New Year in CO

Hello from chillier Colorado!  We made sure to bring our snow clothes with us so we could have some fun outside.  Here's a picture of us out playing in the best snow we could find.  There was a full hillside of it, but it was pretty hard from melting and refreezing.  Nonetheless we all still had a great time!

On Monday we went to the zoo.  Kids were even free for the month of December, so that was pretty awesome!  We met Katie, Nolan and Connor there too.  I'm really glad they could come and join us.  It was pretty windy on Monday, but we were able to stay warm.  Here's me, Grayson and Winry posing with our new wings!  Oh, zoo lights were set up while we were there, though being daytime, we couldn't really see them lit up.  Still fun to see all the decorations.

Apparently the tahi isn't everyone else's most favorite animal at the Denver zoo, but I still stopped by to say hi.  These are the only wild horse in the world, and they only live in Mongolia!  When my parents came to pick me up from my mission we went to a preserve for them and got to see a bunch in the wild.  I've always really liked them since.

Here are all the kids being driven around the zoo by... GRAYSON!?!  Everybody get out of the way, this kid doesn't know how to drive!

When we were coming by the hospital I ran in to check, and something was actually happening!  I don't know that I've ever see anything before.  There was a Guinea pig in there.  They were drawing some blood and taking a CT scan to looking into some issues they'd observed.  If you look at it's face you can see it's got the amnesia/air hose hooked up and everything.  Pretty cool to watch for a while, and nice that it wasn't anything gruesome. 

After the zoo we headed to Tyson and Tina's house for dinner.  We got to check out their new addition and had lots of fun playing with cousins.  Seriously, the kids had such a good time, and we probably stayed longer than we should have and kept the kids up way too late, but they were just having so much fun it was hard to leave!

Our original plan for Tuesday was to drive up to Breckenridge and spend a night with our old next door neighbors who moved up there.  However, it snowed Monday evening/Tuesday morning, with more predicted for Wednesday and we decided not to brave the roads.  Hannah had a performance that she and Joe were going to, and so we stuck around and watched their kids so their parents didn't have to watch them.  Alice and I had a great time playing.

Since we didn't make it to the mountains, we went to find snow.  As I mentioned, it was pretty hard, but we all tried to make snow angels.  There was also a little cement channel meant to guide water through, and it had filled as the snow melted and then frozen to ice.  It was fun to play on the ice as well, and some places stayed strong, and others crunched when I stepped on them.

We forgot to bring a sled, but no worries, we brought our bellies!  It worked alright.  When Eleanor tried it her zipper kept catching on the snow and she'd slide for a little and then her coat would suddenly pop open!

After all that snowy weather it was time to warm up and watch a movie!  The kids picked to watch Encanto while staying up for the new year.  We let them stay up till around 9, and then even let them have a sleepover.

To bring in the new year, we went to play in the snow again.  On our way, we drove through our old neighborhood to see our old house, and even the S that we used to go on walks around.  We also stopped at the wolves to give a howl, and captured it all on the vlog!  At the park we followed the ice trail down to a bridge, and there was ice frozen over the rocks under the bridge and it was pretty fun to go down and check it out.

That afternoon we went ice skating at the library.  Grayson didn't want to go out on the ice, but everyone else got a chance and had a fun time.  Eleanor fell once and said her arm hurt in the middle of her elbow and wrist, so there was a little broken bone concern, but I haven't heard of a cast since, so it seems like it ended alright.  Grayson enjoyed watching everyone for a while, but eventually was ready to go to dinner!  We headed to Casa Mariachi, which was delicious as always.

Wednesday evening we switch swapped around and headed over to the Smiths house and stayed with them for the rest of the week.  The kids were very excited to see his booming PEZ collection, and he even let them pick some out to play with and make a movie!  Grayson and Winry were loving it, especially because most of them had some PEZ in them that they could sneak from time to time.

The Smiths got a pizza oven for Christmas, so we just had to make pizza.  I believe from what they said they've had pizza more nights than not since Christmas.  The pizza was so good, and even Grayson loved it.  He absolutely refused to eat his pizza at first, but later that evening he was hungry and I got him to try a bit and he devoured it!

Friday morning, Nathan and I headed to the rec center for a workout class.  Great news, our membership renewed (...oops), so I just scanned my card and headed in!  Oh boy do I miss the rec center and going to classes in the morning.  There's just nothing like this anywhere near the price around us here in Texas... sigh.  Anyway, I had a great time at the class, and have been really sore since.  Thursday and Friday I worked, and Monica and the kids took off for adventures during the day.  I don't know exactly what they did, but in the evening we headed to a park to meet with our old neighbors who were coming down from Breckenridge for something!  I'm really glad we were still able to see them.  Unfortunately, they had some delays, so we didn't get to spend too long together at the park, but I'm so glad they could make it!

We headed from the park to the Wilkes for dinner.  When we lived here, Jordan was still in med school, and they've been in Greeley for the last few years I believe, but he finished and now they're living in Castle Rock.  Dinner was great and after, the kids all had so much fun playing together, which was nice because that left us adults free to play a game!  After dinner I ran back to the Cammacks for a game night with Joe.  Good news, I was in peak form, and swept the games!

Saturday morning we got in the car to head back to Texas, and that's where we spent Saturday and Sunday.  We went to church in Lubbock, as we stayed there to split the drive again.  The drive was definitely easier/more enjoyable on the way out when everyone was well rested and excited for the trip ahead, as opposed to very tired.  But we made it back!  Yay!  Happy New Year!