Happy New Year....

.....okay, I'm slacking on this blog and I'm willing to admit it.
It not that I don't enjoy writting a "journal" for all of you to read. It just takes time and being lazy is more appealing sometimes.......that and skiing in the mountains.

A lot has happened since I last updated this.

Christmas
We had the Gacnik family here for Christmas. It was our first experience with a full house but it worked out well. Everyone arrived from Ohio and Texas the Sunday prior to Christmas and moved in with gifts and clothes to last awhile. I think back to when Jeremy and I were looking at houses knowing this first Christmas we would have a house full. I remember us regularly talking about how many bedrooms each house had and if it could accommodate guests well. After this experience, it's safe to say our house can hold a whopping 13 people......no we will not be having 11 children to fill it. ha ha ha

It was busy week though. Some of the adventures included the Denver Aquarium, the Kid's Indoor Waterpark in Highlands Ranch and St. Nicks (great shopping). We were pretty lucky too, Santa found our house so the kids were thrilled Christmas morning. It was cute watching them open presents and get excited knowing St. Nick found them all the way in Colorado. The biggest downer of the week was not having any snow. Jeremy and I had picked up a few sleds before everyone arrived in hopes we could take them to our....well, my.....favorite sledding hill by the house. No such luck though. Oh well, everyone was busy as it was.

The funniest gift to watch being played was a Nintendo Wii. The adults beat the kids at the first opportunity to play. Bowling was quite the success by kids of all ages.

We enjoyed tons of food, wine and coffee thoughout the week and a great game called "the dollar game." I'll teach you if you don't know how to play. The dogs learned what it meant to have house guests but I think they miss the attention. Every day they played ball for hours on end with Tyler, Mckenzie, Amber and Autumn. Amazing the dogs did very well with all the kids....even Dibs....we're proud to announce he never bit anyone (or at least I was never told).


The week following Christmas Debbie, Autumn and Amber stayed to enjoy CO a bit more. So we took to the mountains and taught the girls to ski. I must admit, once it clicks in a kids head, they take off. Autumn was a speed racer down the mountain and had no concerns for turning. The faster she could go the more she smiled. Amber....once Amber caught on she giggled the entire way down the mountain.

New Years
For New Year's Eve we went to Red Robin and then to the Denver Zoo lights. They city does a great job with this display and it's something you should see if in Denver between Dec. 1 - Dec. 31.

Now, well it's been back to work for Jeremy and I. This year is definitely going to be a great one. There is a bit of travel in it for each of us, some work and some fun. In the next month I'll be in FL for a conference, TX for student interviews, NM for a conference and then OH for student interviews. Then this summer Jeremy and I are hoping to make Alaska and then to Minnesota at the cabin. (based on the economy neither Jeremy or I are turning down requests from work to travel....I don't think either of us are in the position to argue when so many others are being cut from their jobs) We really are fortunate and have to stop and count our blessings.

As for visitors.......we are expecting Rita, my cousin, to be in town the weekend of February 15. It'll be a great visit.

We hope you had a great Christmas and New Years! Hopefully this year treats you and your family well. I'm guessing my New Year's Resolution should be to update this a bit more regularly. Hopefully after this weekend we'll have more photos for you, because we're going skiing in 2 feet of fresh powder. Wish us luck!

(I'll post photos later of the vacation so you can see the fun everyone had)