We spent a wonderful two weeks in Colorado celebrating Christmas. Our families live very near each other which means we never have to choose between them and once one set of grandparents is worn out we can move onto the next set! I love that our families are also friends and so we can often combine activities and enjoy everyone's company at once. I know, we are spoiled.
Annabelle really gets along well with her grandparents and has special activities that she enjoys with each one of them. With Grandma Shauna Annabelle could read from dawn until dusk. The favorite book this trip was 'Oh Ducky! A Chocolate Calamity", after reading it about a dozen times a day Grandma Shauna was nice enough to send it home with us. Anna still has it memorized. The last week we were in town Annabelle discovered the endurance that Papa Zeke has for playing house, one afternoon while everyone else took naps they played a marathon 3 hour round of house.
Playing house with Papa Zeke, these are their quadruplets at the park
Grandma Rosalia's house has become famous for 'crafties' and helping with dinner. My mom has a lot more patience with Annabelle in the kitchen than I do, which didn't result in too many mishaps, but I do recall something about hot chocolate mix being dusted on the counter while french toast was cooking . . ;)
My grandma, Nona, making cute little napkin holders for Christmas
Grampster is good for playing just about any game Annabelle can come up with. He has really honed in on the skills that matter most when playing with her: Do whatever she says and never question her.
Something funny must have happened at breakfast, Annabelle says it has something to do with wanting 'gummy bears on my boots'
On New Years day we went up to the Crags with both our families and enjoyed lunch and sledding. Starting a couple of months before Christmas Annabelle talked about wanting to eat snow - so she would eat snow until someone put her on a sled, then she would giggle down the slope until the sled stopped then she would promptly start eating snow again. Too fun!
Other great moments from the trip are: Mike and the other Sherwood men going up to the TeePee in the mountains, joint family Christmas Eve dinner, random McKean wrestling matches, candy making with my Mom and Nona, Mike and his friend Than going bouldering, going to the temple with Jake Sherwood, celebrating how old my brother is getting, cutting wood for Nona's stove, feeling my new nephew kick around in Trudy and eating homemade tortellini soup at Nona's.
I'm almost embarrassed to put this, but I thought I would include a list of gifts we have received that we already can't imagine life without:
Mike: new camera, in case you hadn't noticed ALL the pictures on this post.
Tia: a GPS for driving, I use it so often that Annabelle was surprised when we arrived at our local grocery store yesterday morning without the assistance of the GPS. She said "Mommy, you didn't get lost! You got to the store without asking that lady!"
Annabelle: A tool box from Santa (aka Grandma Rosalia) that is labeled "Annabelle's Crafties" and is filled to the brim with arts and crafts supplies.
It was as if the stars aligned for a few days in Utah last month. In our trip to the colder lands up north Annabelle and I were able to see some of our old friends from BYU (unfortunately we missed some), two of my old roommates, some McKean as well as Thorstensen extended family, my family from Colorado came out AND the cherry on top of it all: my new nephew Jeremiah!
My older brother Adam and his wife Trudy had their first baby and he is a cutie! Annabelle and I drove up at the beginning of the week so that we could get a head start on all the cooing over the baby and were joined by Mike and my family by the end of the week for the baby blessing.
A few people asked me how driving the 10+ hours by myself with Annabelle was. Let me tell you, I have got the best travel companion ever! She is content with just listening to music or talking my ear off for hours on end. She only needed to go to the bathroom once or twice each way. She will wait to have lunch at a McDonalds WITH a playplace for an extra hour or two or three if need be. She is fine with whatever snacks are within arm reach AND she never complained about my driving! I realize now how much having a new baby will adjust our ease of traveling . . . until then I could drive ANYWHERE with this girl.
scrap booking.
hearing my nephew Eli shout "T-ya" to me on skype.
