Happy New Year!

Hooray for 2008! We rang in the New Year with the Boyd bachelors, David & Suzanne, Dara & Josh and the kiddos.

David, Jon and Josh spent most of New Years Eve day plowing tremendous drifts in the road. The guys planned on skiing, but the work was too much to get the road plowed so we could all get in and out.

The brothers came in from the wrong direction, so David and Jon had to go and tow them out of a big drift before dinner. Josh cooked up fajitas while all of that was going on, so we were ready for dinner when they finally got to the cabin at 8.

We rounded out the evening again with 3 episodes of 24. We determined to finish the first season before we leave!

It is just me and Ellie and JD today. Everyone went off for skiing today while Suzanne went to Denver. Emma was signed up for some lessons and I think Jon and David were going to take a lesson too. The weather is beautiful today with warmer temperatures finally. No snow in sight.

Ellie and I are currently eating apples, drinking water and getting ready to watch Cinderella (we have already watched the Wiggles, Polar Express and Mickey Mouse). JD is down for a morning nap, so I feel like I might be able to handle a toddler and a baby someday...(but don't get any ideas because I'm not planning it anytime soon).

I guess I need to go start "Innereyya" which is Ellie for Cinderella. She is tired of Beeckey (or Mickey).

24 Hours in Colorado

We are still having fun in Colorado. David and Suzanne made it safely last night, but they did say that it was pretty heavy snow on the road.

Emma was the only kid brave enough to try and brave the elements yesterday.

The kiddos had a great time playing together. Emma is JD's personal entertainment center. He loves to watch her play!

Emma helped Jon cook baked ziti last night. A chef in the making!

We rounded up the evening with 3 episodes of 24. We are all hooked now. But we have to wait until the kids go back to sleep to continue the series tonight!

It's Getting Cold In Here

So far, so cold...I mean good. We have been enjoying ourselves up here in Colorado. We have not had much major snow in the last day or so. But it is VERY cold. Wind chills of -48 degrees at night.

Here is the view from the cabin in the morning.

We bundled up yesterday and braved our way into Breckenridge so Jon could get in some skiing and I could try to do some shopping with JD. It was around 1 or 2 degrees most of the day. I put JD in his supercute winter clothes (thank you Grandma) and got his hat and mittens and his coat for our trip.

We visited the place where we got stuck on our way. I had to take pictures since I have had some requests. For those who have visited the cabin, you can see the big turn at the end of the road in the distance.

My shopping trip basically turned into a trip to Walmart because the parking lots were so terrible and busy. Oh well. We picked up Jon from some really cold skiing (he said he thought he had frostbite) and got a bite to eat in Breckenridge.

For most of the day, we had been keeping tabs on Josh and Dara who were on their way up. By 6:00pm local time, they were in Amarillo (a LONG way from Colorado). Jon and I watched a movie and got JD to bed early.

Around 3:30 am, the crew arrived with the dog and two sleepy girls. Dara said that as they drove through the "snow tunnel" (see my previous blog post picture), Ellie (the almost 2-year-old) said "Oh OH!" over and over.

We got everyone unpacked and settled down for the rest of the night by around 4:30 (Josh wanted to fire up some breakfast at that point). We all slept until around 7:30 am this morning and the guys left to go skiing.

Jon and Josh came back about an hour later after they said that we were getting a lot of blowing snow. No rest (or skiing) for the weary. Now they will spend the rest of the afternoon plowing out the road so that David and Suzanne don't get stuck tonight.

The guys did manage to get some food for a few meals so we will have some yummy food if we get snowed in this week!

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

So much to blog about! We had a lovely Christmas. JD really enjoyed his first Christmas, opening presents and playing with new toys.

But let's back up. We got a surprise phone call on December 22 from our friend Jordan saying that he got a catering job and needed help from Jon on December 23. The big news is that the catering job was for Jessica Simpson and Tony Romo! Jon, Jordan and Josh were back in action, cooking up a Mexican feast for their party. Jon said it was pretty laid back and that everyone really enjoyed the food.

We left for Colorado on Christmas Day in the afternoon. We planned to drive halfway and stay in Salina, Kansas to take it easy with JD. It worked out great and JD took his afternoon nap during most of the trip. When he woke up, we watched the Wiggles.

Yesterday, we made our way into the valley to get to the cabin. We were a little nervous because our neighbor up here had called us to let us know how bad the snow drifts were on the road. But we wanted to try it in daylight hours so we knew what we were dealing with.

We got on the road to the cabin with no problems until we got to the big corner to turn into our house. Our neighbor had been plowing for most of the day and still had not really cleared it out enough to drive through. He was kind enough to let us drive through his field to bypass the mess.

We did pretty good most of the rest of the way until we got to the hill right before the house. Then we got STUCK. Jon decided to hike it in to the house and get the truck with the plow to get our car in. No problem. JD and I chilled out in the car and watched the Wiggles (over and over).

About an hour later, Jon came walking back with a shovel and my hiking boots slung over his shoulder - not a good sign. The truck battery had died and needed recharging. So Jon worked on trying to dig us out, which didn't work. So we bundled JD up in his new snowsuit and I put on my hiking boots and we walked to the house. It wasn't too bad - about 15 minutes, but it was uphill in high altitude.

Jon got the truck battery recharged and went back out for a couple of hours to get the car dug out and plow the road a bit. We got our car back and unloaded. Yay! This morning we woke up to heavy snowfall in the valley. It is 7:30 am here and Jon is already out plowing and trying to get into town for groceries in case it gets really bad here.

Everytime we come to Colorado, we are ready for an adventure! So far we haven't been disappointed.

Just When You Think You're Done

We got up this morning with sense of purpose. There were a lot of things that needed to be done before Christmas and before we could go to Colorado.


JD got us up bright and early at 5:30 (he must have sensed the urgency). Of course, I just rolled back over (since weekends are daddy duty) and got a little more sleep. But when I got up at 7:30, everyone was ready to start working.



We got JD dressed up in a really cute outfit for his 8 month pictures, which we did in front of our Christmas tree. As luck would have it, there were a bunch of really cute ones. Then I decided I needed to get a picture frame, right then and there. (This is not the "one" but I want the people who will be receiving the "one" shortly to be surprised and some of them read the blog).




So I set off to Hobby Lobby and Target to hunt. HUGE mistake. Now that I am a stay-at-home mommy, I forget that everyone else does their shopping on Saturday (especially the weekend before Christmas). Blech.


Then we went to Sam's for some Colorado stuff (bottled water, baby food, socks for Jon - normal stuff). It was starting to get crowded there, but surprisingly not too bad.


The grocery store is what made me decide to never go back to any store ever again. I hate our grocery store on a normal day anyway (way too crowded, never enough checkers, produce is crummy...I could go on and on). But it was beyond awful today. I parked in another zipcode, then I couldn't find a cart, then nothing was where it was supposed to be and they were out of the baby food that I wanted (so was Sam's). I came home with a raging headache and to a screaming child.


But things turned around once JD and I had a nap. Much happier baby, much happier parents. I got most of my presents wrapped and am now enjoying a roaring fire and a Cowboy game with my little family.

Someone's In the Kitchen

JD has discovered the kitchen. He loves to hang out in there while we are trying to cook or clean. So we have given him some of his own kitchen items to play with while he is in there with us.

The only tricky part is that he is so quick these days. In the blink of an eye, he is right behind you (or the hot oven or the trash can in the pantry). So we have to stay on our toes (and not on his)!

JD is also our new vaccuum cleaner. He finds any teeny-tiny thing on the floor and literally sucks it right up. So I have been sweeping 2-3 times every day ahead of our little vaccuum cleaner. But last night, when Jon was cooking in the kitchen, JD was rapidly introduced to Yukon Gold Potatoes, since he managed to get a little piece that had fallen off the pan. Oh well. White potatoes aren't too different from sweet potatoes and carrots, right? They are all root vegetables...

He is also our recycler. All of our magazines and paper products go right into his mouth and turn into a nice mushy pulp, ready for production into a new paper product. I never knew JD was so concerned about the environment. Our little "green" baby.

Holiday Madness

Another exciting weekend! I think we survived intact.

We spent most of Friday and Saturday preparing for a holiday dinner with a few family members and some friends. Jon cooked some wonderful dishes and I stayed out of the way and offered helpful advice (are you sure you want to cook it like THAT??).

Jon prepared rib roast, roast chicken, potatoes au gratin, asparagus with roasted red pepper sauce and some hors d'oeuvres. We also made my favorite dessert - molten chocolate cakes. Yummy!

I focused on decorating our dining room and putting ten people at a table that normally seats eight. It actually turned out just fine. We were all cozy.

During dessert we played a version of the Newlywed Game (or Not-So-Newlywed Game in some cases). Dara and Josh (who have been together for SEVENTEEN years) won the game hands down.

Everyone had fun and JD did pretty well, considering all of the noise and commotion at the house. I'm still looking at the dirty crystal glasses and pots & pans in our sink...better think about that tomorrow.