Today we started the 2nd Immediate Hubers Family Christmas of the year. To all of you in Indiana/Florida/Costa Rica, yes, I did say 2nd. We figured it was only fair to include Anna, Derek, Angela, and Eric in our Christmas so Mom and I had to make the sacrifice of celebrating twice.
We started off the day with a breakfast made by Mom (or more commonly known around this house "Oma"). We enjoyed pancakes and sausage. Anna, Derek, and Mom ran off for about an hour while Angela, Eric, and I watched and fed the kids. Once the eldest 3 got back, we were off to the outlet mall! Well...off as quickly as any Hubers outing is "off". It took about an hour of organizing kids and exchanging names before we actually piled into the 2 minivans and headed out to the Silverthorne Outlets.
The drive to the Outlets took a bit over an hour so we arrived around 1:00. Perfect timing to grab a bite to eat at Chipotle. After stuffing ourselves, we split off into pairs (careful to make sure who we were with wouldn't give away who we had). Mom and I headed to a couple of the stores right near where we had parked and grabbed some gifts for our people. Anna found us after a while and we went over to a different strip of the mall. Mom and I went into Columbia, and I found a fantastic winter coat and gloves (bye bye last 3 seasons of clothing allowance). We also finished getting gifts for our people while we were in that section of mall.
After everyone was finished shopping we all piled into the vans again and headed for Breckenridge. Of course, when you think "Breckenridge, Colorado," skiing is probably the first thing that comes to your mind, but we had a different plan. We were going swimming! The pool was really cool. We got in on the indoor part of the pool, but as I looked around, I noticed that the indoor pool was connected to the outdoor one! Mom and I went exploring and found the outdoor hot tubs. Obviously it was really cold outside (Colorado on December 31st...yeah), but the pool was really heated and the hot tubs felt wonderful.
After we were all done swimming, we showered in the bathrooms there and ate supper at the bar & grill in the lodge. Since it is New Years Eve, there was live entertainment. Wayne Faust was there with a guitar, a banjo, a solid knowledge of North American geography, and of course jokes. Before starting his show, he gave Zach a guitar pick and asked our table where we were from. Mom decided that she would tell him that I was from Ontario (rather than Indiana like her). During his show, Wayne had the whole restaurant singing "Heeeey good lookin'. Whatcha got cookin'? How about cookin' somethin' up with me?" Then he went state by state and had them sing, and of course, he decided to have the "one Canadian" in the room sing it so Anna and Mom told me to stand up on my chair and I obliged and belted it at the top of my lungs. Since I was such a good sport, I got an amazing sticker that says "I can't help it I'm a...Pickle Head The Wayne Faust Show."
Now I'm back at Anna and Derek's house trying to stay up until 2013 begins in this time zone. Thankfully, I have my blog and Derek (who's reading on the living room floor) to keep me company.
Monday, December 31, 2012
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Roadtrip! (with a kid and a cold)
I am currently sitting in Anna's living-room in beautiful Buena Vista Colorado. I can feel the heat coming off of the wood-stove and the couch is oh so comfortable. I hear Eric and John playing happily with the toys and the teapot just started whistling. It all sounds so lovely right? Well, it is! The process of getting to this point, however, doesn't sound quite as picturesque.
Angela and Eric got to Mom and Dad's house in Demotte at about quarter after 10 on Friday night. They checked out the advances in our renovations and got Mom's massive amount of Christmas presents loaded into the van. I threw my measly 2 backpacks into the back, crawled in, and off we went. John cried as we put him into his car-seat (I'm sure he was thinking: who would make a baby drive 3 hours, get out, and then go back into the cursed seat they just escaped?). John stopped crying and finally fell asleep somewhere near Chicago. Before that he had slowly drifted off many times only to be awakened by the city lights over and over again. When he fell asleep, I talked to Angela for a while as she drove and eventually traded spots with my mom in the middle seat and tried to sleep.
There was no reason for me not to be able to sleep except for the fact that I had to sneeze what seemed like every minute. I shot some texts back and forth to my brother, friend, and boyfriend and eventually fell into a light sleep. I really didn't sleep well until I switched to the back seat and Eric drove for a while. By the time I woke up, it was light outside! At the next gas stop, I switched to driver mode. I drove about 4 hours at which point my mom and I were both about ready to pee our pants so we stopped, topped off the tank, bought some tissues, used the facilities, and got back into the car for the mountainous part of the trip. We went up and down a couple passes and alas my eyes saw Mount Princeton and I knew we were close! The scenery was absolutely incredible as always, and after a tiny little detour past the road we needed, we arrived at Anna and Derek's house!
We were greeted by two smiling kids and a sister banging on the front window to get our attention. We hopped out of the car and got some fantastic hugs. We crowded into the house and John finally got to crawl around on the floor, and we all got to release some of the lactic acid from our limbs. Within an hour, I was sleeping on the love-seat with 3 little kids and a couple grown-ups playing with the toys on the ground. I woke up to supper time with shepherds pie and good conversation.
Overall, the little quirks like a crying baby and constant sneezing made the road-trip to CO go really quickly. It was also really enjoyable the whole time! Even durring the intermittent tears and nose blowing, the trip was fantastic.
Now, after all of that, we got to get a good nights sleep and woke up to playing kids again. We headed off to Anna's church. At church, I was reminded of the beautiful backdrop to the pulpit: behind the pastor and the stained-glass cross there are mountains just to remind everyone of the beauty that God has given us all. It truly is incredible Following the service, we had a soup lunch with a bunch of Anna and Derek's youth group kids and their parents. From the stories and comments that were made, I'm pretty sure they were some of the best youth group leaders possible.
Now, once again, I'm listening to my nephew and niece happily playing (while avoiding naps), and the fan from the wood-stove is creating a very nice background noise to it all. And now, time to attempt a nap on the couch.
(By the way, sorry I'm not quite as witty or on top of it as my little sister...I guess she's probably a little better at this "blogging" thing than I am.)
Angela and Eric got to Mom and Dad's house in Demotte at about quarter after 10 on Friday night. They checked out the advances in our renovations and got Mom's massive amount of Christmas presents loaded into the van. I threw my measly 2 backpacks into the back, crawled in, and off we went. John cried as we put him into his car-seat (I'm sure he was thinking: who would make a baby drive 3 hours, get out, and then go back into the cursed seat they just escaped?). John stopped crying and finally fell asleep somewhere near Chicago. Before that he had slowly drifted off many times only to be awakened by the city lights over and over again. When he fell asleep, I talked to Angela for a while as she drove and eventually traded spots with my mom in the middle seat and tried to sleep.
There was no reason for me not to be able to sleep except for the fact that I had to sneeze what seemed like every minute. I shot some texts back and forth to my brother, friend, and boyfriend and eventually fell into a light sleep. I really didn't sleep well until I switched to the back seat and Eric drove for a while. By the time I woke up, it was light outside! At the next gas stop, I switched to driver mode. I drove about 4 hours at which point my mom and I were both about ready to pee our pants so we stopped, topped off the tank, bought some tissues, used the facilities, and got back into the car for the mountainous part of the trip. We went up and down a couple passes and alas my eyes saw Mount Princeton and I knew we were close! The scenery was absolutely incredible as always, and after a tiny little detour past the road we needed, we arrived at Anna and Derek's house!
We were greeted by two smiling kids and a sister banging on the front window to get our attention. We hopped out of the car and got some fantastic hugs. We crowded into the house and John finally got to crawl around on the floor, and we all got to release some of the lactic acid from our limbs. Within an hour, I was sleeping on the love-seat with 3 little kids and a couple grown-ups playing with the toys on the ground. I woke up to supper time with shepherds pie and good conversation.
Overall, the little quirks like a crying baby and constant sneezing made the road-trip to CO go really quickly. It was also really enjoyable the whole time! Even durring the intermittent tears and nose blowing, the trip was fantastic.
Now, after all of that, we got to get a good nights sleep and woke up to playing kids again. We headed off to Anna's church. At church, I was reminded of the beautiful backdrop to the pulpit: behind the pastor and the stained-glass cross there are mountains just to remind everyone of the beauty that God has given us all. It truly is incredible Following the service, we had a soup lunch with a bunch of Anna and Derek's youth group kids and their parents. From the stories and comments that were made, I'm pretty sure they were some of the best youth group leaders possible.
Now, once again, I'm listening to my nephew and niece happily playing (while avoiding naps), and the fan from the wood-stove is creating a very nice background noise to it all. And now, time to attempt a nap on the couch.
(By the way, sorry I'm not quite as witty or on top of it as my little sister...I guess she's probably a little better at this "blogging" thing than I am.)
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Blame the Angelic Fairy
So...my little sister had this genius idea of starting a blog because she loved it for an English class. I kind of liked the idea. I also deleted my facebook a while ago and sometimes just have an urge to tell the world what is happening in my day so...here is my blog. I hope it is grand.
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