Annual Mountain Getaway

The previous 2 years, my mom has treated our family to an overnight in some mountain town during the Christmas season. Last year it was to Evergreen...the year before that to Georgetown. This year she changed it up a tad and we went for 2 nights and both my sisters and their significant others came along. We went up to a little town called Estes Park (where the Stanley Hotel is...you know, from "The Shining"?).

We left Friday afternoon but first I had to pack everything up. Jason went to work for most of the day as Boulder is on the way to Estes Park so we just picked him up. But I was all on my own for packing the 3 kids, myself, and all the gear. The kids were awesome and Autumn mostly slept:


And the boys mostly played. At some point I let Easton play Star Wars Wii. Autumn watched:


He even gave her a little controller, see that?


Dalton hung out in the bouncy seat:


I can't believe how much stuff had to go with us for just 2 nights with our 3 kiddos. Ack. And we didn't even bring much in the way of toys. I should've taken a picture of the car because it was impressive how I'd packed it all up...like a game of Tetris. :)

Anyway, we picked up Jason and made it up to Estes shortly before my mom, Lauren, and Russell arrived. We got all settled into a very nice 3 bedroom condo thing and then set out for some dinner. It was soooooooo cold and windy (much like it always is on our wintery getaways) but we made it to a little restaurant for some dinner. Jessica and Janna weren't joining us until the next night so it was just a party of 8. While we were out we noticed that many of the signs in the shops said, "Closed for the Season"...what the heck???

I didn't take any pictures that night but let's see...we had Easton sharing a bed with my mom and Dalton sharing a king size with us. Autumn in her Pack & Play. Bedtime went very smoothly that night and the rest of us played Catch Phrase till our own bedtimes. I didn't sleep great that night with Dalton in my face coughing a bunch. Autumn did well though, so that was a blessing.

The next morning we made some breakfast in the condo:


How cute are my three in this year's Christmas jammies?


Easton and Russell did quite a bit of wrestling on our getaway. He's a wrestler, actually, and Easton had a blast:




Easton had a hard time leaving Russell alone for any length of time. Easton is so go-go-go all the time, "What do you want to do next? What should we play now? Russell, throw me up in the air. Again! Higher!!!" Russell was a great sport about it all, though:


Dalton played too but here he is snuggling with me:


And Jason taking over for some fun with "High Energy Easton":


Goober!


Jason said, "Hey, take a picture of me" and then posed:


Gramoo brought a few things to entertain the boys. Here they are with some tops:


We had wanted to go sledding while we were there. An old ski resort now does sledding and tubing. We gave them a call and they said the snow pack was terrible and they didn't recommend coming for sledding. What a huge bummer so the guys set out in the car to look for another potential sledding hill:


They didn't find anything suitable, Easton started getting scared of bears, and Dalton came back asleep:


Since so many of the shops said they were closed, and we were waiting on Jessica and Janna...we just made some lunch and hung out a bit more:






Before Dalton woke up, Jason took just Eastie out to explore a bit:


More hanging out...Lauren showing how she can lift Russell with wrestling moves:


And Easton too:






Russell is my kind of guy and took all of these pictures with his camera timer. How cute are they as a little couple?








Yay for self-portraits! :)

Mr. Bed-Head joining us again:


Boring. Boring.




Sometime after lunch, Jess and Janna arrived!


Autumn was making her cute pouty faces I remember from her ultrasounds:




They brought some toys to borrow (from Janna's childhood!):


And a new game: Bananagrams!




We played lots of Bananagrams and the kids were sooooooo good. I felt bad for them not getting to do much, grown ups playing grown up games but they were great. Here's Easton and J playing a little Buzz Lightyear on J's laptop:


And Dalton watching some Toy Story on our portable DVD:


I'd had my black bean chili simmering on the stove all day so when we got hungry we took a break from our gaming and ate. Jessica didn't want to put Autumn down but when it was time for Jess to eat, Russell took over:






We played some Christmas bingo that even the little guys could play and moved on to Spoons and some slap jack. I played neither while I hung out with the babes and we eventually got them ready for bed. Bedtime did not go as smoothly as the night before (but everyone slept better). Once all 3 were finally asleep Jason and I were able to join the group in more fun...like Catch Phrase again which we played late into the night switching up the teams: Sisters vs. outsiders, blondes vs. brunettes, over 30 vs. under 30, "J" names vs. other names, a few "couples" rounds...(which Jason and I rocked, by the way). :)

We had snacks and Russell brought my favorite: Blue Bell ice cream. He's a fellow Texan. He gets it. I was like, "Where did you find this?!?!?!" and he said, "Russell Stovers sells Blue Bell" and I was all, "Oh, is your last name Stover?" :)

The next morning we hung around some more:


Gramoo and Autumn used the opportunity to pose for pictures in their matching moose attire:


Janna obliged my thrill seeker in some tossing around:




We ate some breakfast, played more Bananagrams, sipped coffee and eventually packed up:


Janna took a picture of my 5 again...Dalton didn't want to be a part of things:


And I set the timer for a group shot:


We then began the beautiful drive home:




Look what we saw!


Before we got all the way back to J's truck in his work parking lot in Boulder I got a text that my mom was treating to lunch at my favorite Boulder restaurant. Jason wanted to get home for the football game that was TiVo'ing so he took his truck back and I had the kids. I can't pass up Turley's. In hindsight I should have. The boys were awful. Crying and fits before we'd even gotten inside. They didn't get a ton better, Autumn needed to nurse...what a mess when all 3 were wanting a worn out mama! Oh well...they were great in the car. All of 'em. Saints won--eventually and Dalton fell asleep at dinner:


It was a fabulous weekend--Thank you, Moosie!!! It was fun to get to know some of the newbies a bit better and it was nice to really enjoy some time with my family. I was away from the computer all weekend (by choice) and found I didn't miss it a bit. I'm thinking I can spend even less time on this thing which is nice too! And with that...I'm off!