Santa

Holiday Spirit

All of our Christmas decorations are sitting snugly in boxes in England, so this year the decorations are sparse and mostly homemade. 

Our little tree and stockings Jack made

Handprint wreath and countdown to Christmas chain

View of the frozen lake

You know what else is in storage? All our baking supplies. I guess that is a good thing though since it is keeping me from making too many sweets. But it wouldn't be the holidays without sweets, so Jack did talk us in to letting him bake cookies one night

Our apartment hosted a Christmas party and since Lily had a cute outfit to wear, Jack wanted to wear his Spiderman jammies.

Trying to get a picture with both of them is almost impossible

But they are so cute together that I keep trying

Jack and Lily with their friends at the holiday party

Jack and Lily have been spending a lot of time practicing their dance moves lately since Christmas music has been playing round the clock

This past week I tried to take some self portraits with the kiddos:

 

And one with all three of us

Nothing like sweet baby kisses

 

And here is an old photo that I forgot to post, but right outside our window every morning there are two bald eagles who sit on the tree next to the lake. It is a beautiful sight

Thanksgiving

The week and a half before Thanksgiving Luke headed off to England for work and the kids and I had our first 9 days alone. It started out pretty good and we kept busy with playgrounds

and the science museum

more science museum

more science museum

and visiting friends at the zoo

But then Lily got sick. She stopped eating and would cry all night long. By the time I picked Luke up at the airport on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, I hadn't slept for 4 nights. Luke could tell Lily was sick, but it wasn't until that night when she cried all night long again that we decided we needed to take her to the doctor.

Poor sick baby

So Wednesday morning we all packed our bags and got the car ready for our Thanksgiving vacation. We were planning on leaving right after Lily's doctor appointment. I took Lily to the doctor while Luke finished packing. At the doctor it was discovered that Lily had a double ear infection and that her right ear was very infected. In fact, the doctor told us that if we were to make the drive up the mountains (over 5,000 ft altitude gain) that Lily's eardrum would burst. Instead the doctor recommended that we start Lily on some strong antibiotics right away and then in 48 hours they could check her ears again let us know if there was any improvement.

I went home and had to break the news to Jack who was already excited to go to the hotel that night. My parents were already up there and our friends would be leaving the next morning. We couldn't cancel our trip, so we decided that Luke and Jack would leave first and Lily and I would follow as soon as we could. So Thanksgiving morning I drove Luke and Jack to Denver where they caught the 6 hour Amtrak train to take them to Glenwood Springs. This was the first time I had ever spent the night away from Jack so it was a big moment.

Saying goodbye to my guys

Jack in front of the train

Picture Luke took on the train

After saying goodbye to the boys, Lily and I headed back to the apartment to spend Thanksgiving together. I was able to lay on the couch and watch movies while Lily slept peacefully.

Then I decided to load Lily in the stroller and go on a Thanksgiving day run.

Then we took a walk outside


After 24 hours on the medicine Lily was feeling much better

Friday morning I took Lily to the doctor again and I got the okay to take her up the mountain.

It should have been a 4 hour drive, but I stopped every hour to feed her and give her pain medicine as needed. But we made it up in time for dinner

Lily is a trooper after the painful ride up

We went to a local brewery and celebrated Thanksgiving again



I don't like turkey dinners anyways, so I was happy to celebrate this "2nd Thanksgiving" at the brewery with tasty enchiladas and tasty beer

After dinner we headed out to see the town Christmas tree lighting ceremony

Lily is already passed out in the
Ergo before the fun started

There was even a fireworks display that Jack was mesmerized by



The next day we took the tram up the mountains to the Glenwood Springs adventure park

Taking the tram up the mountain

At the top of the mountain there is an Alpine Coaster:

Jack and Papi ready to ride

Great view as you take off down the coaster

Luke and I took a ride together and I did my best to hold on as Luke was determined not to use the brakes.

Jack loves thrill rides and was happy to spend several hours riding this coaster

Meanwhile I hung out with Nana and Lily

After the lines got long on the coaster, Jack and his buddy Lucca found other things to keep them happy

Jack would say that the best part of our entire vacation was our hotel. Inside the hotel there was a mini water park complete with a huge twisty slide. Luke and Jack spent several hours swimming here when I was home with sick Lily, but Jack was really sad that I was not able to swim with him. So before we made the drive home Luke took Lily to the store while Jack and I spent 90 minutes going on the big blue slide over and over and over again

He never gets sick of water slides

Then we made the 4 hour drive back down the mountain uneventfully. Well, except that we pulled off the freeway at dinner time and stopped at a Pho restaurant. It was my first time ever eating Pho but it was delicious!! I have since discovered a Pho place right by our house and I think it is my new favorite restaurant. 

As for Lily... she is getting much better and Jack is getting worse. In the last week we have only had one night where no children were crying all night long. Talk about being exhausted!! But I am hopeful that everyone will be nice and healthy in time for Christmas! We are really excited to welcome Luke's family back to Colorado and have a huge Christmas celebration with both families!