Catching Up: Trip to Colorado!

It is the time of year when I think about all my blessings and start missing my family even more than usual and all the special times we share during this wonderful Christmas season. As I will not get to see them yet again this Christmas, I thought I would post about the last time I got to see most of them, and have a sort of Christmas in July... that was the last time I got to see them, and it was such a wonderful gift! It feels like it happened ages and ages ago, and it kind of did, but I still want to post about it because it was so wonderful and I have lots of fun pictures!

I was feeling so stuck in Kansas, and wanted to go somewhere over the rainbow, so to speak. Well, when Jonathan's family came out from Colorado for the birth of our little nephew, they gave me the idea that I could go home with them to visit my family!!! Why had I not thought of that! So we worked it out that Elenore and I would go home with Grandma and Granddad (sadly, Daddy had to work and had to stay...) and then Jonathan would use his days off to come pick us up three weeks later! I was not sure if I could handle being apart from him that long, being a single parent, but we both knew this trip would be really good for all of us, even though Jonathan was getting the shorter end of the stick by far, poor guy! But he enjoys time alone, and our brother-in-law we were staying with was out of the country for a few months, and his wife and son would go down to visit her parents for a few weeks, so he could have his own little holiday too. Plus, he would get to wait for our, drum roll please, new car to arrive and drive it out to pick us up! Yes, even mostly jobless and destitute as we were feeling, we were immensely blessed to suddenly have this amazing deal land in our lap for the car that we had been planning on getting "someday when we had money" for our reliable family car. We were able to sell our old car and buy this new one for half the Blue Book cost and in amazing condition! We are very loved and SO BLESSED!

Anyway, back to Colorado, our trip out there went better than I expected, considering how Elenore hates her car seat. She did really well and only screamed for 20-30 minutes before her naps, and even dealt with getting a little sick on the way too. We stayed at my little sister(-in-law)'s house, bless her beautiful, generous heart, so that we could have our own room, bathroom, and a place to go for quiet when needed. My parent's house is little and always full of people, and really had no room for us this time, so that was a great blessing! Oh, and most of our visit we would also have the full use of her car! No stress in having people take us back and forth, switching car seats in and out, etc. It was bliss!

Instead of belaboring over all the details of the trip, I will just say I was able to see my parents, two of my sisters, my brother, and also my little brother-in-law and his wife, and of course my sister-in-law that I stayed with, and continue to spend time with my parents-in-law who we would greatly miss after having them in Kansas with us for so long. I also got to see many old friends, and visit lots of old haunts and new places I had never been. I felt so refreshed and renewed, and blessed beyond degree. And I was also happy to have it end so that I could go back home with Jonathan. It was the longest we had ever been apart. I will just tell the rest of the story with some pictures. Enjoy!

Meeting the boys: Papa and Uncle Martell

Meeting Omi, and chasing after the kitty!

Enter the AUNTIES! Two of the four...

Auntie Lara

Auntie Lenore (Elenore's namesake)

Three generations in yellow

There is always music of some form or another at my parent's house: Here is Martell playing Lara's guitar

Mommy, he won't let me play!

Martell also had bongos, so she started banging on the laundry basket too, and Papa came to teach...

Mesmerized...

"Ooo! This is nifty!"

More and more fun with Papa!

Kisses from Papa

Learning to Walk!

My little water baby! She was always in a puddle, or some source of water.

No matter how crabby she was, a little time in the sink, and all was well again!

We got to go on lots of fun trips to play in "big water" too. This was our trip to the Ridgeway Reservoir:

My li'l sun baby

Me and my girl!

Lenore, Lara, and Martell, all picturesque...

My beautiful sisters!

This was our trip over the weekend of the 4th of July to go up to Paonia and Hotchkiss to visit our friends there, go to Cherry Days, and a new thing for us was to visit the lake in Crawford! It was a blast, though I wish we had known we were going there so we could have brought swim clothes!

My beautiful girls!

those are our friends in the background... see what we missed out on!

She LOVED the lake!

hungry and tired...

This was just a day when we took her to the park to cheer her up and have something fun to do. She is always a "go-er" and wants to be constantly doing new and fun things.

Laughing at Omi and Uncle Martell playing Frisbee

going down the big slide!

walking with Omi and Mommy

We also got to spend some time with Grandma and Granddad whom Elenore adores! This was a huge fish tank in the house they were staying at, and Granddad is showing her the fish!

more time with water and Granddad... does it get any better?

walking with Granddad: one of her favorite pastimes!

Snuggle time with Grandma

eating frozen french bread with Grandma

apparently the bread was good stuff!

Saying goodbye to everyone: Uncle Josh and his dog Nimrod, Granddad and Grandma! We love and miss you!

We had a great time and felt well loved and miss everyone terribly... and I know Elenore was missed too... how could you not miss that face!

I hope that it will not be too much longer before we get to visit again. We have such an amazing family, I love them with all my heart! Merry Christmas, everyone!