We got up really early, today, to drive to DIA for our trip to Sunny California for Christmas. Oi vey — 5am. Nikki and I were up quite late last night packing and tidying up the house a wee bit so we’re runnin’ on fumes. Zaiden loved being at the airport — he loves planes. He was great on the plane, too. We sat in the very front with a lady that didn’t mind if he was a little noisy or anything from time to time — which he wasn’t. When we landed, she let him sit in her lap to look at planes out the window (she had the window seat).
Did I type, “Sunny California” earlier? That should have been “Sunny in some parts but not where we are going California.” We heard from Nikki’s mother, Belinda, that there was snow up in Lake Arrowhead (where their “cabin” is) and that automobiles were required to put chains on. So, we upgraded our rental car to a 4wd SUV. We aren’t allowed to put chains on but at least it’s 4wd.
When we got to the “cabin,” it appeared that they did, in fact, get an amount of snow worthy of a little commotion. I guess about 30″. Plus, the snow plow scooped all the snow off to the side of the road which included blocking in some driveways. I’d say their drive way had about 5-5 1/2′ (yes, FEET) of snow in front of it. So, we shoveled the steps down to the front door and we all got nice and settled. We’re all ready for Christmas!
Nikki, Zaiden, and I celebrated Christmas, today. Santa agreed to drop off Zaiden’s gift early — a new tricycle! It has a handle on the back so we can push him around until he can do it himself and we can steer! It’s sweet! Zaiden really likes it … :) Click on the photo to the right to see the fun!
Zaiden’s school, Bright Star, had a holiday show, yesterday and it ended with a special visit from Santa Claus. It was very cute to see Zaiden’s little class shake their jingle bells along to the song. The older kids actually sang a couple of songs. It was very impressive to see the older kids maintain their composure because they knew who was coming when they were finished.
We also decorated the Christmas tree this week. Zaiden really liked it. The only bad thing was he mistook the decorative balls for the tree for balls that you throws. OOPS! One broke and he got to watch daddy sweep up the mess (he loves sweeping, by the way).
So, as usual, click on the photo to the right for some pictures. Enjoy!
I’ve finally taken a few minutes to get some pictures of Zaiden up on the website. If you click on the photo to the right, you can check them out. We took him trick-or-treating this year. We found a street a few blocks west of here where they really do Halloween right — folks go all out with decorations, they’re all sitting on their porch with candy, and some folks are moseying around with a beer or a glass of wine. It was really fun. Zaiden started getting into it, too, when he figured out that if he walked up to a house and looked cute he would get a treat (”treat” is one of his favorite words right now). Enjoy the photos!
This morning I got up early and took Zaiden to the store where I picked up three boquets: one for each of the three mothers (Nikki, AJ, and their mother, Belinda). I didn’t know what kind of flowers AJ and Belinda like so I got them the “Mother’s Day Boquet” that was pre-made and I got Nikki a nice little boquet, too. Zaiden and I got Mother’s Day cards for all three of them and headed home. He and I signed them and set the cards next to the flowers. We timed it all quite well because nobody was awake until we had the cards set up next to the flowers. Score!
NOTE: The photo to the right is a link to the entire photo album for the week. I don’t have any photographs from today so one from yesterday will have to do.
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We spent Easter with Nikki’s family this year. The whole gang was there including Belinda and Brianna. We went to Easter service in Castle Rock where we had to leave Zaiden in the baby room because he was getting a little “fussy.” It was kinda weird, to me, that we had to leave him there and couldn’t just go in there with him. It was more of a surprise to me, though, because Nikki left the service and came back without him.
After the service, we mosied on back to AJ’s house where we colored Easter Eggs, had an Easter Egg Hunt, and broke Cascarones over each other’s head. Cascarones are a Mexican Easter tradition: you color a raw egg, drain the contents, and fill it with confetti. On Easter Sunday, you take one of these and break it over someone’s head. It is really a lot of fun for childrean and adults alike.
We took lots of photos so click on the one at the right to view the entire gallery.
It’s been two months and I’ve finally taken the time to get some photos up on the blog for Christmas. Usually I would back-date a post like this but since it’s been so long I’d feel awfully bad about that! My apologies for all of you (Belinda!) who have been waiting (patiently — thank you!) for these photos. I’m sorry that there are so many of them but there were just too many that I couldn’t exclude them. I tried to arrange them into sub-albums to make it a little easier to navigate. I hope you enjoy them all! As usual, click on the photo on the right to get to the photos!
[February 25, 2008 - Update] I’ve finished uploading all the photos to the site and you are more than welcome to check them out. Enjoy!
Today was the Zoo’s annual Halloween event, Boo at the Zoo. Courtney and Rachelle were staying with us for the weekend so we had them bring their Halloween outfits. They dressed up and we put Zaiden in his first Halloween outfit, Tigger (I wanted him to be an Ewok but the costume was too big — bummer — but he was SO CUTE as Tigger!). We took the three of them to the zoo and had a wonderful time. In addition to the usual “zoo stuff” (animals … duh), there were some performances going on and the girls got to go trick-or-treating.
We met up with Mike and Diane and their children, Sophie and Jaylee (anyone have an idea how to spell that? anyone? any help at all?). Tonight we’ll be watching Jaylee because Mike and Diane are going downtown to try to score World Series tickets (go Rockies!).
As usual, click on the photo at the left for a little photo album of this event. Of course, the only photos I have are of the few we took of Zaiden before we left. I’m awful at taking pictures. eek …
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Well, Nikki and I have finally selected a few photographs that Tony took the day before Father’s Day. Click on the one at the right to view all of the ones we selected for your viewing pleasure! 
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Today was a GREAT first father’s day! Nikki’s dad came down from Longmont to meet the boy and brought us a little bouncy chair for him. It’s pretty cool. AJ and the girls came by, too, and we all celebrated father’s day in style by eating lunch at … Sonic! Fancy fancy! They all headed home after that. (more…)
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