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| This was the coolest "Just Married" car decorating job ever! |
...Everybody outside! Sleigh ride...WOO!
You will only understand my intro if you grew up listening to the Osmond Family Christmas album, as my family did. 
So while in NH, we all went on a sleigh ride! Actually, because there wasn't enough snow at the time, it was really a wagon ride, but it was still fun. And COLD! Trevor wouldn't wear gloves, so his poor little hands were frozen. At the end of the ride, we got out and SANTA was there! He even had one of his reindeer with him! There were also a bunch of giant characters, like Rudolph and Frosty. Charlotte blew us a way, willingly giving hugs to every single one. This is the same girl who was terrified of Minnie at Disneyland and asked for month afterwards if Minnie would "hit her". Uh, not sure where that came from. Anyway, here is the evidence of Charlotte's new friends:
After our visit in the village, we roasted some gigantic marshmallows, then headed home. So much fun!
This subject deserves it's own post. I have too many friends who ask, "So what was the haul at CostCo this year?" To catch some of you up if you don't know what I'm taking about, my dad established a male-bonding tradition that happens ever Christmas. Every year all of the males 3 and older go to CostCo and anything they see that they want that is edible, Dad buys. See this past post from 2008 for Scott's first trip with the boys.
So fortunately there is a CostCo close to Cindy's house. Rather than list all the things they bought, I'll just let you look at the pictures. Do ya think Scott is pleased with his choices?
By the way, more catching-up posts from the holidays to come soon!
One other thing I forgot to add about our trip... Some of you have asked to be adopted into the Evers family once you learned about our Christmas CostCo tradition. If you haven't heard on this before, here's how it goes: All the men go to CostCo with my dad, and whatever they see that they want that is edible, goes into the cart. And Dad pays for it all in the end. Well, before the Maui trip, my dad took all the boys to WinCo, and anything they saw in the bins that they wanted, Dad bought. So he brought a LARGE, extremely heavy carry on that was loaded with Swedish fish, runts, gummy worms, chocolate covered banana chips, nasty Chinese trail mix (the stuff with rice crackers that reeks), smarties, etc...
Seriously? No posts at ALL in the entire month of July? Yeah, it has been a pretty fun and crazy and exhausting month... So I'll begin with the highlight of the month:
MAUI! No, this guy wasn't the highlight, but I got your attention, right? And I did truly take this photo on the beach. Apparently this guy didn't realize he put on his wife's bikini bottom... Two different days, two different bikini bottoms. Given the MANY other people snapping photos, I'm sure he is highlighted on other blogs besides mine. Anywho...
My parents took our whole family to Maui, which includes their 3 children, 3 spouses and 6 grandkids. Oh, and 3 of those grandkids are around 16 months. Needless to say, we were a bit nervous about the flight, but it certainly wasn't a bad as it could have been. Thank you, melatonin. We were very brave and attempted a family photo, and here is the result. Not bad! Everyone is looking at the camera, and with a little Photoshop work, we may get smiles on the kids..JPG)
This trip was just a bit different from our first Evers Family Maui adventure, when the only kid was a 3-month-old Scott. During that trip, we did ALL the exciting tourist stuff and Scott just slept and ate (except for the return from the Road to Hana, when he screamed). So this time, our schedule was pool, eat, naps, pool, eat, shave ice, bedtime, repeat. A few times we substituted beach for pool, but for the most part, we just stuck around close to Kaanapali, which was fine with me! We had a fantastic time, as is evident in these photos:
Shave ice was a huge hit with everyone. We promised Scott the Big Mama size if he would eat flank steak for the first time. It worked! So if you are ever headed to Maui, go to Local Boy in Lahaina and order the Local Girl. Yum. I miss it already.
Charlotte definitely made great strides in the water and was VERY brave compared to swimming experiences in the past. She is still nowhere NEAR her cousin Elle, who swims like a fish, but at least she was excited to jump in the water! She even was happy to go play in the ocean (holding my hand, of course) and collect shells. That may have been her favorite part of the trip.
And Trevor thought the water was awesome! He spent a lot of time doing this:
This year we headed to the "California beach house" (as Scott and Charlotte call it) to enjoy Thanksgiving on Monterey Bay with my family. We had a wonderful time, as usual! The food was awesome, the weather was beautiful and it was so fun to hang out with family! Scott and Charlotte were more interested in feeding the ducks their Thanksgiving dinner rather than eating their own. They ate rolls and drank Martinelli's, leaving the rest for us. How thoughtful of them! Trevor got LOTS of love, especially from my Aunt Nancy and cousin Lindsey... Why is it that he will fall asleep in other peoples' arms, but not mine? 
Black Friday Mom, my cousin Alisa and I hit the road at 8am (not bad for a nursing mother) and were off to Del Monte shopping center in Monterey. I know many of you reading this have been shopping there with me at some point... It really wasn't very crowded and we scored some awesome deals at Macy's, Gymboree and Loft. My favorite purchase was a winter white wool coat -- full price $280, marked down to $120, minus my $100 gift card from credit card points, and the final cost was $20! I'm doing my part to stimulate the economy!
Now that Jeff and his family live in Gilbert and Drew's brother Christian and his family live in Chandler, we thought it would be fun to take a vacation and go to Arizona! We got to spend time with both families and enjoy the awesome weather. We had our timeshare to use, so we chose the Scottsdale resort, simply based on the fact that they had a waterslide. That is an essential feature on Scott's list of ammenities. Mom and Dad came along to join the party as well... With 4 adults and 3 children, it made the plane ride pretty easy! Once we got the bags checked in and did the security circus, the rest of the flight wasn't bad at all. We had exciting snacks for Scott and Charlotte, and both had an iPod to play games and watch The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. I will never travel again without those iPods to provide entertainment. So here is summary of all the fun things we did:
