Easter 2016

Our family spent Easter in Montana this year.  It fell earlier than normal in March, therefore there was overlap in vacation and holiday. The boys still were able to enjoy the Easter bunny and all the fun things he brought them on vacation.

Easter morning!

Another holiday was my Birthday!! Lots to celebrate on this trip!

Montana - Hiking/Skiing

Hiking...We mainly hiked a couple of times in areas near their house in Hamilton.  Fortunely the areas in the mountains, which was near them still was cold and had snow, so we were able to hike in more of the lower altitude places for this time of the year.

Someone couldn't last !

Skiing...We took a 2-3 day family trip up to Whitefish....The drive.was.so.so.so.amazing!  The lodge was awesome. And the skiing was perfect!  One of our top quick trips ever!
We also snuck away for the day with just Holden and did a day trip to Lost Trail. It is on the Idaho, Montana border and is an older mountain, but definitely did not disappoint. The 3 of us had a blast and skiing til our legs couldn't take anymore.  What a treat to be able to visit both of these places!

Our drive back to Hamilton from Whitefish, MT

 Lost Trail Ski Day....

Had to take pics with stuff we saw on way back to the house.

We drove through some cool places !!

Montana

Our old neighbors and good friends Stephen & Deana moved away a couple of years ago to Montana. Since they moved we promised them and ourselves to get out there and visit and also see some of God's beautiful country there.  We took a leap with an almost 2 year old and a 6 year and headed out west!  We also planned the trip with good friends of ours Chris & Tiffany.

Our 10 day trip began early in the morning at RDU where the excitement grew as 2 anxious little boys were in for an adventure! The flight had 1 stop before reaching Missoula, MT. The kids did fairly well for being longer flights and because we thought it was a good idea for Graham to be a "lap" baby (aka free).  Overall he was good, however we were overly blessed with nice people in front of me since he kicked their chair for majority of the plane rides there and home.  Once landing in Missoula, the Brandt's met us at the airport, and we picked up our fabulous mini-van !  From there we started our drive to their house in Hamilton, MT.  On the way there we decided to dip off at a cute brewery and grab lunch.  The boys fell asleep in the car, yes the car not the plane (insert frowny face here) so we made it a quick pit stop.  Over the next 10 days in this BEAUTIFUL state, we enjoyed lots of hiking, sightseeing, skiing, and having a blast with friends. 

We made it Stephan & Deana's !!!

Heading home

I am embarrassed.
There I said it.
I have totally allowed for way too much time to pass since I last updated my blog about my kids.
The saddest part is I think of the blog often. Sometimes I even jot notes down in my phone or save extra pictures, but still I have gone 2 years without posting. Enough of the humiliating part, and get on to how fun it is going to be to go down memory lane and re-live all the fun and exciting memories we have made !! While I am making it a resolution to become more diligent in updating/keep things current, we all know I am a mom of TWO active boys and work full time so realistically there could be some delay.  Feel free to keep me on my toes if I begin to start lagging again ;)

12/18/17
LKM

Thanksgiving / Mountains

Since Holden and I have the week of Thanksgiving off we decided to head to the NC mountains this year for family fun.  We stayed at my Aunt's house in Brevard, NC and had the.best.time!! We drove up on Wednesday and stayed until Sunday.  Wednesday we played and hung out and on Thursday we had a small Thanksgiving feast, went exploring, played games, and watched football.  On Friday we went into Asheville and checked out the ginger bread house at the Grove Park Inn.  I can't wait to go back there!!  Saturday we went hiking and looking for water falls.  We were sad to head back home because of all the fun, relaxation, and sweet family time we had!!  I was going to miss the fire place the most.  I am pretty sure Justin had a fire going for me every day all day !!!  LOVE this family for four!

Showing the boys pictures from our trip in the USVI!

Headed down to the dock to do a little fishing!

We all had a blast playing monopoly with this newly 6 year old!!

Grove Park Inn

Hiking adventures!

Holden's 6th Birthday

The Birthday boy! I can not believe I have a 6 year old (I will probably say this the rest of my life)!!

He is silly, sweet, a great big brother, helpful, smart, loves church, family, playing with friends and is full of life!

Justin and I were away on vacation but came back early to make sure we were here for Holden's birthday.  Parental duties :)
He wanted a few of his friends from school and Noah to get together, so we decided bowling!  The kids had a blast :)