LottaMadness: January 4, 2009

Goodbye for Now

All good things come to an end unfortunately and its always sad for me to say 'goodbye' to my best friend and the kids I love. We have the photos and the memories, the gifts and the jokes, but its never the same without them close by. So we continue to pray that God will reunite us if not permanently, then on a temporary basis from time to time.

The Last Supper

Our final stop was at the Cheesecake Factory. We left the 3 younger kids with Taylor (a great babysitter) and went to dine in comfort, in quiet and on excellent food. The restaurant specializes in cheesecake but their entrees are excellent. I had saved up some grocery gift cards which I exchanged for Cheesecake Factory gift cards at the grocery store and so we ate pretty much for free.

Warren and I wanted to spend our last night with the teenagers and treat them to a good meal. They are 2 special kids.

Keenan ordered a burger and got a surprise when it arrived and was bigger than his face. We dared him to eat it all and at first he thought he could but he only managed 1/3 of it.

We had a lot of fun and were in tears with laughter at one point. I thought Keenan might throw up at one point - he was so stuffed from his burger and was laughing to much.

We split 3 slices of cheesecake between us and of course they were excellent.

After we were more than halfway through these, I ordered the Godiva Chocolate cheesecake. Can't end a fantastic meal without chocolate!!!

It was a memorable night - filled with laughter, eating and jokes. A perfect end to a wonderful holiday with these special people in my life.

Family Bowling

I got a coupon in the mail for free bowling for up to 10 people which worked out perfectly for us because we there were 8 of us. We had to rent shoes but at least we didn't have to pay for the entire thing. We split into 2 teams. I was with the 3 smaller kids and the teens were with Cheryl and Warren. To our amazement, Jarred (7) creamed everyone and won the tournament. He compensated the other 3 kids by buying them ice cream from the vending machine afterwards. Pity I didn't get one!!!

This is where Cheryl's ball usually ended up.

This is where Lauren's ball usually ended up :)

Warren helping Cullen bowl

Tubing and More Sledding

Copper Mountain has great tubing - 5 lanes of groomed snow only for tubing. We set off after breakfast and after we'd bought ourselves our much-needed Starbucks coffee to the slopes. It was definitely a ski-day for most visitors and the parking lot was already filling up when we arrived.

The wind was icy cold and it was very chilly despite the sun being out. I couldn't feel my toes at one point and after taking photos without my glove on, my fingers felt like they had frostbite.

Jarred and Keenan feeling the cold!

Brother and sister bundled up

Cousins having fun together.

Lauren practicing The Superman for her ride down the slope.

The best ride yet - all 8 of us linked together down the fastest slope.

I'd promised Jordan I'd make it up to him for cutting his sledding time short the previous day so after we'd tubed and had some lunch, we went sledding and it was great.

Sledding & Snowmobiling

First things first... breakfast...at Einstein Bagels. Lauren was raving about the mini bagels I had in the fridge so we decided to take her for 'real' bagels. I am a carb-lover so anything that uses wheat, rice or potatoes is what I crave. Tell me we're going to Einsteins and I'll probably kiss you. Of course they have the BEST cream cheese toppings too...lightly whipped in smoked salmon, blueberry, honey almond or strawberry flavors. Light and fluffy - YUM!

The Einsteins we go to has a Starbucks coffee right next door - what more could a girl want??

Living in the UK, Cheryl and the kids don't see much in the way of snow, if at all. Sometimes there is just a small dusting of snow on the ground and the Brits go crazy when they see it. Denver has been pretty dry and I told Cheryl that if there is no snow in the metro area, I'll make sure to take them to the mountains so they can experience snow. They were so excited when we got there - they jumped out and played in the snow and then realized how cold it was!

Warren treated Cheryl, Keenan and Lauren to snowmobiling and they had a blast. They were kitted out with everything they needed from extra socks to helmets and it was a good thing because it was mega-cold that day. Cheryl, Warren and Keenan were drivers and Lauren stayed on the back of Warren's snowmobile for the entire time. They had a driving instructor who went with them on his own snowmobile and he took them all over the mountain. Cheryl said that the handles of the snowmobiles were heated and there was a guard that came around her legs so she was very warm during the ride.

I took the boys sledding while the others snow- mobiled and it got pretty cold. I thought I had left Cullen's snowboots in Warren's car which was parked up the mountain so Cullen wore his waterproof Thomas the Tank Engine shoes but within 20 mins his feet were freezing and he'd had enough. The older 2 boys weren't happy that we needed to go back to the car! Cullen put his feet on the heater vents in the car and I turned up the heat. His little feet & ankles were so red and it took another 20 mins for him to thaw out and feel better.

I took the boys to a toy store in the town of Breckenridge. The store has a small play area in back and they spent almost an hour playing. Once the others were done with snowmobiling, we all went to the hotel to check in. Chinese food was the choice for the evening meal and we all slept well that night.

Zoo Lights

We go every year no matter how cold. This year we had fantastic weather - it was warm during the day and mild at night. We got there at 4 pm and basically just walked in. When we left the lines to get in were easily 50-60 people long.

While we were looking at the tiger, Jordan and Jarred went off to the next building and we all got a bit of a fright because we couldn't find them. Then later on when it was dark, we went to see the carousel. Cullen wandered off and we couldn't find him for a few minutes. I was frantic because it was so dark and there were so many people. I was nearly in tears when Cheryl came walking to me with him in her arms. He'd wandered off from the area and had stood by a trash can when he realized he was alone - something we told him to do. There were about 4 women around him asking, "where is your mommy?". Warren had sprinted to the entrance of the zoo in case someone had picked Cullen up and decided to take him home. Thankfully he wasn't far but by then I'd had enough of 'missing kids'.

The rest of the night was very pleasant and Jarred couldn't resist buying the cutest giraffe from the zoo gift store before we left.

New Year's Day

On Our Way to Palmer Lake

I love trains. I love to travel in them, I love hearing them go by, I love watching them, I love hearing their whistles, I love hearing the clackity-clack of the wheels. I sometimes hear them at night while in bed, even though we live quite far from the nearest railroad - the sound of trains is one of those sounds that is on my Favorite Sounds list. I often wonder where the trains are going when I see them. I wonder what they are carrying and why. I wonder about the train driver. Does he get tired when he's doing a long run and does he have a little sleeping compartment somewhere that he can crawl into while his co-driver continues to drive the train. Where do these drivers come from? What motivates them to want to leave their families and drive across state(s) to deliver their cargo? Do they get a few days off like flight attendants do once they get to their destination? I personally would love to drive a train across the states, west to east or north to south, it doesn't matter. Of course I'd love my family with me if I did it but I wouldn't mind doing it alone either. Maybe one day...

Down at Palmer Lake