Wednesday, January 6, 2016

Fast Away The Old Year Passes...

Well, the last week of 2015 has come and gone and we've officially rung in the New Year and welcomed 2016 with open arms! Here's a recap of our last week of Christmas Break:
Monday the 28th was cousin Sophie's 5th birthday, so we joined the celebration by meeting them for dinner at Red Robin, and then having cake and ice cream at their house afterwards. My kids sure love having their cousins closer!
Wednesday, December 30th marked our 11th wedding anniversary. I had a doctor's appointment that morning, and then Jon had to work from noon until about 8 p.m. that night, so we didn't get to do much celebrating that day, but it was sure fun to look back on some of our old wedding pictures. We look like babies! Leah even asked Jon, "what's that stuff on top of your head?!?" She thought his hair was a hat. I think our eleventh year might quite possibly have been our most "eventful" one yet-- separating from the military and completing a schooling/scholarship journey that started 9 years ago in Philadelphia, a Bahamian cruise, moving across the country from NC to CO, starting a new job in private practice, buying our first home, and a new baby on the way! I think I'd be okay if #12 is a little less full of life-changing milestones!    
I taught another Body Pump class that night and took this selfie afterwards. I get so many strange looks from people when I walk in to sub a weight-lifting/cardio class, but it truly is my sanity. I love being able to work out, so even though I'm still just a "sub" I take whatever classes I can get (and lots of people needed subs over Christmas, of course)-- even when I'm ENORMOUS and 36 weeks pregnant.  
For New Year's Eve we headed over to Jeremy and Kylene's house for a pretty sweet par-tay. We'd decided to keep it simple and just do appetizers, and we ended up having a great spread of food-- I'd brought Kings Hawaiian ham and cheese sliders, cheese and crackers, a pesto cheese loaf, caramel apple Heath dip, and pina coladas. Kylene made some amazing potato skins and several different dips, and feast we did! 
These two are peas in a pod! They had fun playing My Little Ponies and Dragons and Harry Potter and whatever else they play when we get together. 
The adults finally got to enjoy a "game night" somewhat child-free, and dusted off the ol' Settlers of Catan game box. It was some pretty intense competition, but it's safe to say I won fair and square, even while my husband repeatedly tried to sabotage me with the Robber. I guess the cream always does rise to the top!
Around 8 p.m., which was plenty late enough for all of us party-ers, we counted down with the London New Year's fireworks and had an impromptu dance party, before heading home and putting everyone to bed well before midnight! 
The next night we hit the jackpot and worked out a "swap" with Jeremy and Kylene to watch our kids so we could have an Anniversary Date! We'd gotten a gift card from a local endodontist to a really nice "Double Eagle" steakhouse called Del Friscos. We splurged and ordered calamari as our appetizer and it was delish!
Jon got the prime rib, and I ordered the shrimp scampi. Both were very good-- and it was like eating cruise food, tempered by the fact that of course we'd have to pay for it at the end though.
Our waiter found out it was our anniversary and tried to bring us out a champagne toast, which is their tradition at the restaurant (Hello! He is the first person to not think I looked 9 months pregnant when we told him why I couldn't drink it, ha, ha), so instead he brought us this amazing molten chocolate cake, on the house. Problem solved! I wonder if we would have still gotten the cake if we'd just told him we were Mormon?
After our luxuriously expensive dinner in which we splurged and ate every single thing, we headed to the historic district of downtown Denver to Castle Marne, which is a local B&B. Jon had cooked up this surprise all on his own and was so thoughtful about planning everything! The fact that it was even historically significant was SO up my alley! That's why I love him and he's still my best friend after all these years (although he may feel differently if this baby doesn't come soon, and a certain somebody's pregnancy hormones don't drive everybody nuts in the meantime, ha, ha)!!  
Everything had been renovated and redone to be historically accurate, and it was BEAUTIFUL inside and out. It was built in 1889, to a wealthy Denver mining family, and then passed through several hands along its way to its current present-day usage as a B&B-- including serving as a boarding house during WWI and WWII, renting out as office spaces in the 1970s and '80s, and finally being abandoned and almost demolished in the 1990s. 
The old-fashioned parlor, decorated for Christmas.  
Our breakfast of spinach and cheese quiche, homemade rosemary focaccia toast, fresh fruit and juice. Yum! We even got to sit in the fancy dining room with most of the original furniture. You can tell that the family that currently owns it is absolutely passionate about taking care of it and restoring it to all of its former glory! 
The exterior really does look like a castle and that's how it got its name. Isn't it gorgeous?? 
The original peacock stained glass window on the side of the house. It was glorious! 
We picked up the kids from Jeremy and Kylene's house (and they'd done just great overnight, thankfully) and spent the rest of the day down at the Denver Science Museum using our new pass. Leah loved the baby dinosaurs!
But her absolute favorite is this "dead" Snow White lying in her coffin in the Poisons exhibit. She is completely fascinated by the poison apple and could stare at her all day!!
We finally made our way to the more hands-on children's section, and spent the rest of the time playing there. It's great having a pass because I don't feel pressure to "keep moving" all the time. If they want to sit and play somewhere for an hour, so be it. We'll just come back!
Zach was very proud of himself for making the letter "Z" on this giant Light Bright and requested his picture with it. We had such a fantastic Christmas break it was SO hard coming back to reality on Monday and sending the kids off to school and Jon back to work. Yuck. Back to the grindstone! We enjoyed sleeping in, watching all the Star Wars movies, playing with friends and neighbors, enjoying the sunshine, and just being together for 2 weeks straight! 2015 was a very, very eventful year with lots of changes for our family, but we are excited to welcome 2016 and see what it brings! 
HAPPY NEW YEAR!