Family Visit

Last week we had a fun visit from my parents, Danny and Lou, and my aunt and uncle, Rhonda and Wayne Ausk.  I just love when people come to visit for their vacation...I feel like I'm kinda getting a vacation, too!  Rhonda was a trooper coming out here after an emergency Appendectomy the week before.  We just took it easy on Monday and went for a hike up to Adams Falls in Grand Lake and took Truett sledding.  

One day of rest was all they needed before they took to the mountain for 3 full days of skiing.  I was able to join them for halfdays....which was plenty for me!

Truett, of course, was completely spoiled and was having a ball with people to entertain him all day!  

Rhonda ended up with a knee injury on the last day of skiing, but was still up for shopping the last morning, crutches and all.

This week has been a little crazy, so I'm behind in updating about the Winter Chill Youth Retreat we took last weekend.  It was our first annual winter retreat and we had such a great time!  About 30 of us headed out to Sylvan Lake State Park near Eagle, CO to have a couple days of fun together and refocus on the Lord to start out the new year.  Below is a picture of the main cabin we all met in.  It was right by the frozen lake and had a beautiful view of the mountains beyond.

The space was small, but very cozy...perfect for the group dynamics.  Chad led worship and our friend Jason Ragan did the speaking.

Part of the fun time was a huge capture the flag game/snow ball fight.  Below is the winning team strutting their stuff.  Whenever I see this picture I think if the song, "The Leader of the Pack, Vroom....Vroom."

Truett wasn't really into snowball fighting, so we went sledding instead.  His face looked like this for about an hour.  Needless to say, he was loving life!

Here's the group picture.

We had such a great time!  Can't wait for next year!

Day at the Park

January in Fraser, CO is usually a month that I would just assume skip.  Sure there is an occasional great ski day, but it's usually unbelievably cold and windy.  Today however was an unseasonably beautiful day, so we decided to make the best of it!  And I get even more excited looking at the forecast for the week... low 40's for a high!  Yahoo!  We headed out to Hideaway Park to the sled hill/park so Truett could get some fresh air and enjoy the outdoors.

Truett being dragged back up the hill by Chad. Sitting was fun, but he soon toppled over wanting to touch the snow.

So he road the rest of the way on his back.  He mostly went sledding with dad, but had a few solo trips, too.  He LOVED it.

Umm...he really liked the slide, too!

After the park we went on a hike close to our home.  We discovered a great maintained trail that we are going to go cross-country skiing on tomorrow.

Christmas and Beyond

Once again, I didn't take near as many pictures as I should of during the Christmas season.  I guess I was around so many people with cameras, I didn't realize I wasn't getting any on my camera. The photo below is from Christmas afternoon.  We went to our friend's, the Lipke's home, with Brett and Sarah Payne.    We enjoyed cross country skiing on the lake by their home and the kiddos had a great time playing together.  Brecken(middle) and Truett had the same Christmas outfit that we had gotten at our baby showers, so we decided to get a picture of the matching babies.

We then arrived in Abilene, Texas on Saturday morning to spend the week with my family.  They, of course, have many more pictures from the week, but here are a couple from my camera.  The weather was soooo nice while we were there, so we enjoyed the great outdoors as much as we could.  Mom and Dad have a little swing for their grandbabies and Truett couldn't get enough of it.

The next weekend we drove to Midland, TX, for the wedding of Tim and Katherine Hird.  Tim is a friend of Chad's from Worldview Academy.  Chad had the privilege of officiating the wedding.  It was a beautiful ceremony....but of course, I have no pictures...I'll try to track some down.  Sorry.

Truett's First Christmas

It's so fun having a little one around for Christmas, although I think it will be much more fun when Truett realizes he is actually getting gifts.  His favorite thing from the morning was definitely the wrapping paper...he just kept tearing it and trying to eat it. 

Truett with his favorite gift

The new LeapFrog Learn and Groove musical Table that I looked all over for!

He had to make sure everything passed the taste test

Mmmmm....the blocks are good!

So is the orange!

You may think it's wierd that we gave Truett an orange for Christmas.  It is actually a family tradition from Chad's family to always get an orange in the stocking.  His Grandma Bea, growing up on the farm in North Dakota, would always get an orange at Christmas.  Having 10 brothers and sisters, that was all their parents could afford.  In fact, it was the only fruit they got all year, and every kid looked forward to it with great anticipation.  So we here in the Warren home are keeping the tradition alive by remembering to be thankful for even the small pleasures in life.

Here's Truett unwrapping his gift.  We only got a short video, because as you can see, the unwrapping took quite awhile.

Worth it's weight in Gold, to Chad anyway.

Last week we got our first decent snow in our new home (meaning it had to be plowed so we could get out of the driveway). Chad had gotten up early that morning and spent 20 minutes just shoveling his path to the car. I went out a couple hours later and spent an hour just trying to clear the driveway, so I could meet him for lunch.  After that we decided it was definitely time to invest in a snowblower.  We got it just in time....another foot of snow on the ground this morning and the snowblower cut through it like butter.  Chad says it's worth it's weight in gold...I think I would much rather have it's weight in gold, though.

Spotters ready, Climb on!

Truett has entered a new phase of mobility.  He likes to climb until his is standing on just about anything he sees.  He has even started walking himself around the object.  It is great to see him moving right along in his development, but I must say, this stage requires much more supervision from me.  Spotters definitely have to be present at all times, because he loses his balance without warning and there's nothing stopping his head from banging on the ground.  We've had some close calls, but so far I don't think he's sustained brain damage.