Christmas

The Thanksgiving train ride to Glenwood Springs is the yearly "daddy/son" bonding time. So we decided that Christmas Eve we will switch and have a "mommy/son" "daddy/daughter" day. Luke and Lily spent the morning walking around downtown Ft. Collins and Jack and I went to a painting class.

Luke and Lily ready for the day

Jack ready to paint

He is a little artist

Jack's finished masterpiece

A group shot of all the kids who painted with us

During the "daddy/daughter" time, Lily wanted to pick out chapstick (she is a bit obsessed). Well both kids are obsessed with chapstick...

 Yes, the pink is chapstick all over her face

Christmas Eve we skyped with Luke's family so they could watch the kids open their presents. Grammie got Jack his own guitar and Jack fell in love: 

Jack hugging his guitar

Christmas Eve night the kids had to say goodbye to their Elf Nicky.

 Then Christmas morning they woke to lots more presents

Lily went straight for opening presents while Jack was more preoccupied with getting all the candy canes out of the tree

 Our family Chirstmas photo

 Later in the day we went to Nani and Papi's house for more presents

Lily was thrilled to get more lip gloss!

 Jack loved his new shoes

 Lily spent the rest of the afternoon in her new tutu rubbing lip gloss on her face

 Jack and Papi went to work uncovering gems in one of his Christmas gifts

It was a good Christmas but Luke was feeling really sick... and that was to be just the beginning of a never ending sickness spiral

Thanksgiving at Glenwood Springs

Ever since our trip to Glenwood Springs last Thanksgiving, Jack has been asking to go to the "Water slide hotel" again. All year long, Jack would ask when he was going to take the train with daddy to the water slide hotel. So we knew, we needed to make it a tradition. 

Thanksgiving morning Lily and I dropped Luke and Jack off at the Amtrak in Denver for their 6 hour train ride up the mountain. 

Lily and I made it to the hotel several hours before Jack and Luke were to arrive so we hit up the water slide for a bit and then took a walk around town. Then we waited by the train tracks to see the boys' train come in

After picking up Luke and Jack we went to the River's Restaurant for Thanksgiving dinner. I'm not a fan of traditional Thanksgiving food, so I was happy to order a tasty steak while everyone else had ham and turkey.

At Thanksgiving dinner. Lily is hiding behind Nani
and Jack is preoccupied with coloring.

There's Lily!

 Some pictures at our hotel

Friday morning we visited the Hot Springs. It was a little bit stinky at first

But after running through 20 degrees in our bathing suits, it felt nice to get into the warm water! The kids actually had a great time jumping of the diving board and swimming in the fog. But it was so cold outside that any part of our body not in the water (aka our face) actually stung. 

Friday night we walked around the town and stopped in a couple ice cream/candy stores. The first stop had saddles as seats

And the ice cream was good too!

But the best part of the trip (at least for the kids) was going on the water slide...over and over... and over and over again

Saturday morning we took the tram up to the adventure park

The kids were excited at first

And then Jack told Lily we were going to crash...

Jack and I went down the alpine slide until we were frozen

Luke's attempt to get a picture of me and the background....

We also had a lot of fun at the 4D theatre. The workers were nice enough to let Lily in even though the minimum age was 4... but she LOVED it. The seats moved and air/water sprays at your face, but Lily had a blast. We watched all four movies two times. I was happy that Lily was able to have fun since she couldn't go on the alpine slide or the laser tag. 

Finally we headed down the mountain

It was a great time! Until next year...