Sunday, January 3, 2016

Snow Mountain Ranch

The day after Christmas, our little family packed up and headed to the mountains to spend three days at Snow Mountain Ranch. We went last year after Christmas when my siblings and their families were in town, and had so much fun that we thought it would be a good, quick getaway again.



I will admit it was definitely different without any other adult reinforcements or cousins to play with, but we had some good quality time as a family and ended up having a lot of fun again! The kids were especially excited, and when we arrived at our lodge, Sydney declared out of giddiness from the backseat, "I just feel like screaming!"

We spent the next three days tubing, swimming, roller skating, playing basketball, Foosball, ping pong, watching movies, napping, and more. On our second night, we went out to eat in nearby Fraser, which is known as "The Icebox of the Nation." On our way back from eating, our van was registering the temperature as negative 18 degrees. An icebox indeed! It was cold during our three days there, but with the Colorado sun shining each day, we were able to be outside (and bundled up) quite a bit.


Myles the mountain-man thought he could climb every snow pile. This one was actually really high and steep.


 Eating s'mores!






 Ryker fell asleep in minutes on a pool bench waiting for the rest of us to get ready. Our exhausted kids slept the whole ride home.

Gilby and I did look at each other multiple times wondering why we put ourselves through all the work that it takes to simply be gone for a few days. Sharing a room, waking up multiple times a night, switching beds, putting on snow gear, taking it off, putting it on again, packing, unpacking, dealing with a few meltdowns - it can be a lot. But then I came home and found this picture of all of us tubing together, and the joy on Ryker's face reminded me of why we choose to put in some extra work to provide our family with time and experiences together, that make for lasting memories of more fun and less work.



Christmas 2015

Our Christmas celebration started early on Christmas Eve opening presents with Grandma and Grandpa Gilbert over Skype. With the beauty of technology we've been able to do this for two years now, and it's fun to celebrate with all sides of our families in some form or fashion.


Skyping with Grandma and Grandpa 

After opening presents and getting ready for the day, we headed out to meet Grandma and Grandpa Schaefer, Uncle David, and Tori for a movie. Ryker, Sydney, and I went to Alvin and the Chipmunks (because The Good Dinosaur was unfortunately sold out), while the rest of the crew went to Star Wars, which they all loved. To waste a little time while waiting for the Star Wars crew, I took Sydney and Ryker to a car wash, and while waiting, poor Ryker starting throwing up - in his car seat - over and over. Blah. Gilby stayed back with Ryker at Grandma and Grandpa's and the rest of us went to church. We spent the remainder of the evening celebrating with family, good food, present opening, and making great memories.



 Sydney working as Uncle David's sparkling-juice-pouring-assistant in Aunt Siri's absence






It was a Star Wars Christmas! In their costumes from David and Tori.

Christmas morning the kids were thrilled to see that Santa had come! More present opening! We opened stockings, Santa gifts, and our family presents.

 Waiting to head downstairs to see if Santa came.


Santa brought Shopkins!



Ryker's new bike!




Next came our traditional waffle breakfast and lots and lots of lounging. We missed seeing more family this year, but one benefit of a very quiet Christmas is more downtime, which we took advantage of on Christmas Day. We laid around in our jammies, playing, napping, and reading books until mid afternoon when we got ready for Grandma and Grandpa to come over for a steak dinner. 


Sydney playing with her new fashion templates - my sister and I used to make whole books of these as kids.

Merry Christmas 2015!