Merry Christmas from Colorado

We woke up at 4:30am on Christmas Eve, loaded everyone up in the car, and headed to the airport. We knew traveling with both girls during the holidays was risky but we decided to go for it anyway. We didn’t know what to expect on the plane but the girls ended up doing great. Amy and Tom were waiting for us at the Denver airport, so Amy took us back to their house in the mountains and Tom waited for everyone else to arrive.

Normally its an hour and a half drive from the Denver airport to their house in Silverthorne, which is a small town sitting at 9,000 feet elevation in the Rocky Mountains. This trip was a little different however. When we landed in Denver it was sunny and 50 degrees, but as we headed up into the mountains the temperature quickly dropped and we soon found ourselves in a snow storm. Before we knew it we were at a dead stop on the freeway, the snow was dumping, and it was only 14 degrees outside. After a 3 hour drive we finally arrived at their home; tired, hungry, and desperately needing to acclimate to the drastic change in elevation.

The night of Christmas Eve was pretty uneventful. Ava went with Grandma and Grandpa plus a few others to church, while Jessica, Elise and I hung out at the house with Joel and Melanie. That first night was pretty rough for both of the girls so we all slept in a little later than expected on Christmas morning. After a nice breakfast we dove into the mountain of presents and had a blast tearing paper and playing with our new toys.

Ava fell in love with a xylophone that was actually given to Elise by Joel and Melanie. Once she got her hands on that nothing else mattered. She kept saying “Xylophone! Play music! Yeah!” It was pretty cute. Later that day we all went to the Frisco Winter Adventure Park to do some sledding. We tried to get Ava to go down the hill but she wasn’t having it. She was really scared so Jessica took her back down to the lodge to hang out with Grandma and Elise. The rest of us had a blast riding inner tubes down the various hills at the park. Later that night Tom made a great prime rib dinner with mashed potatoes, gravy, au jous, green beans, and Yorkshire pudding. Jess and I even got a little time in the hot tub. It really was a great day and I’m so glad we made the trip.

Today Tom, Trevor and Derek went skiing at Breckenridge, so Jess and I had lunch with Joel and Melanie, then went shopping at the outlet mall. Derek and Emily made Gumbo for dinner, and Tom made homemade ice cream for dessert. Looks like Jess and I will be doing some snowboarding tomorrow at Breck. I’m looking forward to making Seafood Ravioli on Saturday, but that’s about the only thing we have planned. Other than that we’re just hanging out and enjoying the time with everyone.

I’m sure there will be plenty more pictures to post from this trip by the time we leave on Monday, but I’ve already got quite a few so here you go. To all our family and friends, we wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We love you all.

Getting some z's on the plane
Getting some z’s on the plane

Elise's 1st Christmas
Elise’s 1st Christmas

Ava loves the snow
Ava loves the snow

Grandma and Elise on Christmas morning
Grandma and Elise on Christmas morning

My little musician
My little musician

Mommy and Ava in front of the tree
Mommy and Ava in front of the tree

Grandma and Grandpa looking at their new book
Grandma and Grandpa looking at their new book

Mommy and Ava at the winter park
Mommy and Ava at the winter park

Ava, Jessica, Joel, and Melanie
Ava, Jessica, Joel and Melanie

Ava napping in her tent on Christmas morning
Ava napping in her tent on Christmas morning

Sledding with Joel and Melanie
Sledding with Joel and Melanie

Visiting with Santa. Jessica's eyes were closed so we Photoshopped her face in from another photo. Not sure what's funnier, that or Ava's expression.
Visiting with Santa. Jessica’s eyes were closed so we Photoshopped her face in from another photo. Not sure what’s funnier, that or Ava’s expression.

Who says Ho, Ho, Ho?

We’ve been in the Christmas spirit here lately. I have been teaching Ava all about Santa, preparing her for snow, pointing out all the christmas tree lots and lights on the neighbors houses. There is so much to show and teach her, she is loving every minute of it. We have gone to the mall near our house about 3-4 times now to say “hi” to Santa. My hope is that this will help ease her into actually sitting on his lap. She doesn’t like most all unfamiliar men so I know that getting her to smile for a picture will be a challenge. So far she doesn’t seem to enjoy seeing him while we are there but as soon as we walk away she’s happily repeating his name. I am hoping to get a picture taken tomorrow or Thursday. I know that Elise will enjoy the experience but I’m almost as confident that Ava will not.

On Sunday we had Dana, Brad, Kallan and Anna over for a little Christmas celebration. They came over at 2:00 to spend the afternoon with us. Michael made a nice spread of dip, assorted cheeses, salami, veggies and crackers. We had red wine and hot cocoa to go with it. It was a fun few hours of sitting around the table, catching up and opening gifts together.

We attempted another Christmas skype session tonight, this time with Rita. Ava was not as cooperative as she was this weekend but it was still fun. Out of all of the gifts her favorite was a set of jingle bells that Rita decorated one of the packages with. All she wanted to do was walk circles in the living room ringing the bells. Elise sat happily in the center of all the action smiling and observing. It’s so great to be able to have those moments with family that is so far away.

Just a few more days of work for us both and one more assignment for Michael and we will all be on vacation. I am definitely looking forward to it.

My New Jiu Jitsu School

Not to sound overly dramatic, but there’s been a bit of a void in my life over the past year. I don’t think there’s any question that the thing I miss most about San Diego is my Jiu Jitsu school. When we moved here I joined a school but never got the right feeling there and ended up leaving shortly thereafter. Since then I’ve thought a lot about Jiu Jitsu but wasn’t sure when it would come back into my life.

I mentioned in a post a while back that there’s a new school opening near my office. I’ve been in contact with the owner, so today I went in to meet him in person and have a grappling session. Since I already know I love Jiu Jitsu, the main thing I was hoping for today was to like the teacher. As it turned out, the owner Larry was exactly what I was hoping for. Really cool, humble, wise, and amazing at Jiu Jitsu. He’s been studying for over 15 years, got his black belt 5 years ago, and recently moved here from Denver to open his own school. I could immediately tell that this was the right place for me, and it looks like there are already several guys from Amazon who will be training there so I’ll get meet some new co–workers right away.

We celebrated Elise turning five months old today by having an early Christmas Skype session with Grandpa Rick and Grandma Chris. They sent us a huge box of presents yesterday so the four of sat in front of the web camera and opened gifts. Chris made two beautiful framed letters for the girls (A and E of course), plus they sent all kinds of great clothes, blankets, kitchen stuff, and a really nice shaving set for me. They’re always so generous, but the best part was getting to video chat so they could see the girls getting excited. Ava had a blast opening presents and Elise couldn’t stop giggling the whole time. Definitely a nice way to spend the afternoon.

Jessica is working tonight but is off tomorrow, so Dana, Brad, Kallan, and Anna will be coming over to do a little Christmas get–together. Anna is a teenager now so we’ll be celebrating her birthday as well. Next Sunday we’ll be doing something similar at Butch and Carol’s along with Rob, Mina, and their family, then leaving for Colorado two days later. Six more days of work, including the final week of the quarter at school, before our Winter vacation. I’m getting excited.

I had the longest day Wednesday due to my trip to Reno. I had checked the weather ahead of time and it said the high temperature that day was going to be in the mid 40’s. You can guess how surprised I was when we landed in 14 degree weather with snow everywhere. The roads were clear though, so I went ahead and rented a Challenger for our 45 minute drive to the fulfillment center. I’ve been wanting to drive one of those things for a while now and lets just say it didn’t disappoint. Not exactly the best winter car but everything was fine. To keep the holiday spirit alive we found a holiday radio station and rocked out to Christmas carols the whole way. I was a little embarrassed at how many of those songs I knew the words to, but it was fun.

Not much else going on around here other than getting ready for the trip. I’ve been planning on making dinner for everyone one night while we’re there, so today I decided to make seafood ravioli with pesto. I’ve never made it before but after the success we had on Ava’s birthday my confidence is pretty high so I’m going for it.

A quick trip to Reno

Tomorrow is going to be a pretty long day. I’m flying to Reno with a co–worker early in the morning so that we can spend several hours working in a fulfillment center. Our manager wants everyone on the team to experience working in a fulfillment center during our peak season, and he wants us to go to centers that we haven’t previously visited, which for me equates to Reno. I checked the forecast and luckily it looks like we’ll have decent weather. I hear its about a 45 minute drive from the airport so I’m glad we won’t be dealing with any snow. Normally a trip like this would be overnight, but this time we’re cramming everything into one day. At least I won’t be away from the girls for a night.

This is shaping up to be an interesting week at work. Today my team attended customer service training session, which included sitting with customer service agents and listening to actual customer phone calls. Listening in on the customer calls is really interesting, and sometimes hilarious. One guy insisted on ringing his door bell over the phone to prove that it works and that it wasn’t his fault that he missed a delivery. It was the longest doorbell ever.

Jessica has been working a lot lately. This is Gaucho’s busy season as well, so they’ve been needing her quite a bit. It’s all good though because we’re inside of two weeks from our trip to Colorado for Christmas. I haven’t been snowboarding in a long time and can’t wait to get out to Breckenridge. Seeing Ava play in the snow for the first time is going to be awesome, and I know Amy and Tom are excited to have everyone out. I’ll finish the fall quarter the day before we leave and will be enjoying a two week break from school while we’re away. Only two quarters to go after that…

Ava and Elise are both doing great. Elise is growing so fast its crazy. Our babysitter came over tonight for the first time in about 3 weeks and couldn’t believe how much bigger she is. Ava got a chance to play with Easton, our babysitter’s son who is one month older than her. I don’t get to see her play with other kids very often so it was good to see her having so much fun. When they left Ava stood there looking out the window saying “See you next time” over and over. It was pretty sweet.

No new pics for now but I’m sure we’ll have plenty over the next few weeks. Happy Holidays!

Manic Monday

It seems like even the normal, average days around here have become uncontrollably crazy. Life with two small children is like living in an institute for people with bi-polar disorder. To be fair its not really life with two small children that feels this way; Elise is usually easy as long as you’re holding her in a standing position. It’s life with a two year old that tips the scales to don’t even look at me or I’ll cry, crazy.

Don’t get me wrong, we’re having a lot of fun, or at least attempting to have fun. It’s just that one minute is complete joy and the next minute anything is possible and I mean anything! The positive side of this is that every time we have an incident big or small, Ava seems to walk away having learned something. I haven’t been around many toddlers so I don’t know what normal is but the speed at which she absorbs new information is incredible. I love seeing the joy on her face when she figures something out for the first time. The flip side of that is the intense frustration she experiences split seconds later. I witnessed a perfect example of this exact phenomenon this morning.

I walked in on Ava playing in her room after breakfast. She was talking to herself, so I stood quietly in the door way. After a bunch of non sense she started congratulating herself on building a tower, “nice job”, “good girl”, “awesome”, “you got it”. She continued to build and two blocks later she couldn’t get a block to stay put at the top (it was upside down). I could instantly see the panic on her face and the heavy breathing started first then she punctured my ear drums with a scream, gave me a look as if I had sabotaged her just by observing and began to cry. The kind of crying that caused her fits of choking. All of this from one upside down block. I could do nothing to console her. It was a site to see, I promise. And all of this before 9:30, for us that’s a big morning. Happy Monday!