January 2009-Colorado Vacation

Colorado was so wonderful! It brought back the memories of my family taking a trip there every Christmas through New Year's to snow ski. The slopes were the same, but somehow my sense of adventure and my body are not the same as my teen years, and yes it really is me skiing! But don't let me get ahead of myself. From the beginning . . .

We flew in to Denver on Thursday the 22nd and my friend Gina Russo met us at the airport to take us to the rental car pickup. Once we got that settled Aaron & the kids headed off to Boulder to meet up with Brian Struss, and Gina and I headed to Loveland to ski. She was feeling under the weather so she didn't end up skiing but was still sweet enough to drive me up there-too sweet. It was so awesome up there at the mountain top-it's a lot like looking at the ocean, hard to comprehend God's masterpieces. I was so thankful to my parents for all the opportunities they exposed me to and I'm hoping to show our kids those same chances. When the ski day was over, Gina and I stopped in the cute town of Idaho Springs and had Colorado famous wheat crust (dipped in honey) pizza from Beau Jo's. I'm not sure my day could have been much better.

Aaron, on the other hand, was having a good time in Boulder with the kids and Brian when Hannah just leaned over and threw up. They said she was a trooper, never complaining but from then on her trip was not so good. But the boys made the most of it and still were able to take in a few beautiful sites including the Boulder falls & creek. That evening we all met up and we totally got the hook up from Amanda (Brian's girlfriend) and we stayed in a fully furnished two-bedroom apartment (a totally blessing-her apt complex includes this with lease agreement and she gave us one of the free nights!! wow!).

The next morning we headed off to Colorado Springs so that Aaron could do his site inspection for work at The Broadmoor and me & the kiddos checked in at The Drury. We finally got to Amanda & Kevin's and got to meet our new nephew Levi. He is so precious. It's such a shame that when you are the one having the baby your body hurts so much you can't enjoy that newborn stage. But as an aunt . . .totally loved the newborn stage! He even smiled at us! We had a great dinner there (even though we told Amanda NOT to cook!) and all of a sudden Hannah said she had to throw up. We made it to the bathroom and were pretty impressed with her being such a big girl. But then later, not so lucky and I'm afraid to call Amanda even now as I'm afraid the stench may still linger. So our plans for the next day (Sat) quickly changed as it was official that Hannah could no longer go to Pike's Peak. So . . .

Saturday, Kevin, Aaron & Joshua went up to Pike's Peak and said it was about 6 below! Beautiful but freezing-even for a Minnesota native. Joshua was bundled and appeared very much like the younger brother on The Christmas Story who couldn't put his arms down. After getting advice from the Vandy nurse hotline we were able to at least know what to look for with Hannah. So Amanda, Levi, Hannah & I went to The Focus on the Family headquarters right by their place. If you are ever in Colorado Springs I highly recommend it! They have the wardrobe from Narnia, slides, puppets, dress up, radio show, etc and it's all free! However Hannah was pitiful and had to be woken up to even go through it so we only stayed for a minute and she was pitiful at best. Then we headed to the Broadmoor where we got to stay for the next 2 nights . .oh la la

Once the guys got back and thawed out we just laid low and had dinner in. We convinced Kev & Amanda to do a date night so they could have a couple of peaceful hours while we loved on our new nephew. Good for everybody! The Broadmoor brought in a toddler bed for Hannah so we were set. It actually snowed on us a great deal while we were there-Hannah was really impressed with the snow, but there was never quite enough for the snowman she was hoping to build.

Sunday morning we went to New Life church, they have been in the news a lot as they had the shooting there last year among other things. It was a great service and we spent the rest of the day swimming in the (indoor) pool and enjoying the outdoor hot tub.

It was tough to say good bye but we headed back to Denver's airport on Monday for a long day of travel. I'm anticipating the next reality show to include traveling with kids! Actually ours happened to be very good this particular day but wow what a job that is to travel with youngsters.

So of course on Tuesday our first day back was the first time Hannah felt good, poor little thing, and so here we are back in Tennessee (seven loads of laundry later) and I'm already ready to go back!