Christmas in the Mountains

We headed to Durango the day after Christmas.  It was our first time to be up there in the true winter.  We had so much fun.  The first day Evan and Blake went snow shoeing on the golf course behind the house while we were out playing in the snow.

The Narrow Gauge Railroad has a Polar Express train in December.  They tell the story, act it out, the kids wear pajamas, hot chocolate is served and Santa gets on the train when we arrive at the North Pole.  Here's the train pulling into the station.  It was such a cool experience and the boys absolutely loved every minute.

Freezing, waiting for the train.

On the train.

Getting our tickets stamped by the conductor.  And yes, he wrote something on the ticket.

Santa!

We went sledding on the Glacier Club sledding hill twice.  Jud and Miles going down.

Miles' reaction when getting snow in his face.

Blake is inside the three tubes and Miller is pushing him.

Miller was unstoppable.  He probably went up and down 30 times.

The boys with Noni and JoJo.

Noni and JoJo even went down several times.

Snuggling on the couch with Daddy.

Great skiing!

Miller went to several days of ski school and even went to the top of the mountain and skied a green down on the last day.

Love, love, love Durango!!!

Christmas Morning

Santa did come to our house this year and it was so much fun because Miles actually understood.  The night before we put cookies and milk out for Santa, carrots and water for the reindeer and we even sprinkled reindeer food with sparkles in our front yard.  Here's all the loot Santa brought.  For a month, Miller carried around a toy brochure with a picture of this dinosaur/car transformer thing.  Well, he got it!

 Here they are walking into the room to check everything out.  Miles wasn't so sure at first.

They were super excited.

 Here they are ready to check out what is in their stockings.

 After we played with all our fun new toys from Santa, we had cinnamon rolls for breakfast.  GraMary and Grandpa Max came up for the day and watched us open our presents to each other.  We gave Miller a Superman towel (among other things) that he loves. 

We had a great steak Christmas dinner that evening.  What a fabulous Christmas!  

Christmas Eve Service

We headed to the Christmas Eve service at church to celebrate the real reason of Christmas.

Here are the boys all dressed up before we left for church.  I just love these shirts I found on zulily.com.

The family before we headed inside.  Miles is still too young to go to big church so he went to the nursery.  Miller is finally at an age where he can be quiet.

 Miller loved the candle lighting.  Jud secretly snapped this picture of him holding his candle. I love how he's being so careful.

 God, thanks for sending your son to earth for us!

Argue Christmas

Once again, I apologize for being so behind on updating the blog.

We celebrated Christmas at my parents on Christmas Eve since we were all headed to Durango.  We headed over there early that morning.  Here are Miller and Miles ready to open gifts in front of the pretty tree.

 I love my sweet boys!

 The annual "kid" shot with our stockings.

 Of course the light up really loud guns were a huge hit.

 Miller sliding Evan under the tree to get the presents in the back corner.  It was really funny.

 Noni and Miles being silly.

 Miller got an original Big Wheel and LOVES it.  It is his new favorite outside toy.

 Miller and Miles in the bows.  My mom goes overboard and put gorgeous bows on every gift. Every year the boys take a picture in the bows after all the gifts have been opened.

Thanks Noni and JoJo for all the great presents and such a fun Christmas!

Miller's A Star

Miller was a star his last week of school before Christmas break.  His class put on a little Christmas performance and Miller was the narrator (only one with the microphone).  All the kids were dressed up in cute Christmas outfits.

He had a little helper elf, Scarlett.  He's the tallest in the class and she's the smallest.

 Here's the class with Miller introducing the next song.

 Miller with his teacher Ms. Denise.  We just love her! 

 The next day was their class party.  They even sang a few songs for us then.

 They did a fun Christmas tree craft - covering ice cream cones with green icing and skittles for ornaments.

 The last day of school before break was pajama day.  When I picked him up from school, he had a star pinned to him for counting to 100.  He was the first in his class.  We are so proud of him.  He is doing so well and is a leader in his class.

Peter Pan

In mid December, Miller and I had a date.  We don't get much mommy/Miller time as Miles is usually around.  I took him to lunch and the musical Peter Pan with Cathy Rigby.  Miller loves the movie Peter Pan so I thought this would be a special treat.   

Here we are goofing around before the show.

He absolutely loved it and sat quiet and still for the whole performance.  The first time Peter Pan appeared by flying in, he immediately said "I see strings".  His favorite part was at the end when Peter Pan flew over the audience and sprinkled pixie dust.

Miami

Jud and I had plans to go on a big trip for our ten year anniversary this year.  I did tag along on a work trip to Vegas over our anniversary, but we never made it to Belize like we wanted to.  Jud decided we needed a break and we went for a long weekend trip for my birthday to Miami.  We spent two nights in Key Biscayne (just south of Miami) at the Ritz (Jud got a really good deal).

The hotel was great!

It was so fun to be at the beach during Christmas.  This was the lobby of the hotel.  They were making an eight foot gingerbread model of the hotel when we checked in.  You can't tell in the picture but looking out the window leads straight to the beach.

Our view from the room.

The first night we were there we walked to a small Italian restaurant not too far away.  When we got back to the room, this is what we found.  The hotel gave us a bottle of champagne and an amazing mini chocolate cake.  What great service!

The next day we rented bikes and took a several hour bike ride all around Key Biscayne.  We rode by the multi-million dollar houses on the water and down to Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park.  It was such a fun way to see the island.

 The park has a really cool light house.  For some reason it was locked even though it was during the open hours.  We were bummed we could go up and check out the view.

 Jud took this really cool picture (with his iPhone).

We then headed to South Beach for a night.  We stayed at the Ritz there too, but I would say it was just a nice city hotel.  They did have a great pool overlooking the beach.  We took a walk down the beach and we were very impressed with Miami Beach.  The sand is really fine and the water is clear blue/green.

  That night we had our big fancy dinner at Prime One Twelve.  Wow - what a restaurant!!!  It was so good.  Jud said it was one of the best meals he's ever had.  We ended the meal with fried Oreos (yep, at a five star restaurant).  AMAZING!

One of Jud's best friends from high school lives in Miami and he took us to the Soho Beach House after dinner.  What a cool place.  It's basically a social club where he is a member.  It was really crowded that night so we didn't party the night away, but it was really nice to catch up with Kurt.

Thanks honey for the great getaway.  Looks like we are going on an amazing trip for 15!  I'm holding you to it!