Alex's Special Trip

My dad wanted a special week one on one with Alex, so we'd been talking about how to make that happen.  Eventually we determined that the easiest way was for Alex to stay behind after the ski trip and then fly home.  It was more cost effective for me to stay back as well and fly home with Alex than to put him on a plane alone, so my dad bought us both tickets, and I had an extra week of vacation as well.

I spent a couple of days at my dad's, and then I went to my sister's while Alex finished his time with my dad.

Alex loved my dad's property.  This boy has been rather sad that we sold our acreage.  Papa let him drive the tractor.

In the evenings, they read Where the Red Fern Grows together, and Alex had a blast with the dogs.  During the day, they had a bunch of outings and my dad also pulled Alex on a sled behind the side by side vehicle every day. 

We went to Bishop's Castle one day that I was with them. 

This place is really cool and kind of scary!  A lot of the stairs and welds looked kind of weak, and there were lots of other hazards.  It was really fun to explore, though.  At one point I realized my legs were shaking, not because of the stairs, but because I was getting so nervous.  Ha!

My dad drove us into town (he's about two hours out) to meet up with Sarah.  We had lunch at Hu Hot, then went to the movies.  Afterward, I went with Sarah, and Alex and my dad headed back to the mountains.

Sarah and I started with a rather silly night with Mariah and her friend playing glow golf, going through a laser maze, eating ice cream, and petting puppies at the mall.  Sisters are the best!

The next day, Sarah had to work, so I went to the Denver temple and managed to get myself lost in Castle Rock (what?!!) on the way home.  (I just wanted Chick Fil A!)


Sarah took off of work the next day so that we could have time together.  We went for a walk at Red Rocks and then she took me to a gluten free restaurant and bakery.  I could order anything I wanted!  I'm not used to having so many choices, so I opted for two desserts as we were leaving.  Ha ha!

Dad, Alex, and Drenda met us that evening for an escape room (which was AWESOME) and then Alex came back with us to Sarah's house.

He enjoyed Mariah's snake (named Steve... I think), and Sarah's four dogs. 

One last selfie with my favorite little sister before our trip ended.

This was Alex's first time flying, and the Southwest staff made a big deal out of it.  They gave him a bag full of snacks, and let him check out the captain's cabin after we landed.

Flying over the rocky mountains.  Alex correctly identified Pikes Peak before the pilot announced we were flying by it.

We had a layover in Phoenix, and unfortunately, Alex threw up as we were landing.  Thankfully, he made it into a bag.  I felt bad for the people around us!

He recovered quickly and thought it was super cool to see the cockpit.

At about 6pm during our second flight, the pilot announced that we were flying past Pueblo, Colorado.  We'd left Sarah's house in Colorado Springs that morning at 10.  Eight hours later we were basically flying past where we'd started.

Ski Trip

It was Annie's turn to learn to ski this year.  She had the free 5th grade pass, so we took advantage of that as much as possible.  She had a free lesson, two free rentals, and tons of free lift passes.  We managed to let her have 4 ski days.  She did great!

We had so much snow the week we were in Colorado... three blizzards!  It made for tough driving, but excellent skiing.  Logan did great again this year.  He's still learning, but he isn't afraid of anything... which isn't always a good thing.  Josh took him down his first black run this time.  He found it rather steep.  Ha ha!

I skiied with Annie both days that it was my turn (Jim and I alternate days), and by the end of the last day she was cruising in great control, but also at a nice pace.  I had so much fun with her.

Josh and Karen came from Utah for the trip.  We had so much fun with them.

Aubrey and Mariah came from Michigan... after telling everyone that they couldn't make it.  They arrived during our first day skiing, so when we all got back to the house they hid in an upstairs bedroom.  My dad was SO surprised.  It was awesome and also the first time our entire family has been together in a while.  We even managed to get a family picture.  (Sarah and I bought white shirts for everyone last minute to make it look coordinated.)

The rest of the kids, and whichever parent wasn't skiing, hung out at the enormous house that we were all staying in.  We had almost 30 people in our group again this year.

The kids played in the very deep snow that was all around the house.

I took a few pictures of the house.  This place had 8 bedrooms, 8 bathrooms, three living areas, and a hot tub.  (We always get a place with a hot tub... LOL.) 

In the evenings, we have a ton of fun visiting, playing games, eating, and relaxing in the hot tub.  This big open area was awesome for our group.

Our bedroom was actually three rooms connected to each other in a line (this was counted as one bedroom).  It was ideal for our family.  Both of the small rooms had two twin beds.

This was our room.  The door on the far side is what led to the two little rooms.

The kids went sledding on the huge snow pile that was in our parking area.