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Monday, December 31, 2007

A Christmas Post Script

For more fun pictures, you can view my brother's album from the trip. His photos of our week together start about 2/3 of the way down on the first page of this set. He has some great ones, so enjoy!Click here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/14000165@N05/sets/72157603594115192/

White Christmas

We had a fabulous Christmas week with almost all of our family here visiting! We did lots of fun stuff like touring the Coors Brewery, seeing the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum, going to an Avalanche game, a day at the mountains to ski/snowboard/hang out, watching sports & good Christmas movies, eating lots of good food, sledding, shoveling snow, making snow ice cream (no joke!!), etc.The whole gang- according to Gigi: Uncle Paul, Reuben, Aunt Stacey, Papa, Yaya, Peter, Granpa, Granny, Mommy, Daddy, Me, Aunt Carly, Unc A, & Tia.

We even had a white Christmas! In fact, it snowed all day long-- more than it has snowed on December 25th in over 100 years! It was beautiful! Our friends the Stopniks came over for Christmas dinner and we enjoyed the Honey-Baked Ham that my Aunt Laurel & Uncle Joe sent us (thanks!). It was a little crowded (i.e. kids' "picnic" on the kitchen floor for dinner) but totally worth it.Gigi enjoyed her first Christmas-- doing a little paper-ripping on her gifts and best of all, hanging out with her grandparents, aunts, uncles & cousins!!
We are so grateful for our family and for their trip out here; we had a great time.

I hope you enjoy looking at all our December photos (most of them are from the week when everyone was here- but they also include cookie-making with the Stoppies & hanging out with some old college friends here in CO)! Click here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bennettars/sets/72157603591473096/

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Exciting news!

We all wanted to wish a big congratulations to my brother Alex and his fiancée Angelina, who were engaged last night, December 17th, at an ugly sweater party!
We can't wait to see them when they visit next week! Gigi misses her former housemate "Unc A"!

Monday, December 17, 2007

Por Fin-- Video Fun!

Here are the videos I promised a while ago! These are little compilations of clips from October, November & December, highlighting Gigi's favorite things to do!

Good Eats with Gigi


Talkin' it up


and the finale goes out to Gigi's cousin Peter, who's always wanting to see more videos...
On the Move!



Yay, Gigi! She crawled for the first time on Friday, December 14th, at our friends the Stopniks' house! Boy are we going to have our hands full now, huh?

Friday, December 14, 2007

California

Caveat: This blog has lots of words & photos, but it's worth it!! :)

Our little family flew home to California to camp at San Elijo State Beach for Thanksgiving weekend. We were joined by my parents, David's parents, Alex & Angelina, the Freys and lots of visitors (like Grandma, Aunt Kathy & Josh for Thanksgiving day!). We indulged in our annual smoked turkey and lots of other good food (including the amazing cranberry salsa!!). We got to surf a couple of times and enjoy some beautiful sunsets like usual; it was a great weekend!























Then we headed up to Orange County to see some peeps (thanks to the Wrights for hosting us!)-- primarily to meet Kaitlyn Grace Dear, who was born on Thanksgiving. Unfortunately David had to fly home on the Monday after (somebody has to work), but Gigi and I got to stay in CA for 2 more weeks! We stayed at my brother's place for a couple of days (thanks Angelina for babysitting so I could go out for a fun night with my friend Krista!), visiting other friends and eating good California food!I spent the rest of the trip down at my parents' house hanging out with friends down in SD, sewing with my mom, watching cheesy Christmas movies, shopping at Trader Joe's, and even going to my old church's women's Christmas Coffee which was super fun and beautifully decorated!One of the highlights was going with my parents to a party to benefit the SD Wildfire Victims at the home of none other than Steve Finley (Former Dodger/Padre/Angel/etc!). We met him and Trevor Hoffman, both of whom where genuinely nice, and about as honored to meet my dad, the Fire Chief, as we were to meet them! Also present, although we didn't meet them, were Dave Roberts and David Justice. The house and food were amazing and it was a very fun night to say the least (oh and thanks to the Freys for babysitting!).









The main reason that Gigi and I stayed was to be in town for our dear friends Kelsi & Russell's wedding on Dec. 9. I was honored to be a bridesmaid in one of the prettiest weddings I've been to at the Old Richland Schoolhouse in San Marcos. It was quite chilly (although since I've returned to CO, it wasn't so bad looking back-heehee), but we had a great time. The Sheltons are like extended family to me and I was glad to get to spend so much time with them!









I'm sorry to say that I'm officially too lazy to caption over 200 pictures, but hopefully this long blog explains what you're about to see. Please leave a comment here or on a particular picture if you want more details on it! Here they are:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bennettars/sets/72157603430801314/
And for your viewing pleasure, here are the pictures that my personal photographer (heehee), Rena, took of us at the beach:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bennettars/sets/72157603430878066/

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

November Pics!

I got home yesterday from California... Sorry for the delay but here the rest of our November in Colorado photos. I will post the California ones soon, and I haven't forgotten about that video I mentioned... now that I'm home, I can get back to work on it!
Click here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bennettars/sets/72157603434247977/