Christmas in Colorado

We had an awesome Christmas vacation hosted by my sister's family in Colorado Springs.  13 adults and 16 grandchildren.  It was a full house, but maybe I'm just used to it.  It never felt that over-whelming.  This year our vacation featured...
    the addition of a few more grandchildren and a soon-to-be new sister-in-law
    a couple of trips to the movie theater (Interstellar and Unbroken)
    a morning at the trampoline place (that ended in a sad back accident for Brian)
    the introduction of a new game, Splendor
    an adults only dinner at Magnolia's
    a Jimmy Fallon-style lip sync contest
    subzero temperatures that kept us indoors most of the time
    lots of Dominion, sprinkled with a variety of other favorite games
    the playing of the Christmas chimes
    a girls lunch/bridal shower for Carly
    Red Robin with the Gardners
    and last but certainly not least, the production of our 2nd biannual Walton Christmas lip dub.  If you haven't seen it, you have to watch.  We had so much fun practicing our slow-motion singing. Special thanks to Mike and Carly for really owning this project this year.



I get lazy about taking pictures around the holidays.  I do it every year, relying too much on my family of talented photographers to get most of it.  But here are a few from our week together (and mostly just pictures of Jane and Peter anyway).

The kids' table for Christmas Eve dinner.

The adults' table.
Peter was sick AND getting his two front teeth, so for the first half of the trip he was a clingy mama's boy.  I still tried to make him take Christmas pictures, but he was just too miserable.

 Jane got a tricycle from Santa and Peter got a Fire truck and a dump truck.

 I think watching Jane open her stocking was my favorite.  Prior to Christmas, if you asked her what she was going to get in her stocking, she'd say "toys and candies and lollipops and candy canes".  On Christmas morning she added "nail polish" and thank goodness Santa already knew she would love that.  She got everything she wanted in her stocking and more.  It was fun to watcher he pull out each little treasure one by one and put them in her pile.

 Peter's first Christmas was kind of lame...

He did muster enough energy to play with his toys a little.

 The Johnson kids opened a trip to Hawaii.  Lucky!

Mike and Brian stole the gift giving show when they presented everyone with their "Family Timelines" book.  They spent two years researching ancestors, gathering stories and adapting a timeline my dad had made years ago into a beautiful family history book.  They bore their testimonies of the power they felt doing this marvelous work and hoped it would be a starting point for many of us to draw closer to our ancestors.  It is the most incredible gift.

Carly made Mike a little countdown to the wedding bubble wrap calendar.  We're very excited for these two.

When Peter was starting to feel a little more himself, I tried to catch some photos in their Christmas PJs together.  The photos aren't great quality, but I still like them.  These two kids make me so happy.

 Little Owen Walton, just 2 months old.

A visit from the Mitchells

Our good friends Jessica and Andrew came to visit us the weekend before Christmas.  We were so excited.  It was the kickoff party to our whole Christmas vacation.  It was hard to believe it had been a year and a half since we had last seen them.  We picked up as if nothing had changed (other than the fact that we both had babies that were almost a year old that the other hadn't met yet.)  We spent more of our time hanging out, playing games and watching the kids play.  It was heavenly.  We did go out for some brief sightseeing.  We went down town to see the Sailors and Soldiers Memorial decked out in lights for Christmas.  It was pretty cold though, so we took some quick pictures and headed in to Potbelly's for dinner.    

 After church on Sunday we tried to take some pictures of the kids.  I got a couple of Jane and then Peter, but when it came to trying to get all three kids in one picture.  Jane was not interested and giving her more and more candy didn't seem to help anything either.  So we took some of Peter and Cambria together.

Cambria is just a few weeks younger than Peter.  (Younger, but stronger.  She actually weighs a little more than Jane does!  We make some light-weights, though, so that might not be a fair comparison.)  She is lively and captivating with big eyes that just draw you in and suddenly you realize you're staring.  It will be fun to see these two grow together.  I hope they get some regular contact.  We sure do miss our Mitchells. 

Thanksgiving

It started out so positive.  We got to the airport with plenty of time and despite flying on peak travel days, the Indy airport wasn't busy at all.  The kids did really well for both flights and the layover.  But when we landed in California at midnight and woke up Jane, she she threw up all over Chris and the aisle of the airplane... three times.  Passengers still waiting to deplane had to step over a big puddle of vomit.  We gathered our things and found our checked luggage, but we had WAY too much to carry and poor sick Jane cried as she struggled to walk beside us to the rental cars.  It was the saddest thing ever.  Chris managed to pick her up somehow and carry her the rest of the way, then went and got our car while I waited with the kids on the curb.  The amazing California temperature was our saving grace that night.  We were all too tired and miserable and I just kept thinking I will feel better when we get everything in the car... and I did, for a second.  Jane threw up all over herself and the car, and climbed in the back seat to comfort her while she moaned, "Jane's all wet, Jane's all wet" all the way to Erik's house.  We spent the evening cleaning vomit out of the car, car seat, and diaper bag.  It was everywhere.  That night she threw up again and Peter the super light sleeper was up all night too.

The next morning we got ready and hoped to drop by and surprise Theresa.  (We hadn't told anyone but Erik and Juliana that we were coming.)  Theresa was unavailable and as it turned out, already knew about our trip.  We dropped by Dave and Caitlin's but no one answered the door.  Strike 2.  We called both Dave and Caitlin and got no response.  Finally we decided they were probably over working on their new house.  We had the address, so we just headed over.  The complete shock on Dave's face as he answered the door was without a doubt the highlight of our trip.  He was blown away and we were giddy to see him.  He gave us a tour of his new home in the demo phase and told us about all the plans to finish it up.  It was so fun to see their house.  I can't wait to see it all done and stay with them next time!


We had thanksgiving dinner with Erik and Juliana.  Jane was running a fever and only wanted to be held all the time (mostly by daddy).  She threw up again right before dinner.  Peter was a little clingier than normal as well.  By Friday Chris was starting to get it and on Saturday, it wiped him out completely.  The sickness for him was manifest mostly in fevers and chills.  He lied on the Reid's couch and slept all day.  Peter got it too, but for him it was a miserable cough.  He could hardly breathe.  We left a wake of sickness behind us.  Nearly everyone we came in contact with got some version of bug.

Our trip home didn't improve.  We got to the airport and found our flight was delayed an hour.  They warned us there was a chance we may miss our connecting flight, but they sounded encouraging that we could make it.  If there was a chance, we were going to go for it.  Jane was doing better, but not really wanting to be photographed and not her normal chipper self as she lied on the airport floor waiting for our flight.  Peter had the kind of cough that made everyone sick just listening to it.  It was an uncomfortable flight.  When we landed, we bolted to our connecting gate, just a few doors down, but the plane was already pulling away.  We were stuck in Denver.  The next flight out wasn't until 4 the next afternoon.  It was about that time that Jane complete blew out of her diaper, soiling her only jammies (as our luggage in holding until morning).  We called up my sister and decided to rent a car (and car seats) and drive down to their house in Colorado Springs.  They took good care of us and it was such a nice break from our miserable travels.  They gave us coats to bare the subzero temperatures and toothbrushes and everything.   We even got to go to Costa Vida for lunch.   Our flight the next day was only delayed a few more hours and then we got to go home.  It wasn't the trip we were planning, but also not one we are likely to forget.