A Colorado Christmas

Celebrating Austin and Owen's birthdays... very late!

Just because we are THAT crazy and love traveling THAT much, we visited my family in California for two weeks on our way back to Chicago, then made it to Denver for Christmas . At this point, we had a few pieces of fall clothing from our fall in Korea, but most of the clothing we had with us was not suitable for the weather in Chicago or Denver. So, as soon as we landed in Chicago, we headed over to our storage unit to go "shopping" for the things we needed in Denver. Because we were so tired of flying, we decided to DRIVE to Denver. We spent one night in Chicago, loaded up our stuff, and rolled out toward Denver around noon the next day. Owen took an epic nap, we met up with our old BYU swimming pal Zach for dinner in Lincoln, Nebraska, where we had planned on stopping and resting for the night. We decided to continue driving, though, so the boys would not have to spend another full day in the car. I drove during the day, and Austin drove most of the way through the night. We rolled into Arvada a little after 2 a.m., and thus we discovered the beauty of night driving with young kids. If you need to get somewhere, and the kiddos don't really like the car very much, night driving is the best. It was almost like a date because we got to talk undisturbed for so long. We streamed music and just chilled. It was exhausting, but it was also great. So to recap our crazy December: Early December: 5 hour drive Nghi Son, Vietnam-Hanoi, Vietnam, stayed one night in Hanoi, 5 hour flight to Seoul, Korea, one night in Seoul, 12 hour flight Seoul-San Francisco, 3 hour drive San Francisco- Atascadero. After getting over jet lag and seeing family, we drove 5 hours Atascadero-Davis to visit family, then Davis-San Francisco for our flight to Chicago. 4 hour flight San Francisco-Chicago. One night in Chicago. 13-14 hour drive Chicago-Denver. Whew. I'm tired just typing it. Luckily, our kids are used to the travel, and it wasn't so bad. It was completely worth it to see family!

We rolled into Denver on the 23rd of December, so our first days were a blur of last minute shopping on errands to be ready for Christmas. Austin's family does a nice traditional Christmas Eve dinner, where we had Austin's grandma over. The boys opened their gifts from great-grandma and their Christmas jammies. After thinking we were going to be spending Christmas alone in Vietnam, we were so happy to be with family!

Christmas jammies on Christmas Eve!

On Christmas morning, Landon was so excited to see if Santa brought him what he asked for. He was fairly specific this year- he wanted a police tow truck towing a broken-down car. He's the perfect age to experience the magic of Christmas time, and he was so happy with what Santa got him. He helped Owen with his present too, and they were both so thrilled. Since Christmas was on Sunday, and we had 9:00 am church, we just had the boys get their main gift from Santa and then rush to eat breakfast and get ready for church. My talented sister, Claire, MADE matching ties for Austin, Landon and Owen, so they all wore their matching Christmas ties with white shirts. They were so cute! We attended Austin's grandpa's ward because he was singing in the choir. He was so excited that we came and it was great to be there with him!

Christmas morning!

My boys before church

Family Christmas picture, I missed the matching memo

Boys with Grandma and Grandpa!

After church, it was time for presents! Landon helped pass out gifts and although he was excited, he was also pretty great and making sure everyone had gifts to open. Both boys got more than they ever could have imagined- it was a bit of a shock for them to have so many new toys after having the same few toys for the last 6 months!

Opening stocking with Auntie Em!

Landon's main gift from us was a shock-proof, water-proof digital camera. In Korea, he would bring this fake camera with us on adventures and take pictures with it. So, we got him his own camera to record his memories on our adventures. He was pretty excited about it, and uses it off and on when we're on outings. It was great to see Auntie Em for a few days. She hooked us up with some great clothes from her work- they are Landon's new favorite pants! The boys got a ton of neat Usborne books from us, and from Grandma from an Usborne books party I hosted in October. I had the books shipped to Denver, so it was like Christmas for me to get all those books and get to give some of them to Landon and Owen for Christmas. We are keeping a few to give them as gifts at a later date. There were just SO MANY BOOKS.

Happy grandparents!

Landon had a few surprises for us. He went shopping with Grandma Ev and got a few presents. He chose a blue Santa hat for me, and a red Santa hat for Austin. He calls them our "night caps" and insisted we wear them all day. They were certainly warm! He chose an Olaf jack-in-the-box for Owen, and a frozen snow globe for Auntie Em. He had great reasons for selecting his gifts, and it was so cute to see him so excited about giving.

Grandpa Lish joined us for presents and our drive up to Loveland to have Christmas dinner with Austin's mom's family. Between our family and Austin's cousins, there are six boy cousins, ages 7 and under. There were three 4-year-olds, and two one-year-olds... and it was pretty crazy. One of Austin's cousins supplied the boys with inflatable light sabers and that kept them occupied for a long time. Owen was completely fearless in toddling out into the middle of the bigger boys having a war. He got knocked down a few times, but that did not phase him. I spent an hour or so Skyping with my family and sister on a mission in Florida, which was nice. We had our traditional Mexican fiesta with enchiladas, tacos, chips and dip, and tons of desserts. YUM!

Owen loved his soft blanket from Grandma Ev, and his little board books

Cousins in their light saber battle

Auntie Em and Owen in their matching kitty shirts!

We were so lucky to be able to stay in Denver for several weeks before heading back to Chicago. Eventually, Austin had to go back to work in January. The boys had so much fun with Grandma, Grandpa  and Auntie Em! We got to see all of Austin's side of the family, as well as my sister Mariah and her husband, Zach, who drove over from Utah for a weekend to visit us. It had been a whole year since we saw them last, so it was great to catch up. We hung out and went sledding. It was a wonderful time this year in Colorado with family!