Colorado Vacation - Feb. 21-28, 2009

Welcome to Granby, Colorado, just about 20 minutes north of Winter Park.  It is a newly developed ski-resort type town where a client of Jeremy's (Nate's oldest brother) owns a huge, beautiful cabin on the side of the mountain.  The owner rents this 5 bedroom, 5 bath cabin out, but invited us to stay for a week without charge.  He also procured ski lift tickets for us for the week!  What a blessing!  It has been a fantastic, relaxing week.  We have enjoyed the mountains, skiing, and spending time with Jeremy and Jennifer and their boys Michael and Ian.

A view from the cabin

View off the balcony of the cabin

A relaxing morning -- watching Netflix movies in our jammies!

Brothers

This is right outside the cabin!  We have seen several fox around here

Jeremy and Jen sledding

Josiah and Daddy go sledding!

What a beautiful place to stay!

On Wednesday night we went to a place where you can go tubing.  This is my favorite winter "sport" ever!  What a rush!!!

No, Josiah did not go tubing.  Mommy drew the line there.  But he sure looked cute sitting in the tube!

On Thursday afternoon, Nate and Jeremy tried snowboarding.  Jen and Missy went shopping while the boys played today, so no pictures of Nate "in action".

If they are still able to stand up tomorrow, I will try to get some action shots of Nate.

Here is Jeremy's first snowboarding experience on the bunny slope.  As a side note, Michael and Ian are the two small skiers on the right side of the screen.  They are incredibly good.  Ian is not quite 7, and he did some "black" slopes.  Michael, 9, is a little more cautious, but also is very good, and can do some jumps!

Fun at the Park

We took Josiah to the park near Daddy's work last week -- it was a glorious day, and we had a picnic and some adventures at the park.  Big fun was had by all!  

Bouncing on the big green frog

I think the bouncer at home still wins out!

Josiah loves to swing!

Super-hero Josiah

There is a pond with geese and ducks and... nutrea...  These water rats are actually sorta cutish, but a little over-friendly!  There were probably 10 or 12, and this one was nearly domesticated.  It really wanted to climb in the stroller (where the leftover bread from our lunch was!).  Cute webbed feet and a wiggly, whiskery nose, but its alarmingly large yellow teeth were a cause for caution!

Josiah the Foodie

Josiah and Uncle Brian

What you lookin' at?

Caleb's Room

This is Caleb Honeycutt's room, freshly decorated.  It will look even better when the baby is home and is in the photos of the room!

Sorry, Kathy!  Caleb was being changed and then fed while I was there, so I don't have pictures yet!  I didn't make it back to the hospital that day...  Chris says he's posting on facebook soon...

Or ask Mom and Dad -- I'm pretty sure they went and visited, and if they did, you know they took pictures!

Water Baby

Josiah has been getting rather splashy in his baby tub lately, so his Daddy thought it was high time for a real water experience.  

But it's January.  

And while there certainly are some warm days in January in Houston, there are no bodies of water that I would put my splash-happy 4 1/2 month old in at this time of year.

Fortunately for our little swimmer, our bathtub is about the size of a kiddie pool, and heated.

Big fun was had by all!

CAUTION:  The following photos contain nudity.  But only Josiah's.  Daddy is wearing swim trunks; but, alas, Josiah doesn't have any.  So he'll have to swim in the buff for the time being.

Try not to be shocked.

Feet are fun!

Hey, where's the inflatable mattress?

Adventures in Photography

So while all the Burchfields (and their subsidiaries) were stateside (i.e., in TEXAS!), we had the crazy notion that perhaps it would be amusing to bestow a small amount of creative chaos on some tragically unsuspecting photographer; that is, we had professional portraits taken of the entire family.  It was quite an experience, and I learned a few things that morning:

1.  Eat a good breakfast the morning of such activities.  Low blood sugar does not combine well with even controlled chaos.

2.  Babies and children will, by unspoken universal law, be extremely cute/happy/smiling until the precise time you are ready to take pictures; they then become intensely tired/hungry/cranky/wet.

3.  Even if the appointment is only supposed to take 1 hour, plan to spend the vast majority of the day at the studio.

4.  Dress for the arctic.  They keep those studios somewhere around the freezing point.

5.  Try to get online and examine the portrait packages beforehand.  Read all the fine print.  However, even if this is accomplished, pack an extra measure or two of patience and flexibility to be used when trying to understand the intricacies of ordering pictures.

All in all, it was a worthwhile endeavor, and I daily enjoy the results of the experience in the form of artistically framed portraits of my whole family, smiling cheerfully from my living room wall each morning. 

Christmas with the Lewtons

We had several celebrations of Christmas this year.  Well, most years, actually.  The more family you acquire, the more celebration you have.  You could probably find some deeper spiritual meaning in that.

AJ's leave fell a couple of weeks before Christmas this year, so we found an afternoon we could all get together (no small feat!) at Mom & Dad's (although I think they prefer to go by "Grandmom & Granddad" these days!) for dinner & unwrapping.

Awwwwww.....

Josiah & Granddad.

Can't really tell who's happier...

The great Christmas sing-along

We celebrated AJ's & my birthdays, too.

(Wow, that was an awkward sentence, grammatically speaking)

Josh, being cute (something he excels at!)