Getting to Denver...
We left at 6 am on the 23rd for our 13 hour drive to Denver, hoping to miss all of the bad weather/blizzard type conditions that were being reported on the news. It was a long drive, but it was, except for the last hour, completely bad-weather-free!! We hit a little bit of blowing snow from Colorado Springs to Denver, but we made it through and arrived safely! I just loved the mountains as we got farther into Colorado. It is amazing how much you miss seeing mountains when you live in a flat place!! I think everyone heard me say, "Oh, look at the mountains!!" about 50 times in these last few days!
Betsy enjoyed the ride. For her, it was a 13 hour nap!!
Once we got to Joy's house, Ryley and Betsy were so happy to see each other!
Betsy wasn't quite sure what to think about Juliet, their year old puppy! She had to do a bit of growling at first, but soon, was pretty tolerant of being around her. I don't know that Betsy will ever really like being around other dogs--I think we have completely spoiled her and made her the princess that she is! Oops! But we LOVED meeting sweet Juliet, and had such a great time with her this week! We'd forgotten how much energy puppies have! So much fun!
Justin and Joy--the first of many silly pictures taken of themselves this week. This was the most normal one!
Fun cuddling with Ryley--what a little lady she is becoming!!
Joy, Ryley, and Juliet (dressed as Mrs. 'Paws')
Outside in the snow with the puppies--they love the snow!!
More beautiful pictures of the snow, at both Joy's house and Justin's Aunt Coleen's house...It was so pretty to see snow everywhere! It snowed 3 of the 4 days we were there, but also had these clear moments of sunshine and blue skies. SO gorgeous!!!
Christmas Eve...
We had a lot of fun on Christmas Eve, and we were so glad to get the entire day there. Originally we weren't supposed to arrive until afternoon, so we had a whole fun day!
Here is their living room all decorated for Christmas!
And Ryley and I taking pictures of each other taking pictures!
We then went to go ice skating! Can you tell Ryley was excited?!
The kids all got to skate free, but the adults had to pay. We weren't going to skate, but once we were there, I really wanted to! So I convinced Justin to skate with me, and after we got past the skates killing our feet, we really had a great time!!
Justin's cousin Aleesa (above) and Jake (below). Their brother Austen and parent's Brian and Julie skated too.
Jake and Ryley used these cones to skate (and do tricks) with, and I think they spent more time on the ice than up on the skates!! They had so much fun, and they never seemed to be hurt!
Joy skating
And here are the 2010 Olympians...yeah right. But we had fun!!
And then Justin and Brian tried a hand-in-hand lap around...Brian fell and Justin ran into the wall about 10 seconds after this picture!
Then we went back to Joy's house for dinner, Christmas songs, and a talent show!
Betsy enjoyed loves and cuddles from almost everyone--she loved Aleesa!
For the talent show, Jake, Austen, and Aleesa did a great recitation of the Christmas story from the Bible. They are such sweet siblings, and get along so well!!
Then came a wonderful rendition of "My Little Buttercup" by Joy and Justin. Enjoy the video if you like! (Sorry guys--I just had to post this!!)Christmas Day...
We started Christmas early at 6 am with a very excited 6 year old!! (She was actually up with her daddy at 5 am, but he was able to stall her and give us another hour to sleep after we all spent a late night helping Santa! Thanks Ryan!) Santa brought Ryley her very own writing desk and chair that matches her furniture, and she was so happy!! It was so fun to be a part of Christmas through the eyes of a 6 year old!
Betsy was very excited to help out by eating the crumbs Santa had left on the plate!
Day after Christmas...
A lot of the family was planning on going back to Nebraska the day after Christmas, but the roads were closed due to ground blizzards. So we had an extra day of fun together, and the kids got more time to swim! While they were swimming, us grown ups were amusing ourselves with our iphones. Most of us seem to be on them quite a bit, so we thought it would be funny to have some pictures! (We're weird.)
(I think we annoyed Kathy with our iphone use--sorry Kathy! =)We then decided that we should take some family pictures with the beautiful snow
And I just couldn't resist doing a snow angel...
And remembering my sweet angel boy at the same time.
We then came back for some game time!
The dogs wanted to play too!
Well, maybe not Betsy. She'd rather just lay on a pillow and eat her Dingo!
You can't really tell too well here, but Justin and his cousin had to have a little snowball fight too! I don't know if anyone actually got hit with a snowball, but they sure did have cold hands!!
Last but not least, my silly Justin...
For those of you that really know Justin, know that he is one silly guy. Justin loves to make people smile and laugh! He just had to try on Joy's pink Snuggie,
Her Christmas tree hat (not too sure he wanted me to take his picture in it though!), 
and trying out Ryley's new stilts!! He just cracks me up!
Over all, we had a wonderful Christmas week in Denver with Justin's family. We can't believe that it is all over now! Christmas just seemed to sneak up this year, and now it had snuck away just as fast! So nice to get to be with family, and we already look forward to next year's holidays!
(Way to go if you made it through this entire blog!!)
4 comments:
Glad you had an awesome Christmas! Any news on the TTC front? Praying, wishing, and hoping.
I loved the snow angel!!! And two things that both happen to be about Justin: pink snuggie=brings new meaning to real men wear pink and AS IF he needs stilts! Ha!
Oh, and the iPhone pics were too funny. That would be a great ad for apple to copy!
So glad you had such a nice time--and made it there and back safely.
Loved all of your pictures and I hope that Justin doesn't mind all of the silly pictures and videos. I think Brian would make me sleep in another room for a few weeks.
I am supposed to wear my splint for 5 more weeks but I don't know if I will be doing that or not.
Can't wait to see you!
So many great pics :)
I think the pic of the iPhones was hilarious...AND the pic of the snow angel you made was beautiful!!!
Glad you had a great Christmas!
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