I almost forgot about these photos.  I found them on my CF card the other day.  Anyhow when we had that week of snow and the kids had days off, a friend of ours called up and asked if we wanted to go sledding.  Yep, of course we wanted to.  It was sunny and beautiful.  Snow on the ground. Schedules postponed. Life was good.  There is a great sledding place right in town so it wasn't a far drive.  Our friend took the older boys and I brought in the calvary (the dog) a little later.  The snow was perfect for making jumps and banks for their runs.  It all ended in a dog pile, the three older boys jumping on Charlie and trying to wrestle him to the ground.

Well we had our first bonfire of the season which marks the beginning of good weather. It's always special and terrifying at the same time.  Job wanted to build a bonfire and John said if he wanted it he would have to build it.  He soon roped Lona into being his accomplice and off they went with newspapers and sticks.  They soon had the paper on fire but the wood eluded them.  A few smaller sticks and a little strategic air flow and their bonfire was up and running. Perfect for eating those marshmallows I made a little while ago.  They ate their s'mores, brought over the outdoor chairs so they could sit around and poke the fire with flaming sticks. That is always the part that sends me back indoors.  I sat comfortably in front of my computer with a quiet house processing photos while they were outside and Isaac was doing homework.  What a perfect evening.

He's 13 1/2 and still in love.  He developed this love affair at a very young age.  In fact I think he was still in diapers.  It has grown stronger through out the years and even now there isn't a day that he doesn't spend time with his first love: Legos.   I really think that they help him have down time. They impart a calming and creative environment for him and are the perfect toy for him.  We used to have Isaac build with his Legos in the bathroom because Job loved them so much.  This gave Isaac some time without Job messing them up.  As Job got older, we moved the Legos to our china hutch.  Job would then spread all the Legos out under the dinning room table.  Then they outgrew the china hutch and we moved them to the family room where they reside to this day.  He still loves to build with them and often times on Saturday mornings it's the first thing he does, pull out his Legos.  Isaac's love of Legos has dwindled and then morphed into a love for his Xbox but I doubt that Job will out grow his love of Legos.  And why should he, they are the perfect engineering toy.

Just a little color to help welcome in the new month. I purchased a silver water pitcher and had ideas of putting peonies in it. These look just as nice. I have visions of lilacs in it as well as soon as they bloom here. I think that I may be looking at Goodwill and Value Village a little bit more for fun unmatched bowls, plates, pitchers and cups. I have really enjoyed taking photos of food and am trying to branch out to flowers as well.  I want to finish up this cookbook that I'm working on. I am also taking another online photography class that I'm really looking forward to.  The crocuses and tulips are coming up in the lawn and that makes me happy. March also signals the beginning of outdoor soccer.  Isaac has been having tryouts and is usually covered in mud when I pick him up.  Job is still wrestling and getting pinned but not discouraged. John may or may not be coaching, we have to wait and see.  Lona has been practicing and I think this next week her practices are going to be longer than just 1 hour. So it is our run around time.  I pick Job and a friend up on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays at 4:30.  I pick up Isaac at 4:45 most days and drop Lona off at 5:00 on Monday and Tuesday.  It works only because they are so close together.  It does make it hard to do fun things like go to the Tulip Fields but we'll try. I've also been running with a friend two days a week.  We run with Lona and one of her daughters once a week.  I'm hoping the girls will do a 5K together maybe this summer. I'm trying to get 3 million steps for the BP Challenge so I've been in full swing with that.  I need about 10,000 steps a day on my fit bit. Some days I can get more and some days less.  It all depends on if I go to the store or if I run that day.  So that in a nutshell is where I'm at this time in my life.

This was our last full day here.  We thought about trying the South West beaches but when arrived in the morning it was starting to sprinkle.  So we went back to our favorite beach, Maluaka Beach.  We rented snorkeling gear for me here because the gear I had brought hurt the bridge of my nose.  Investing in good gear is important so that you can stay out longer.  We walked over to Makena Landing and entered the water there.  I scrapped my knuckle on a rock when a wave rolled me.  If I had been a little farther out, I would have been fine.  This area was full of coral and fish.  We decided to swim out a ways and then back over to the beach we had placed our stuff.  Along the way we saw a turtle and turned to follow it.  As we were diving down to look we could hear the whales singing.  It was such an amazing sound.  It makes me so happy and in awe to think back upon it.  While swimming it would seem that we were at least a 1/4 mile away from shore but the coral would only be 2 feet from the surface.  Every once in a while I would get nervous about the waves pushing me into the coral.  I never felt like I was going to sink or not be able to make it back to shore but I did like having John within my site.  It just felt better.  I don't think that I'd be one for snorkeling alone.  We went out a couple more times but not as far and then it just started pouring on us.  It wasn't a little sprinkle, it was a down pour.  We quickly ran over to our rig, threw everything in the back, washed off as much sand as we could, ate a quick snack under cover of the rig, returned our gear and headed back to the hotel.  One thing about Maui is that things don't dry off, they stay damp for a long time.  We ended up going to a laundromat to dry all of our stuff before packing them up to go home.  Then we drove to the West to walk around the shops and have dinner along the boardwalk.  Not much of a sunset but with all the clouds and overcast skies there wasn't much all week.  However it was just nice to have no agenda and to be that spontaneous for the week.

We've had two wrestling meets so far.  The first meet John and I were on pins and needles.  It's hard watching your boy wrestle.  I mean he's out there pitting his strength against someone else.  That someone else is well hurting my kid so that he can pin him.  It's hard.  The first meet there wasn't anyone for him to wrestle.  He weighed in at 67 pounds.  The next lightest kid at the meet was a kid on his team who was 88 pounds.  Job is a lightweight.  So he couldn't wrestle for team points.  He could only wrestle exhibition style with our permission and the other kid's permission and his coach's permission.  When you are wrestling someone 20 to 30 % more than your body weight it's a big deal.  We of course immediately gave permission for Job to wrestler.  His first time wrestling, the boy pretty much just laid down on him and he couldn't move.  A quick flip and he was pinned.  The second meet went better.  His first opponent had been wrestling for 3 years and was skin and muscle.  However Job held his own.  He is good at doing this superman move, at least that's what I call it.   He lifts his head up while on his stomach and stretches his arms and legs out.  The boy couldn't roll him over.  In fact it took him until the last 10 seconds of the match to pin him.  Then his last opponent he was quickly mowed over.  Isaac said that he was in bed less than 2 minutes before he was asleep that night.  He is learning so much.

We headed off to the south side again to try another beach.  Our MO was to wake up early, between 5:30 and 6:00 have breakfast while getting ready and talk about the day then drive over to Starbucks and get a Venti Carmel Macchiatto to share.  Once all that was done, we were off on our adventure.  Maluaka Beach was our destination for the morning.  I think this was my favorite because it had restrooms, a shower, a grassy area, and there was a place to rent gear.  It was run by the hotel but anyone could rent stuff.  We ended up renting a paddle board and trying it out.  It wasn't that hard however I did get knocked off when I was waving at John to come out and a wave hit it.  It would take a much longer time for me to learn how to surf the waves with it than to just paddle around the water.  While I was out there, a turtle popped it's head out of the water and then swam a circle around me as I was trying to get pointed in it's direction.  It then dove and I could never catch up to it.  It was so close, I could have reached out to touch it.  The turtles are amazing, so graceful in the water.  I guess that they are a favorite meal for sharks and I couldn't imagine how they could ever defend themselves against a shark or even swim fast enough to get away.  We stayed here for quite a while and snorkeled.  It was just amazing and fun and relaxing.  We left to have lunch in Kihei at a little fifties theme diner with real milk shakes that were so good.  We spent a little time at the hotel pool and then off to the northwest coast of the island.  With our trusty Maui Revealed book we read about the sites along this highway.  There was a blowhole that we stopped to see however it wasn't doing much at the time. Then there were Olivine pools that you could swim in but it wasn't very inviting so we just hiked down there and back.  We continued on until the road became a windy one lane road along the cliff.  At that point it was time to turn around. I think we were impressed with the variety of ecosystems on this tiny island.  The North East side of the island I would consider tropical jungle, the south east side was dry and had catcus.  The North west side reminded me of the Oregon coast, it was rocky and rugged with lots of cliffs.  Each was so beautiful in its own way.  The only part that we didn't get to see was the central part of the island.  Maybe some day, who knows. There is a huge world out there waiting for us to explore.