First Family Trip – Hawaii

August 12, 2016September 30, 2016 / Winnie / 2 Comments

Here are some pics of our first for realsies (i.e. get on a plane and go someplace together) vacation. There is no real reason why we haven’t done this in the past – we just haven’t. Dave travels relentlessly for work, so we tend to do the same things year after year. We take the kids camping almost every weekend in the summer, go to the lake for a week in the summer and then Dave and I take an adult weekend vacation in the spring (maybe) and then a Denver football game in the fall.

This year has been far from normal. We haven’t taken our camper out yet. can you hear my heart breaking? And we went to Denver instead of the lake over Fourth and our fall football game is a no-go. With routine thrown out…..this for realsies vacation with the kids was such a treat.

Although the ‘getting there’ portion was not a treat. Janey started complaining of an upset stomach, I didn’t think much of it as Janey frequently has aches and pains that she uses for hugs, kisses and carrys. It wasn’t until her face drained of all color that we panicked. I was sitting with Janey 2 rows behind Dave and Jules when the puking started. And it WAS.HORRIBLE. Dave couldn’t hear me trying to get his attention….so the mom sitting in front of me had to grab his arm and state in no uncertain terms “Your wife NEEDS you”. A few hours of pukey-ness down and then a few hours of sleep put Jane right again. Seeing her the next day, you wouldn’t even know she had been that ill.

The first time they put their feet in the ocean:

Exploring a lava tube

Perspective on the plant life

A pool heated by the lava activity underneath and fed by the ocean

Turtles on the black sand beach

Jules

Jane

I took a short, dark video of what it sounds like at night.

Hilo is the largest town on the Big Island, but I would not classify it as a tourist town. I enjoyed it immensely. We wandered all over the island (nothing is very far away) and the kids had a blast seeing all the sights that we fit in. We were careful not to over-schedule ourselves so we were able to see what we wanted and even go back to the kids favorite activity….the hot pool.

Here is a brief look at where we went:

If you follow me on Instagram, you already know of my graceful accident. During the last hour on the island, I broke myself. Oops! That flight home wasn’t amazing.

Radio Silence

July 20, 2015September 30, 2016 / Winnie / Leave a comment

Sorry about the radio silence peeps, but life has been happening and summer has been calling my name. Not much has been happening in the house but I have some fun pics of what we have been up to.

A lake vacation. As a quick recap- Dave grew up in Kramer, ND and we go to the lake nearby every 4th to catch up with friends and relax:

The girls had an absolute blast on the boat.

We spent the majority of the days on the lake – but took a few days to run into ‘town’.

Fun at the Kramer park

In Kramer (ND) we revisited David’s youth and went to skate night! There has been a lot of interest into the re-opened skate night in Kramer. We were there when a TV anchor was up from Bismark to do interviews.

The girls were interviewed as visitors.

Dave was interviewed as an adult who has come back on vacation and brought his kids to experience his childhood haunt. Although Dave forgot to include the story of how he and his friends used to jump off the stage in their skates. I wish he would have gone into that!!!

So cute.

Blurry iPhone pic! Still adorable though.

Dave and Jane getting their father daughter skating on.

We also took flowers to the Kramer cemetery for Grandma Betty and Grandpa Darrell.

Improvised horse shoes.

Perfect example of how peaceful it can be.

All in all a great get away.

First Camping trip

June 9, 2015September 30, 2016 / Winnie / 2 Comments

A couple of weekends ago, we went on our first camping trip of the season. It was glorious.

Amongst all of us, we had 2 4 wheelers and lifted Jeep – the perfect vehicles to take up the road to Hellroaring Plateau. google it. you will not be sorry.

Back story. I went to Hellroaring with my parents when I was younger. It was such a good drive to the top and then a wonderful day of hiking all over the plateau. As a 19 year old who knows everything, I decided that I needed to take my friends up there, so that they could bask in the awesomeness that is Montana. At the time, I had a car. Yup, a car. The road going to Hellroaring is very rocky and you need some clearance in order to avoid doing damage to your vehicle. I took my friends about halfway to the top and realized that I could not go any further. I did a 50 point turn around (it’s that narrow of a road) and descended the mountain. At home, I realized that my car was leaking something……not good. My dad took a peak and discovered that I had ripped my oil pan off. He helped me replace it and he wasn’t even mad….just proud that I went for it in a car.

Anywho – back to current. The girls jumped in the Jeep – you know since it has seatbelts and all the things that I love to keep my pretty girls safe(r)

A look at the mountain stream tumbling down.

A pit stop for pictures.

We were stopped by snow down from where the official hiking trail starts. Here we are looking out over the valley.

The picture below, really shows the beauty of the valley….but it doesn’t accurately give you the heart pounding adrenaline that comes with looking that far down…..at such a steep angle.

From Hellroraing you can see the Beartooth Pass straight across the valley. Since we turned around a little bit down from the top, you can see the beginnings of the pass in the picture above.

This is where we were stopped. The snow covered the road just a few hundred feet further and it got deep enough that there was fear about not making it through or sliding down the side of the mountain.