Mauians Vacation to Sunriver Resort in Bend, Oregon

Sometimes it takes being away from Maui to really appreciate how wonderful my home and family really are.

A couple of candid snapshots taken from the plane flying back into Maui

My wife, Laura, my son, Jeremy, my daughter, Chloe, and my future daughter-in-law, Megan, just returned from a family vacation to Oregon and Washington to see family and enjoy the snow.

We stayed at Megan’s family town home at the Sunriver Resort just outside of Bend, Oregon for a few days and it was really a new and great experience for all of us. Dealing with 9 degrees, snow, ice, fog, and very short days is something that we are not really accustomed to dealing with in Maui.

Family Snowman Build

One of the funniest things that happened was that Marie, Megan’s mother, decided that we needed to have a snowman for the New Year. The challenge with doing this in Sun River is that it produces the driest snow and does not stick together.

My wife, Laura, soon to be daughter-in-law, Megan, and my son, Jeremy, had to get quite creative making a snowman in dry snow

For about half an hour, Laura, Jeremy, Megan, and Chloe pushed, packed, and tried everything to get the snow together. Finally, they had the bright idea to start wetting the snow, so I kept handing them the coffee pot full of water that they used to accomplish their feat.

After an hour, they finally made a great snow woman, complete with blueberry lips, tomato eyes, a carrot nose, and a pot for a hat. It was great fun to watch from inside the warm house. I just chickened out after my boots got stolen by my wife. No bare feet in the snow for this Maui boy.

Snowboarding & Tubing at Mt. Bachelor

Jeremy, Chloe, and Megan had a great time hitting the slopes snowboarding at Mt. Bachelor

Jeremy, Chloe, and myself aptly named the “Green Banana” had a fantastic time tubing down the mountain with Laura, Marie, and Megan

Visiting My Daughter

After our time at Sunriver, we dropped Chloe, our 20 year-old, back to college at Central Washington University. We met Gilligan (her horse) and saw her amazing facility that was donated to the equestrian team that Chloe coaches. We also had the pleasure of meeting her wonderful boyfriend, Zack, and his family. We also finally met Wedgie, her pet hedgehog, that we have only seen on Skype so far.

My beautiful daughter, Chloe, and her horse at Central Washington University

Focusing on 2013

Now, we are all back on Maui, setting our goals for 2013. Jeremy and I had a great year in 2012, teaming up with Heidi Farmer this year to really make a complete team. Heidi has filled in some gaps for us that were in need of some care. She takes care of organization, mailings, escrow coordination, and helps us in the Kihei-Wailea market where she is very strong with her market knowledge.

Jeremy and Megan plan to get married in July of this year, so they personally have even higher goals. It is all very exciting to see my kids grow up to be such wonderful people.

Meanwhile, my eldest daughter, police officer Brianna Stice, held down the Maui farm. She brought her cat, Shaquilla, and took over livestock duties for her 3 pigs, 3 dogs, and my 50 chickens and 2 ducks. When we got back, everybody was happy and well fed, but wet. We missed a week of very heavy wind and lots of rain in Haiku, but no snow.

We get spoiled by our wonderful climate, clean, warm air and water on Maui. It was fun to enjoy a change and especially to see my brother, Barry, and his family, and enjoy spending time with all of my nephews and nieces in Portland. The best part about Maui is that all of them want to come visit. We plan to make them welcome and share our surfboards, extra bedrooms, and Aloha with all of them!

Interested in purchasing property and living the Maui Life? Check us out at Stice.HawaiiLife.com and let’s start talking story about how to make it happen.

Aloha,