New Year's Eve

After we left Wildlife Experience, we headed over to Hacienda to find out they had over an hour wait for a table.  Since it was only 5:15, we were pretty shocked.  We decided to stick with Mexican and went to Los Dos Portillos, which is next to our neighborhood. We still had a 30 minute wait when we got there.  Coloradans start their New Year's early!   The chips and salsa and margaritas were a hit, along with the dinner.  We went home and we made chocolate fondue (our New Year's eve tradition) and enjoyed it for the first time with the kids.  Avery was a bigger fan than Ryan though.  They made it up to 9pm and then it was off to bed for them!  We managed to ring in the New Year's at 12 and were glad when the kids slept in until after 7!

Wildlife Experience

Andy and I picked up the kids from school and changed them out of the PJs before heading over to the Wildlife Experience.   Our membership expires today so we figured we might as well get one more visit in!  We pretty much had the place to ourselves and the kids had fun exploring the different exhibits.   Ryan even decided to do the scavenger hunt!  They always get a kick out of the crocodile that moves once you approach it.

Toast & Passports

Tuesday morning, we figured it was a good day to apply for Avery and Ryan's passports.  The kids had pajama day at school so we basically all got up and went over to the office in Littleton, which opens at 7am.  We thought we had everything we needed, but found out we didn't have the original birth certificates with us, just the copies. Since all four of us have to be there to apply and would be tough after the holidays, Andy ran back home to get the originals and I took the kids to Toast for breakfast.   We met Andy back at the office after breakfast and we got the applications squared away.  We are hoping to go to Mexico in the coming months and should have the passports in the next month!

Perfect Landing

I had a work lunch at the Perfect Landing a few weeks ago and told Andy it would be fun to go back as a family for breakfast.  The restaurant is at the Centennial airport, where Andy sometimes flies out of when takes the corporate jet for travel, but had never been.  We didn't tell the kids where we were going and they were excited to see that we were eating by the airplanes.  I was surprised how many airplanes were coming and going for a Saturday morning!  The food was pretty good.  Afterwards, we dropped by Monkey Bizness to book Avery and Ryan's 5th Birthday Party.  Then, we had to run a few errands for house stuff.

Christmas Day

We had a nice, quiet Christmas morning.  I made Sour Cream coffee cake on Tuesday so we could have for breakfast on Christmas morning (a long standing Luehrs tradition).  The kids got up around 6am and we somehow managed to keep them in our bed until almost 7am.   When we went downstairs, they were excited to see what Santa brought them in their stockings.  And, then we took a small break and then opened presents.  They loved everything.  We spent the morning getting all the packages opened, batteries installed, etc.  We also did FaceTime so say Merry Christmas to my family in Charlotte.  That afternoon, we went to see Frozen at the SouthGlenn movie theatre.  The best part is you can reserve your seats.  Frozen was a great movie with great music!  Avery especially loved it!

Christmas Eve with the Carlsons

The Carlson's were so nice to extend an invitation to us again to  join them for dinner on Christmas Eve.  We had some great appetizers while the kids were busy decorating sugar cookies.  Ryan did one and decided that was enough as he didn't want to miss anytime playing with the legos.  He did eventually make it back to do a few others. Avery loved every minute of it and quickly filled up the tray!  We had a yummy dinner of stuffed peppers (well I just had the stuffing as Jennifer was nice enough to just have a bowl of stuffing since she knew I wasn't a fan).   The kids had a great time playing with Jack and Ben's new train track.  Jennifer gave us a Reindeer food before we left and Avery and Ryan scattered in our front yards.  Ryan was especially excited for Santa's visit and had lots of questions for us!

Christmas Eve Lunch

We headed over to the Angelier's new house for Christmas Eve lunch.  Natalie is about a year older than Avery and Ryan.  She was super shy when we first got there, but it wasn't long before they were all playing well together.  We had a yummy lunch of baked potato soup and paninis and good to catch up and get a tour of their new house.  Avery and Ryan both took naps on the way home and I spent the afternoon at the spa getting a facial and massage!