WOW! We had a GREAT time in Colorado. Many family stories to tell for the rest of our lives. The trip there was an event in itself. It is suppose to be a 13 hour drive without stopping. We made it in 17 hours. The last 100 miles took us the extra four hours. As we passed through the blizzard of the century (for us Texans anyway) we made nervous jokes to break the silence and prayed ALOT. It snowed two feet in two days. It made for great skiing, even though getting to the top of the mountain was somewhat challenging the first couple of days.

It was cold - but not as cold as you would think. The first day we went skiing was unbearably cold. When we returned we found out it was -31 wind chill at the top of the mountain ( I don't think that's taken on the chair lift - THAT was even colder). We said - well no wonder we were so cold. The rest of the days we were even warm when the sun was shining. That was great.


We were so blessed to be able to ski for FOUR days. We were only suppose to go for three, but the girls begged for that last day. How wonderful. We were even more blessed to find a sitter that was God-sent to care for Landry. The first few days Grandma Pat was our blessing. The last few days (Grandma had to go home with Aunt Allyson & Ashton), we found (actually God sent her to me) Miss Diana. She babysits in Pagosa and she is SO AWESOME.

Of course there were those moments of fighting in the car, not doing homework and the trials of getting ALL the layers of ski clothes on... but they were all worth it.

We ran into someone Bob use to work with at the ski lodge - now that was weird. He is a wonderful man and somewhat of a mentor in Bob's life, so it was really nice to spend some time with he and his wife.

Now... we're back to reality. It's been a difficult couple of weeks getting back into the swing of things. The girls have fallen somewhat behind in their school work and I feel so responsible. BUT, we all knew the task of leaving and missing some school. God reminds me, it will all work out and it was worth it. We needed that time away.


Thanks for sharing!

Do you go on vacation? Every time we've been blessed enough to take a real vacation, we promise to take more frequent ones. It never happens that way. Many people have "vacation resources" which we aren't lucky enough to have. You know like flying for free, staying with family or friends, mom or grandma's free condo... Stuff like that. We are going to Wolf Creek, Colorado to stay for a week and go skiing. We are so excited, we just about can't sleep at night - I don't think that's REALLY Landry's excuse, but we're going with it. I have to say, I'm not REALLY looking forward to thirteen hours in the car with my four girls... They can't hardly be in the same room without arguing about SOMETHING. So the car trip, could be interesting. I've said before, my loving husband is somewhat short on the patience side, so we'll see how far we get before he says "I'll turn this car around right here". It might be something more like "I'll let you out right here".
But, those are what memories are made of... right? I have some not-so-desirable memories of vacations with parents fighting and one letting the other out on the side of the road - with her four year old child, somewhere between Texas and Florida. One of those memories, I'd REALLY care to forget. The mere mention of vacation from then on was very tabu in our house. There were separate vacations after that. Then separations, period. Wow, enough of that, back to MY families' vacation. It's been almost three years since we have been on a family vacation. I can't believe it's been THAT long. It's difficult to travel in a party of five - now six. These past few years we've been lucky enough to send our children places - we just don't get to go :( Plus, we had a baby, which somewhat puts a kninkle in your travel itinerary.
So we're off to the slopes! A friend at work told me this morning they are bracing for a big snow storm in Colorado, much like the one they had between Christmas & New Years. I got somewhat panicked. After looking on the web for every travel forecast I could find, it looks like there will be some snow, but not too bad. I'll let you know! Wish us luck :)

So, where does the time go? Why does it go faster the older you get? I just can't believe it's 2007. A friend of mine recently said, she just got used to writing 2006 on her checks. Last year on New Year's Eve I went to the hospital to have an emergency c-section at 9:45 PM. Landry was born at 11:46 PM. We didn't do anything quite so exciting this year. It is Landry's first birthday, so we had cake. She will have quite a party all her life. She won't ever be left with "there's nothing to do tonight".



I know I've talked (written) about how my children have such different personalities, but I have to brag about one of my children - after all, that's what blogs are about, bragging and complaining, right?!?! All three older girls got Target gift cards from one of their grandparents. MacKenzie HAD to go to Target right away and buy Landry a birthday present. Now Landry is JUST A LITTLE BIT SPOILED. She had nine presents at home for her birthday, just from us! And it is just one week after Christmas. I don't even think she's seen all her Chsirtmas presents yet. She's just a tad bit overwhelmed. But MacKenzie insisted. I did talk her into buying a small present and spending the rest on herself. Her Aunt Tiffany gave her a Rachel Ray kids cookbook (GREAT gift) that she loves! So we looked for other Rachel Ray cookbooks.
We found one and she wanted to buy it for me. Again, I had to insist that she buy something for herself. (I bought the cookbook for me ~ that helped). So a very proud moment for mom. Now, the other two -- that's a totally different story. They spent their money on the season 2 of Lost. To me, that is just a waste of money. Oh well. Happy New Year 2007 to you all.