Flashback Friday - Christmas in Colorado 2016

On the 23rd we got our ornament at St. Nick's and did a few other miscellaneous errands before going to Bass Pro Shop to let the kids do the Christmas things they had going on there.

On Christmas Eve we spent most of the day with the Phillips. We walked through the partially-completed house Mike, Dixie, Kenzie and Irving were building in Arvada.

Then we went to Rex and Edda's house. Three peas in a pod right here.

Tay and Martha were staying with Rex and Edda and had brought their new dog with them. Logan was really into dogs back then and loved Luna.

I was finishing binding one of Logan's presents throughout the day. Good thing he was too little to know or I would have spent a lot of the day hiding!

After dinner we headed back to my parent's house to have Christ's birthday cake and read the Christmas story in Luke before bed.

I'm not going to go through all our presents like I normally do (too long ago to remember everything), but I'll hit the highlights. I did a homemade gift for each of us. Rog and I (and Peyton) got a fabric coaster to put our water cups on our nightstands at night. (See the yellow and gray square in this picture and the pink one in Peyton's picture below?)

Corbyn got an alligator cuddle blanket. I made one for Peyton when she was a baby and then Logan when he was a baby, but I figured Corbyn was too old for one. After I made Logan's he asked where his was, so I decided to make him one.

Logan got a homemade car mat. I bought the panel and had Dixie quilt it for me. (That's what I was binding all day Christmas Eve.)

While on the subject of homemade gifts, this was the homemade gift I mass produced this year. A few years ago I gave a frame with prints to change out every month. My frame was broken from opening and closing the back so many times, so I made a block with a clothespin to display the prints instead. I also made ornaments with a picture of my Grandpa Ririe for the Riries and a picture of Grandma Phillips for the Phillips. I ended up making more than I had intended because a lot of Rog's cousins and uncles wanted a Grandma Phillips ornament too.

Santa found us at my parents' house.  Corbyn's gift from Santa was Star Wars Mashers. 

Peyton's was a whole set of My Little Pony figures. (Some are up on the tv stand behind her presents and others were scattered among her presents.)

And Logan's was a bunch of cars to go with his car mat. (Only 2 are pictured here, but more were wrapped for him to open.)

Their individual Santa gifts were small because the big Santa gift for the year was a trampoline. "Santa" set it up and sent Rog a picture of it in our backyard to show the kids. 

Corbyn was very excited about this Mario Maker game (his want). Rog had wrapped it in a huge box, so he was thinking it was something big.

All the kids got rain boots for their wear. (You know you live in Oregon when...)

Logan got his personalized Are you a Cow? book for his read.

After presents, the Hobbs came over for breakfast. We had Apple Monkey Bread, Fruit Soup, and Wassail.

Of course my stinker kids chose to have Lucky Charms instead. 

We had the kids bring out Grandma's surprise gift.

And then it was time to get ready for church. Rog and Logan may have taken a little nap during the meeting.

We attempted a picture in our Christmas church outfits when we got home. Back then I was unsatisfied with all the ones we took (now I don't think they turned out so bad).

So we came inside and took some of just me and Rog by the tree. We got engaged just a few days before Christmas, so this picture represents our 10 year engagement anniversary.

Then we went over to the Phillips' house to do presents there.

All the older boys got these drones and everyone had fun flying those around downstairs.

I got to hold baby Cooper. I like kids on a case-by-case basis, but give me all the babies!

After dinner we played Speak Out.

I'm pretty sure the best part of that game is just seeing how ridiculous everyone looks wearing the mouthpieces!

The day after Christmas we did Ririe family pictures. It was really cold and behind the scenes we were just trying to keep the kids warm and happy.

Corbyn and Peyton were acting like monkeys to try to get their cousins to smile.

Fortunately we did get some very nice pictures out of all the suffering!

I don't like red, so I have these pictures in black and white in my house.

That night we went back to Rex and Edda's. The kids got to watch a show upstairs while the adults played a game down in the theater room.

The next day the Hobbs took us to the Denver Art Museum. (Rog stayed behind and worked from my parent's basement, so he wouldn't have to use as much PTO.) At the museum they an interactive area that the kids really liked.

And some fun photo opps.

The day after that we went down to Colorado Springs and I hiked the Manitou Incline with Diana and Jason. The one mile trail up has 2,744 stairs and climbs 2,000 feet. The elevation was brutal, but so worth it.

Rog would have liked to do it too, but he felt like he needed to stay behind and help Grandma and Grandpa with the grandkids.

The next day we did a session in the Denver temple with Mike and Dixie.

Then Rex, Edda, Kenzie, and Irving met us at Crave for lunch. I got the hamburger Rog usually gets with the donut bun and he tried something else.

We ended up splitting them and having a half of each one.

The kids had fun playing with their Hobbs cousins while we were gone - Peyton especially loved baby Grey.

While we were there I worked on this Tangled puzzle. I had to leave it partway finished under a bed to finish later.

We flew home on New Year's Eve. As soon as we got home, the kids were eager to open a few of the larger presents that we had left home.

The Schusters had invited us over for a New Year's Eve party. We all brought appetizers and treats to share. Lindsey pulled out some chimes and we played some Christmas songs.

We also made predictions for the coming year and made some noise at midnight. I can't remember now if it was actual midnight or pretend midnight, but I'm guessing it was pretend midnight. 😉

And just like that it was 2017!

I have a few months to go back and finish in 2016 and January and February of 2017, but if I continue at the pace I've been doing I might actually get caught up at some point! My goal right now is one Flashback Friday post and one other post a week.