A Much Needed Break pt 1

January is over, and that is fine with me. If I could remove any month from the calendar, I would pick January. Cold, long and not very exciting. We knew that we would have two days off from school in February, so we started talking about what we could do. I told Brandon that I wanted to go to CO for some snow tubing. Brandon and I had gone pre-kid days and loved it. I had been waiting for the girls to be old enough to enjoy it with us. I felt like this was the year. Thankfully, when it comes to vacationing in CO, my husband has a hard time saying no. :) So we started planning and praying that everyone would be healthy, the roads would be good, and that he would be a good point in a project to take off a couple days from work.

He was in Kansas for work from Monday - Weds. night, and we hit the road Thursday morning. We weren't exactly sure what we were going to do when we arrived to Denver. (We'd changed our hotel reservations from Frisco to Denver for that night.) Thanks to an ipad and Trip Advisor, I found a candy factory in Denver that gave free tours. Why not? It was something different, fun, and the girls loved getting free candy at the end of the tour.

From there we headed to the outlet malls at Castle Rock. We hit the two main stores we wanted to Nike (my favorite outlet store) and then Under Armour (my #2). We actually got some really good deals. We then ate dinner at Chili's and headed to the hotel back at the Tech Center.

Friday morning we woke up with the intentions of snow tubing back at Copper Mountain. We knew the weather forecast wasn't good, but we waited until that morning to check the road conditions and make a final decision. The roads were not good at all. And really, who wants to drive curvy, steep mountain roads when they are covered in ice and snow? Not us. We were then left with "now what?" We'd told the girls from the get-go that we were going to CO to snow tube on Friday. I will admit; I was discouraged. We had prayed and prayed about this day. Once again, I googled places to snow tube. The majority of places were off I-70, which meant we couldn't get there. However, this search brought up someplace new. A little resort near Red Feather Lake - 2.5 hours away and near WY. However, we decided to make the drive since we had come this far, and the roads looked good. We loaded up and headed north.

It was a really pretty drive into a new area for both of us. We ate at their little lodge restaurant first and then loaded up for the runs.

 We were all excited, and I have lots of pictures to prove it. We loved the pulley system to pull us up the hill! It's a must, and I found it so relaxing on the way up. They had single and double tubes. We quickly fell in love with the doubles, because we went down faster. :) And the girls liked going down with another person.

 The view from the top. Pretty, isn't it?

 Looking down one of the eight runs.

So God knew what He was doing; imagine that. It wasn't the place I had envisioned for the last month, and we weren't back in the big rockies, but there were perks. Such as we practically had the place to ourselves. There were only about six other people tubing when we were. We paid the same price for two hours of sledding that we would have for one hour at Copper. We enjoyed a variety of different runs, and we simply enjoyed laughing and having fun as a family. 

Another perk was since we had driven north, we texted some friends that live in a city along the way to see if they could meet for dinner. We had seen them last August when we were in CO, but just last month they brought home their two boys from Haiti. We met for dinner at CFA and had a great time reconnecting, and I loved meeting those cute, cute boys. It was the cherry on top for me.

Thank you Lord for orchestrating our day.

Early Christmas

 

Oh my, I was going to post a more current post and then saw this in my post list. Let's see what I remember...

We celebrated a few days before with the Luke family. It was fun having everyone together.

 

I love this picture of these two cousins - such good buddies.

Grandma got Sadie a bird feeder and book of birds. She loves it.

Analise was excited to have her own measuring cups to use in the kitchen.

These are my handsome nephews.

A castle for their Princess Barbies

And a cool picture  of their Christmas tree.

Christmas Day

Christmas Morning was simply a delightful time. The girls didn't awake too early, and we opened stockings, ate breakfast and then opened gifts. I tried to ponder each moment and our many blessings. (Picture warning. :))

 Every year I dream of having a fire place mantel to hang my stockings...

 Ella the Elf jumped into my old Barbie Corvette with the Princess Barbies

 This Santa fills their stocking with practical things like shampoo, body wash, and teeth things. I may be boring, but they still enjoy it.

 Grandmom, on the other hand, gets them things they love. Such as crafts, fruit snacks and mac/cheese in fun shapes.

 Egg casserole that dad made, and coffee cake mom and I made. My favorite breakfast all year!

 Sadie got a new Barbie car, and Maisie will use my old one.

 Sadie asked Santa for an American Girl Doll. I love my daughter to pieces, but I could NOT get myself to pay $110 for one. So Target to the rescue - got this doll for $23, and it's perfect for her, don't you agree? (Hint - look at her name)

 Maisie asked Santa for night vision goggles. She was thrilled!

 Grandmom and Pops got them more Lego sets. Yeah!

 Analise didn't have a request for Santa this year, but she was really happy with this rainbow loom. She has made lots and lots  of bracelets!

A few months ago when Maisie was talking to Grandmom on the phone, she was rattling off all sorts of gift ideas. Many of which were simply silly. One of the things she told Grandmom she wanted was a NE blanket. Grandmom did not disappoint. This was probably Maisie's favorite gift of all the gifts she received. And she now wants to take it everywhere. :)

 Grandmom also made blankets for the other girls as well, and they are also loved. A volleyball blanket made Analise smile.

 And Sadie was giddy about her Hello Kitty blanket.

 Pops is a diehard Michigan fan, but he will also wear a NE sweatshirt.

 And my big gift (to share with the girls) was an ipad! YEAH! I love it more each day.

 The aftermath.

 Here is my pile of goodies. I also got an electric skillet, which I am excited to have. I kept telling Brandon that I wanted one surprise gift from him, since I knew the majority of gifts he was getting me. He spent a lot of time finding just the right thing; he got me a base layer shirt (since I am always cold) that is warmer in the middle, and then the underarms and sides are made of lighter material. Great idea and cute shirt; I felt loved. However, the seams on it were so itchy, I could stand wearing it. Poor guy had to return it.

 For lunch I made homemade tomato soup with grilled cheese sandwiches, using homemade bread. ( I was even able to use my new skillet. :)) It was a nice, yet light lunch. That afternoon the girls played with new toys, I messed around with my ipad, and we watched "Monsters U." Peg gave that movie to Sadie, and Sadie called it Monsters Inc.iversity. So cute. 

For dinner we went to the Luke household, where everyone was there but D since he had to work. It was our traditional candlelit dinner with prime rib and all the fix-in's to go with it.

All 7 grand kids. I am beyond thankful how well all these kids get along. I never worry about them having arguments or issues with each other - what a blessing! My girls adore their boy cousins!

 My sweet family; I love this picture.

That night we went home and crashed. I was one tired and grateful momma.