Unintended Extended Vacation

I know I said I was going to go in order, but I'm waiting to finish up one thing for the room renovation, so instead I'm going to fill you on a little trip we took recently!

The weekend before Christmas, Rob and I decided to take a little road trip out to his grandparent's house in Colorado. We were glad to have a few friends join us for the weekend and had a blast just hanging out around town, drinking wine by the fire, and playing lots of cards. Robby and John went skiing, but the rest of us didn't make it. :) Seemed like a lot of effort to get dressed and go skiing when we could be out enjoying the unseasonably warm weather (which made for crappy snow conditions...another reason to not go:)). So instead, we hung out around town getting soup at our favorite restaurant The Red Onion, drinking hot chocolate, and eating our weight in ginger molasses cookies from Paradise Bakery...YUMMMMMM! I took some pictures, so I will let those tell the story of our trip...the trip that ended up lasting a day longer than planned. :)

First up...check out this view!!! You can see why we were perfectly content just hanging out at the house.



John snapped this picture of me while he was playing with my camera...this is what I did the majority of the time I was at the house...I could stare at that view all day long. Beautiful!



Pretty pic of Amber...



Eventually we got around and headed downtown. We stopped by Paradise Bakery for a hearty breakfast of coffee (hot chocolate for me...its my favorite!) and cookies!



While I may look bundled up....it was so warm I could have done without the coat (and I did the next day!). You can tell how warm it is by the fact that Robby is just wearing a fleece pull over and is perfectly content. :)



Mary and Tony drove us out there in their big SUV...made for a very easy, comfortable trip out! Thanks, guys!



While we were getting distracted by all the pretty things in the various home stores, the boys ducked in to the Red Onion for a drink.



We decided that seemed appealing and decided to join them as well!



That night we went back to the house to hang out before dinner. I snapped a few pictures of everyone out on the balcony before we lost all the good light.

Amber and John are living in Denver right now and the mountains seem to be suiting them quite well.





I told them to switch angle for lighting reasons...and as they were rearranging, caught this. I seriously love how much he loves my friend.







I took a few of Mary and Tony also, although my favorites of them were the ones I took the next night.





These were the ones we took the next night. Gotta love that golden hour light!







Mary getting her model hair on. :)



And then one Tony took while playing around with my camera. I think I almost have them convinced to buy a DSLR of their own! :)



And finally, here are a few John took of Robby and I. :)





This picture is appearing darker now than it did when I first edited a few things on it, but as you can see, Robby and I are both showing off our squint-y eyes. I think Ruthie is right, our kids have no shot at getting big, beautiful, open eyes. :)



Here is their little family! They brought their bunny, Louise, along for the trip! Everybody just fell in love with her (cute, furry little thing that hops...how could you not!). Rob had a grand old time chasing her around the house, which usually left her cowering in a corner like the next picture down.





We all would take turns holding the bunny! She is just so cuddle-y! :)









We had big plans to get a group picture at some point, but one person was always in the shower or in town or something. So I guess we'll have to just settle for this picture of all the girls in front of the fireplace. This was just supposed to be a test shot for the timer, for the group picture that didn't happen. :)



I love that fireplace. We had a fire burning in it every moment that we were in that room. I loved it!



On Sunday we all had the best of intentions to ski. Like I mentioned earlier though...that didn't happen. Only Rob and John made it out to the mountains. I did, however, get all my ski gear on (which is half the battle) before changing my mind...so we took this picture so that years from now I can look back and pretend like I did go skiing on this trip. :)



Late Saturday night Alan and his friends showed up. Robby and his friends always used to go skiing the week before Christmas. Unfortunately, they had to drop their annual Christmas ski trip due to real world obligations. Alan and his friends picked up right where they left off and now go that week as well. They adjusted their trip a few days so we could have the house, but we still overlapped a few days. Fine by us though. The boys were gone all day skiing, and at night they did things to entertain us like have competitions to see who could eat a pound of spaghetti (they weighed a pound dry...then they cooked it. That is a lot of spaghetti!).



The next Monday we took off to head back home, only to be thwarted in our efforts. We knew we may hit a winter storm, but were hoping to just power through. However, the roads had other plans. After seeing at least fifteen cars and semis not just on the side of the road, but ROLLED on the side of the road, we decided to pull off in Limon, gas up, and evaluate our options.

A pic from the gas station while we were talking to our parents and checking the weather. You can't see much beyond the gas station because of the blowing snow.



We realized there had been a bad accident (a prison van rolled, killing two)and that traffic was stopped about 10 miles up ahead. After realizing I-70 was probably going to close when the sun when down, and knowing that given our current speed (between 35-40 mph), we wouldn't make it too far before that, we decided to get a hotel room and bunker down.

We played lots of cards that night (Rob and I are obsessed with playing Pitch...anybody want to set up a card games date?), watched the KU game, and ate the cookies I had intended to take to my friend Molly in KC that night (sorry Molls...they were yummy!).


(It was a close game...but Tony and I came out on top! WOO!)



The next morning we headed out and managed to time everything perfectly, so the roads were opening up just as we were getting to them. Really, by the next day a lot of the ice had melted. The real problem area was the 60 miles around Hays...the roads had clearly been snow-packed and were still not quite clear. We saw lots of cars on the side of the roads and it was pretty bumpy there for a while. But we made it home...a day later than planned, but better safe than sorry!

I'll be back soon with a big room renovation! :)

I love Christmas!!!

I love everything about the holiday season! I love what the season is all about....loving, giving, celebrating, and more! I love going to church and seeing the decorations added each week and the cute little families lighting the advent candles (and the kids inevitably fighting over who gets to hold the lighter while one of the parents reads scripture...that's real life folks). I love driving down the street and seeing all the Christmas lights outside and the trees lit up inside. I love getting to see family....lots and lots of family! I love picking out presents for people. I do not love wrapping them. Well, sometimes I love wrapping them. I go through phases. I get all excited about really cute, creative wrapping...then by the time I gather all the stuff and wrap the first couple presents I'm over it. And I never want to wrap anything again. Happens every year.

Anyways...as you can tell...I love Christmas! I knew long before we got married that Christmas decorating wasn't Rob's thing. He is convinced all it does is bring out everyone's stressful side. Plus, he doesn't like having to carry up all the Christmas decoration boxes, only to carry them back down a month later. Clearly, he had never decorated with me. :) Not only do I carry up all the boxes (except last year, when our boxes were stored in a creepy, cellar basement...no thanks!), but I am like a happy elf when it comes to decorating. Every time I open a box of Christmas decorations I yell to him something along the lines of.... "I TOTALLY FORGOT ABOUT THIS SANTA FACE....I LOVE THIS SANTA FACE!!!" then we move on the next box "ROBBY...DID YOU REMEMBER THAT WE HAD THESE ADORABLE CHRISTMAS TEA TOWELS?! I DIDN'T!!! I LOOOOOOOVEEE THESE TEA TOWELS!!!!" and so on and so forth. It is like Christmas in the middle of November. Yes, I decorate before Thanksgiving. Go ahead, judge me. :) I just really like to soak up all the decorations for as long as possible! :)

Since we had a new house this year, it was extra fun to figure out where everything was going to go and how I was going to decorate the outside. Here are a few snapshots of how everything ended up!

The outside of the house...I thought it turned out great. I was so excited about the first dusting of snow, that I didn't even realize the lights had slipped off of the larger bush until a few days later. Oh well....you get the idea.



I love our front porch and really wanted to show it off with some pretty garland and the red bows.



I knew I wanted a wreath for the front door, but after looking around they all seemed so expensive. I made this one myself and total it only cost me $7! And since I didn't make it Christmas specific...I plan on leaving it up through February. :)



Our front windows our located in our dining room, so instead of moving around the table to put the tree there, I decided to position it so that when our front door was open, you could see it perfectly! I don't know if we'll do that again next year, since by next year we will have a fireplace and that will switch up our furniture placement, but it worked great this year.





Our first married Christmas together was less than a month after our wedding. We had a some colored ball ornaments, but I ended up needing those for a tree-decorating contest at school. So that year, we were left with about eight colored ornaments, two or three other ornaments, and then I put all of our Christmas cards on our tree to fill in the gaps. Now that we are on our third Christmas together, we have started to collect more ornaments of our own. It is so fun to hang them up and reflect on each one!

This was one we got two summers ago when Robby coached in the Cape Cod League...



And my grandparents gave us this one for our 2nd anniversary this past November....



As a Christmas present this year from my Aunt Tierney and Uncle Timm we got a "First Year in our New Home" ornament! I can't wait to hang that one up for years to come, too!

I had big plans to lay out all of my Christmas china (a wedding gift from my Aunt Mo and Aunt Tam Tam!), but the china is being safely stored at my parents house and I never got around to getting it. I'm going to have to pick it up soon to make sure I have it for next year. As a result...my "Christmas Table" was left looking a little bare. I laid out the red chargers and put some spice scented pine cones in a bowl, but didn't make it much further than that. Next year I would like to have my table set weeks in advance (really set for no reason other than to look pretty...we do Christmas in Hutch), and hang some garland and ornaments from our light fixture. I think Christmas decorating will always be a work in progress at my house. :)





Just now I realized I don't have a picture of the aforementioned Santa Face. It is probably my favorite Christmas decoration. My folks and grandparents also have Santa Face's hanging in their homes....therefore every time I look at it it brings back happy memories...it makes it REALLY feel like Christmas. :)Please excuse the less than stellar cell phone picture, but going downstairs to get my camera, taking the pictures, uploading them, etc. etc....it just seems like a lot of work. So this will have to do. Next year when we have our fireplace, I'm planning on having the Santa Face much more prominently displayed. I mean it looks great between the two lamps, but next year...it is going to look AMAZING! :)



In addition to all the decorations, I also love Christmas candles! I'm a big candle person anyways, but come Christmas time...I'm literally burning them in every room. I have my tree on a timer so anytime I'm in the house , it is on. I love getting home at 4:30 after a long day at school, and walking in to see my Christmas tree all lit up. Love. It. I also love walking in to a house that smells like a mix of fir tree, cinnamon, Christmas cookie, and more! I keep a lighter out on the counter and just walk around lighting them up before I even take my coat off. I read in a book that my friend Amber gave me (The Perfectly Imperfect Home) that it is important to be aware of the distinct scent you are giving your home. Everything you use from candles, to perfumes, to cleaning supplies all contributes to this scent. People start to connect that scent to you and your home...and you want it to be a good one. So I use lemon-y cleaners (except for this lavender all-purpose cleaner I found at a little store in downtown Newton....smells so good!), burn candles, wash my clothes with downy, and bake lots of yummy things. In the mean time, I hope my furniture and walls are soaking up these smells! I wouldn't hate it if somebody came into my house in July and said, "Wow, it smells like Christmas in here." In fact, I would love that. :)

It's been a while....

Hi All! Sorry about disappearing for so long. December has been busy busy...I guess I didn't realize how busy until I realized I haven't blogged since the 5th and I have about four posts I have been meaning to get up! I intend to get them all posted before I head back to school next Monday. When break started on the 16th I thought it seemed so long...now I'm thinking I'm not ready to go back! Since my plan is to go in chronological order, first up are some pictures I took for my friend Amanda! Amanda was a bridesmaid in my wedding over two years ago (wow time flies!) and is truly one of the sweetest people I know! She called me up and was wanting a few photos to use for their Christmas card, so I went over the first week of December to take these. It was so nice to get to catch up, see their new home, hear all about their baby on the way, and of course, take some pictures! :) Here are a few of my favorites....


I think their doggy, Phog, knows he has a new friend on the way! :)













I'll be back tomorrow with a few pictures of the Christmas decorations we put up around our house and a major room renovation! :)