Colorado/Utah Highlights

It's said that a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, it's a good thing I'm recapping this trip in pictures; otherwise, I'd never finish writing the post! There are lots of photos!

At a gas station on our way to Colorado Springs:

We left our house at 3 in the morning, so we were a little delirious and gas station toys provided lots of humor!

Jackson loves him some Skittles (but we didn't buy them because I'd already made yummy stuff for the car):

Michelle had a train circling her Christmas tree. That train was a huge hit! Jackson turned it on and off, on and off. He hitched and unhitched the train cars a billion times. And it did take many journeys around the track.

Wrapping packages with Michelle:

Trying for a photo in front of Michelle's Christmas tree:

"Jackson, what did you do?"..."I just touched her."

Ready for ice-skating:

Jason took him out first:

We helped hold him up at first. We didn't want him to fall and hurt his broken arm.

When Jason left to get different skates, I tried getting him to skate by himself. He insisted that I hold him "like Daddy did it." I really wanted him to try it on his own. I persisted.

Then I had the girls (pictured behind him) talk to him about what it was like when they skated for the first time. I asked them if they fell a lot. They said they did. I told him it was okay to fall. And then, because he talked to the girls no doubt, he went on his own.

He did like feeling the ice:

And licking it as well!

Just to document the ice on his booty:

In March, we went to an AF Hockey game. Jackson LOVED the Zamboni. He remembered it when we got to the rink and asked to sit on it and watch it. He watched it clean the entire rink.

Steve's and Jackson's silly faces:

We were at the AF Academy's hockey rink for Michelle's group Christmas party. Michelle took Jackson to see Santa:

Allison was enthralled by his beard:

After the party, Steve and Michelle drove us by a house that had the most amazing light display I've ever seen. It was Clark Griswold to the max, except everything was related to Christ...not Santa. There were like 11 manger scenes and one was life-size. There were all kinds of lighted words and phrases like, "Your best gift to Him is you. Whose birthday is it anyway? I love Jesus. Jesus is the reason for the season. No room for Him. Do you have room?" There were a lot of lights. It was a sight to behold.

In Utah, we walked around testing out his snow boots:

All bundled up while Jackson and I attempted to make a snowman (but we didn't because she was not content to sit and watch):

Shoveling snow for the snowman we never built:

Running in puddles of melted snow...what more could a boy ask for?!

Back at Steve and Michelle's, and one day after the strike of the stomach bug, we decided to make a gingerbread house. I had planned to make the gingerbread and icing myself, but quickly realized (with help from Michelle and Danielle) that I was trying to do way too much. We had a great time making it.

Allison sat on the table while we decorated our house. We wanted her to be a part of it too!

The mess on Michelle's dining room table:

The finished house with a very out-of-focus smiling boy:

Funny story: We were leaving the next day and obviously couldn't travel with our house, so Michelle was going to put it as a decoration on a table in her living room. Later that night, Jason (not knowing) took the candy off and put it in a ziploc bag. He thought we were going to trash it and he wanted the candy for snacking on. I was so upset (not at him but at the situation). Sorry, Michelle!

We had a great time with the Madrids. We love them so much and were so happy to share part of the holidays with them. We hung out, shopped at outlets, made cookies, vomited on their master bedding, and did everything mentioned above. It was a great time!