Christmas Denver Colorado

This year we went to Colorado to spend Christmas with my family. It was a very exciting year for us since we ALL were together. It was a very packed house with 15 of us staying there, but we made it work. I'd have to say that my favorite memories this year were bringing Lily home and sharing her with the fam, caroling, and the random chair-game in the church gym.
It all started when Travis and I arrived at 3am Christmas Eve morning. We left around 2pm Vegas time because Travis had one final exam the morning of the 23rd. I woke up semi-early the next morning to show Lily around which in turn meant waking everyone up. We weren't sure if everyone was more excited to have Lily there this year or for Santa to come. :) She really was a lot of fun and a very very good puppy.

Christmas Eve was filled with last minute shopping and wrapping and getting cookies ready for caroling. I loved caroling this time because it was the one thing we all went out and did as an entire family together. I love getting out and doing something together with the entire family. After caroling we came back and did our usual Christmas Eve Nativity Pageant. I have to admit that at first I did not want to do it, but the little kid in me took over and we all dressed up in our goofy costumes and played our parts. The most unique parts this year were Joseph-the star, and Travis-the Inn Keeper. Afterwards we opened up our Christmas Eve gifts from mom and dad which were our shirts and sweaters for family pictures and then it was off to bed for Santa to come. Travis & I were beat by then since we didn't get too much sleep the night before and were grateful that Christmas morning started at 6:30am this year instead of 5:30am.

Christmas morning was filled with it's usual excitement and sleepy eyes. We all squeezed in on the couch and floor and enjoyed our morning giving and receiving. It was a very relaxing day filled with naps and games and a very yummy prime rib for Christmas dinner!



Friday was family picture day. That was an adventure. The location of choice was a park. Of course it was freezing cold that day and super windy! Our hair and faces are hilarious! It's too bad the weather was bad because the scenery was nice. So then we decided we had to head in doors and went to the stake center. While we were waiting for the photographer to set up, conveniently there were chairs with wheels on them waiting to be ridden. So we all had a great time crashing into each other and wheeling around in snake formation. It was a funny spontaneous game. That night the couples went out to dinner and enjoyed socializing together. Oh, on our way back, we stopped by the house whose lights were in sync with music that you could tune into on the radio in your car outside there house! It was the coolest thing I have ever seen! I was amazed! Just couldn't believe that someone actually took the time to do something like that. So cool.On Saturday, Travis and I accidentally slept in and then headed out to Colorado Springs to check it out to see if it's a place we'd like to live. We stopped by Garden of the Gods, drove up a couple canyons a little ways, and then all the way to Royal Gorge to check that out. It is an amazing canyon that you end up on top of that really comes out of no where! You'd never know that it's such a far drop below. There's a bridge you can drive on or walk around and a tram to ride in. There are also other amusement park type rides and attractions. Very fun place to go in the summer time.
Sunday we went to church and performed our special musical number, Christmas carols. Yep, we sang some of the caroling we had sang on Christmas Eve in church that day. It turned out pretty good. I also got to see Laura and her new baby Michael. So cute and definitely a "Gagon". :) That day was also mom's birthday, so we did presents after church. So got a lovely bike and accessories to go with it (helmet from us, camelbak, and watch). Dinner that night was Ziti and Elk steaks which were delicious! It was the first time I'd had elk steaks and they were wonderful! Very good dinner and then we had to say goodbye to Jess & Thomas since they were flying out that night.
On Monday Travis, Emily, Claire, and I went hunting out in eastern Colorado. We were looking for pheasants and grouse, but did not come across any! We did have fun tromping around the grasslands, target shooting, exploring, and we did come across a white tail buck. Emily also learned what TP stood for (toilet paper). Ha! Claire and I got a good laugh out of that. :)


That night we were the babysitters of the bunch since Mom, Dad, Sarah, David, and Joe all drove back out to Utah. Mom and Dad went to celebrate their anniversary away from the kiddos and the rest had to get back to work. It was an interesting night since the wind was howling like no other which scared Charity. So she came and slept with us in the basement where she couldn't hear the wind so bad. I think she slept good that night, but with a kid and dog in the bed, we didn't get too much sleep! Note to self-never bring a kid to bed with you. :)

The next day Jocie, Scott and I went to visit Margaret and her new baby Pemberly. (Travis wasn't feeling too well, so he tried to get the sleep he missed from the night before) Pemberly is so adorable! Ethan is very good with her as well. It was nice to get back out to Margaret's house and just visit. Their miniature schnauzer, Sampson and Lily didn't get along all that well since Sampson wanted to play rough and Lily didn't know what to think about that. Both dogs and Ethan were our entertainment and it was nice catching up with Jocie and M. Mom and Dad came back that night so Travis and I went out to dinner at Noodles, my favorite, and then saw Valkerie which was a really good WWII movie with Tom Cruise.

The next day, Wednesday, New Years Eve day, Travis was antsy to get home. The hunting wasn't good and we had done everything we planned on doing so he started packing up while Emily and I went clothes shopping with her Christmas money. It was nice spending one on one time with her. Then we took the little girls and Lily on a walk so Lil could have a little exercise in her before we took off. We also had an early dinner at a Mexican place with just us and Mom and Dad and then we were off. We left the house around 6pm and got back home to Vegas at 5am New Years Day!



The rest of our time off was spent enjoying our gifts, quail hunting, shopping, hanging out with friends, and celebrating our second Christmas with Travis' family. His parents are so generous and gave us a flat screen, 46", LCD, HD TV! They felt they were very blessed this year and in turn wanted to share it with their children. We love our new TV!

It was a great holiday season and loved the time we had to be able to go to Colorado and be with family!