These pictures are taken a little outside of Cortez, Colorado. Gorgeous sunset. Gorgeous area. I have since made this drive two times and this area is by far my favorite. It is beautiful country farmland. Super picturesque.
First fun memory: When you have girl cousins, you end up with stickers and lipstick. Oh boy.
Lovely ladies getting ready for the big meal. Dinner was delicious. The company was wonderful.
Next up, dinner with Ryan's side. This year I promised Necia I would do some Black Friday shopping with her - which actually means Thanksgiving day. I HATE Black Friday shopping. And the fact that a ton of it takes place on Thanksgiving day makes me all sorts of angry. But Necia has been trying to get me to go for years, so I opted to go to spend sisterly time together. In so doing, I missed dinner. But I made it back for a bunch of the games, which was a lot of fun.
In this marble track one, each time had various sizes of track and they would try to connect them and see how far they could get the marble to roll before it tipped or fell. Once it was past your piece, you were supposed to run to the other end to connect and keep it going. It's much harder than it looks!
We had a pinata and a few Minute to Win it games that were really fun too. The kids all had a great time, which of course is the most important part.
Back at Oma and Opa's, the fun continued with this pie in the face game. So many great memories!
Friday I went to lunch at Zupa's with my mom and Necia. Love that place. Albuquerque really needs something like Zupas.
Friday night was crab night with Ryan's family. I didn't get any pictures of the monstrously huge crab legs, but they were delicious. More games followed. This is the first year that I can recall having games like this. They used to play volleyball a lot, but nothing like this. It was a lot of fun and I really hope this continues as a tradition.
Saturday day we celebrated Kris's 5th birthday by making light sabers out of pool noodles and having an epic fight. I believe the intent was to make it a lot more organized and tiered, like winner fights winner, etc, but with that many kids and that many pool noodles it turned into a free for all. It was a total blast.
Saturday night we celebrated Pierscen and Devry's birthday early. My mom is always really awesome about making this happen. December birthdays are super rough - especially since we have no one to celebrate with.
Posing with Grandma and the delicious chocolate cake she made.
Three blondie cousins:
Diving into the cake:
One thing I love about being in Utah for these first birthdays is that Macey's offers a free first birthday cake. I didn't call ahead, so they didn't have any, but they let me substitute this beautiful flower cupcake. All that really matters is that it gets destroyed, right?
She did great. Unfortunately she started coughing a little bit, and me, being the genius that I am, offered her some more cake before letting the cough pass. She ate it, choked, and vomited all over the rest of the cake. Oops. Well, at least we had fun up to that point! She probably didn't need all that chocolate anyway. ;)
Next was this little man's turn. This year has been strange, because a part of me feels like he has been 4 forever and has always been this grown up. Then I look back and pictures and realize yes, I guess he was little once upon a time. But he has always been such a grown up spirit in that little body.
Presents were perfect - a green dinosaur lunch box from Grandma (P had requested one), a big orange ball from Matt and Jen, Red Vines and a football from Necia, fruit snacks and goldfish from Jess and Cam, and more goodies from Oma and Opa. Devry got a beautiful minky blanket made by Oma, and some really cute clothes from Grandma and Necia. It was perfect.
We had to take off early the next day, so family pictures were in order.
It was a quick, but really great trip home. I am grateful for all the fun memories, games, and celebrations. We have an incredible family. And I am so thankful that both my family and Ryan's family gets along so well and that we are able to celebrate and support each other. We have so much to be grateful for!
We did make it all the way home the following day - no stopping in Moab. It is doable. It's just long. And it is easier with someone to trade off with. It definitely made the trips from Casper seem like a breeze.
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