Mountains- Winter break part 1

After Christmas, we headed to the mountains for what we thought were going to be be a 5 day stint, followed by one night in Denver and then back up for 2 days.  It ended up 8 straight days due to snow and road conditions.  I didn't take many photos, but we had a blast.  We skied 6 of those 8 days, met up with friends to sled and have hot cocoa, went swimming with a friend one afternoon, met friends for happy hour at our house, met friends to ski and apres and ended up shifting NYE plans.

Hot chocolate with friends after sledding, after skiing.

After skiing 8 days so far this year, B went from greens and very easy blues to blues and blacks.  

We've done fondue with family friends every year for NYE, but the weather didn't allow us to come down to Denver.  Somehow, Ads and I pulled off a pretty good fondue night with limited things at our place up there.  After dinner we ended up having a family dance party, which ended up being a perfect NYE.

 

Christmas

LT worked Christmas morning and therefore I have zero photos of him when these two were opening santa gifts.  And then apparently I put my phone down for the day.  Not much here, but proof that santa came for these guys.

 

Start of Winter Break

So sweet.

The kids got out of school Friday (a full week before Christmas) and so we headed up to the mountains for a few days to ski and enjoy some mountain time.   We came back Tuesday because Nicholas was coming.

And being who I am, I always bring some activities.

 

Zoo Lights

We were supposed to go to zoo lights with the cousins and my parents, but my nephews were sick and it was a really cold night and my parents decided not to go.  We debated whether or not to go because Ads was also really sick.   In the end, we decided to go, just the 4 of us and had a great time.  The place was empty and B had the best time running around and was so excited to be there.

 

Randoms from December

We arrived back in Denver from Paris Saturday evening and Nicholas was still here.  The kids were exhausted, but so excited to see him for one night.

And it was also my nephew's 9th birthday, so we jumped right into celebrating him that week.

It wouldn't be Christmastime without making my great Aunt Vern's cinnamon rolls.

Big Day for LT.

And our choir had their holiday performance.

 

Paris- Day 6

Our last day in Paris was absolutely beautiful.  Typical of Brian and I, we had only booked the Eiffel Tower and the tour of the Louvre before going.  I was so bummed that the kids didn't experience Mont Marte in its glory the first day, and so we headed back up there and spent the day.  The artists were out, the street performers were singing, we were able to eat at the same amazing restaurant and the younger two had someone draw a picture of them (fun experience, look nothing like the kids!)

And of course, B LOVED the stairs (a  highlight of the trip for him were all the stairs).

We are never sure how these international vacations will turn out with our different age kids, weather, illnesses, jet lag etc, but I think we would all agree that this was incredibly fun for everyone.