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!
Nikki and I have collected a few photos here and there over the last few months. I’ve been waiting for an opportunity to publish these photos. I figured … why not now? There are photos of us camping with Paul, mom and dad, the weekend Kerry and Anthony got married, and much more.
As usual, click on the photo to the right to get to the photo album.
So, here we are. Three months past Zaiden’s first birthday and I’m finally getting around to posting some photos of the event. It was a perfect day - Zaiden went down for a nap just before people started to show up so we all got to eat and he napped. When he woke up, he was full of energy and wasn’t overwhelmed by all the people that showed up (mainly because we tried to keep it small). So, without further adieu, feel free to check out some photos of the event by clicking on the photo!
This evening, we all celebrated Zaiden’s first birthday (albeit a little early). The resort had a nice little outdoor grill area. We got some hamburgers and brats and mosied on over. We cooked up a little feast and just had a nice little time on the patio. AJ an Brianna were feeling well enough to join us, too. Most excellent.
We went back to our room a little later to have some birthday cake. Zaiden was very cute and dug right in.
Tomorrow, we’ll be checking out and heading on home.
Nikki and I are on vacation right now and I have a little time to catch up on some blogging. I figure I’ll take this first post as an opportunity to put up some miscellaneous photos of Zaiden. I picked a few cute ones from early 2008 for your enjoyment. As usual, click on the photo to the right to get into the photo album. Enjoy!
Nikki and I realized recently that we forgot to post the picture on the right from our trip to Washington, D.C. last November. Most odd. This is our favorite picture!
As usual, click on the photo to get into the photo gallery.
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 …
Comments Off