A Colorado Christmas!

A few weeks before Christmas, we found ourselves in St. George for the weekend. We went and saw the lights at the temple and Madilyn was in awe! She was so cute running around saying, "Look! Pretty lights!"

This year we got to go to Colorado for Christmas. We drove over two days before Christmas. On the morning of our trip, we woke up and looked outside. There was no snow at all! We started getting the kids ready and loading the car. All of a sudden, with-in the time span of about 3 minutes, it went from no snow at all to a blowing white-out blizzard! We panicked a little, thought, "Holy cow, we have to leave NOW!", and ran around like chickens with our heads cut off. We made it on the road just a few minutes later and traveled very slowly up the canyon. Visibility was not very good and we just prayed the car in front of us did not go off the road because we would follow! Once we got to Price the weather and roads were a little bit better. 

Things started to pick up again just before we reached Vail. By the time we got to Silverthorne, traffic was stop and go. And the "go" part was only about 3 mph! Cars all around us were spinning out because we were stop and go on a (snow-packed) hill. We had 4-wheel drive and never had a problem, but we saw at least 12 cars just abandoned in the middle of I-70 because they could not go anywhere. Our wiper blades kept filling up with ice so Lucas would reach out the window every now and then to snap them to make the ice break off. On one snap the wiper went flying! Luckily, it landed on the hood and he was able to grab it. He then had to reach his arm out the window to wipe the windshield with the wiper in his hand until we were stopped long enough for him to jump out and put it back on! I was laughing hysterically! As we made our way towards the Eisenhower Tunnel, they closed the freeway not very far behind us. We were lucky to be one of the last to make it through because every hotel in Silverthorne filled up fast! A trip that normally takes us about 7 1/2 hours took us 11, but we will never forget it! The kids were so happy to be out of the car when we finally arrived at Lucas's parent's house!

Normally you can see beautiful mountains!

We waited until Christmas Eve to see Santa because we wanted to go with our friends, the Wastarts. The only problem was that they were out of tickets to see him at the Bass Pro Shop (where we love to go) and he was no longer at Cabellas. The malls still had Santa, but they do not let you take your own pictures and they charge an arm and a leg for their photo packages. Luckily, we had the hook-up with Santa and he made a special visit at my parent's house!

The kids got new pajamas on Christmas Eve! This is a tradition that my parents did with us that Lucas and I decided to carry on with our kids.

In addition to normal gifts, my family does a Secret Santa gift that we exchange the first time that we are all together. This year I had my dad and I made him this shirt!

Madilyn and her cousin, June. Christmas is magical!

We had a fun Christmas seeing all of our family! Lucas's family all lives in Colorado, my parents and sister do, and my brother was there from Texas! Since all of our family was there, we took a few family photos.

It was so freezing that we didn't take off our coats for the group shot. I would love to go to this location again next time we are in Colorado and it is warmer!

On the drive back to Colorado we we in a little bit of traffic and suddenly smelled something strange and sour. We thought Idaho Springs was having a stinky day! about 45 min later we pulled over thinking that the smell had to be coming from the truck. Lucas discovered the source- Tyson! He had puked all over himself and then just went to sleep. Since he is still rear-facing, we had no idea. When Lucas opened the door to get him out, Tyson woke up and just had a huge smile on his face! It was -1 degrees outside and all we had to clean him up was a pack of baby wipes. We wiped him down, wiped his seat, and changed his clothes. We had to drive the rest of the way home with the stench! So, I guess we will never forget our trip home, either!