Colorado After Christmas

After arriving in Colorado on Christmas Day, we spent the next week there splitting time between the Riries and the Phillips. It wasn't near as convenient as when our parents lived a block away from each other, but it worked well enough.

Dixie had our yearly ornament from St. Nick's waiting for us. Last year we learned you can't wait or you end up with very slim pickings!

Unfortunately the mattress in our bedroom at my parent's house was not good. I can sleep almost anywhere, but Rog always ended up moving down to the couch in the basement at some point in the night. That meant I had a spot open in bed with me for visitors.

The swings in my parent's backyard were always popular with the kids - even in the snow.

The day after Christmas we got together with all the Phillips who were in Colorado. Rog took the older two to a pool with most of the cousins while I stayed back to let Logan take a nap. As far as I know, no one took any pictures, but everyone had a good time. After swimming we had dinner and then did the cousin gift exchange. We FaceTimed with Taylor and McKae who were in Utah and it was madness as all the kids opened their gifts at the same time. Logan got a Jake stuffed animal, Peyton got a Shopkins game, and Corbyn got a Splatoon Blaster. He fell asleep on the way back to my parent's house with his goggles on. 😂

On the way home, we stopped at Hallmark right before they closed to get a couple ornaments at half price. I picked out this Santa Ice Cream Truck for Logan's ornament for the year. 

And Rog got this Aladdin ornament to go with a Genie ornament he got last year (or maybe a couple years ago).

All the Phillips except for us have dogs and I had failed to take allergy medicine in preparation for our visit, so the next morning I stayed back while Rog took the kids to Rex and Edda's house. Logan loved playing on Edda's pianos (she teaches piano out of her house and has a few) and it was driving everyone a little crazy until they realized they could give him headphones that made it so he could hear his music, but no one else could. Technology for the win!

That night we had dinner at Sweet Tomatoes with the whole Ririe crew. The kids had a competition to see who could eat the most plates of food which totally took me back to when I used to do that anytime we went to Chuck-a-Rama or Home Town Buffet with my Ririe cousins.

We did a white elephant gift exchange and our sibling gift exchange after dinner. Diana and Jason got us these shirts which were too perfect.

The next day we went to Jumpoline Family Fun Center with Diana and her kids.

Even the adults got in on the fun!

That night we met Mike and Dixie for dinner at the Denver Biscuit Company. We finally got to try their Giant Biscuit Cinnamon Roll which was good, but didn't live up to the hype for us.

The next morning we did a session at the Denver Temple with my dad and Jared and Cailey while Grandma watched the kids.

That night we had pizza for dinner along with lots of crazy cousin play time.

Peyton enjoyed holding little Madison any chance she could get.

Rog and Jason had been trying to arrange a time to take Corbyn and Blake to see the latest Star Wars movie and finally were able to make it happen Saturday morning. 

While they were at the movie, we watched Leap! at Diana's house and had a dance party during the credits.

And then we took the girls to get their nails painted at salon inside Walmart. Skyler chickened out when it was her turn, but Peyton thought it was the best thing ever!

That night we had dinner at Rex and Edda's house. Rex made Dixie's famous egg rolls - meaning we had them two times in less than a week, but they're so good, no one minded one bit!

For New Year's Eve Diana and I made a whole bunch of appetizers and treats, but I only got a picture of these Black and White Cookies.

We watched the ball drop on Netflix around 9:00 pm and the Hobbs headed home and we sent our kids to bed.

New Year's Day was spent traveling home. We got a few meals from Panda Express in the airport and everyone dug in.

I spy a cutie on the MAX.

When we got home, it was like Christmas morning all over again for the kids since we had only taken a few of their new toys to Colorado.

You know you've had a full week of vacation fun when someone falls asleep on the floor before bed!