipped him over. He didn't know what hit him until after it was all over.

Travis enjoying the ocean.

Bob, Jabin and Christian

Oh, these boys!

Lyndi talked Christian into doing the wet hair flip. Too bad he doesn't have long hair!

My little beach bum!

Megan, grandpa's legs, grandma and Jill

girls!

Playing catch on the beach.

 Grandma Foulger brough a bunch of bubble gum so we could have a bubble blowing contest. I'm not sure who even won!

Uncle Kent le the boys use his boogie board. Travis wasn't quite sure how to ride a wave, so I took him out to help him learn

Travis totally missed the wave this time and ended up right on the sand. He just about face planted. It was funny to watch (which is why I'm laughing)!

 

Landon getting rolled by a wave.

Aunt Lori, Uncle Kent, Angela, Sha (my cousins) Bob, Jabin, Landon's back, grandma, grandpa, Christian.

 It didn't take long for Travis to figure out how to do the boogie boarding on his own.

Carson's turn to try it out.

Tuesday evening, since everyone in my family was in Hawaii, we had family pictures taken by Bob and Lyndi at Kaanapali beach near by. They took 1500 pictures and I can't wait to see how they turned out! Grandma had a little fall into the ocean during a group jumping picture, so when we were all done, we went back and changed our clothes and then had dinner at a restaurant near the resort.

After our pictures were taken.

The kids had fun playing in the sand and the waves while they waited for pictures to be done.

Finally done with pictures and headed back to the cars.

One for the books

Yesterday, we experienced a once in a lifetime snow storm for our area. I have never witnessed getting this much snow in my life! We were forecasted to get up to 6 inches of snow (according to my weather app). It snowed all night and we woke up to around 4 inches of snow.

This is what we woke up to at 6:45.

 I got the older boys on the bus around 7:20 as it continued to snow. I left to take Landon to school at 7:45. As I exited the subdivision and drove, I couldn't see anything and kept thinking I should just turn around and go back home. The snow was coming down really thick, but I was afraid if I tried to flip around, I would just get stuck, so we trudged on to preschool in the crazy weather! I came home, hopped in the shower and when I got out, we had double what we had when we got up in the morning! I was starting to get nervous about being able to get out, especially when I could no longer see our neighbor's house! I decided to start getting ready and see how it was and if it didn't let up, I'd just go get Landon from preschool, so we weren't snowed in.

At 8:30

A little before 9:00, we had 12 inches!

12 inches!

And then shortly after 9, we had 14 inches! (I was texting all these play by play pictures to Christian who was away at meetings in Billings!)

I picked up Landon from preschool at 10 only to find that they were going to cancel the rest of their preschool classes because of the weather. Landon and I made it home and enjoyed watching the snow fall and pile up! We made cookies and soup and watched t.v. together. The snow finally let up around 1, so we went over to shovel our elderly neighbors walk, but he had his snow blower all ready to fire up instead! We ended up staying outside and enjoying the beauty of all the snow we had just received. It was a really light and fluffy snow with hardly any moisture to it! We cleaned the snow off our little car along with Christian and Jared's work trucks that were left our house while they went to meetings with brooms.

Our vehicles before we cleaned them off!

The snow was almost up to Landon's waist as we walked over to the neighbors. I went out to find one of our shovels and it was above my knees!

Landon enjoying the snow.

 Carson's primary teacher (Ken Grant) contacted everyone in his class and asked for helpers with the snow patrol once school was out. Every time it snows, he has his primary class and scout group go out and shovel walks. He's a great primary/scout leader! We decided to all go and help with the shoveling. We shoveled walks and drive ways for an hour and man...it was a work out!

The snow patrol group heading to another house!

In all, we measured about 16 inches of snow! It's crazy to even think about that much snow without seeing it for yourself! Here is a comparison...The night before vs the next day! CRAZINESS!

This was the evening before the storm hit. Notice there's not very much snow on the table. Good thing Grandma Foulger was on the ball and had bought the boys each their own face mask and goggles the day before!

Our neighbor, Greg Rael, worked with his skidster in the evening to make the road in our subdivision manageable to drive on. Today, he was at it again clearing out driveways for everyone. I'm so thankful for good neighbors. We have the absolute best around! We are excited to get back out and play in it. I see lots of sledding and kids playing on the huge snow mounds in our future!

Our final measurement!

 

Our backyard this morning. It was so beautiful and peaceful! It's supposed to only get into the single digits as a high for the next few days, so the snow won't being going anywhere for a while!

We dug a path for our cats to get through...it's was above their heads!

A winter wonderland!

This was where Christian's truck was parked. When he opened his door to get in, it was moving the snow!

Christmas break!

We took full advantage of our Christmas break and tried to do lots of fun things to occupy ourselves. After our first big snow, one of our really nice neighbors plowed all the driveways so everyone could get out. Jerry piled all our snow in one area and the boys were super excited to go out and build a snow fort. It was super cold still, so they hollowed out a part so that they could sit in it. I thought they were going to make a tunnel through it, but they decided not to.

Travis on top of the fort.

 The older boys all got a few sets of legos for Christmas. Travis had his two done in the first few days following Christmas. Carson had 8 sets to put together and he logged a lot of time in his room putting together 6 star wars sets and two other ones. He finished his last set the night before they had to go back to school.

Carson with his star wars legos he put together during the break.

Carson wanted to go sledding over at the golf course during the break. We didn't make it over until the Friday before they had to go back because it had been SO cold! It warmed up into the 20's so we took advantage of it. There was still plenty of snow for us to sled and the boys had so much fun!

The boys tried to do a train down the hill with the two sleds but they ended up breaking up and crashing. After sledding, we went home and enjoyed hot chocolate.

One of Carson's gifts from santa this year was a chemistry set. He did several different experiements and the two other boys loved to watch.

One day, we put together a paper chain as a count down to our trip to Hawaii. Each day someone tears off a link so we can see how much closer we are getting to our departure date! We are so excited to go and I know it's going to come quick!

Grandma Foulger invited the boys over for a sleepover on the Friday before they had to go back. Christian and I took them over to Powell for the night and then went out to eat for an early anniversary dinner at Lamlighter. We ran a couple of errands after and then came home and watched the Magnificent 7. Saturday morning (New Year's Eve), I made our traditional oliebollen dough to rise over night. Christian worked on putting his tools in his new upright tool box he got for Christmas and then we ran to get some Champs chicken and a soda for lunch. We watched another movie while we ate our lunch. The boys got back around 2, Landon napped and then we went out to Grandpa and Grandma Asay's house for New Year's Eve dinner. We played a few rounds of telestrations and visited until about 10, and then came home and went to bed. We didn't even make it to midnight because we started the new year with 8:00 church (which means Christian has meetings at 5:30...happy birthday to him!). After church, I fried up the oliebollen and we enjoyed it. We celebrated Christian's birthday with ham and beans soup and apple pie!

This year, I coated the oliebollen with the traditional plain sugar and some with cinnamon sugar. I think the cinnamon sugar is a new favorite!

Christian was given the Monday after New Year's off from work. We fired up the 4-wheeler again and pulled the boys around the neighborhood until they were frozen!

Landon loved the sledding a little more this time than the first time we didn't it. This time he wasn't getting a face full of snow!

 

Snow play on a winter day!

Landon enjoying some snow.

 I think Travis could have gone all afternoon  being pulled behind the 4wheeler! He is a die hard!

On the verge of wiping out!

 Carson taking a turn. I think he only went a couple of times and then he went in to work on his legos. He had gone out in the morning with his primary class at church to shovel walks around town and was ready to be warm and work on legos.

We also made a trip to Billings to exchange a few items from Christmas, met up with two of my best friends from high school for lunch in Powell, watched movies and played with all of our fun new things from Christmas!